Activism for minority and minoritized languages

Introduction

Abstract

Yes, you are indeed looking at a condom saying, in the English translation, “better safe than sorry”. But this is not a random condom. It was designed by a language activist organization of young Frisian speakers wanting to draw attention to their language and their young and hip way of using the Frisian language, a regional language spoken in the Netherlands. In sum, this condom is an object of language activism. Do you know that about 10% of all Europeans speak one of Europe’s 65 minority languages? But many of these languages are threatened as their number of speakers decrease. In addition, these speakers are often minoritized in the sense that their languages are stigmatized in the contexts they live in. It has been suggested that half of Europe’s minority languages will be extinct by the end of the century. So language activism can be an important tool for language maintenance and revitalisation. In this module, you will learn about what language activism is, why it is important, and you will engage with some examples of activism from across the globe. Some attention to education for minority and minoritized languages will be given.

This module focuses on language activism for minority and minoritized languages in Europe and beyond. A main framework for the protection of these languages is presented, as well as actual examples of language activism in society and education.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module , you will:

know key concepts and terminology related to minority and minoritized languages;

have explored the main frameworks protecting regional minority languages in Europe;

be aware of key language activist initiatives across the globe;
explore a framework for minority language education.

Target group

This module is aimed at all education professionals, especially those who deal daily with learners who grow up with languages that differ from those mainly taught at school. These can be regional, minority, indigenous or migrant languages, as well as varieties of these languages. It can also be a relevant module for future teachers, both in language and other subject areas. The module is also targeting parents and caregivers of plurilingual children.

Module structure and components

This module is comprised of three units:

Unit 1 explores the question: why do minority and minoritized languages need activism?
Unit 2 presents an opportunity to explore two examples of activism in minority and minoritized languages.
Unit 3 examines the role and position of education (including digital tools) in minority language protection and promotion.

All units feature reflection tasks and research tasks that support active and personalized learning.

Duration

8 hours

Materials and resources

In this module, you will have the opportunity to engage with a diverse range of materials and resources, namely: interactive maps, videos, photo/images, frameworks, research reports, journal papers, policy documents, and interviews.

Authors

Joana Duarte, Nadia Gerritsen, and Sierd Prins (2024)

Unit 1: Why do minority and minoritized languages need activism?

Reflection task | Create a mind map exploring the following questions: What minority languages do you know from your country or your background? How do you know them, and what does that mean to you?

Through linguistic atlases, interactive maps, and various real-world examples, this unit explores the definition, position and role of minority and minoritized languages within the context of language activism. By the end of this unit, you will be able to:

define the terms minority and minoritized languages in comparison to related terminology;
recognize features of minority and minoritized languages;
explain why minority and minoritized languages are vulnerable to endangerment and what can be done to revitalize minority languages;
apply acquired knowledge of minority and minoritized languages to understand and analyze real-world examples of those languages;
use resources to assess the status of a language;
reflect on the value of minority and minoritized languages for you personally and for others.

1.1 What are minority and minoritized languages?

Our world is characterized by a vast richness of linguistic and cultural diversity, including the presence of many minority languages. For instance, Europe knows at least 69 minority languages that represent 89% of linguistic diversity within the EU, and more than half of Africa’s indigenous languages are minority languages (Maseko & Nkomo, 2023; Videsott, 2023). You may have heard these languages being referred to as endangered languages, heritage languages, minority or minoritized languages, indigenous languages, or regional languages. Though these terms are sometimes used interchangeably, they may also refer to essentially different concepts or constructs (Cenoz & Gorter, 2023).

Globalization processes and global crises are linked to a ‘massive and accelerating’ language loss (Sánchez Avendaño, 2024, p.416, see also Requesens-Galnarens, 2023). When languages are lost or disappearing, the term endangered language is frequently used. This denotes languages that are no longer learnt as a first language (L1) in the home, that become significantly restricted to certain domains of society, and that are often mostly or solely spoken by older generations (Cenoz & Gorter, 2023). Endangerment is strongest in indigenous languages (Requesens-Galnarens, 2023). When this term is used, it ‘highlights that the language is spoken by the original inhabitants of a specific geographical area’ and points to the interconnection of identity and language (Cenoz & Gorter, 2023, p.3; Requesens-Galnarens, 2023). In that sense, the term regional language shares the geographical marker but is not a synonym. Heritage languages can be indigenous, but the term is used principally in the context of immigrant languages (Trifonas & Aravossitas, 2019).

Reflection task | Reconsider the minority languages on your mindmap. Do any of them have the special features mentioned above that need to be acknowledged? Write down an E (endangered), I (indigenous), R (regional), H (heritage), and so on.

To gain understanding of the terms minority languages and minoritized languages, we will look into a case in Switzerland. Swiss society is multiethnic, multicultural and multilingual due to its geographical, social and economical position (Maissen et al. 2024).

