Using the Ethnologue website ( http://www.ethnologue.com/ ) identify
and map an endangered language within your local region or country.
Drawing on library, internet, and/or original source materials
(i.e. interviews with local speakers), create a multimedia presentation
about the language, its stage on the GIDS scale ( Table 3.2 ), and
what revitalization efforts are currently taking place, or could be
taking place to preserve the language.
2. Search on the internet for information on one revived language
(e.g. Manx Gaelic in the Isle of Man, Hebrew, Basque, Catalan,
Welsh). What is the recent history of the language in numbers and
use across domains? What revival efforts have been made? What
interventions have been particularly successful?
3. Choose an immigrant language in your community. Using
Thomason’s (2015) framework of 6 factors leading to language
endangerment, and Crystal’s solutions for avoiding language death (
Box 3.1 ), interview some youths from the community to evaluate the
degree to which their immigrant language may be endangered.
