Bridging the fields of youth studies and language planning and policy, this book takes a close, nuanced look at Indigenous youth bi/multilingualism across diverse cultural and linguistic settings, drawing out comparisons, contrasts, and important implications for language planning and policy and for projects designed to curtail language loss. Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars with longstanding ties to language planning efforts in diverse Indigenous communities examine language policy and planning as de facto and de jure - as covert and overt, bottom-up and top-down. This approach illuminates crosscutting themes of language identity and ideology, cultural conflict, and linguistic human rights as youth negotiate these issues within rapidly changing sociolinguistic contexts. A distinctive feature of the book is its chapters and commentaries by Indigenous scholars writing about their own communities.

This landmark volume stands alone in offering a look at diverse Indigenous youth in multiple endangered language communities, new theoretical, empirical, and methodological insights, and lessons for intergenerational language planning in dynamic sociocultural contexts.

About the Author

Leisy T. Wyman is Associate Professor in the Language, Reading and Culture Program, and affiliate faculty in the American Indian Studies and Second Language Acquisition and Teaching Programs at the University of Arizona, USA.

Teresa L. McCarty is the George F. Kneller Chair in Education and Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Alice Wiley Snell Professor Emerita of Education Policy Studies at Arizona State University, USA.

Sheilah E. Nicholas (Hopi) is Assistant Professor in the Language, Reading, and Culture Program, and affiliate faculty in the American Indian Studies and Second Language Acquisition and Teaching Programs at the University of Arizona, USA.

Reviews

"This text will be valuable to scholars of multilingualism, youth studies scholars, indigenous studies scholars, and those interested in community-driven research practices, and therefore provides a great resource to students at many levels who would be drawn to such community engaged work so that they can do so ethically and with the community needs in mind." Jessica Bardill, East Carolina University

"...a much-needed exploration of language practices, policy implementation, and advocacy efforts among Indigenous youth living in the United States and around the world. The ethnographies will challenge readers to engage in socially conscious ethnographic research and consider their responsibility to support ongoing language revitalization efforts around the globe." Guadalupe Valdes, Stanford University, USA

"Finally, scholars and students have a resource that accounts for the vitality and massive diversity of Indigenous youth communicative repertoires. This path-breaking volume tackles the important and neglected work of exploring the relationship between ever-morphing indigenous youth cultural practice and the traditional goals of language policy and planning. " Betsy Rymes, The University of Pennsylvania, USA

"This book raises important questions about existing conceptualizations of language maintenance and language shift. It fills a gap in our knowledge of Indigenous youth and provides important insights about language and identity." Ariana Mangual Figueroa, Rutgers University Graduate School of Education, USA

"Throughout the book, young people's love of their language expresses itself, whether that love is there from the beginning or learned later. The future of their Indigenous languages is in their hands. Thanks to the editors and authors in this volume, the literature on language loss and revitalization now includes the voices of this critical young generation." Leanne Hinton, Professor Emerita of Linguistics at the University of California-Berkeley, USA, from the Foreword

Book Information
ISBN 9780415522434
Author Leisy T. Wyman
Format Paperback
Page Count 230
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 362g