Task | Dutch comedian Andre van Duin and culinary expert Janny van der Heijden travel through Switzerland by train as part of a television series. Van Duin notes that they are traveling through an area, Engadin, that is known for what he calls ‘a unique language’. Please watch the fragment and try to find out why this ‘unique language’ might be a minority language. You can read along with the transcript on the right. Time slot: 28:43 – 30:46.

Click here for the fragment

When asked about the difference between Romanesh and standard languages, the waitress points to the context in which the language is or is not used. She also points to the limited number of Romanesh speakers. The latter feature is often mentioned as a key criterion, but using it as the primary identifier is problematic (Cenoz & Gorter, 2023; Videsott, 2023). On the contrary, minority languages may be spoken by a majority of the population in a given region; such as Catalan, which is spoken by about 84% of all inhabitants of the region in Catalonia.

Reflection task | Could Spanish be a minority language on your mindmap? Why or why not?

Spanish is a world language and has over 500 million speakers. From a demographic perspective, you could say Spanish does not belong in your mindmap. Yet, it is considered as a minority language in many parts of the United States (Cenoz & Gorter, 2023). The term minority languages, then, points to ‘the asymmetric relation between the languages’ (ibid., p.2). In relation to majority languages, there is a difference in social status and a power imbalance. Minority languages are often excluded from the construction of the national state, in the sense they are given limited social functions in important social sectors, such as education, healthcare, law, etc. Minority languages are often subject to active processes of minoritization. A language becomes a minoritized language when it is ‘suppressed and marginalized by dominant groups in society’ (Cenoz & Gorter, 2023, p.2). A minoritized language, regardless of its number of speakers, is in a constant state of diglossia with a dominant language and [its] value is not recognised on the interactional scene by speakers of a sociolinguistically dominant language (Valdés, 2005). Using this term might be more appropriate in certain situations, as it ‘reflects the understanding that minority status is neither inherent nor fixed’ (Lane et al., 2017, p. 8).

In this module, we will use the term minority and minoritized interchangeably, though always with awareness of its constructed nature. Terminology is not a trivial matter when talking about minority languages and activism, because it is contingent (Gal, 2017; Lane et al., 2017; Videsott, 2023). If we are looking at the relative number of speakers, one might wonder who determines what counts, who keeps score and why. If we are looking at the dynamics of power, one might consider the effect of the constructed label on the position of minority voices vs the majority. Nonetheless, the term minority languages is also crucial as it is used institutionally to claim rights and resources (Gal, 2017; Videsott, 2023).

1.2 What are the advantages of fostering regional and minority languages?

Reflection task | Ask around in your personal and/or professional environment. Would people like to master multiple languages? What languages? Are there any languages in your mind map that you might consider taking up? Why or why not? Add this to your mind map using different colors to distinguish between positive and negative reasons. Do you notice any patterns?

Though mastering multiple languages is often considered an asset, in the case of minority languages it often remains an invisible form of bilingualism ‘in which the native language is undervalued and associated with underdevelopment, poverty and backwardness’ (Hélot & De Mej́ia, 2008, p. 1). Multilingualism is always an asset, regardless of whether one or more of the languages involved are minority languages.

Failure to valorize minority languages and their social role for individuals and society is unjust and problematic. The social benefits of multilingualism associated with the presence of minority languages have been extensively highlighted in recent years: minorities and their languages can offer manifold regional, economic, and personal advantages (Videsott, 2023):

Regional advantages: linguistic minorities make the areas in which they reside into multilingual natural areas. This offers additional attractions not only for tourism and, in particular, cultural/heritage tourism, but also geographical and linguistic-cultural advantages as they serve to exploit the potential of cross-border cooperation.
Personal advantages: speakers of minority languages form bonds with official state languages, but their strongest connection is with their eponymous language. Acquiring and communicating in a minority language may encourage identity-building and can foster a sense of belonging (see also Cenoz & Gorter, 2023). The conversation about Romansh (see unit 1.1) shows how minority languages may serve to highlight and support regional identities as well.
Scientific and socio-ecological advantages: region, indigenous and heritage languages may carry socio-ecological knowledge. Indeed, ‘scientific and traditional knowledge about ecosystems, conservation methods, plant life, animal behavior and many other aspects of the natural world are embedded in Indigenous languages’ (Requesens-Galnarens, 2023, p.1).
Economic advantages: the teaching of national minority languages requires schools, meaning extra teachers, materials and students. Added to this is the fact that minority languages also make additional activities possible in other cultural areas (e.g. literature, theater, museums, music, etc.) which have an economic component.

Task | Have a look at the quote on the right (McIvor, 2018).

What value of minority languages is conveyed here? Do you recognize such value in the minority languages on your mind map?

1.3 Why do minority languages need activism?

Minority languages need speakers otherwise they will perish. In order for minority languages to continue to have speakers, it is first and foremost necessary to be able to live and raise children in the respective minority areas under favourable conditions.

