The First Peoples' Council release a report last week (April 30) that reveals the troubling state of B.C.'s First Nations languages. While there is much boiler plate rehashing well-worn truisms about language transmission and degrees of endangerment (How many ways can we present the Fishman scale?), the report contains some very interesting statistics. Not just the numbers of speakers, but also statistics on the effectiveness of language revitalization programs and on the quality of documentation materials available.
According to the report, K-12 schools spend on average just over 7 hrs per week on Native language instruction. Those seven hours are spread across the entire K-12 population, which makes for just over half an hour per week per grade. Also, in spite of support for the development of Language Nests, only 155 children in BC are enrolled in a First Nations pre-school Language Nest.
Language documentation materials are not finding their way back to the communities. Only 31% of communities have recordings of their language available as a community resource. The quality of many of these recordings is poor.
A good portion of the 64-page report is devoted to a description of ongoing efforts (including three case studies) and proposed strategies to revitalize BC languages. So this is more than just a report but also a plan of action.
Finally, the appendix breaks down the data by language family and individual language, revealing interesting differences across the communities.
Download the full report.
Download the press release.
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» 2010 Report on the Status of B.C. First Nations Languages