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Several "best practices" emerged during the study of worldwide efforts to restore endangered languages. Grotto encourages proposals from organizations that utilize these practices. New and creative ways by which to promote language learning will also be examined.
Focus
Effective teaching models that transmit language proficiency and comprehension to learners of all ages have been documented. Promising language acquisition models include:
- Master-apprentice programs
Mentored learning for adults. Adult learners team with a fluent speaker, spending at least twenty hours per week speaking only their heritage language.
- Immersion schools
Kindergarten through twelfth-grade immersion schools, where students are fully immersed in their heritage language.
- Language nests
Fluent speakers participate in a day-care setting, typically geared for pre-school children, where they speak to young children in their heritage language throughout the day.
- Community language societies or language support organizations
Both rural and urban communities have language support organizations or societies in which groups of adults and youth converse in their heritage language on a regular basis. Language camps and retreats are sometimes sponsored.
- Teacher training programs
Programs that build both Native language competency and teaching competencies for a new generation of language learners.
- Innovative new approaches
Approaches that show promise in the development of new Native speakers, or a hybrid of other promising approaches may be considered.
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