OLAC Record oai:scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu:10125/25348

Metadata
Title:		Completing the Triangle: Revitalizing the Rapa Nui language
Bibliographic Citation:		Young, Forrest, Young, Forrest; 2015-03-01; The revitalization of two languages of the Polynesian Triangle, Māori and `Ōlelo Hawai`i, are fundamental to international research on endangered language revitalization and the transnational social movement to reduce twenty-first century language death. Comparatively, the educational programs and linguistic issues related to the revitalization of the third language of the triangle, the indigenous Rapa Nui language of Easter Island (EAS), are significantly less known. Field research on Rapa Nui language revitalization programs reveals a strong pedagogical focus on teaching the language in terms of cultural heritage materials (traditional language genres and cultural practices) that avoids many of the authenticity concerns confronting the revitalization of Māori and `Ōlelo Hawai`i (Harlow 2005, NeSmith 2005, Wong 1999) and accords with regional Polynesian language community attitudes that stress the importance of cultural heritage content in language instruction (Housman et al 2011, Otsuka and Wong 2007, Taumoeolau et al. 2002, Waitangi Tribunal 2010). Besides complying with regional and island community attitudes, however, aesthetic linguistic theories of language revitalization that highlight cultural and social “form-dependent expression” (Woodbury 1998), and psycholinguistic theories that emphasize some syntactic structures are more important to language acquisition than others (Crain et al. 2009), suggests, contrary to revival linguistics (Thieberger 2002, Zuckerman and Walsh 2011), this pedagogical strategy to also be linguistically sound. I illustrate some of the strengths of Rapa Nui pedagogy through analysis of elementary school teaching materials on the affective, second person possessive pronoun tu`u. Analysis of Rapa Nui textbook teachings of the pronoun in terms of games and narratives steeped in cultural heritage materials, refines the psycholinguistic findings that educational stories and games are important to language acquisition (Hirsh-Pasek and Golinkoff 2012). Educational stories and games interwoven with very specific cultural heritage and linguistic form dependent-cultural practices may be necessary for revitalization of endangered indigenous languages like Rapa Nui. While acknowledging a pedagogical focus on cultural heritage materials should not come at the expense of sociolinguistic functional diversification of the language (Fishman 2001), or the intensity of psycholinguistic imput necessary for language acquisition (Hoff et al. 2012), culturally specific imput dialogical with traditional genres and social registers is critical to revitalizing endangered languages with significant form-dependent expressions. Like those of its “triangular” Polynesian siblings, the language revitalization programs of Rapa Nui have important lessons for enriching the global movement to document and conserve the world’s linguistic diversity. WORK CITED Crain, Stephen and Rosiland Thorton, Keiko Murasugi 2009 Capturing the Evasive Passive. Language Acquisition 16: 123-133. Fishman, Joshua A. 2001 Can Threatened Languages Be Saved? Reversing Language Shift, Revisited: A 21st Century Perspective. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. Harlow, Ray 2005 Covert Attitudes to Māori. International Journal of Sociology of Language 172: 133-147. Hirsh-Pasek, Kathy and Roberta Michnick Golinkoff 2012 How Babies Talk: Six Principles of Early Language Development. In Re-visioning the beginning: Developmental and Health Science Contributions to Infant/Toddler Programs for Children and Families Living in Poverty. S. Odom, E. Pungello, and N. Gardner-Neblett, eds. Pp. 77-101. New York, Guilford Press. Hoff, Erika and Cynthia Core, Silvia Place, Rosario Rumiche, Melissa Senior, Marisol Parra 2012 Dual Language Exposure and Early Bilingual