History & Development of The Journey

History

The theory behind the Language and Identity Journey is the Sustainable Use Model (SUM), introduced by Lewis and Simons in their 2016 volume entitled Sustaining Language Use: Perspectives on Community Based Language Development (Lewis and Simons 2016). The principles and insights outlined in that theoretical model have impacted the broader work of language development in many ways, and they specifically inform the methodologies that attempt to implement the SUM at the community level. The first methodological tool based on the SUM was A Guide for Planning the Future of Our Language , or simply "The Guide" (Hanawalt, Varenkamp, Lahn, and  Eberhard 2015). The Guide was initially intended to be used to train mother tongue facilitators who would then apply it within their communities. Portions (or all) of it were applied in over 100 language communities. However, complications arose when community leaders who did not participate in the original training were not able to see the relevance of the method and its outcomes for their community.  Some critical gaps were also found in the content. This led the developers to go back to the drawing board and revise the methodology. From that revision, The Journey was born. 

Lewis, Paul and Gary Simons. 2016. Sustaining Language Use: Perspectives on Community Based Language Development. Dallas: SIL International.

Hanawalt, Varenkamp, Lahn, and  Eberhard. 2015. A Guide for Planning the Future of Our Language . Dallas: SIL Internaitonal

Current State of Development 

The Journey is built on the Guide in terms of its underlying principles, its general content, and basic structure. The extensive research and testing done with the Guide has not been lost, but has served as a crucial stepping stone for the Journey. By keeping what was successful and changing what was not in the application of The Guide, the development team eventually arrived in 2019 at an improved but different tool, The Language & Identity Journey (or simply "The Journey"). Most of the original activities in The Guide were kept in The Journey, but critical missing concepts were also added (see below). The main difference, however, is in their general essence: the Journey can be distinguished from The Guide in that it is not a book, but an approach; not a step-by-step manual, but a consultative experience.

Key Updates and Improvements

Here are some of the key improvements in The Journey compared to The Guide and other previous tools:

• When appropriate, participants are community leaders who can influence change rather than ordinary community members      

• Activities for each phase chosen from a suite of tools rather than using a one-size-fits-all workbook

• Ongoing consultant support throughout implementation

• Additional topics: language ecology, speech community, identity, language change, and social media

• Content can be continually and easily updated because it is web based

• Three  weekend workshops instead of a week-long workshop.

Limitations

• We recognize that the Journey approach will not be appropriate for all cultures. Here are some examples of the types of cultures where this method may not be recommended:

  • highly egalitarian groups where no one is willing to participate in a small group to effect communal change

  • language groups that are so dispersed that they do not live together in community (often the case in urban settings)

  • speech communities that suffer such high degrees of internal division that they prevent any efforts of group planning, 

  • places where development of minority languages is forbidden or may cause serious conflict.