Task | Go to Ethnologue’s Map of endangered languages to find out how many languages in the world are currently threatened. Read the information and play with the interactive map. Use the website’s menu to browse by languages. Check out a language that is on your mindmap. Next, use the menu to browse by country and select another minority language. Compare the status of the two minority languages. What explains the differences and similarities?

Task | Go to the Unesco World Atlas of Languages (Languages | UNESCO WAL) and play with the map. Click on different languages with different degrees of endangerment.

Minority languages are often associated with rural life, away from modernity (Pietikäinen & Kelly-Holmes, 2013) or even not suitable to meet present-day needs. This reinforces the position of surrounding dominant languages as the only languages which may grant access to progress, the only tool for upwards social mobility (Pujolar & O’Rourke, 2018), and therefore the only language with market-driven incentives for (young) speakers. In addition, this depiction of minorities as romanticized communities stuck in time has also been the basis for strong ideologies of language ‘purism’. Linguistic innovation is often suspicious of interference, and dialectal usage is deemed ‘pure’ and ‘unsullied’ by borrowing (Robert, 2009, p. 97). Tensions arise often in minority contexts between ‘real’ language and ‘pure’ language, the latter often being the core of the standardized version of the language (Hornsby, 2015; Belmar, 2017). Such attitudes and ideologies about minority language speakers may contribute to decreasing the vitality of certain minority languages. Current events, such as increasing globalization and mobility along with social and economic changes, have put many minorities under further threat.

Increased awareness of the risks for and value of cultural and linguistic diversity has resulted in the call for a paradigm shift in EU attitudes and policies regarding (regional) minority and minoritized languages to stop the process of ‘cultural and linguistic desertification’ (Videsott, 2023, p.10). Many initiatives are currently being taken to help strengthen endangered languages throughout.

Task | Read the following briefing of the European Parliament to find out about developments in the protection of minority languages at EU level and answer the following questions:

(Briefing on regional and minority languages in the European Union)

What legislative principles and objectives does the EU have regarding regional and minority languages (article 7)? (overview on p.4)
Explain why policy and activism might differ among EU member states.
What is the aim of the European Charter?
What strikes you about the status of regional and minority languages in the EU?
The brief refers to Unesco’s factors that promote language vitality. How do EU initiatives (pp. 10-11) align with these factors? Complete the table below:

Intergenerational transmission	Number and proportion of speakers	Language learning material	Shifts in use of the language	Response to new domains of life

In order for minority and minoritized languages to survive and maybe even thrive, they need several favorable conditions. One of the actions that may help foster these languages is activism. Activism are all actions that work towards sustainable systems for deepening understanding, mitigating conflict and promoting peace within communities and oppressed groups. Though language activism can take place in various forms and with various purposes, it generally involves ‘energetic action focused on language use in order to create, influence and change existing language policies’ (Combs & Penfield, 2012, p. 462). Whether it happens in official, community or personal contexts, language activism is ‘a force for social change’ (ibid, p. 463). The impact is twofold: firstly, besides language, activism impacts inequality and marginalization that occurs as a result of linguistic discrimination (De Korne, 2021); and second, it involves a growing sense of agency and empowerment of activist members to move and implement their ideas. This can be achieved under the umbrella of three activism actions: 1) connecting people, organizations, locations, languages, etc.; 2) representing them in publications, speeches, letters, interviews, court cases, etc.; and 3) creating informative and/or educational materials, maps, databases, legislation, digital tools, policies, etc. (ibid.). These actions are determined and shaped by the goals of language activism, which can generally relate to means and initiatives, organizations and people, and communication (ibid.). Resources may include materials, documents and collections that were mentioned above. Initiatives refer to events, such as festivals and conferences. When we see activism in schools, centres and organizations, its target is spaces and structures. Language activism can also be focused on enabling people’s roles as experts, teachers, learners etc. (i.e. people and their identities) or on communication practices, like increasing target language use. Considering that lesson material can be developed to increase target language use among teachers and learners, for example; it becomes clear that various actions and goals might overlap and be addressed at the same time. De Korne (2021) created a strategy framework for language activism, which schematically presents its forms and purposes. A visual representation is given below:

Task | Discover how speakers of endangered minority and minoritized languages are revitalizing their languages by watching the video below. What inspires you? What ideas do you have?

Reflection task | In this unit we have discovered what minority and minoritized languages are in terms of their characteristics, positions and values; and why activism is important. What is the most important learning experience you had and why? Write your comment down in your mindmap.

Unit 2: Two examples of activism in minority and minoritized languages

Task | Watch the following video:

On the right, you see a table with a number of Frisian words, taken from this video. Try to fill out the counterparts of these Frisian words using your English vocabulary and maybe your knowledge of other languages.

