Indigenous language resilience: From learners to speakers

De Korne, Haley; Johansen, Åse Mette & Sollid, Hilde (2025). Critical place-based pedagogy and language teacher education in the Global North and South. The Modern Language Journal. ISSN 0026-7902. 109(3), p. 569–585. doi: 10.1111/modl.13013. 

Lane, Pia (2025). Translanguaging, language revitalisation and new speakers. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism. ISSN 1879-9264. 15(1), p. 77–81. doi: 10.1075/lab.24081.lan.

De Korne, Haley (2025). "¿Para qué sirve la utopía?" Aims and Activism Strategies in Minoritized Language Research. In Cutler, Cecelia; Røyneland, Unn & Vrzić, Zvjezdana (Ed.), Language Activism The Role of Scholars in Linguistic Reform and Social Change. Cambridge University Press. ISSN 9781108833165. p. 109–120. doi: 10.1017/9781108973168.008.

Lane, Pia. 2023. From Silence to Silencing? Contradictions and Tensions in Language Revitalization, Applied Linguistics, amac075 

De Korne, Haley; Córdova Herández, Lorena & Kvietok Dueñas, Frances (2023). Youth in language endangerment and reclamation processes. In Svendsen, Bente Ailin & Jonsson, Rickard (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Language and Youth Culture. Routledge. ISSN 9780367764142. p. 108–120.

Rasmus, Sini & Lane, Pia. 2021. New speakers of Sámi: From insecurity to pride. Linguistic Minorities in Europe

• DeKorne, Haley; Luzinski, Wocjiech; Wickstrøm, Pia Kristine Larsen & Nijman, James (2025). Language revitalization strategies and their success among new speakers of Wymysorys. In Metrak, Maciej (Eds.), Vilamovian engaged research. University of Warsaw Press. ISSN 9788323570806. p. 131–172. doi: https:/www.wuw.pl/product-pol-20800-Wymysioejer-gyangazjyty-fusnana-Wilamowskie-badania-zaangazowane-Vilamovian-engaged-research-EBOOK.html. Full text in Research Archive
• Korne, Haley De; Purkarthofer, Judith & Obojska, Maria Antonina (2025). (De)valuing heritage languages across time and space. In Setter, Jane; Dovchin, Sender & Ramjattan, Vijay A. (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Language and Prejudice. Oxford University Press. ISSN 9780192869203. p. 240–258. Full text in Research Archive
• Lane, Pia (2025). Translanguaging, language revitalisation and new speakers. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism. ISSN 1879-9264. 15(1), p. 77–81. doi: 10.1075/lab.24081.lan. Full text in Research Archive
• Korne, Haley De; Johansen, Åse Mette & Sollid, Hilde (2025). Critical place-based pedagogy and language teacher education in the Global North and South. The Modern Language Journal. ISSN 0026-7902. 109(3), p. 569–585. doi: 10.1111/modl.13013. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Critical place-based pedagogies are closely tied to the social space of teachers and learners, aiming to raise awareness and support efforts for positive change. Social space shapes—and is shaped by—language teaching and learning. A critical approach to language teacher education must always engage with space and place, and contextual awareness is a key step in teachers’ critical reflection on their work. This article focuses on language teacher education in multilingual peripheries in the Global North and South. These spaces are characterized by distance from national political centers and language ecologies in which Indigenous and minoritized languages are in unequal contact with national languages and globalized languages. We reflect on two different initiatives to include more local language knowledge into language teacher education in Southern Mexico and Northern Norway, asking why and how these critical pedagogical initiatives came to be, and what lessons can be learned from them. Southern Oaxaca, Mexico, is home to multiple Indigenous language communities, while Spanish holds a position of ideological and material dominance, and English takes an ever-larger role in both official and unofficial interactions. The Norwegian part of Sápmi, the region where Sámi people live, which stretches across what is now Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia, is also characterized by multiple minoritized languages, the national language Norwegian, and an increasing variety of immigrant languages. Navigating these multilingual, unequal spaces leads some teacher educators to reflect and act critically. Drawing on reflections, observations, and interviews with and by teacher educators in these regions, we analyze how teacher educators aim to reflect local realities over time, while also hoping to shape social space in positive ways in the future.

