I am a student who has been involved with NILI for the last seven years. I recently completed my undergraduate thesis. This thesis is intended to benefit the Native language movement by examining the motivation and methods of Native language learners working together at NILI. Drawing on interviews, my thesis explores what motivates this community of speakers and in doing so provides insight into the significance of Indigenous languages in maintaining Native identity and worldview. My work focuses on home-based learning to demonstrate how methods centered on language use as opposed to accumulation of knowledge create a space for Indigenous languages to exist in daily life and may serve as an effective model for endangered language learners. Lastly, my thesis advocates for collaboration across critically endangered languages through the use of multilingualism as a strategy to create viable speech communities.

Multilingualism has a great deal of potential for critically-endangered language learners because it addresses the most pressing obstacle to increasing language use in daily life: the lack of a speaking community. My research draws heavily from ongoing work at NILI to highlight how multilingual speaking groups, support meetings and workshops have the potential to increase Native language use. Working together between languages is a great opportunity for learners to expand their speaking community, normalize language use, become multilingual, and revitalize a Northwest Native social norm (being multilingual!).

Contributed by Carson Viles

Please contact Carson with any questions at: cviles@uoregon.edu