In this unit, you will explore two real-world cases of minority language activism: the case of Frisian in the Netherlands and the case of Te Reo Māori in New Zealand. By analyzing the YungFrysk and Stories of Te Reo projects, you will get a better understanding of minority language activism. By the end of this unit, you will be able to:

Combine knowledge from the previous unit to real-world examples of minority language activism
Recognise strengths of minority language activism
Recognise particular struggles of given minority languages
Analyze how specific actions contribute to minority language activism goals
Assess the broader sociolinguistic context of given minority languages

2.1.1 Introduction: what is Frisian?

West Frisian (or Frisian) in the Netherlands is one of three Frisian languages spoken along the North Sea coastline, the other two being Sater Frisian and North Frisian in Germany. It is a West-Germanic language, more specifically an Ingveonic language, and it is a close cousin to English. In the province of Fryslân, approximately 65% of all inhabitants speak the language well or reasonably well (Provinsje Fryslân, 2020). Frisian receives a considerable amount of institutional support on multiple levels in the Netherlands, having gained official status alongside Dutch in the province of Fryslân. Frisian is protected under part II and part III of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (1998), which the Netherlands have signed and ratified; and Frisians are considered an ethnic minority, protected by the European Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (2005). Furthermore, the Wet Gebruik Friese Taal (Law regarding Use of Frisian) was adopted in 2014, providing a legal framework for users of the language. In addition, the national government of the Netherlands and the provincial government of Fryslân periodically renew a policy agreement in which they make plans to promote the use of Frisian in all social domains every five years. Within the language community, speakers hold very positive attitudes towards Frisian with regard to solidarity, status and use (Klinkenberg et al., 2018).

Some Frisian words with their cognates:

Frisian	English	Dutch	German
do hast	you have	jij hebt	du hast
dien	done	gedaan	getan
De skiep hawwe de kaai.	The sheep have the key.	De schapen hebben de sleutel.	Die Schafe haben den Schlüssel.
De doar is grien.	The door is green.	De deur is groen.	Die Tür ist grün.

Nevertheless, Frisian faces a number of challenges, for example when it comes to intergenerational language transmission. According to the Fryske Taalatlas (Frisian Language Atlas), there are more parents in Fryslân who choose to raise their children in Dutch (49%) than parents who opt for Frisian (45%) (Provinsje Fryslân, 2020). Simultaneously, it stands out that parents report that only 38% of Frisian children actively use Frisian. The educational position of Frisian is also not yet up to standard: while Frisian, in theory, is an obligatory course both in primary school and in the first years of secondary school, in practice this is a scenario yet to be realized. Progress is being made through Taalplan Frysk 2030 (Frisian Language Plan 2030), an educational policy plan which aims for all Frisian primary and secondary schools to obtain a so-called A-profile by 2030, meaning that all schools will offer adequate education by then. Still, the historically poor position of Frisian in education has led to the situation that only (a self-reported) 17% of Frisians are able to write in their own language (Provinsje Fryslân, 2020). As you can imagine, the Dutch linguistic input that Frisians get is overwhelming compared to Frisian. Dutch is the socially dominant language of the two, and although Frisian can be used in all aspects of social life, it is mostly limited to and associated with informal domains: a language that you can use only to speak with family and friends. It is no surprise, then, that Frisian suffers a great deal from Dutch linguistic interference, especially when considering the small linguistic distance between the two languages (Belmar & Pinho, 2020).

Yung Frysk

Yung Frysk is a language promotion activist project aimed at enthusing youth between 16 and 22 years old about the Frisian language and to motivate them to use the language themselves. The project targets youth that identify with Fryslân or the Frisian language in some way. They can be native speakers of Frisian, or they can understand the language without speaking it, or they can be immigrants from elsewhere who have only lived in Fryslân for some time, for instance. Connecting this to the decreasing number of youth who choose to speak Frisian, as was mentioned before, and the struggles that Frisian faces, the project’s core message is that it is important to speak Frisian, even if you can’t speak it flawlessly and your Frisian suffers from a lot of Dutch interference. Just speak the language the way you want to!

With this approach to language promotion Yung Frysk wishes to build a community in which Frisian becomes accessible for the whole target group. Yung Frysk has an online focus, since most young people can be reached that way. Right now, it makes use of the platforms Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, and its content is primarily featured in videos. The project offers a variety of online content which can be divided into three different types: comical, serious and inspirational content. All content is either related to Fryslân or Frisian, or to a subject that is relevant to youth from Fryslân. On Instagram (@yungfrysk, see screenshot), some of their videos reach a crowd of over 50.000 people, while on TikTok, their most-watched videos have more than 250.000 views.

