Professor Whaley is involved in a multi-year project examining language revitalization projects.
An estimated 60-90% of the world's languages are threatened with loss over the course of this century. Indigenous minority communities world-wide are seeking ways to prevent the loss of their heritage language, and for most of these communities this involves establishing programs which will enable them and their descendants to maintain their language while still becoming part of the global community. This project investigates the issues involved in implementing indigenous minority language programs, the kinds of revitalization programs in existence, the resources needed and strategies which can bring about a successful program.
Research assistants are hired for individual terms or for multiple terms to collect information relevant to this project. Typically, the research assistant is assigned a region of the world, a language family, or a topic (e.g. literacy) and given the task of collecting recent information relevant to language revitalization from the web and print publications. Interested students should contact Professor Whaley.