Getting Started Guide: for Educators | Endangered Languages Project

Resources for Educators

Indigenous language education takes place in many places and contexts, and there are many different ways that language education can happen. Education was a strategic target of colonization - and Indigenous and endangered language communities have been working hard over generations to regain the possibility of educating their communities in their own ways. Individual educators and community initiatives have come up with multiple, diverse, and innovative ways to educate younger generations, both in and out of schools. This resource collection has been created for a diversity of educators in different contexts.

These resources are for educators working toward the revitalization of Indigenous, endangered, and minoritized languages within these communities. If you are interested in language revitalization and education, here are some useful resources that are grouped by topic.

Suggested Resources

A few key resources for educators

Language Revitalization, Education, and Learning

Education and Language Revitalization: A Resource Collection

An annotated collection of resources about the role of education - both formal and informal - in the revitalization of Indigenous, endangered, and minoritized languages.

Language Revitalization, Education, and Learning

Language Nest Toolkit (FPCC)

This free toolkit is an important resource for communities who are interested in starting, or already have, language nest immersion programs.

Language Revitalization, Education, and Learning

Teaching Yukon Native Languages: A Guidebook for Native Language Instructors

This guidebook is aimed at Native language instructors to help them in the planning and implementation of teaching their language in schools, and provides highly useful resources for language teaching and learning.

Language Revitalization, Education, and Learning

A Guatemalan Immersion School Gives Life to the Maya Kaqchikel Language

"We do not have to sacrifice our language and culture to build and receive a quality education."

Language Revitalization, Education, and Learning

Alaska Standards for Culturally Responsive Schools: Cultural Standards for Students, Educators, Schools, Curriculum, Communities

This guide outlines ‘cultural standards’ to serve as a foundation for developing culturally-relevant, culturally-responsive education that is grounded in the language and culture of the local, particular context of schools and communities.

A man reads a story book to a group of small children in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh

Illustration of pine needles and a water drop

Text: Teach Yukon Native Languages, with illustration of a cabin in snow

A group of 5-year-old Kaqchikel students look up at words written on a board, as their teacher stands at the front of the group and points to words on the board.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do languages become endangered?

This is a very complex question! There is no short answer, but if there were, it would include this basic fact: language endangerment generally reflects other pressures, injustices, struggles, or traumas in a community. Languages do not generally become endangered when their communities are stable and thriving. Learn more about language endangerment here.

Why does language endangerment matter?

Language is much more than just a collection of words or a tool for communication: languages reflect all our different ways of being human. Indigenous languages, in particular, carry irreplaceable knowledge systems and cultural practices that are critical to their communities’ ways of knowing and being, worlds and worldviews. Language is at the heart of identity and culture.

Language endangerment is also about injustice. Language endangerment reflects violations of human rights, disruptions to lives and communities, and the destruction of knowledge and cultures. Put simply: the things that cause language endangerment make the world worse for everyone.

Why is language revitalization so important?

Particularly for Indigenous Peoples, language revitalization is about connections: (re)establishing and renewing intergenerational relationships to lands, ancestors, human and beyond-human relatives, lifeways, worldviews, and social, cultural, and spiritual ways of knowing and being.

Language revitalization supports wellness: it’s linked to better mental, physical, and emotional health in Indigenous, endangered, and minoritized language communities. Language revitalization upholds human rights and the self-determination of Indigenous Peoples, as affirmed in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Sustaining language diversity means sustaining a world with a greater diversity of knowledge, ways of living sustainably, and understandings of what it means to be human. A better world for languages is a better world for all.

What can we do about language endangerment?

Endangered languages are not "doomed" - they can be revitalized. People and communities around the world are revitalizing their languages. Visit the Revitalization Directory to learn more about these programs. There are many different ways that language revitalization can happen. To learn and think more about these possibilities, visit the Learning & Help Center.

This work is about more than language. The forces that cause languages to become endangered are things that everyone should be concerned about. Everyone can work to change the root causes of language endangerment. Learn more about supporting language revitalization as an ally.

How is language endangerment measured?

There are many ways to measure and understand how endangered a language is. ELP uses the Language Endangerment Index (LEI), which was developed by the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Department of Linguistics, as part of the Catalogue of Endangered Languages. The LEI considers four factors in measuring language endangerment: 1) the number of people who speak or sign a language fluently; 2) whether the number of speakers or signers is growing, stable, or shrinking; 3) whether the language is being learned by younger generations (intergenerational transmission); and 4) what areas of life (domains of use) the language is used in. Read more about the LEI here.

Talk with a Language Revitalization Mentor

Language work can be challenging. Wherever you are in your revitalization journey, the ELP Language Revitalization Mentors are here to offer you free support.

Contact a Mentor