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UC Irvine

Talking about language endangerment and Indigenous languages in the classroom: Some dos and don’ts I have learned through fieldwork in the Brazilian Amazon

Creative Commons 'BY-NC-ND' version 4.0 license
Abstract

How we discuss the phenomenon of language endangerment can have unexpected consequences. In this paper, I offer five recommendations as to how we should and should not talk about endangered languages in our classrooms. My discussion of these recommendations draws extensively upon my experience conducting field research on Tuparí, an Indigenous Amazonian language spoken in the Brazilian state of Rondônia.