A language revitalization plan guides the work of language revitalization in a community over several years. It provides a strategic road map for how a community will achieve a united vision for its language.
A language plan describes:
- A community’s language goals
- Steps to achieve each goal
- Ways to monitor and evaluate the plan
- Accountability for the plan
How is a language revitalization plan different from a language project?
A language project is a single activity, such as forming a language nest or developing a curriculum. Activities have a start date, an end date and a near-term goal.
A language plan includes a broad range of projects that are needed to revitalize a language. A language plan maps out multiple years of language work. It is designed to achieve a long-term vision.
Why develop a language revitalization plan?
There are many benefits to developing a language revitalization plan:
- Identifying what’s already happening to support language revitalization in the community and what still needs to be done
- Ensuring language projects build on each other to achieve language revitalization
- Validating the importance of the community’s language and revitalization
- Bringing community members together to identify a shared vision and goals
- Generating support from leadership
- Demonstrating capacity and attracting resources and funding
- Monitoring progress towards language revitalization goals