Teaching and Conserving Pacific Languages

This paper discusses language change in the Pacific and some of the factors causing it, such as the escalating rate of transnational migration among Pacific Islanders, the immutable use of English and French in government, education and business, and rapid urbanization so that children born and raised in urban areas lack the competence to speak their heritage languages due to their parents being from two different language groups. The paper suggests two methodological and pedagogical approaches to conserving Pacific languages, which are Conversational Pacific Language teaching (CPLT) and Theoretical Pacific Language Teaching (TPLT). The paper concludes with the strong recommendation that, beyond all the modern techniques of language conservation, oral communication stands as the most effective and least expensive way of conserving Pacific languages if we hold steadfast and respect it.