In light of a major study on educational outcomes, this paper explores how Aboriginal language dominance and virtually exclusive use of oral communications in one Aboriginal group has been affected by its interaction with Western institutions. For several years negotiations have been undertaken among the Innu Nation of Labrador, the province of…

This paper offers a general review of literature relating to the maintenance, development, and enhancement of Aboriginal languages in North America, particularly Canada. Drawing primarily on sociolinguistics, several concepts about language usage and change are outlined that are useful for the purposes of thinking about language maintenance. Next,…

Twenty-four symposium participants from across Canada, all working in some way on language development in Native education, presented summaries of their work and then identified the most serious and widespread problems in the field and made recommendations for improvement. Six major problem categories were identified: (1) language and language…