Over the past 15 years, the funding landscape has dramatically changed. We now have access to multi-year funds which enable us to run programs for much longer than before. Because we use language in every aspect of life, art, and work, language programs can tap into all kinds of funding streams.

 

We have had success procuring funds from a broad spectrum of funders including University funds; provincial, territorial, and federal streams including culture and heritage, Human and Social Development, Ministry of Natural Resources, Education, and Aboriginal Language Initiatives; Canadian Council for the Arts; First People’ Culture Council; and others.

Every journey needs a plan. We meet with you in your community to learn what work has already been done; what are your successes and what are your goals; what resources do you have in terms of documentation, speakers, teachers, and learners.

 

We also want to know what kinds of programs suit your community best, such as classroom or on the land programs. What are the most urgent needs; is it teachers, or programs for children, youth, or adults?

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Once we understand the lay of the land, we can come up with a list of priorities. Now we are ready to begin looking into the kinds of programs and resources that can help to get the ball rolling. One important key for long term success is how can we engage as many community members as possible to help. Revitalization needs everyone to help, not just teachers and learners, but artists, administrators, community organizers, and helpful family members.

 

This process will leave you with a clear plan as to how to move forward.

Your community may already have linguistic documentation. If so, that is great. Is that work accessible to your community? Can your teachers in public schools and community programs use it to help develop teaching materials? If not, how can we make it useful to them? This work requires a lot of collaboration with Elders to get lots of example sentences that help open up how the language works, its grammar, its morphology (how words are built), and its many unique sounds. Also, it is important that this work serves a dual purpose: to document the language in a way that helps teachers and learners to better understand it, but if we do it right, our documentation will allow us to develop resources right away, such as storybooks and early drafts of a grammar book for the community.

 

To do this, we first gather as much of the previous work that has been done, then work with Elders to record and write their sentences. We like to bring in local people who are interested in the language. By working with us, they learn how to use the computer software and recording hardware, and about how to master the writing system if they haven’t already. They are critical to the long term of your language plan, as they will be well prepared to develop new resources in the future. It is so important to create this capacity in the community.

With a background in Applied Linguistics (language teaching) and Language Revitalization and Documentation, we can work with your teachers and Elders to help adjust how language is taught to specific age groups. Student-centered approaches can be made to fit very naturally with many traditional views held by Elders. For example, what are this child’s natural talents and interests? How can we create a space that enables that child to engage with the language in a way that will challenge and inspire them? We bring together the most useful research in language learning strategies and combine them with the knowledge and traditions of your community’s knowledge keepers. Combining these is a powerful strategy.

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Sometimes programs that run outside of the classroom can be helped with books and resources that touch on specific topics. Sometimes it is direct learning while doing a particular activity, such as helping to clean or cook in school, or doing some more traditional activity such as trapping or fishing. Even these activities will be helped with some resources that target those activities. The goal is always to not have to use the books anymore; they are like a crutch that supports learners to actually communicate their own thoughts and to understand what they’re hearing. These resources can also be very helpful for teachers to learn vocabulary and sentences around a particular activity they are less familiar with.

Immersion programs are very popular, and for good reason. Immersion is the fastest way to learn a language. But it’s easier said than done. What do people talk about? How do you talk to people who can’t understand? What if your teachers aren’t fluent speakers themselves? What kinds of activities and resources are the best to use?

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We can work with your community to learn what kinds of programs you’re currently running and how these can be improved upon. We can also work with you to develop new programs from the ground up. We have worked with communities to develop immersion on the land camps, preschool language nests, mentor-apprentice programs, and others. Each community has unique needs, resources, and goals. We can work with you to create a program or suite of programs that fit your needs best.

Resources such as textbooks and storybooks are critical to the success of a program. When they work well, they are like a door that opens for conversation to enter the class. They are a springboard that provides the learner with the words and phrases they need to talk about things that interest them. They are also an opportunity for the broader community to get involved, such as artists and people with computer skills.

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These resources are also a good way to bring culture into the classroom, such as a storybook about fishing or trapping for instance, or perhaps a traditional legend can be turned into a book. Of course, the accuracy of the language is extremely important. These projects are undertaken carefully. They are not rushed, and all texts are reviewed at least three times by as many strong speakers and other community experts as possible before we consider them ready for printing.