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By the 1970s few Māori children were growing up speaking Māori. The response was the language nest: preschools where elders looked after the youngest children and spoke nothing but Māori to them all day.

Kōhanga reo, from 1982

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Why it matters

The idea in context

The name means language nest. The first opened in 1982, and within a few years there were hundreds. The insight was that a language does not survive by being taught as a subject; it survives by being the ordinary medium of daily life at the age when children absorb it without effort. Fluent elders were the scarce resource, and putting them with toddlers used them where they mattered most. The model has since been adopted for Hawaiian, Welsh, Irish and several First Nations languages.

Türkçe

Aynı kart, başka bir dilde.

1970'lere gelindiğinde çok az Maori çocuğu Maorice konuşarak büyüyordu. Yanıt dil yuvası oldu: Yaşlıların en küçük çocuklara baktığı ve gün boyu onlarla yalnızca Maorice konuştuğu okul öncesi kurumlar.
Kōhanga reo, 1982'den itibaren

Ad, dil yuvası anlamına gelir. İlki 1982'de açıldı ve birkaç yıl içinde yüzlercesi vardı. Kavrayış şuydu: Bir dil, ders olarak öğretilerek yaşamaz; çocukların onu çabasızca soğurduğu yaşta gündelik hayatın olağan aracı olarak yaşar. Akıcı konuşan yaşlılar kıt kaynaktı ve onları küçük çocuklarla buluşturmak, en çok işe yaradıkları yerde kullanmak demekti. Model o günden beri Hawaii dili, Galce, İrlandaca ve birkaç yerli halk dili için benimsendi.

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Background reading: Kōhanga reoAttribution and context are revised when stronger evidence appears. Corrections are welcome through the editorial page.
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