THE BILINGUAL RESEARCH JOURNAL Spring 1995, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp. 279 - 304

• Main Authors: Maintaining And Renewing, Jon Reyhner, Edward Tennant
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1995
• Subjects: Indian; Yup'ik; Alaska
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.32.1017; http://www.ncbe.gwu.edu/library/./miscpubs/nabe/brj/v19n2/19_2_reyhner.pdf

This article reviews research on maintaining and renewing American Indian languages. A rationale is given for the importance of maintaining tribal languages in terms of Native students' cross-cultural understanding. Then Joshua Fishman's theoretical paradigm for reversing language shift is summarized and tribal and national language policies are reviewed. Early childhood, elementary, secondary, and tribal college native language efforts are described along with Navajo and Yup'ik examples of school-based native-language maintenance/renewal efforts. Based on the research of tribal native- language renewal efforts and current research on second language teaching, specific suggestions are given for maintaining and renewing native languages. In 1992 Dr. Michael Krauss, President of the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas and Director of the Alaska Native Language Center, testified before the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs. In his testi.