Language maintenance

[Margaret C Sharpe]

Good language maintenance (apart from community transmission) needs trained
language teachers and someone who speaks the language. How do they do it in
New Zealand?  If the trained language teacher is not already a speaker of
Maori, each class or program needs a trained language teacher and a speaker.
Whether it¹s the same language in every place wanting a language maintenance
program or a dozen different languages, the staffing needs are the same, so
the costs must be similar.
We already have dictionaries and grammars of most languages which would fit
in the language maintenance box, so the costs seem much to same to me
whether we are talking of maintaining one language or many.
The costs and benefits are not just financially measured.  Respect for and
use of an indigenous language engenders respect for English and its use.
Margaret Sharpe
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