Dolanguagesdie?

Set of events to be discussed

Show some statistics of endangered
languages.
Present the factors of the issue.
Present some strategies used to preserve
languages.
Introduce what this has to do with the UAE.
Recommendations and conclusion

facts and statistics

 http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/#/4/47.268
/21.138/0/100000/0/low/mid/high/dormant/awake
ning/unknown

North America as an example

[2](www.indigenous-language.org)
Before European invasion:
20Million Native Americans, 300 languages
Today:
2Million Native Americans, 175 languages
Of these 175 languages
55 have <5 speakers = virtually extinct
500 endangered
20 may survive, are spoken by children

Australia as an
example
Before European invasion:
1million Indigenous Australians, 500
languages
Today:
200 languages survive, all are
endangered
20 of these are spoken by children

Factors of language
endangerment
[1] Identified 4 social changes that
contribute to language shift :

1- Demographic
factors
2- Economic forces
3- Social identifiers
4-Mass media

Causes of endangerment
Natural disasters > Death of speakers
Invasion
Religious factors
Educational curriculums

How to prevent languages

from endangerment?
Intergenerational transmission (video)
Use of technology (video)
Changing the society.
Documentation and archivation of the
language.

Ireland as an example
42% of the population aged 45 and
over.
Can speak their native language.
Approximately 2 million do not speak
Irish.

What strategies Ireland

have used?
Changed the Educational curriculum.
Showing advantages of learning the
native language.
Increasing the use of Irish.

The current situation in

the UAE.
The UAE has 100 languages spoken by
200 nationalities.
The lingua franca of the UAE is English.
There is an obvious dominance from
English on Arabic.

The Past and the present

Is the UAE concerned?

The multicultural population.
Educational curriculums.
Technology.
New generation > growing up with
housemaids.

The hidden effect of

house-maids.

Recommendations
Modification of school curricula.
Promoting the pride of mastering
Arabic.
Increasing awareness in cultural
identity.
Creating free Arabic teaching
institutions for non-Arabs.

References
[1] M. ern, Language death versus language
survival: A global perspective, Glob. Explor.
Limits Glob. Reg. Context, p. 51, 2009

[2] information retrieved from

www.indigenous-language.org