Thank you, Anne, for your kind words! And thanks for generously sharing your work!

Many community languages schools offer that option – but usually less than a handful of students hang on all the way …

Thanks for this enlightening description Rhen. Your comment “Implementing multilingualism in language classrooms is feasible with adequate resources, but ensuring that it fosters inclusivity and positive language attitudes is a lifelong commitment” really resonates, and reminds me that language use and language learning is dynamic. Researchers and teachers can discuss language, language education and linguistic justice with their students, but it is on-going use of the language and structures for becoming literate in it that will ultimately lead to language maintenance and development.
/Anne

Thanks for this observation Waa. The amount of contact between the community language school and the mainstream school is often minimal, which is problematic. A Vietnamese school I visited “solved” this problem by preparing and supporting their students in the taking of external exams in Vietnamese that could contribute to the students’ school leaving certificate. But the students needed a lot of motivation to continue studying on Saturday mornings up to senior level!
/Anne

I am sorry for my late response to your question Brynn. In fact, the “five students” minimum is no always implemented by municipalities. It makes MTI more expensive of course, but some school principals offer MTI even though there may be only 2 or three students who apply.
/Anne

Tvik, Joseph Lo Bianco has written about combining top-down and bottoms-up approaches to community language education, in a kind of “fusion model” of language planning. You might find this interesting to read about? Lo Bianco, J. (2004). A Site for Debate, Negotiation and Contest of National Identity: Language Policy in Australia. Strasbourg: Language Policy Division, Council of Europe. LoNM.
/Anne

Thanks for sharing both research and your personal experience Minnie. How long is a heritage language a heritage language is indeed an interesting and important question to investigate. Ingrid provides the current figures, which indicate that these languages are often lost by the third generation. If a language is not longer used at home, is it still a “mother tongue” or “heritage language”? Regulations regarding MTI in Sweden currently restrict access to the subject to those who “use the language on a daily basis with at least one caregiver”. Research reveals though that some students study languages through MTI that are not necessarily used on a daily basis at home, but are important for other reasons to the family. This highlights the complexity of the subject of MTI and of the motivations behind language learning and maintenance in general.
/Anne

Most interesting to read that the Korean church invests in language and culture in Australia. I knew it did in the USA through Holly Pak’s work ( Pak, H. R. (2003). When MT is L2 The Korean Church School as a Context for Cultural Identity. In N. H. Hornberger (Ed.), Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 41: Continua of Biliteracy: An Ecological Framework for Educational Policy, Research and Practice in Multilingual Settings (pp. 269–290). Multilingual Matters) I wonder if the schools are affiliated with Community Languages Australia or if they are completely independent?
/Anne

Hakunamatata, the global dominance of English puts a lot of pressure on people doesn’t it? So important that schools and societies together promote the idea and that it is not only possible but also beneficial to learn two languages at the same time, and create resources to do so!
/Anne

Education is national languages only, together with a generally negative attitude to (or even prohibition of) the use of other languages in schools is not conducive to the nurturing of linguistic diversity. Sometimes adults re-learn the language that their families use, but this of course a huge undertaking, requiring significant investment (time, energy).
/Anne

There are many benefits from communicating and educating people in a language they understand Quynh.
/Anne

Sweden’s system for MTI is indeed unique. But we cannot take anything for granted! Elections in September 2022 resulted in a new coalition government that wants to commission an inquiry into MTI. The largest party in the coalition wants to abolish tax-funded MTI, so researchers and speakers of languages other than Swedish here in Sweden need to keep communicating about the benefits of the maintenance and development of all languages, and how MTI facilitates that.
/Anne

Kat, these are real problems, that have have been examined and analysed by researchers as well. Here is a reference to an article by Lily Wong FIlimore that you might be interested
in!
Wong Fillmore, L. (1991). When learning a second language means losing the first. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 6(3), 323–346. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0885-2006(05)80059-6
/Anne

Tushar, your comment “Overall, whether a language survives or not, is financially mostly dependent on the government of a country and the collective ideologies of the members of the education system” resonates with me. It is of course possible for individuals with a lot of resources (money, time, interest, education) to pass on languages and literacies within their own family unit. But without interest, advocacy and financial support from governments, it is less likely that many languages will continue to flourish on a broader scale. Lack of governmental funding also contributes to inequity, where individuals from homes where there are less resources risk missing out.
/Anne

Digital technology certainly offers increased opportunities to learn all languages/dialects. And so important that projects such as the one you describe exist for small as well as large languages!
/Anne