Stories and storytelling about language initiatives are an important political device in constructing and perpetuating language status planning and policies. However, little attention has been given to meta-discursive practices by institutions about Indigenous language revitalization in the U.S. as well as how music can play important roles in…

Language revitalization is imbued with tensions, and while it often is emancipatory, reclaiming a language can be a painful, silencing experience. Processes of colonization have led to epistemological absences (Santos 2012), which may be conceptualized as manifestations of silence. Understanding how and why silences come about and linger today is…

Like other colonial state structures, the education system in China aims to manufacture regime loyalty and cultural conformity among its 125 million minority nationalities. The Party-state's lessons in 'being Chinese' begin by nullifying traditional languages, cultures and lifestyles, which are deemed primitive and uncouth, and then remould…

Despite the range of varieties of Han Chinese, Mandarin is the most widely studied variety in research on Chinese as a heritage language (CHL) around the world. To better understand the role of other varieties of Han Chinese in addition to Mandarin, this article presents a synthesis of research on the learning of Chinese varieties in formal and…

This study examines attitudes to language use and maintenance among Yorùbá-English bilinguals in the United States. Using the direct approach in language attitude research, it specifically interrogates attitudes toward using the heritage language (HL) in public domains and maintenance among subsequent generations. It also jointly examines the…

A qualitative research with multiple methods, which investigates the phenomena of language shift and sustainment it of one Dine´ family. A Dine´ father was interviewed. The mother tongue should still be use at home however, the Navajo language is taught at school. I spent eighty plus hours interviewing the Dine´ father. I spent countless hours of…

This study compares two linguistic landscapes and the concurrent language policies of two scenarios where minority languages coexist with Spanish. On one hand, in the Archipelago of San Andres, Colombia, Spanish is in contact with an English-based Creole (Raizal Creole). Similarly, Valencian (Spain) coexists with Spanish as a national language.…

Language planners are increasingly aware of the importance of new speakers (individuals acquiring a language outside the home, typically later-on in life) for the revitalisation of minority languages. Yet, little is known about new speakers' activation (the process by which they become active and habitual minority language users). This article…

This article demonstrates how language revitalization through Indigenous Mexican hip hop can continue to Indigenize decolonial pedagogical spaces, help strengthen Black/Indigenous solidarity, and aid in building the infrastructures for Indigenous futures. First, I assert that using and transmitting Indigenous languages through hip hop can…

This study investigated parental involvement in five Korean American families where there was evidence of successful heritage language (HL) maintenance in the second generation. The data in the current study were drawn from interviews of five Korean women who were first-generation immigrants to the U.S. and their daughters who were raised in the…

This dissertation study explores a young Japanese heritage language speaker's learning process of formal writing in Japanese. With a rapid increase in immigrants into the U.S. and growing importance of diversity, many researchers have shown interest in immigrant children, i.e., heritage speakers, from educational and research perspectives and have…

Immigrant parents are being challenged in several different ways to maintain their heritage language (HL) in the United States. Majority White, affluent communities are one of the many complex language ecologies that exist across the variety of U.S. societies. The research setting of this study, Southern California, is one of the wealthiest…

This mixed-methods study explores the efficacy of a multidimensional identity measurement tool that aims to represent the diverse language experiences of heritage language learners (HLLs) and heritage language speakers (HLSs). Drawing on the thematic commonalities across 13 definitions of HLLs, a questionnaire was developed to capture age of…

Indigenous people of the world fight to maintain our lifeways, culture, and more specifically our languages. Speakers have endured waves of violence and persecution and in the face of that still fought to preserve and bring back languages. Language loss has been observed by communities and linguists and each figures out ways to document and…

This paper contributes to southern theorization of multilingualisms. Noting the predominance of northern-generated academic debates, we discuss perspectives from close engagement with southern socio-historical and political contexts, and through prioritizing community and teacher outlooks on multilingualism. Our account is illustrated with…