Development. Journal of Child Language 39: 1-27. Housman, Alohalani and Kaulana Dameg, Māhealani Kobashigawa, James Dean Brown 2011 Report on the Hawaiian Oral Language Assessment (H-OLA) Development Project. Second Language Studies 29 (2): 1-59. NeSmith, R. Keao 2005 Tūtū’s Hawaiian and the Emergence of a Neo Hawaiian Language. `Ōiwi: A Native Hawaiian Journal 3: 68-77. Otsuka, Yuko and Andrew Wong 2007 Fostering the Growth of Budding Community Initiatives: The Role of Linguists in Tokelauan Maintenance in Hawai’i. Language Documentation and Conservation 1 (2): 240-256. Taumoefolau, Melanaite and Donna Starks, Karen Davis, Alan Bell 2002 Linguistics and Language Maintenance: Pasifika Languages in Manukau, New Zealand. Oceanic Linguistics 41 (1): 15-27. Thieberger, Nicholas 2002 'Extinction in whose terms? Which parts of a language constitute a Target for Language Maintenance Programmes?' In Language Endangerment and Language Maintenance David Bradley and Maya Bradley, eds. Pp. 310-328. London: Routledge Curzon. Waitangi Tribunal 2010 Te Reo Māori. Waitangi Tribunal Report 262. Wellington: Waitangi Tribunal. Woodbury, Anthony C. 1998 Documenting Rhetorical, Aesthetic, and Expressive Loss in Language Shift. In Endangered Languages: Language Loss and Community Response, Lenore A. Grenoble and Lindsay J. Whaley, eds. Pp. 234-258. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Wong, Liana 1999 Authenticity and the Revitalization of Hawaiian. Anthropology and Education Quarterly 30 (1): 94-115. Zuckerman, Ghil’ad and Michael Walsh 2011 Stop, Revive, Survive: Lessons from the Hebrew Revival Applicable to the Reclamation, Maintenance and Empowerment of Aboriginal Languages and Cultures, Australian Journal of Linguistics 31 (1): 111-127.; Kaipuleohone University of Hawai'i Digital Language Archive;http://hdl.handle.net/10125/25348.
Contributor (speaker):		Young, Forrest
Creator:		Young, Forrest
Date (W3CDTF):		2015-03-12
Description:		The revitalization of two languages of the Polynesian Triangle, Māori and `Ōlelo Hawai`i, are fundamental to international research on endangered language revitalization and the transnational social movement to reduce twenty-first century language death. Comparatively, the educational programs and linguistic issues related to the revitalization of the third language of the triangle, the indigenous Rapa Nui language of Easter Island (EAS), are significantly less known. Field research on Rapa Nui language revitalization programs reveals a strong pedagogical focus on teaching the language in terms of cultural heritage materials (traditional language genres and cultural practices) that avoids many of the authenticity concerns confronting the revitalization of Māori and `Ōlelo Hawai`i (Harlow 2005, NeSmith 2005, Wong 1999) and accords with regional Polynesian language community attitudes that stress the importance of cultural heritage content in language instruction (Housman et al 2011, Otsuka and Wong 2007, Taumoeolau et al. 2002, Waitangi Tribunal 2010). Besides complying with regional and island community attitudes, however, aesthetic linguistic theories of language revitalization that highlight cultural and social “form-dependent expression” (Woodbury 1998), and psycholinguistic theories that emphasize some syntactic structures are more important to language acquisition than others (Crain et al. 2009), suggests, contrary to revival linguistics (Thieberger 2002, Zuckerman and Walsh 2011), this pedagogical strategy to also be linguistically sound. I illustrate some of the strengths of Rapa Nui pedagogy through analysis of elementary school teaching materials on the affective, second person possessive pronoun tu`u. Analysis of Rapa Nui textbook teachings of the pronoun in terms of games and narratives steeped in cultural heritage materials, refines the psycholinguistic findings that educational stories and games are important to language acquisition (Hirsh-Pasek and Golinkoff 2012). Educational stories and games interwoven with very specific