Indigenous Youth as Language Policy Makers

Abstract

This article offers a grounded view of language shift as experienced by Native American youth across a range of early- to late-shift settings. Drawing on data from a long-term ethnographic study, we demonstrate that the linguistic ecologies in which youth language choices play out are more complex than a unidirectional notion of shift might suggest. We focus on 3 areas of the research: youth language practices, communicative repertoires, and language attitudes and ideologies. The portraits of language use that emerge show these to be dynamic, heteroglossic environments in which youth deploy diverse sociolinguistic abilities for specific purposes in the context of peer, school, and community cultures. Further, we argue that youth's communicative practices represent de facto manifestations of language policy making. The final sections examine the mechanisms underlying this implicit policy making and the implications for school-community language planning and youth empowerment.