Abstract
The precarious circumstances of the world’s Indigenous languages are by now well known: of 6800 languages currently spoken in the world, not only are more than half at risk of extinction by the end of this century (Romaine 2006: 441), but approximately 95 per cent are spoken by less than five per cent of the world’s population (May 2001: 2), mainly Indigenous languages and speakers. Meanwhile, more than half of the world’s states are officially monolingual, and less than 500 languages are used and taught in schools. Not only the survival of Indigenous languages is precarious, but also especially the survival and economic viability of their speakers in national contexts where educational systems massively fail Indigenous people, closing them out and leaving them illiterate and oppressed in their own land (Kamwangamalu 2005).
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© 2008 Nancy H. Hornberger
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Hornberger, N.H. (2008). Introduction: Can Schools Save Indigenous Languages? Policy and Practice on Four Continents. In: Hornberger, N.H. (eds) Can Schools Save Indigenous Languages?. Palgrave Studies in Minority Languages and Communities. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230582491_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230582491_1
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