The Project

Here is how the Heritage Language Story Project works to protect heritage languages.

Tell your Story

By sharing a story about your heritage language you can help protect it. Your story can be a meaningful way to share your connection with your heritage language, it can help others feel connected to their heritage language, and it and can provide data for researchers who are trying to learn more about effective ways to help protect heritage languages.

Listen to a Story

By listening to a Heritage Language Story you can learn more about the importance of heritage languages. You can appreciate the lived experiences of others and may find commonality with their experiences. You may find tools that others have used to help maintain their heritage language that can be useful to you personally. Listening to the story of a heritage language speaker can provide a deeper emotional connection to the material than reading about statistics or trends related to heritage languages.

Learn from a story

The Heritage Language Story Project archives the stories of many heritage language speakers. One can learn from the stories as a whole, looking for commonalities and trends in the lived experiences of heritage language speakers. This information can be useful for individuals, researchers, and those engaged in implementing outreach programs aimed at protecting heritage languages. As the number of stories in the Heritage Language Story Project grows, so too does the potential for learning.