Applied Languages

    Posted by Jaiken Struck on April 9th, 2009

A small group of language givers in Regina, the capital of Saskatchewan, Canada, are sharing their gift with others in the hope of keeping First Nations languages alive. The term First Nations refers to specific indigenous groups in the land that is now known as Canada.

Cathy Wheaton decided that she wasn’t prepared to stand by and let her Cree language die so she began talking to others about what could be done to save it. Wheaton with the help of fluent First Nations language speakers have formed the Regina First Nations Language Speaking Circle. The group offers free language classes at a local library. Wheaton believes people can save the language if they really want to and a lack of funding to programs shouldn’t be an obstacle. “I’m so grateful that people are so generous with their languages because without our fluent speakers there would be no way we could do this,” said Wheaton.

Wheaton said based on the 2006 census data First Nation languages are only a generation or two away from being lost forever, which is true in her own family. “I’m really worried about this and I’m doing nothing right now, and I should be learning my own language but it wasn’t passed to me,” said Wheaton.

It was through her research on First Nations languages that she uncovered information on speaking circles. Speaking circles involve both language givers and language learners. The two groups come together and focus on oral language proficiency by speaking it as opposed to the traditional method of learning, which focuses on literacy, grammar and memorization of vocabulary.

Allan Adam, a Dene speaker, is one of the people who has decided to share his knowledge with others. He sees the potential such speaking circles can have because rather than focusing on writing and memorization students can practice speaking the language with one another.

Read more: Leader-Post

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 9th, 2009 at 11:31 am and is filed under Endangered Languages. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.