Task-based language teaching (TBLT) is a pedagogical approach that involves identifying real-world tasks that learners need to be able to do in the target language and then developing classroom-appropriate, context-specific versions of these tasks. In this paper, we use Long's methodological principles for TBLT to evaluate a task-based approach…

This study presents the first investigation of the development of possessive constructions in Northern East Cree, a polysynthetic language indigenous to Canada. It examines transcripts from naturalistic recording sessions involving one adult and one child, from age 2;01.12 to 3;08.24. Findings reveal that, despite the frequency of possessive…

In this article, I discuss a pervasive ethical issue when undertaking action research (AR) projects with communities that have been historically marginalized: how outsiders' learned, normative Western thinking makes building equitable relationships difficult. I then offer strategies for researchers coming from privileged, outsider positionalities…

Language learning and the development of language proficiency are central concerns in the study of immigrant adaptation. This paper analyzes the social construction of language proficiency among Indigenous Guatemalan Maya youth in the United States--specifically, undocumented young adults who migrated to Los Angeles, California as unaccompanied…

Purpose: The language that children hear early in life is associated with their speech-language outcomes. This line of research relies on naturalistic observations of children's language input, often captured with daylong audio recordings. However, the large quantity of data that daylong recordings generate requires novel analytical tools to…

Many theoretical models of second or additional language learning posit a crucial role for meaningful social interaction in the target language. However, it is not always clear to language educators how to create such opportunities or what counts as meaningful interaction. This can become even more difficult when the target language is an…

This article uses Southern theories to analyse education programmes in Latin America that promote Indigenous knowledges and languages at the university level. Applying de Sousa Santos' concepts of 'pluriversity' and 'subversity' to four cases of programme models, in Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, and one regional network, the authors describe the…

Public education policies governing language revitalization and the teaching of indigenous languages have been in place for more than 20 years in Chile. In this journey, there has been considerable progress nationwide in the education of a generation of children in an intercultural socio-educational environment. However, there still exist…

Translanguaging has opened up spaces to recognize the dynamic multilingualism of students in classrooms taught in dominant languages, and problematized concepts such as 'additive bilingualism'. This article aims to further explore two issues that remain little understood. First, translanguaging is often seen as simply the acknowledgement or use of…

The promotion of language ideologies, policies and pedagogies that treat languages as separate and hierarchical has become a central concern for critical education scholars. In this case study, I explore how school actors at Colegio Colombiano (CC), an international school in Colombia, engaged with critical approaches to bi/multilingual education…

With the (re-)discovery and gradual transcription and translation of native-language primary sources in the twentieth century, a new branch of Mexican ethnohistory developed around Mesoamerican native-language research. This scholarship has profoundly reshaped the understanding of a history that for centuries had followed a Eurocentric paradigm.…

In this article, we examine the "Calls to Action" of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada (TRC, 2015a) in light of their implications for conscious ally-building in teacher education. Guided by the Anishinaabemowin language, the Medicine Wheel, and the Seven Grandfather Teachings, we ask what we can do to move from…

The article analyses the Mapuche language and culture teaching practices of a rural school in the Chilean Araucanía region run by Mapuche teachers, aimed at reinforcing the language, culture and identity of children. Based on a comparative study of two school ethnographies, the article shows and discusses the ways children learn to be Mapuche by…

According to Self-Determination Theory, intrinsic and self-determined extrinsic motivation are maintained to the extent that learners feel that engagement in an activity is a personally meaningful choice, that the task can be performed competently, and that they share a social bond with significant others in the learning context. These perceptions…

Over the past century, missionary educators, nation-state and academic planners, and literacy development workers have used alphabets for political ends for traditionally marginalized languages, and Native peoples have contested such planning with other alphabet proposals. Yet literacy work now often overlooks that there are multiple alphabets…