• Lane, Pia (2025). The researcher's role in language policy processes – engagement and change. In Cutler, Cecelia; Røyneland, Unn & Vrzić, Zvjezdana (Ed.), Language Activism The Role of Scholars in Linguistic Reform and Social Change. Cambridge University Press. ISSN 9781108833165. p. 136–146. doi: 10.1017/9781108973168.010. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Ethnographic and discursive approaches have become more common in Language Policy research, focusing on social actors and how their actions are embedded in and shape social structures. Implementations of LP research have been addressed by problematising the notion of research as a neutral endeavour, a process spurred by the increasing focus on multilingualism and a criticism of Eurocentric worldviews.Researchers in the field of multilingualism are often motivated by a concern with social issues, but often this is accounted for in an implicit manner or not addressed at all. I present a nexus analysis (Scollon and Scollon 2004) to show how my engagement as a researcher and activist shaped the standardisation process of Kven (a Finnic minoritized language in Northern Norway) and discuss some of the dilemmas I faced, as there were tensions concerning the standardisation process (Lane 2014).All ethnographic research will lead to change, both on immediate and longer time scales. When engaging in standardisation processes, researchers shape both such processes and the outcomes. However, this is not a unidirectional process, as such engagement will also become a part of the historical body of the researcher. We shape the field, but we are also shaped by the field.

• Korne, Haley De (2025). "¿Para qué sirve la utopía?" Aims and Activism Strategies in Minoritized Language Research. In Cutler, Cecelia; Røyneland, Unn & Vrzić, Zvjezdana (Ed.), Language Activism The Role of Scholars in Linguistic Reform and Social Change. Cambridge University Press. ISSN 9781108833165. p. 109–120. doi: 10.1017/9781108973168.008. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Researchers investigating minoritized languages have engaged in the promotion and defense of these languages in a variety of ways. While not all researchers consider themselves to be activists, their actions are nonetheless a part of language politics in the contexts where they work. All research is political and all researchers are political actors, as members of colonized groups know all too well. In this chapter, I discuss language activism as a social project where multiple actors have meaningful roles to play, scholars among them. I begin by positioning myself as a scholar activist and then discuss the broad aims of language activism, including the potentially conflicting nature of activism goals. Turning to consider activism strategies, I draw on a framework developed through ethnographic study of language activists in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico, which represents a repertoire of strategies available to actors dependent on their positionality. Throughout, I reflect on the affordances and constraints of scholars as social actors within the wider project of language activism, drawing on my own experiences as a European-American scholar engaged in primarily Indigenous language initiatives. I highlight approaches that I have found helpful, including working across disciplines and a constructivist understanding of activism aims and strategies.

• Lane, Pia (2023). Language reclamation in the family: Breaking the cycle of silence. Journal of Multilingual Theories and Practices. ISSN 2632-4490. 4(2), p. 244–264. doi: 10.1558/jmtp.25997. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Oppressive policies have led to a devaluation of Indigenous cultural and linguistic practices, which in turn have contributed to disruption of language transmission in the family. In this article, I take a longitudinal perspective by first discussing the role of the family in language shift and then exploring how people who have learned Sámi (an Indigenous language in Norway) in the educational system decide to speak Sámi when they become parents. I draw on data from sociolinguistic interviews, fieldwork, interviews in the media, blogs and my own background from a coastal Sámi family. The goal of this article is to explore the motivations and experiences of Sámi parents who decide to speak Sámi with their children and to discuss how some of the challenges faced by these parents may be the result of silences brought about by our colonial past, in this case the domination of Norwegian. Language reclamation is a form of decolonization because agency resides with the speakers and because this may contribute to disrupting colonial heritage and heal hurts from the past.