cultural heritage and linguistic form dependent-cultural practices may be necessary for revitalization of endangered indigenous languages like Rapa Nui. While acknowledging a pedagogical focus on cultural heritage materials should not come at the expense of sociolinguistic functional diversification of the language (Fishman 2001), or the intensity of psycholinguistic imput necessary for language acquisition (Hoff et al. 2012), culturally specific imput dialogical with traditional genres and social registers is critical to revitalizing endangered languages with significant form-dependent expressions. Like those of its “triangular” Polynesian siblings, the language revitalization programs of Rapa Nui have important lessons for enriching the global movement to document and conserve the world’s linguistic diversity. WORK CITED Crain, Stephen and Rosiland Thorton, Keiko Murasugi 2009 Capturing the Evasive Passive. Language Acquisition 16: 123-133. Fishman, Joshua A. 2001 Can Threatened Languages Be Saved? Reversing Language Shift, Revisited: A 21st Century Perspective. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. Harlow, Ray 2005 Covert Attitudes to Māori. International Journal of Sociology of Language 172: 133-147. Hirsh-Pasek, Kathy and Roberta Michnick Golinkoff 2012 How Babies Talk: Six Principles of Early Language Development. In Re-visioning the beginning: Developmental and Health Science Contributions to Infant/Toddler Programs for Children and Families Living in Poverty. S. Odom, E. Pungello, and N. Gardner-Neblett, eds. Pp. 77-101. New York, Guilford Press. Hoff, Erika and Cynthia Core, Silvia Place, Rosario Rumiche, Melissa Senior, Marisol Parra 2012 Dual Language Exposure and Early Bilingual Development. Journal of Child Language 39: 1-27. Housman, Alohalani and Kaulana Dameg, Māhealani Kobashigawa, James Dean Brown 2011 Report on the Hawaiian Oral Language Assessment (H-OLA) Development Project. Second Language Studies 29 (2): 1-59. NeSmith, R. Keao 2005 Tūtū’s Hawaiian and the Emergence of a Neo Hawaiian Language. `Ōiwi: A Native Hawaiian Journal 3: 68-77. Otsuka, Yuko and Andrew Wong 2007 Fostering the Growth of Budding Community Initiatives: The Role of Linguists in Tokelauan Maintenance in Hawai’i. Language Documentation and Conservation 1 (2): 240-256. Taumoefolau, Melanaite and Donna Starks, Karen Davis, Alan Bell 2002 Linguistics and Language Maintenance: Pasifika Languages in Manukau, New Zealand. Oceanic Linguistics 41 (1): 15-27. Thieberger, Nicholas 2002 'Extinction in whose terms? Which parts of a language constitute a Target for Language Maintenance Programmes?' In Language Endangerment and Language Maintenance David Bradley and Maya Bradley, eds. Pp. 310-328. London: Routledge Curzon. Waitangi Tribunal 2010 Te Reo Māori. Waitangi Tribunal Report 262. Wellington: Waitangi Tribunal. Woodbury, Anthony C. 1998 Documenting Rhetorical, Aesthetic, and Expressive Loss in Language Shift. In Endangered Languages: Language Loss and Community Response, Lenore A. Grenoble and Lindsay J. Whaley, eds. Pp. 234-258. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Wong, Liana 1999 Authenticity and the Revitalization of Hawaiian. Anthropology and Education Quarterly 30 (1): 94-115. Zuckerman, Ghil’ad and Michael Walsh 2011 Stop, Revive, Survive: Lessons from the Hebrew Revival Applicable to the Reclamation, Maintenance and Empowerment of Aboriginal Languages and Cultures, Australian Journal of Linguistics 31 (1): 111-127.
Identifier (URI):		http://hdl.handle.net/10125/25348
Rights:		Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
Table Of Contents:		25348.mp3
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Archive:		Language Documentation and Conservation
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OaiIdentifier:		oai:scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu:10125/25348
DateStamp:		2017-05-11
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Citation:		Young, Forrest. 2015. Language Documentation and Conservation.