Ten Years of Mi’gmaq Language Revitalization Work: A Non-Indigenous Applied Linguist Reflects on Building Research Relationships

• Published in: The Canadian Modern Language Review
• Main Author: Sarkar, Mela
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) 2017
• Subjects: Linguistics and Language; Education; Mi’gmaq
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/cmlr.4082; https://utpjournals.press/doi/pdf/10.3138/cmlr.4082

Language revitalization work at one First Nation in eastern Canada has been ongoing for over two decades. Several approaches have been put in place: core teaching of Mi’gmaq as a primary school subject, language documentation and the creation of an online dictionary, and an Elders’ focus group on language, as well other shorter-term projects. In 2006, a group of university researchers was invited to collaborate with local Mi’gmaq language instructors who were trying out an image-based way of introducing adult community members to their language. After 10 years of continuous community–university contact, from 2006 to 2016, a non-Indigenous researcher reflects on the involvement of the academic applied linguist outsider in a constantly changing learning process.