Adult Indigenous language learning in Western Canada: What is holding us back?
Adult language learners are often overlooked as serious contributors to the overall revival of Indigenous languages. This paper focuses on this “missing generation”, those who are striving to (re)gain their ancestral language(s) in their adult life. The findings that emerged from a self-study of one urban adult Indigenous language learner allow the following questions to be more broadly addressed: What do we know about adult Indigenous language learning? Are some learning and teaching methods more promising than others? What conditions must exist for successful adult language acquisition? What is holding us back? What are the common barriers and challenges for adult language learners? How do we overcome the common barrier and challenges to successfully achieve language proficiency?
Citation
McIvor, O. (2015). Adult Indigenous language learning in Western Canada: What is holding us back? In K. A. Michel, P. D. Walton, E. Bourassa, & J. Miller (Eds.), Living our languages: Papers from the 19th Stabilizing Indigenous Languages Symposium (pp. 37-49). Linus Learning.