• Lane, Pia (2023). The South in the North: Colonization and Decolonization of the Mind. In Deumert, Ana & Makoni, Sinfree (Ed.), From Southern Theory to Decolonizing Sociolinguistics: Voices, Questions and Alternatives. Multilingual Matters. ISSN 9781788926553. doi: 10.21832/DEUMER6560. Full text in Research Archive
• Lane, Pia (2023). The role of the past in language revitalization. In Pavlenko, Aneta (Eds.), Multilingualism and History. Cambridge University Press. ISSN 9781009236256. p. 239–254. Full text in Research Archive
• Hornberger, Nancy H. & Korne, Haley De (2023). Minoritized/ Indigenous language revitalization. In Wei, Li; Hua, Zhu & Simpson, James R. (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Applied Linguistics. Routledge. ISSN 9780367536244. p. 349–361. doi: 10.4324/9781003082637-30. Full text in Research Archive
• Korne, Haley De; Herández, Lorena Córdova & Dueñas, Frances Kvietok (2023). Youth in language endangerment and reclamation processes. In Svendsen, Bente Ailin & Jonsson, Rickard (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Language and Youth Culture. Routledge. ISSN 9780367764142. p. 108–120. Full text in Research Archive

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• Moore, Ashley R.; Christiansen, M. Sidury; Frieson, Brittany; Godfroid, Aline; Kang, Okim & Lane, Pia [Show all 10 contributors for this article] (2026). Centering Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) in AAAL. Full text in Research Archive
• Briksdal, Anette & Lane, Pia (2026). The role of parenthood in Indigenous language reclamation: From insecurities to resilience. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Across the globe oppressive policies have led to a devaluation of Indigenous cultural and linguistic practices, contributing to disruption of language transmission in the family. While the home is a crucial arena for language revitalisation (Fishman, 1991), it has received less attention than educational settings (Hinton, 2011), and there is a need for more knowledge of the experiences of families in processes of revitalisation. Drawing of data from sociolinguistic and biographical interviews with three Sámi mothers, this paper explores the experiences of three women who started speaking Sámi—an Indigenous language of Norway—when becoming mothers. Parenthood may act as a muda—a key life moment that reshapes linguistic practices (Pujolar and Puigdevall 2014) —because children offer a renewed motivation for language reclamation. Norway implemented oppressive polices towards its Indigenous groups, contributing to loss of languages and emotional scars – a reminder that European nations also colonised ‘at home’ (Lane 2023). In such contexts, speakers’ linguistic repertoires (Busch 2015) may be marked by negative emotions, which can lead to language barriers and have implications for both language learning and use. Often this is connected to consequences of a colonial past (McKinney and Molate 2022) and parenthood may be a muda that gives speakers strength to face scars caused by colonialization (King & Hermes, 2014). The mothers recounted a determination to not pass this burden on to their children and creating safe spaces for the use and learning of Sámi. By centering the lived experiences Indigenous mothers, we highlight the transformative potential of the parental muda and propose a stronger focus on the home as a space for language reclamation. By examining language transmission and socialization in an Indigenous context, our study also contributes to ongoing efforts to broaden the scope of Family Language Policy (Gomes & Lanza, 2022; Higgins & Wright, 2021).

