13 Core Values

Communal Agency

The Language & Identity Journey is an approach to language development - part of the growing field known as 'community-based language and identity development' (CBLID). This means that it does not apply to projects where all the decisions are made by outside experts. Neither does it refer to a community putting its stamp of approval on an outsider's plan. Instead, it takes communal agency seriously, recognizing that the language belongs to the community or communities that identify with it - and no one else. The Journey starts with insiders taking the lead in the entire process - in the assessment of their situation, in deciding whether to proceed, in all the decision making, and in the implementation of their plans. In addition, the community shoulders the responsibility to fund as much of their own journey as possible, since funding directly impacts ownership.  With communities taking the lead, any outside assistance follows that lead at the community's invitation (as they are able). As a community-based approach, the Journey will always value the self-determination of every community, even if their decision is not to develop their own language (along the lines of Bird 2020). (We recognize that a 'community' will never be homogenous, nor always speak with one voice, but even with these difficulties this term is useful as a starting place, for it is the space where the social norms of language happen. Languaging is not something we do as individuals - but as members of a community).

Broad Scope

The Journey is for ANY language community wanting to take control of their language development decisions. It can be useful for those whose language has strong vitality and who want to make it stronger. But it is especially helpful for those communities where language loss has begun and the leaders want to find ways to strengthen orality, or those where language loss is more advanced and the goals for their traditional language will only involve ‘language for identity’ purposes. It is even useful for those who want to focus on their needs in a majority language. In all three of these latter cases, the perspective of the Journey is that these communities can still be served in meaningful ways, even if the goals they choose will not involve L1 literacy. This gives the Journey a broader scope than approaches that serve just the strong languages of the world, or that just focus on literacy or the translation of religious materials. 

Participatory Approach

The training  events in this method utilize a participatory approach. When community leaders/ representatives come together for workshops, they are divided into small groups. The Journey starts with each community telling their own story -  describing their own identity and history. As new concepts are introduced, care is taken to make sure they are built on existing knowledge that can be used as a bridge for discovery of new knowledge. Small groups discuss each topic and each participant is encouraged to be involved as they display in visual form (often on large poster-size paper) what they know as well as what they have learned about the language use practices of their community.  It is during this participatory engagement around the important concepts related to language development that community members see with their own eyes what is happening to their language and the 'aha!' moment of initial communal awareness can occur. This is the beginning of the journey. The end goal of this participatory approach is that it allows community leaders to recognize the issues they want to address, apply what they have learned, and make their own plans about the future.

However, a word of caution is in order. Those who facilitate the Journey must be aware of the possible pitfalls and dangers which accompany any use of participatory methods. There have been numerous critiques of participatory approaches in the past that need to be heeded (see Cooke and Kothari 2001). If outsiders control the options a community has to choose from, then they are not fully participating. Unspoken agendas will determine outcomes. Thus the Journey recommends the use of participatory activities only when accompanied by the next core value - a Neutral Stance.  

Neutral Stance

This 'walking-with' approach requires a neutral stance on the part of all outsiders involved.. Outside agendas from development agencies are not to influence the decisions of the community. Those involved in walking alongside a community, the CBLID specialists, are trained to adopt a neutral stance regarding the outcomes of the Journey in a specific culture. This means that:

•  We do not encourage communities to develop their heritage languages at all costs. Other languages may be filling their communicative, social and identity needs perfectly well, and they may have no desire to change that. That decision must be respected.

• We do not attempt to push communities towards an outsider's agenda, whether it be development goals like literacy or the translation of religious materials . The intent of the Journey is not for them to put their stamp of approval on our goals. The goals of development need to be their own, while also being aligned with current levels of vitality. When we ask questions pertaining to language repertoire development, the question is not "Would you like X?". The question needs to be "What is it that you need?".

A commitment to the above stance needs to be agreed on before attempting community based development.  Otherwise it will not be community based.

