ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the relationship between academic research in language policy and planning (LPP) and practical efforts to reverse language shift and erosion (RLS). It briefly surveys the main concerns of LPP scholars and the main activities of communities wanting to revitalize endangered languages. The features of LPP specifically designed for countering intergenerational language attrition are discussed. These include an awareness of forms of political authority that underlie language policymaking, the modes of participation available to various actors engaged in RLS, and the six characteristic goals of LPP. An important challenge for RLS effort is to contest negative characterizations of endangered languages, which are often expressed as “entrapment rebukes” made by dominant-language speakers. It is also crucial to base RLS on a critical analysis of the material, communicative, and symbolic language ecology in which the endangered language exists. Documentation of language loss, theory and practice in LPP, and public participation to build positive characterizations of multilingualism are all important lines of future development.