• DeKorne, Haley (2026). Multilingual education, inequality, and sustainability: Perspectives from Indigenous language education. Full text in Research Archive
• Lane, Pia (2026). Språksorg og språkrevitalisering – en fremtid for samisk språk? Full text in Research Archive
• Lane, Pia (2026). Språksorg og språkrevitalisering – en fremtid for samisk språk? Full text in Research Archive
• Madany-Saa, Magdalena Maria & DeKorne, Haley (2025). Understanding learner trajectories through participatory multimodal methods: Lessons from the SPEAKERS project. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Language learners typically experience both set-backs and support over the course of their lives. Understanding learners’ trajectories is at the heart of the multi-case SPEAKERS project, where a team of researchers is collaborating to illuminate why and how some learners of Indigenous languages transition to becoming speakers, while others do not. In this presentation, we provide an overview of the project and discuss a multimodal methodological approach that we have jointly developed as a tool to answer our shared questions across culturally distinct contexts. The SPEAKERS project investigates learners of Sámi in several regions of Norway, and considers the Sámi case in relation to two comparative cases, namely Isthmus Zapotec in Mexico and Kichwa in Ecuador. Each case study involves unique considerations, however the project as a whole aims to facilitate a comparative perspective across cases. With this in mind, the project team has developed a multimodal, participatory data collection tool which we call trajectory drawings, and which we aim to apply in contextually-appropriate ways in each of the contributing cases. Here we focus on the use of this tool in Norway and Ecuador, where we have been using trajectory drawings to identify and investigate key life moments or muda that may trigger the transition from learner to speaker. The idea of trajectory drawings is inspired by Adriansen (2012) and her work on timelines, as well as scholarship on the lived experience of languages and speaker-centered methods more generally (Busch 2012; Purkarthofer & Flubacher 2022). In the timeline approach, the researcher requests a participant to draw key life events, typically along a line. Timelines as a method challenges the power dynamics between researchers and participants, and participants become co-generators and co-owners of data, while collaborating with the researcher to interpret what they have chosen to represent. Additionally, a multimodal task shifts the focus and can make the interview situation more comfortable and natural, allowing the participants to speak freely about topics that may be both emotional and tense. We demonstrate how our team has adapted and used timelines in order to focus on voice, agency, and embodied language experiences. We share multilingual protocols created to explain trajectory drawings to participants with different worldviews. For example, both Sámi and Kichwa languages and cultures are shaped by a non-linear conception of time. We use the term trajectory to avoid the linear implications of ‘timeline’ and we invite our participants to include key language events that may have happened before they were born, as well as language situations they envision in the future. We discuss the affordances of the trajectory drawing approach, as well as challenges we have encountered. We conclude reflecting on researchers’ positionalities which still imply unequal power dynamics and evoke an infamous history of research on Indigenous people.

• Lane, Pia & Juuso, Jane (2025). ‘Taking my language back’ – Indigenous-based pedagogical approaches to language revitalisation. Full text in Research Archive
• Juuso, Jane & Lane, Pia (2025). ‘Taking my language back’ – Indigenous-based pedagogical approaches to language revitalisation. Full text in Research Archive
• Lane, Pia (2025). “I can’t read my own language!” Minority language standardisation and the role of social actors. Full text in Research Archive
• Lanza, Elizabeth & Lane, Pia (2025). Exploring contemporary and future directions in the study of Linguistic Landscapes. doi: https:/amms.wls.uw.edu.pl/conference-2025/. Full text in Research Archive
• Lane, Pia (2025). Language revitalisation after historical trauma: Is language shift inevitable? doi: https:/www.bcbl.eu/events/isb15/en/pia-lane/co-511/. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Indigenous peoples around the world have a history of marginalisation, oppression and even displacement, contributing to language shift as adults stop using their mother tongue with the next generation. Linguists have been concerned with this loss of languages since Hale et al.’s call for action (1992), and there is a substantial amount of research on the negative effects of language shift on social and individual well-being (Hinton, Huss & Roche 2018). Even when institutionalised oppression has been abandoned, effects of the past may still linger in the form of silencing, shame, and alienation (Lane 2023). Loss of language and culture practices may be an unresolved grief or historical trauma which is transmitted between generations (McKenzie 2022) and may (re)surface in revitalisation processes. Language shift may come about through silencing by the nation state through oppressive educational policies and efforts to limit use of Indigenous languages. Somewhat paradoxically, language revitalisation may contribute to other forms of silencing, such as silencing by community members and self-silencing because of fear of speaking (Lane 2023). A reason might be that emotional aspects of language learning in Indigenous contexts seem to be particularly complex because of the identity politics and social control as to who has the right to claim the role of an authentic speaker. I will primarily draw on data from interviews and biographical methods during ongoing fieldwork in Sámi communities in Norway at a moment in time when young Sámis attempt to reclaim a language that once was spoken in their family. The analysis will be supplemented with findings from other contexts. I conclude by highlighting how Indigenous peoples despite attempts to erase their linguistic and cultural practices have shown remarkable tenacity and resilience. This reminds us that human beings have a capacity to hope and strive for better futures for ourselves and our communities.

