Aboriginal Language Education in British Columbia, Canada: Some Issues on Endangered Language Learning

This paper illustrates mainly three areas of dilemmas that aboriginal language education faces, especially where their languages are severely endangered having few speakers left in the local communities. The areas of dilemmas are namely purpose/framework, goal, and assessment of language learning. These issues are discussed comparing aboriginal language education with second and foreign language education, and the difficulties in aboriginal language education are argued to be caused by its unique position in language education.