Family/community language learning is necessary to language survival

[rrlapier at AOL.COM]

When Native language use is challenged -- every method should be embraced and all stakeholders (tribe, schools, families) should be encouraged. Making statements that only one way works is discouraging to communities who are attempting to make positive changes within thier communities.



I wish there were more methods and not less within our community.



Rosalyn LaPier

Piegan Institute




-----Original Message-----
From: Rudy Troike <rtroike at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU>
To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
Sent: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 2:02 am
Subject: [ILAT] Family/community language learning is necessary to language survival



Wayne is right in stating that the *only* way for a community to keep its?
language alive is to ensure that children learn the language from elders?
when they are still young enough to absorb the language naturally. Because?
those who have gone through standard Euro-american schooling have a model?
and image of how a "foreign" language should be taught (which almost never?
works in the first place), they tend to assume that this is how the native?
language should be taught -- i.e., formally, following a curriculum,?
memorizing words or expressions, etc. For numerous reasons, this approach?
is doomed to failure as a way of perpetuating the living language, just as?
it fails to succeed as a way of developing fluency in foreign languages in?
school. The optimum age for language learning is before the age of formal?
schooling, but the built-in biological ability to acquire language naturally?
begins to decline rapidly as puberty approaches. We know from the experience?
of the Navajo and Cherokee code-talkers that native languages can be adapted?
to the most modern of cultural contexts. It is only a matter if speakers?
choose to do this, or replace their use of native linguistic resources with?
the dominant national language. By replacing native resources, I am referring?
to the grammatical structure, not lexical items. All languages, English?
included, become enriched through incorporation of vocabulary from other?
sources for referring to novel elements of experience. It is not necessary,?
in order to maintain the integrity of a language, to invent native terms?
for every new thing. An instructive example comes from Korean -- one day?
I asked some of my Korean students how to say in Korean, "I want a pen".?
They laughed, and said, "I want a [in Korean]" "pen [in English]". When I?
protested, and asked what they would call a pen in Korean, they laughed?
again and said, "We would say 'pen'". But the grammatical frame for the?
use of the word remains entirely in Korean. Aymara and Quechua are examples?
of native languages which have incorporated numerous Spanish lexemes as?
verb and noun bases, while retaining the complex and subtle grammatical?
structure and semantic system, so that it is possible to talk or write?
about even the most current technological and political developments in?
the native language. Being able to talk about the complexities of modern?
life emphatically does not mean having to give up the native language.?
Unfortunately the issue is too often framed in this way as a choice,?
putting the language in a museum mode as being of value only for expressing?
traditional cultural matters but otherwise of no use. Community psychology?
must change to embrace the use of the language for all aspects of life,?
adopting terms and adapting usage as needed to maintain relevance. And?
language learning must begin in the home and family in the natural way.?
Any other way is the way to language death.?
?
? Rudy Troike?


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