• Korne, Haley De (2025). Collaborative methodologies for understanding Indigenous and minority language education in practice. Full text in Research Archive
• Lane, Pia (2024). Å lengta etter eit språk. Full text in Research Archive
• Lane, Pia (2024). Fleire samar, kvener og skogfinnar prøver no å ta språket sitt tilbake. [Internet]. Forskning.no. Full text in Research Archive
• Lane, Pia (2024). Layers of silence in language revitalisation and reclamation. Full text in Research Archive
• Lane, Pia (2024). Hovedfunn fra Sannhets- og forsoningskommisjonens rapport. Full text in Research Archive
• Johansen, Åse Mette & Lane, Pia (2024). “I was the only Sámi in our family for a very long time”: A nexus analysis of language and culture revitalisation. Full text in Research Archive
• Lane, Pia (2024). Sannhet og forsoning. Full text in Research Archive
• Lane, Pia (2024). Norway's journey of indigenous language revival: "Their mother tongue was worthless". [Internet]. Sciencenorway.no. Full text in Research Archive
• Korne, Haley De (2024). Avoiding new hierarchies in Indigenous language education: Dialect diversity and polynomic ideals in Mexico. Full text in Research Archive
• Korne, Haley De (2024). Education and the sustainability of languages, people, and places: Insights from Indigenous language education. Full text in Research Archive
• Korne, Haley De (2024). Including dialect diversity in Indigenous language education: An ethnographic case study from Mexico. Full text in Research Archive
• Korne, Haley De (2024). Language ideologies, dialect diversity, and education in multilingual Mexico. Full text in Research Archive
• Korne, Haley De (2024). ‘Zapotec will die the day the sun dies’: Artistic expression, reclamation, and commodification of Isthmus Zapotec in Mexico. Full text in Research Archive
• Korne, Haley De (2024). Teaching and supervising new ethnographers of communication. Full text in Research Archive
• Korne, Haley De (2024). Language diversity, education, and activism in multilingual Mexico. Full text in Research Archive
• Johansen, Åse Mette & Lane, Pia (2024). Breaking silence: A longitudinal study of language revitalisation. Full text in Research Archive
• Lane, Pia (2024). Refleksjon: Fremtidens Sápmi (panelsamtale). Full text in Research Archive
• Lane, Pia (2024). Presentasjon av hovedfunn i Sannhets- og forsoningskommisjonens rapport. Full text in Research Archive
• Korne, Haley De (2023). Is linguistic equality possible? Minority language activism in multilingual Mexico. Full text in Research Archive
• Duenas, Frances Kvietok; Kleemann, Carola & Lane, Pia (2023). Becoming Indigenous language speakers in university: Comparative perspectives from Sámi, Quechua,and Aimara student teachers. Full text in Research Archive
• Lane, Pia (2023). Sannhet og forsoning. Kommisjonens funn og anbefalinger for språk- og kulturfeltet. Full text in Research Archive
• Lane, Pia (2023). The Norwegian Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Full text in Research Archive
• Lane, Pia (2023). Discussant: Historically minoritized languages in public spaces – moving towards utopia? Full text in Research Archive
• Lane, Pia (2023). Desde el silencio hasta el silenciamiento: Paradojas de la revitalización lingüística/Layers of silence: Paradoxes of language revitalisation. Full text in Research Archive
• Korne, Haley De (2023). Timescales and diverging horizons in the semiotic landscape of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico. Full text in Research Archive
• Lane, Pia (2023). Kampen for morsmålet. [Journal]. Apollon. Full text in Research Archive

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