ELL: Re: Certification for teachers of indigenous languages.

[KEDREBEOGO GERARD]

Greetings to all and specially to Armelle Denis,

    The setting is certainly quite different from what I encounter here
(Burkina Faso, West Africa). However, since the languages you are concerned
with are "greatly endangered" (a language with only 5 to 10 native speakers
is more than endangered, it is near to extinction) it would seem that the
most urgent and the most important task is how to reverse language shift.
Certification issues, although important, can wait.

Gerard Kedrebeogo.

-----Message d'origine-----
De : Armelle Denis <denisa at ucs.orst.edu>
À : endangered-languages-l at carmen.murdoch.edu.au
<endangered-languages-l at carmen.murdoch.edu.au>
Cc : linguist at unix.tamu.edu <linguist at unix.tamu.edu>; lagb at essex.ac.uk
<lagb at essex.ac.uk>; lgshift at lists.sil.org <lgshift at lists.sil.org>;
nat-lang at gnosys.svle.ma.us <nat-lang at gnosys.svle.ma.us>;
baalmail at education.leeds.ac.uk <baalmail at education.leeds.ac.uk>;
indknow at u.washington.edu <indknow at u.washington.edu>; elsnet-list at let.ruu.nl
<elsnet-list at let.ruu.nl>; linganth at cc.rochester.edu
<linganth at cc.rochester.edu>; LING-AMERINDIA at unicamp.br
<LING-AMERINDIA at unicamp.br>; celtic-t at tc.umn.edu <celtic-t at tc.umn.edu>;
CentralAsia-L at fas.harvard.edu <CentralAsia-L at fas.harvard.edu>;
saltmil at onelist.com <saltmil at onelist.com>
Date : dimanche 10 décembre 2000 23:40
Objet : ELL: Certification for teachers of indigenous languages.


>
>Greetings,
>
>My name is Armelle Denis, I am a grad student at Oregon State University
>working with the Warm Springs Confederated Tribes of Oregon on language
>maintenance.
>
>The Warm Springs have three languages: Wasco (the last remaining Chinookan
>language, described among others by Boas and Sapir), Sahaptin (a Penutian
>language) and Northern Paiute (the northernmost language of the
>Uto-Aztecan family). All three are greatly endangered, especially Wasco
>and Paiute which count only 5 to 10 native speakers on the reservation,
>all of them old or getting old.
>
>The Warm Springs have made the decision to preserve all three languages by
>teaching them in the local elementary school. So far they have operated on
>tribal funds and done without proper certification. However, if they want
>to pursue teaching their languages in non-reservation middle and high
>schools, they are going to need to get some kind of state certification.
>
>Our current approach relies on the status of Native American tribes as
>sovereign nations. We want to argue in front of state officials that
>community recognition of individuals' linguistic abilities and talents for
>teaching constitutes sufficient certification, and that by virtue of their
>sovereignty, the tribes do not need state control over the education of
>their children.
>
>I have not been able to find much on the topic of certification for
>teachers of indigenous languages, but I'd be interested to know the
>approaches other tribes confronted with that issue have adopted. Has
>anybody else argued along the lines of sovereignty and how did that work?
>What other solutions have been devised?
>
>Hoping to hear from linguists around the world,
>Sincerely,
>
>Armelle Denis,
>denisa at ucs.orst.edu
>
>
>
>
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