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From ethnocultural pride to promoting the Texas Czech vernacular: current maintenance efforts and unexplored possibilities / Lida Cope
// Language and education 2011, Vol25, N.3 2011p. 361-383 Texas Czech is a product of over a century and a half of contact between Moravian Czech and English in Texas. While Texans of this descent have largely maintained a sense of distinctive ethnic identity and have creatively re-authenticated their ancestors’ traditions into a unique Texas Czech culture, their language is now on the verge of disappearing. Having a healthy counterpart in Europe, Texas Czech may not appear to face as dire a fate as endangered Indigenous languages do. However, when this variety dies, so will a distinct blend of the nineteenth-century Moravian dialects, literary Czech and English spoken in Texas, which bears little resemblance to modern European Czech. This paper analyzes, through the lens of a participant observer trained as an applied linguist, the insiders’ views expressed in attitudinal questionnaires on the importance of the heritage language ability to ethnic self-identification and to maintaining their ethnic culture. It then explores the apparent detachment between one’s self-perceived ability in Texas Czech and ethnic self-perception, the current state of teaching of Texas Czech and the ways in which well-established Czech-related organizations could attract more attention to both language documentation and language teaching while the interest and resources still exist
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Language Hotspots: what (applied) linguistics and education should do about language endangerment in the twenty-first century / Gregory D.S. Anderson
// Language and education 2011, Vol25, N.3 2011p. 273-289 I outline the concept of Language Hotspots, seeking to direct public and professional awareness of the global language extinction crisis. The loss of a single language leaves the science of linguistics impoverished and yet even few linguists realize that die vast majority of language families will likely be lost by the end of this century. Language Hotspots can serve as a focal point around which to develop a comprehensive approach to addressing how to increase, improve and coordinate engagement by all stakeholders in the global language extinction crisis, not only linguists and the communities undergoing language shift themselves, but also applied linguists, the general public and educators at all levels. I briefly outline language endangerment and its causes and detail the science behind the global Language Hotspots list, and then turn to an exemplification of an area of extreme linguistic endangerment, the Eastern Siberia Language Hotspot. Finally, I make a plea for linguistic scientists to increase their efforts in language documentation and for language education specialists to use their considerable skills and expertise to help support Indigenous movements in language revitalization. I then offer thoughts on why the Language Hotspots model should be incorporated into primary-, secondary- and postsecondary-level curricula
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