The history of higher education in the United States is deeply rooted in colonialism. The communication discipline and the field of communication, teaching, and learning find themselves unable to completely sever their ties to settler/colonialism, white supremacy, and other dehumanizing ideologies. As the authors navigate the complexities of…

On June 7, 2021, The New York Times (NYT) reported the discovery of the remains of 215 Indigenous children on the grounds of a former residential school in British Columbia, Canada (Austen, 2021). News of this mass murder and its subsequent cover up rocked the world and came at a time when Canada and many other countries have mounted…

This article is a personal reflection about the acknowledgement of my "taken-for-granted frames of reference" (Mezirow, 2003, p. 59), which were replicating the hegemonic narrative I grew up surrounded by as a white, Mexican, Spanish-speaker; while hindering a more thorough understanding of the educational and linguistic topics that…

In this reply to Crippen & Robinson's (2013) contribution to "Language Documentation & Conservation," we discuss recent perspectives on "collaborative" linguistics and the many roles that linguists play in language communities. We question Crippen & Robinson's characterization of the state of the field and their…

This essay is based on a June 2014 interview with Bernard Spolsky, in which he discussed his life with educational linguistics. A self-described "accidental professor," Spolsky directed the first study of Navajo sociolinguistics, established educational linguistics as a field of study and practice, co-created a national language policy…

This essay doubles as a critique of the brutal violence visited upon the immigrant community in Austin, Texas, in the wake of Donald Trump's presidency, and a deeply personal account related to the establishment of Academia Cuauhtli, a language and culture revitalization project in Austin, Texas. It narrates our origins as a community-anchored,…

This opinion piece aims to grow awareness of a range of technological initiatives that are supporting Maori language regeneration. These initiatives have been chosen because they have communities of users. This piece could be useful to educators who want to learn about the options that are available in this area, or students of Maori language for…

In a recent article, Bird et al. (2013) discuss a workshop held at the University of Goroka in Papua New Guinea (PNG) in 2012. The workshop was intended to offer a new methodological framework for language documentation and capacity building that streamlines the documentation process and accelerates the global effort to document endangered…

"Globalization", a prominent and ubiquitous term in the academy associated with linguistic human rights, power, hypercapitalism, socio-political constraints, and social justice, is defined as powerful dynamic global forces stemming from the new world economy that constrict and restrict local contexts, progress, and possibilities--in this…

This commentary reflects on the articles included in this special issue of "American Indian Culture and Research Journal" that develop the theme of "American Indian languages in unexpected places" inspired by "Indians in Unexpected Places." The articles develop two related concerns: first, American Indian linguistic practices have been…

This special issue devoted to Catalonia--one of the most successful and longstanding language movements in Europe--gives a unique opportunity to understand some of the complex social dynamics engendered as language revival unfolds and to appreciate the value of in-depth interviewing, focus groups, and ethnographic work in making sometimes subtle…

This paper makes a link between two activities in which the author is engaged, i.e. between work on "saving" languages and work on "teaching" languages. Since it is an invited address, the Keith Horwood Memorial Lecture, the author begins by making further, and chronologically prior, to Keith Horwood. Then he addresses three themes of the…

"Language death" is an undeniable phenomenon of our modern times as languages have started to disappear at an alarming rate. This has led linguists, anthropologists, philosophers and educationists to engage with this issue at various levels in an attempt to try to understand the decline in this rich area of human communication and…

Teaching an endangered language today requires extreme measures, and there is no guarantee of success. But the situation is dire and demands adaptive, creative survivance. Anishinaabemowin is one of twenty-seven Algonquian languages, the ancestral birthright of more than two hundred communities in the United States and Canada. Now used as a single…

This paper gives a critical overview of Australian research in the area of immigrant languages, arguing that this field of study is a significant component of the wider applied linguistics scene in Australia and has also contributed to enhancing the broad appreciation of the cultural and linguistic diversity of the country. It shows that research…