Informed Decisions

It would be unfair to expect communities to make wise decisions about the future of their language situation without any input whatsoever. Expertise in the area of language development is available and can be of tremendous help. Without any knowledege of what has worked and what has not worked in the history of language devleopment, communities are more than likely to engage in unfruitful efforts. The goal of the Journey is to come alongside  community leaders and enable them to make infomed decisions about their future in light of their current language ecologies and linguistic repertoires. It is this task of informing and advising that falls to the CBLID trainer or specialist. When a participatory activity is leading a community in a direction that is not informed either by their current situation or by the principles that shape language development, the trainer or specialist is the one who will ask relevant questions to help the community members make sure their decisions are based on reality. But this informing is always built first on what the community already knows about its own situation.

Walking 'with' (the 'Alongsider')

The role of the outside CBLID specialist (a local language practitioner who has been trained in the use of The Journey) is to come alongside  community leaders as they address who they are and who they want to be. This involves providing them with the opportunity to gain awareness of their sociolinguistic context, assisting them in making informed assessments based on this new awareness, clarifying the options available to them, offering perspective on the costs and benefits of each,  and then walking with them through the steps they choose to take towards their aspired, collective future and identity. This is the 'secret sauce' of the Journey, and is meant to foster a long-term relationship between the specialist (a.k.a. the 'Alongsider') and community leaders.

Leader Based

The target audience for the Journey experience are the local community leaders. In most cultures, it is extremely difficult for any development plans to be implemented without the participation of leaders. In egalitarian cultures where there are no clear leaders, or in cultures where those leaders are never present, a modified approach would need to be used where the participants are respected community members who are potential 'influencers' and who agree to share what they have learned with other group members.

Alignment (Realistic Goals)

The Journey takes seriously the challenges that face communities who desire to strengthen their mother tongue. All communities who choose to utilize this approach must be made aware that there are no guarantees of success in this type of work. Developing minority languages (whether by creating new functions or by restoring lost functions) is almost ‘impossibly’ hard work and always will be, regardless of the method employed. That is because the odds are stacked against all minority languages. Those odds grow even less favorable the weaker the vitality of a language is. Very few highly endangered languages have been brought back from the brink of extinction to a level where oral vitality is now the norm (Hebrew is one). The forces coming against them are some of the most powerful forces known in todays world (Fishman 2001:6). These facts need to be taken into account and faced squarely before embarking on any type of language development endeavor.

However, in spite of the challenges, we have seen communities take successful steps in the direction of strengthening their minority languages using the Journey approach. These steps begin small - with the simple benefit of gaining a clear awareness of their current language situation. Such awareness fosters a realistic atittude and leads to realistic goals. In this approach, alignment means that a community's goals or strategies are aligned with their language's current level of vitality, or in other words, that the goal of future development is appropriate to and not too far removed from the current health of their language. Unrealistic dreams, while possibly motivational for a time, are counter-productive in the long run. That is why we focus on communities learning how to base their goals for future use on present situations, and we encourage them to collectively count the cost whether they will be able to achieve those language goals. When communities are able to embrace the cost involved, and plan small, incremental goals for their future, then working for change is possible. If you are looking for a realistic approach to language development, this is it.

Long-term Approach

We know that language development takes time. It is not something that can be accomplished in a workshop or two or three. After the workshops are over, it still involves long hard intentional work on the part of the community leaders  to first encourage buy-in on the part of the community at large. Then it can take an even longer time to implement their language development plan and effect any change in language norms. With communities in charge, the process may need to take longer than it would otherwise. But that is expected. We do not look for change to occur immediately after the first Phase. This is a process. Thats why we call it a 'journey'.

Culturally Sensitive

This method has been designed to be as sensitive to the needs and uniquenesses of diverse language communities as possible. Many of the activities used are optional, and are to be used by the CBLID specialist only when appropriate for the context. This requires the CBLID specialist to have either some knowledge of the culture in question or knowledge of related or similar cultures. Other activities have several versions that are available for consideration. Several metaphors for language vitality are provided. The final planning section is left wide-open for communities to decide the best way for them to make communal plans in their own cultural way (a model for communal planning is provided for those groups who would like one). Finally, activities in the form of doc files can easily be downloaded and edited by the CBLID specialist to make them more culturally appropriate. This would include translating them into the most appropriate language for the audience. These edited/translated files can then be archived and made available to be used by others working with similar communities. The choice to make this approach available via a webpage with individual downloadable resources (instead of a printed book) was primarily so that it could be easily and quickly updated and customized to each audience. 

