Open AccessInga Language and Culture Revitalization in Putumayo, Colombia
Author(s) -
Valerie Cross,
Serafín M. Coronel-Molina
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
international journal of literacy, culture, and language education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2642-4002
DOI - 10.14434/ijlcle.v1i0.26825
Subject(s) - grassroots , inga , covert , sociology , neuroscience of multilingualism , bilingual education , political science , pedagogy , linguistics , ecology , philosophy , politics , law , biology
Increasing levels of Quechua–Spanish bilingualism and increased use of Spanish within indigenous communities and classrooms have given rise to concern about Quechua language maintenance (Hornberger, 1988, 1998, 1999; Hornberger & CoronelMolina, 2004). The present investigation is preliminary and explores the possibility of bilingual intercultural education to promote Quechua (Inga) language revitalization in the Putumayo region of Colombia. Because of the large role that schooling has played in the language shift process, Inga language revitalization efforts have focused on implementing use of the Inga language in schools. This paper offers suggestions based on research in second language acquisition (SLA), language revitalization, and bilingual intercultural education to improve recent efforts and overcome the many overt and covert challenges that exist to bilingual education implementation in Putumayo, Colombia. This article attempts to bring such forms of resistance to the surface and provide suggestions for overcoming them, in hopes of facilitating the grassroots-initiated language planning goals of culture revitalization and reversing language shift that are already in place.