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Reversing language shift has proven to be difficult for many reasons. Although much of the literature has focused on educational practices, little research has attended to the visual presentation of language used in educational texts aimed at reversing shift. In this article, we compare language materials developed for two different language situations, finding that for both situations the minority languages continue to be framed by the matrix languages such that practices meant to interrupt matrix-language dominance continue to reinforce current hierarchies. [indigenous language education, language revitalisation, Mexicano/Nahuatl, Kaska, texts]
Practitioners in the emerging field of reversing language shift (RLS) confront a daunting history of failure, gauged by the fact that very few RLS programs have resulted in the production of enough new speakers or first-language learners to cover the loss of older speakers (Crystal 2000:129; see also Grenoble and Whaley 2006).1 With very few exceptions-for instance, reports of success by students in immersion programs in California, Hawaii, and New Zealand (cf. Hinton 2001; Kamana and Wilson 1996; Slaughter 1993)-success in the acquisition of subordinate and minority languages, even by young children, has proven to be elusive. This contrasts sharply with the ease with which both adults and children seem to acquire dominant languages both in and out of school (de Swaan 1998a, 1998b). Edelsky (1996) and Edelsky and Hudelson (1979, 1980), examining reasons for such failures in bilingual programs in an elementary school in the U.S. Southwest, point out the asymmetrical "intrusion" of English into Spanish. Even on "Spanish days" English was used pervasively in the school and was constantly available as a resource (Smith 2000). In "power struggles" between the two languages, local inappropriate use of Spanish was always more censurable than that of English. Edelsky and Hudelson, borrowing from Fishman (1976), point out that English always retained its status as an "unmarked," taken-for-granted language, whereas Spanish was "marked." One challenge for educators, they argue, was to accomplish at least a partial reversal of this marking. Reflecting on our own experiences as researchers of and participants in the development of minority-language materials, we concur that this should be an important goal in the RLS curriculum, and it is one that current practice often overlooks.
This article focuses on the ways that a dominant...