Yung Frysk uses mainly a humoristic approach to language activism. An example of comical content are videos of speaking Frisian in other parts of the Netherlands to see the response of non-Frisian speakers; or videos of people in Fryslân trying to pronounce some less frequently used Frisian words and to see whether they know what they mean. Serious content is more focused on the personal lives of the target group. Each month, a new bookzine is published with a personal story, aimed to inform and inspire the target group, as well as to motivate reading. Inspirational content is aimed at inspiring and connecting, e.g. by going into news items relevant to the target group. A team of students from different media and communication related programs in both vocational and higher education work on creating content to spread the message of Yung Frysk. In the content creation, their own ideas and opinions are key.

Task | Watch the two videos by clicking on the buttons. These two videos are very different examples of how Yung Frysk seeks to inspire and enthuse young Frisian speakers to use their language more. As mentioned in the introduction, one video is comical and the other inspirational. How do you think these two different examples both contribute to language awareness among their target audience? What are their strengths?

Unit 2.2 Te Reo Māori – a non-European example of minority language activism

Task | Watch the video by clicking on the button.

2.2.1 Introduction to Te Reo Māori

What you just witnessed, is Ka Mate: a traditional Haka being performed by the All Blacks, the New Zealand national rugby team. Originally, this was a dance performed by the Māori people, the first inhabitants of New Zealand, to welcome other tribes and to invigorate warriors as they headed into battle. The language in which the Haka is performed is called Te Reo, and it is the language of the Māori people. Nowadays, New Zealand has three official languages: English, spoken by the overwhelming majority of the country’s population, New Zealand Sign Language and, lastly, Te Reo Māori. In New Zealand, the Māori people are a minority of around 775.000 people or 16% of the total population (StatsNZ, 2018). Within the Maori population, around 185.000 people speak Te Reo, as the people themselves call their language, while 50.000 actually claim to speak it really well (StatsNZ, 2018).

After the colonization of New Zealand by the English in the 19th century, Te Reo started to decline. Speaking English was encouraged and children who were speaking Te Reo in schools were severely punished (King, 2018). However, revitalisation efforts have been undertaken since the 1950s, especially from 2015 onwards. Overall, the revitalization process followed three steps: disruption, institutionalization, normalization (King, 2018). A petition was signed by over 30.000 people to introduce Te Reo in schools in 1972 and Te Reo gained official status in New Zealand in 1987. Currently, the language is viewed as a national heritage worth saving: New Zealand has even launched a long-term goal of one million Te Reo speakers in 2040. The language does receive a considerable amount of institutional support: it has a place in education, big companies such as Google and Microsoft are making work of offering their services in Te Reo, although there is still no accepted written standard (King, 2018). Te Reo used to be an orally transmitted language traditionally: it was never written up until the 19th century. In the modern era, following the colonization period, the need for a written language became bigger. Thus, the first dictionaries and Bible translations in Te Reo had been produced by the 1840s (Gagné, 2021).

Despite the revitalization efforts made in the past decades, Te Reo faces a number of challenges. One of the main struggles that Te Reo faces is intergenerational language transmission: in a household in which at least one parent speaks Te Reo, only 44% of children were able to speak Te Reo as well (King, 2018). According to the 2018 Maori census, only 19.7% of Māori people between the ages of 15 and 24 were able to speak Te Reo fairly well to very well (StatsNZ, 2018). Although this is a higher percentage than in previous generations, the numbers are alarming. Additionally, there are several concerns about the ‘quality’ of the Te Reo spoken by L2 learners, whose Te Reo suffers from major linguistic interference from English (Te Rito, 2008). In education, here is a shortage of Te Reo teachers and teaching materials (King, 2018). What’s more, an increasing number of Māori people, currently around 85%, are living in cities (Gagné, 2021). These cities become increasingly multicultural, which causes the marginalization of Te Reo (Gagné, 2021).

2.2.2 Stories of Te Reo

Languages tell the stories of humanity: they are what makes us human.

An anchor to our past, a compass to our future.

Te Reo links Māori New Zealanders to ancestors, culture, identity.

Te Reo grounds all New Zealanders by giving us a sense of belonging

to this place we call home.

The battle to save Te Reo has been fought in battles large and small,

by names and faces we know, and many we don’t.

Language tells the stories of humanity, and these are the stories of Te Reo.

These are the stories of Aotearoa.

Task | Visit the website Stories of Te Reo by clicking on the button, and watch the introduction of the website.

Te Reo, historically, is a language that is orally transmitted: stories, legends and myths are passed on from one generation to another by means of storytelling. The language does have a written tradition in the modern era, so the need for documentation grows. Stories of Te Reo, an initiative that started in 2022 by the Māori language commision, is a public storytelling campaign that offers a platform for people belonging to the Māori community in the broadest sense of the word, in order for them to tell their stories. Stories of Te Reo has by now collected over 300 individual stories, telling the tale of over 200 historical happenings. This way, the stories, moments, persons and happenings that have contributed to Te Reo being where it is today are preserved. The website offers an interactive experience, as it invites the visitor to scroll through the timeline of (modern) New Zealand and through a map of the country itself: this way, you can view different stories from different parts of the country at different moments in time. You can read, watch and listen to them, as all stories are told in a different way. Lastly, the website actively invites community members to actively share their own stories: this way, the Māori people themselves are contributing to the documentation and survival of their language.

