A survey of the literature on aboriginal language learning and teaching

A Survey of the Literature on Aboriginal Language Learning and Teaching Prepared by The Language Research Centre (LRC) of the University of Calgary Dr. [...] Cree, Blackfoot and Saulteaux belong to the Algonquian family of languages, but are mutually unintelligible; Stoney belongs to the Siouan family of languages; Dene Sųłiné, Dene Tha’, Dunne-za and Tsuu T'ina belong to the Athabascan family of languages (speakers of the first three can understand each other to some extent); and Michif is a unique language that mixes Cree and French. [...] The Maori have the phrase “Ko te reo te mauri o te mana Māori,” meaning “the language is the life essence of Māori.” The Cree phrase “kinêhiyâwiwininaw nêhiyawêwin” means “the Cree language is our identity.” These are just two examples in Indigenous languages that emphasize the integral importance of language to the essence of knowing and being in a certain perspective. [...] The Green Book’s editors, linguists and Aboriginal language researchers, Leanne Hinton of the University of California at Berkeley and the late Ken Hale of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have gathered short chapters from numerous authors on the processes, challenges and successes experienced by those who wish to maintain minority languages as vibrant communicative and cultural elements [...] By interviewing community members, discussing their findings with others, relating those findings to correlative materials in books, and then writing about their experiences and publishing the results, students have opportunities to develop their oral and written language abilities in both the native language and English, and to deepen their understanding of themselves and the local natural and so