New technologies for community language reclamation

Presenters: Dorothea Hoffmann, Wil Meya

The nonprofit The Language Conservancy (TLC) and its partner organisations - including 5 language consortiums - have worked with over 50 Indigenous communities across the United States, Canada, and Australia for the past 18 years. Together, we produce a suite of multimedia language materials catered to the 21st century learner. In this paper, we present our streamlined methodology to develop comprehensive and individualised language revitalisation strategies with our partners based on technological advances. All of TLC’s efforts are community-driven. Partnerships are initiated by members of a Community. We then work together to determine a reclamation strategy that takes speaker numbers, existing materials, educational resources, and short and long-term goals into account. Together with our partners, our methodology helps to move language reclamation efforts forward.