Task | Navigate through the website, pick a point in the timeline and subsequently pick a story from one of the regions in New Zealand. Read, watch or listen to the story. Reflect on the particular story that you chose by answering the following questions:

What is the story about, what does it tell us?
Why is its documentation important?
How, do you think, can this project contribute to the goal of the New Zealand government to reach one million Te Reo speakers in 2040?

Unit 3: Minority language education

Reflection task | In unit 2 you saw a video of activism by Yung Frysk targeting young audiences. Based on what you know about minority languages, why do you think they choose to do so? What does that mean for language promotion? Write down three implications.

Exploring real-world examples, an interactive map, and even an online game, this unit shows why education is a vital means of minority language protection and promotion. By the end of this unit you will be able to:

identify reasons for the crucial role of education in minority language revitalization;
understand how minority language policies are set up;
distinguish between different types of language planning;
analyze minority language policy and planning in real-world examples from education;
contextualize language activism within education;
establish a link between minority language education and equity and inclusion;
reflect on how schools can support multilingual students and minority language revitalization.

In this screenshot of the video, you can see that popular English expressions are effortlessly integrated into a Frisian conversation. This is an example of a sustainable language community, which takes shape when promoters ‘succeed in transferring the language to the next generation’ (Ó Curnáin & Ó Giollagáin, 2023). Given this crucial role of transmission to new generations, education goes hand in hand with Minority Language Protection and Promotion (henceforth: MINLPP, as put forward by Ó Curnáin & Ó Giollagáin, 2023).

Task | Explore ways in which minority language learning and MINLPP go together by studying p. 1 and 2 of this report below. Use the following questions as a guideline:

What is meant with revitalization?
How do status planning, corpus planning and acquisition planning compare and contrast?

3.1 How do you include minority and minoritized languages in education? A framework

Task | To better understand how MINLPP can be included in education, study the framework below. Have a look at the three implications you wrote down at the reflection task. What level are they on?

This framework describes three levels at which minority languages can be integrated into education and educational systems. An interrelated and comprehensive approach of all these levels is necessary to ensure a sustainable integration (Ó Curnáin & Ó Giollagáin, 2023). Policy and promotion can sometimes happen unplanned or be a natural phenomenon (i.e. non-deliberate), but the inclusion of minority languages is likely to be more successful when actions are strategically and sustainably planned (ibid.). This is due to the power dynamics of majority languages that were highlighted in unit 1 and that are represented by the interacting arrows in the framework. These power dynamics result in threats of marginalization that might occur due to a limited number of speakers, limited financial resources and civic structures, issues with the status of the languages and limited linguistic resources, dispersed or diasporic language communities, and restricted political power.

3.2 Comparing and contrasting examples of minority language education using the framework.

To gain a better understanding of how minority language education might take shape, we will explore the case of Gaelic – a language mainly spoken in the Scottish Highlands and Islands (UK). It functioned as a state language in mediaevil times, but surges of repressive government policies and large scale emigration resulted in a severe decline of the language and culture until growing awareness of the precarious state of the language in the latter half of the 20th century saw a boost of MINLPP initiatives (Robertson, 2018).

Though reports from the 21st century confirm a reduction in the number of Gaelic adult speakers, there is a noticeable increase in the number of speakers in school age children (ibid.). This is due to an intervention at the socio-political level: the implementation of Gaelic Medium of Instruction (GMI). GMI means that Gaelic is used as a vehicle of instruction in subject-specific courses like history, geography, etc. GMI affects other levels too: Gaelic is part of programmes and interactions in the school (i.e. communal and individual levels respectively).

However, Gaelic is often restricted to the Medium of Instruction (MI) sector. A communal-level challenge is to broaden the options for language learning in schools, especially through corpus planning: programme development and language learning in informal settings (e.g. social practices at school) (ibid.).

Students drop out of GMI programmes due to a lack of resources: there is a shortage of qualified GMI teachers and a limited availability of Gaelic learning materials for students (ibid.). So, on an individual level, facilitating skills development among teachers and students remains an urgent task (i.e. acquisition planning). These issues highlight the importance of a comprehensive approach for sustainable minority language learning.

Gaelic faces several marginality threats in the demographic-spatial and political-linguistic dimensions that also require MINLPP at several levels. For instance, Gaelic language learning stays behind in rural areas that are thinly populated and dispersed (ibid.). This requires the installation of language plans at local schools (i.e. corpus planning). Another threat concerns the status of Gaelic in public discourse among parents (ibid.). This should be addressed in parent-teacher interactions (i.e. status planning).

