Mako [ISO 639-3: wpc], a Sáliban language spoken along the Ventuari River in the Venezuelan Amazon, has been variably reported as (critically) endangered and threatened. These reports, however, are based on second-hand information and/or self-reported census data. In this article, I present a vitality assessment of Mako that relies on first-hand…

One of the most far-reaching reforms undertaken by the Catholic Church as part of the Second Vatican Council was the adoption of vernacular languages in the liturgy. The transition from Latin to vernaculars was not unproblematic, however, as it raised several practical and theoretical questions regarding the relationship between local churches and…

For language documentation to be sufficiently extensive to cover a given community's language practices (cf. Himmelmann 1998), then including verbal arts is essential to ensure the richness of that comprehensive record. The verbal arts span the creative and artistic uses of a given language by speakers, such as storytelling, songs, puns and…

The growing demand for Indigenous language education in the United States often relies on community teachers with widely varying proficiencies as part of local language reclamation efforts. While these English-dominant 'teacher-learners' play a central role in the success of classroom-based K-12 language programs, their classroom experiences and…

The Italian linguistic space has radically changed through the onset of the new millennium due to the presence of innovative multiple linguistic practices that have taken place as a consequence of deterritorialization processes. Furthermore, Latino diaspora in recent years have fostered the appearance of new forms of Global Spanishes (García and…

Currently, there is a call for more humane ways in humanities, for transitions to a world where other worlds are possible. This qualitative case study analyzes an emergent translingual boy's participation in diverse spatial repertoires to address issues of learning and community belonging. José is a 4-year-old preschool Guatemalan-ancestry boy,…

The Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) has synthesized key data on English learners (ELs) into two-page PDF sheets, by topic, with graphics, plus key contacts. The topics for this report on profiles of Native American and/or Alaska Native English Learners (ELs) include: (1) Largest Percentage of ELs Who Were Native American and/or…

Child speech is highly variable. The speech apparatus--the vocal tract, tongue, teeth, and vocal folds--develop at different rates for different children, which helps explain some of the variability in children's speech. For example, the ratio of the oral to pharyngeal cavities changes as children age, making it difficult to establish reliable…

How are linguistic and cognitive practices shared among individuals (and more broadly) populations and cultures? Further, how are cognitive strategies shared at the local level? Li and colleagues (Li & Gleitman 2002; Li et al 2011; "inter alia") suggest that the variation observed in reference frame practices among populations of the…

Most of the training material that Assemblies of God educators use in Latin America was originally written in English. Almost without exception nationals or missionaries translated the approved theology texts from English. While everyone contextualizes, the gospel message will not ever be completely at home in the Yucatan until the pastors think…

On the French Guiana-Suriname border, a hybrid space, members of the same population groups engage in circular mobility but little is known about the practices of these transnational communities. We explore how traditional emic social distinctions, modern states' language ideologies and emerging discourses in the urban context shape Maroon's…

Multilingual practices of translanguaging -- fluid, complex, and dynamic processes of using one's complete linguistic repertoire -- have been increasingly embraced by researchers and educators in bilingual education. Applying this perspective within the field of assessment has proven more challenging. In this project, we explore the role of…

Ease of access, production, and distribution have made online technologies popular in language revitalization. By incorporating multimodal resources, audio, video, and games, they attract indigenous communities undergoing language shift in hopes of its reversal. However, by merely expanding language revitalization to the web, many language…

This article provides an overview of the ideas that two groups of bilingual teachers from different contexts, one indigenous and the other Western, have about the concepts of education, bilingualism, and interculturality. Their opinions were gathered through focus groups, semi-structured interviews, and videos, and reviewed under light of what the…

Drawing on the work of Philip Deloria (2004) and recent explorations of "American Indian languages in unexpected places" (Webster & Peterson, 2011a), this article challenges received expectations of Native American languages and language users as "rural" and physically distant and of "urban" Indigenous language…