As stated in the Limitations section, this approach will not be for everyone. That is expected. But the flexibility to allow for continual modifications will  hopefully create an environment where local specialists are encouraged to make the changes needed to arrive at the best fit between content and context. Remaining culturally sensitive is a must. 

Taking Identity Seriously

While language has been the only focal point of previous CBLD methods, The Language and Identity Journey recognizes that identity must also be addressed and considered as an equally valid target for a community to develop - thus the addition of the 'i' in CBLID. Each language used by multilingual communities has its associated identity, and some of these identities will be more robust than others. How groups manage their multiple identities and construct narratives around them needs to be part of the conversation. As languages begin to shift, it is usually because there is a prior shifting of identity. When traditional languages are endangered to the point that most of the community does not speak them, typically the traditional identity has already been abandoned by the younger generations. However, in other cultures identity can outlast language, and in these societies a form of the original identity can still be strongly embraced after language shift is complete (ex: many North American indigenous communities). In every case of advanced language shift, decisions about the communities future identity become more and more relevant. Helping communities navigate the choices of identity at their disposal through targeted discussions that include both the older and younger generations is an important and helpful service. These discussions could include whether they feel it would be best to hang on to some reduced form of a traditional identity, shift to a majority identity, manage multiple identities, or create new hybrid identities. They may choose to use their traditional language in small ways to mark a traditional identity or signal a new hybrid one.

Appreciating an Inherent Tension

All minority language communities today (except for very few exceptions cut-off from the rest of the world) are multilingual to some degree. It is part of what being a minority community in contact with the rest of the world looks like. The 'rest' of the world may include neighboring local groups, or, as is increasingly more likely, include one or more majority societies or identities. Multilingualism is born from these inter-group contacts. This  multilingualism may or may not be stable. It is this combination of multiple languages (and identities) that provides minority peoples with choices that offer unique opportunities and daunting challenges. These choices extend to the broader conflict between the traditional and the modern, between the local and the national and the global, between the vlaue of maintaining solidarity with one’s elders and the need for interaction/inclusion in the dialogue with one’s larger world. Each of these forces has its own benefit and its own cost, and the conflicts between them create a social tension that is ever present. This is the inherent tension that local communities live with on a daily basis - a tension that must be appreciated by those involved in CBLID if we are to be of any help. Community-based language development does not occur in a vacuum. 

Gracious Listening

One of the more fundamental components of language development is 'listening' - listening to the other as they tell their story and the story of their community. This can be especially helpful in communities where language shift has reached an advanced stage, and where there has been much cultural and social loss. We believe the very first step of any language development endeavor must start with intentional listening - to acknowledge any struggles or pain the community may have endured - and to let them know their voice is important. In the narrative of their story there is the unveiling of a group identity, often involving their collective grievances, and in the telling and listening to that narrative there can be the beginning of healing - both between the community and outsiders, and between the different generations within the community itself. Gracious listening is so seldom practiced - but it can open doors of relationship - and be the first step in welcoming the 'other'.

Bird, Steven, 2020. Decolonising Speech and Language Technology. Proceedings of the 28th International Conference on Computational Linguistics, pages 3504–3519. Barcelona, Spain (Online), December 8-13, 2020.

Cooke, B. and Kothari, U. eds., 2001. Participation: The new tyranny?. Zed books.

Fishman, J. A. 2001. Why is it so hard to save a threatened language? In Can threatened languages be saved, ed. by Joshua Fishman, p1-22. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters, Ltd.

Fishman, J.A., 1965. Who speaks what language to whom and when?. La linguistique, 1(Fasc. 2), pp.67-88.