Task | Mercator is a European research centre specializing in multilingual education. Visit their Wiki on minority language learning by clicking on the button below. Read the information on the site and check the map (and table overview). Select two languages that you are interested in and compare and contrast how they are embedded into education focusing on the following questions:

What actions do you see at each level of the framework?
What challenges are raised at each level of the framework?
How can issues be explained?
What would your recommendations be?

You can use the discussion of Gealic above as an example. Specific examples of recommendations can be found throughout this report: New Speakers of West Frisian: Promoting Language Learning and Use to Foster Revitalisation .

3.3 Effects of minority language education

3.3.1 Revitalization

Task | Have another look at p.1 of this report: New Speakers of West Frisian: Promoting Language Learning and Use to Foster Revitalisation and identify five ways in which new speakers and minority language revitalization are interlinked.

Education is a vital means of MINLPP, in particular when it involves young learners of minority languages: they are not just another potential group of speakers, they also play an important role in minority language revitalization (Videsott, 2023; Debreczeni et al., 2023). At the same time, it is important to be mindful of minority languages in educational settings. Education can be a space in which minority languages are restricted because of monolingual and normative practices, sometimes even in the form of so-called bilingual education. De Korne (2021) describes the case of Oaxacan (MX) “bilingual” education that ultimately attempted to transition students to monolingualism and erase indigenous minority linguistic and cultural diversity. In another way, pro-diversity education can lead to commodification and essentialization of minority languages or a ‘sanitized multilingualism’ and for that reason ‘it is not enough to have a seemingly pro-diversity society or school program, it is also important to interrogate the ideologies that influence language use in the day to day practices of the educational community.’ (ibid. p 93). It is important for schools to implement flexible practices like translanguaging and recognize that learners can have multiple mother tongues that develop in non-linear ways (ibid.). This chapter first discusses positive effects of successful policy implementation; secondly, it describes the minority language activism that precedes it.

3.3.2 Effects on learners

In the case of Basque – a minority language in Spain, immersion education is an important context for socializing in Basque. This has a positive effect on a minority language learner’s language proficiency in, attitude towards, and their attachment to the language (Martinez et al., 2023). Similar observations were made in Wales (UK) where Welsh is a minority language. Students who were in WMI schools or Welsh bilingual schools formed greater attachment and more positive attitudes towards the Welsh language than students in English medium schools (Parry & Thomas, 2023).

Minority language education has a profound effect on speakers of minority languages. The newspaper heading on the right describes the response of young people to Dutch language deficiencies in Aruba – a country in The Kingdom of the Netherlands in which most speakers use Papiamentu at home, but Dutch in education. It says: ‘If I had been able to do everything in my own language, I might have been in grammar school’.

In Hawaii, this idea was put to the test: Hawaiian terms were used in EMI studies, EMI was replaced with HMI, or institutions switched to immersion all together. In University studies in particular, this led to an increase of Native Hawaiian students enrolling in and completing programmes, also at departments that were previously neglected (Wilson & Kamanā, 2023). In addition, students formed closer attachments to their studies (ibid.). Indeed, embedding minority languages into educational practices contributes to inclusive and equitable education, which is in line with the fourth UN’s Sustainable Development Goal.

3.3.3 Activism

‘The road from language rights to language policy is paved with language activism’

Combs & Penfield

(2012, p. 474)

In this unit we spoke much about language planning and policies in educational settings, but we have not yet discussed the road to such policies. In order to support their students and to address social and academic challenges in minority contexts, teachers may have to go against the grain of formal (normative or essentialist) schooling and become educator-activists. Indeed, language activism in schools is generally focused on disrupting the status quo (Warren & Ward, forthcoming 2024). Within their context, activist-teachers ‘can take advantage of their social role as knowledge-holders and legitimizers of others’ (in this case young students’) knowledge, which may give their activism initiatives added prestige and social meaning’ (De Korne, 2021, p. 107).

Language activism in educational settings can be shaped by individual or collective actions (Warren & Ward, forthcoming 2024). We discussed a framework for strategies of minority language activism in unit 1. Within this framework, educator-activists tend to focus on specific actions and goals (De Korne, 2021). Click on the tabs to explore examples for each of the three actions:

Creating

Connecting

Representing

Creating

Connecting

Representing

Though educational language activism might take on various forms and objectives, it generally strives to enact transformative educational practices (Warren & Ward, forthcoming 2024).

Reflection task | Can you think of a situation in which a teacher became educator-activist to support the needs of their students? What status-quo was disrupted? What actions and goals did they pursue to enact a transformative educational practice?

3.3.4 Example of educational activism

In this chapter we will discuss an example of activism in education that is an example of the first tab in 3.3.3.

Reflection task | Watch the video by clicking on the button below, and think about the following questions:

What are the implications of an increasingly digital world for speakers of minority languages?
What does this mean for minority language education and technology development?

