ABSTRACT
Understanding the position of endangered languages requires awareness of the hardships involved in teaching and learning them. This chapter explores the politics, emotions, personalities and trauma of language revitalization for pages and pages, and books and books; and explains the realities and failed pedagogy of language teaching methods. An individual’s use of a second language demonstrates more right-hemisphere involvement than use of their first-language, and some researchers believe it is the result of memorization and drills. Although contested, research within the field of speech-language pathology suggests that efficiency and success in language recovery are based on whether maladaptive or adaptive brain plasticity takes place. Language revitalization must be approached with the intention of healing and building. To acquire a skill, one must feel that it has value. The method used to transfer and/or teach that skill must also be valued.
