In today's world, thousands of small language groups are facing pressure to abandon their traditional language in favor of a more dominant language from elsewhere. The basic decision that members of these communities must make is how they will sustain their identity and how the essential bodies of knowledge associated with that identity will be transmitted to succeeding generations. This book develops a framework, called the Sustainable Use Model (SUM), for addressing these issues. The book describes how to observe language use to understand the current language ecology, how to assess the sustainability of the languages in the linguistic repertoire of the speech community, and then how to design a program of activities aimed at achieving sustainable language use.
A formal print edition of this book is also available.
"In this clearly written monograph, Paul Lewis and Gary Simons lay the groundwork for those who will be working in the coming decades with members of local language communities to help them to implement diverse activities that will most effectively lead to a sustainable level of language use. They build appropriately upon the groundbreaking work that was carried out several decades ago by sociolinguists such as Charles Ferguson, Robert Cooper and Joshua Fishman." (from the Foreword by G. Richard Tucker).
This volume is the result of about ten years of reflection and discussion by the authors and a large and experienced group of colleagues regarding SIL International’s corporate learning after 80 years of working in local communities to develop less-commonly known languages. This book is aimed at those who are “on the ground” working with a community to address the issues that arise from language and culture contact. Ideally, many in that audience will themselves be members of those communities. The book is designed to be both a textbook and a handbook.
Author(s): M. Paul Lewis and Gary F. Simons
Publisher: SIL International
Year: 2015
Language: English
Pages: 315
Table of Contents
Foreword
Preface
How to Use This Book
Acknowledgments
1. The Sustainable Use Model
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Why the Sustainable Use Model?
1.3 What is the Sustainable Use Model?
1.4 How This Book is Organized
1.5 Going Deeper
2. Local Language Communities in a Globalizing World
2.1 Introduction
2.2 What is a Local Community?
2.3 Life-Crucial Knowledge
2.4 Multiple Identities, Languages, and Bodies of Knowledge
2.5 So Why Should We Care?
2.6 Going Deeper
3. Community-Based Language Development
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Community
3.3 What is Community-Based Language Development?
3.4 Going Deeper
4. Local Languages in Ecological Perspective
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Multiple Languages for Multiple Topics, Participants, and Locations
4.3 Functions, Topics, and Bodies of Knowledge
4.4 Categorizing Functions
4.5 The Quest for Stable Multilingualism
4.6 Going Deeper
5. Assessing the Ecological Profile of a Speech Community
5.1 Introduction
5.2 The Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS)
5.3 The EGIDS and Language Revitalization
5.4 Assessment of EGIDS Levels
5.5 Going Deeper
6. Sustainable Levels of Language Use
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Sustainable Levels of Language Use
6.3 Going Deeper
7. Conditions of Sustainable Use
7.1 Introduction
7.2 The FAMED Conditions
7.3 Some General Observations
7.4 Assessing the FAMED Conditions
7.5 Using the FAMED Conditions to Assess Language Vitality
7.6 Going Deeper
8. Language Development: Addressing the FAMED Conditions
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Building the Capacity of the Language
8.3 Going Deeper
9. Language Development: Achieving Sustainable Use
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Achieving Sustainable Literacy
9.3 Achieving Sustainable Orality
9.4 Achieving Sustainable Identity
9.5 Going Deeper
10. Organizing for Community-Based Language Development
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Planning a Community-based Language Development Program
10.3 Determining the Program Content
10.4 Planning Language Development Endeavors
10.5 Implementing the Overall Language Development Plan in a Single Speech Community
10.6 Implementing Programs in Multiple Speech Communities
10.7 Going Deeper
11. Conclusion
Bibliography