There are very few digital tools, such as speech recognition systems, speech synthesis, and advanced text processing, for minority languages. These languages have often been overlooked thus leaving a void in digital support and resources (Kelly-Holmes, 2019). As a result, speakers of these languages have been forced to rely on their second or third languages (L2 or L3) often leading to frustration because of limited proficiency or accent challenges. This issue was underlined by the 2022 European Language Equality Report (go to the section on education, p. 26) that showed digital bias to dominant languages and leaving minority languages on the fringes. Further challenges faced by speakers of lesser used and minority languages result from the lack of corpora and digital resources to create adequate language models for use in speech technology (Cooper, 2019).

Task | Go to Google Translate or DeepL and try to find all the languages mentioned in this report or that you looked at throughout the previous tasks. Which ones have digital support for translation and which ones do not?

One example of a digital game that fosters several minority and minoritized languages in educational contexts is BabelAR. The goal of BabelAR is to welcome multilingualism in class and show pupils the value of the language(s) they possess and to activate their language knowledge. Here is the fact sheet about the game:

The game is aimed at pupils between 7 and 12 years old, and the pupils have to work together in this collaborative-multiplayer Augmented Reality (AR) game to reach a common goal. They will need to use their language(s) and language knowledge to help a little creature called Babel (portrayed on the right hand side of the fact sheet above), who sadly enough has lost all its language knowledge.

The game can be played in fourteen (minority and minoritized) languages: Arabic, Basque, Dutch, English, French, Frisian, German, Irish, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish. The goal is to welcome these languages into the classroom, to have a collaborative activity for pupils to open up about the languages they know, and to show the value of their linguistic knowledge. The game is focussed on language awareness, not on language learning, though most pupils will learn some words while playing.

Babel will not only take pupils on a linguistic journey, but also to three Augmented Reality worlds. In one of these, a swarm of animals will walk on their classroom floor. Pupils who played the game already were more than excited to share their languages and help their team members in the Augmented Reality worlds.

Playing BabelAR will develop pupils’ language awareness in a playful and interactive manner, and will foster curiosity about multiple languages, including minority languages. Teachers will enjoy BabelAR as a means of raising awareness of multilingualism in the classroom and its value within education. You can find all instructions and materials to use BabelAR in education here.

Reflection task | Do you know of any technological developments that could help schools in your area? What activism, policies and planning might they implement to revitalize minority languages? Why? What could it mean for the students in the schools?

Conclusion

In this module we explored the position and role of minority and minoritized languages. We saw examples of how minority languages foster regional and personal identities. Examples from indigenous minority languages demonstrated their (scientific) socio-ecological value. Despite the important role of minority languages and the fact that multilingualism is often considered an asset, our explorations of linguistic atlases and maps revealed that minority languages are often under threat due to power dynamics with majority languages, ideologies about minority language speakers, and increased globalization. Activism can help minority languages to survive and thrive. We explored the various actions and goals of language activism and looked into examples of activism for Frysk (NL) and Te Reo Māori (NZ). We noticed how Yung Frysk is targeting new generations with a strong social media presence and a humoristic approach. Activism for Te Reo focuses on creating a bridge between older and new generations. We explored their interactive website to see what activism through storytelling looks like. Given the crucial role of new speakers in creating a sustainable language community, minority language education can support language revitalization and activism. Our analysis of minority language education dossiers showed the importance of a deliberate, comprehensive approach to MINLLP for sustainable minority language education, especially because the implementation has a profound effect on minority language speakers. Equity and inclusion are strengthened further if we incorporate digital technologies, such as BabelAR, in the classroom. We looked into this game as an example of language activism in educational settings.

Throughout this module you were asked to reflect on the role and value of minority languages and language education. In that fashion:

Reflection task | What is the most important insight you want to take from this module? What can you do in your personal, educational or professional environment to support minority languages and speakers?

Justification

BOLD’s general objective and WP3 specific objective:

The general objective of the BOLD project is to support training of pre-service teachers on social action regarding language and cultural diversity. In this context, the WP3 specific objective is to develop a series of on-line modular courses in order to serve the project’s general objective.

This module:

The module “Activism for minority and minoritised languages” draws on the concept of language activism to explore issues of stigmatisation and marginalisation of linguistic minorities across the globe. In a multilingual social context, it aims to familiarise trainees with fundamental concepts such as: language minorities, language revitalization, linguistic activism, citizen’s action, and minority languages in education.

Hence, it aims to provoke trainees’ critical thinking on issues such as the following:

- What are minority and minoritised languages?

- What is language activism and why is it important?

- How can language activism be related to language maintenance or revitalisation?

- What are common features we find in language activism initiatives?

- What frameworks protect regional and minority languages?

- How are minority and minoritised languages included in mainstream education?
- Connection of module to project of objectives:

The overall purpose of this module, in line with the BOLD project, is to develop a set of skills (digital and non-digital) towards understanding the importance of language activism for minority and minoritised languages.

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