Linguistics and Education 30 (2015) 125–136 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Linguistics and Education j ourna l h omepa ge: www.elsevier.com/locate/linged Putting the fourth crow in the sky: Using narrative to understand the experiences of one non-heritage learner of an endangered language Miranda Weinberg * University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of Education, 3700 Walnut St., Philadelphia, PA 19104, United States a r t i c l e i n f o Keywords: Language revitalization Narrative analysis Identity Language development a b s t r a c t Building on contemporary approaches to narrative analysis, this article examines how one non-heritage learner of an endangered Native American language described his experi- ences of learning Lenape in a college course. Analysis of a multimodal digital narrative created as a course project demonstrates the ways that this student employed a legend as a metanarrative to contextualize his individual language learning journey as part of a broader linguistic and cultural revitalization movement. Structural elements of the narra- tive downplay the narrator’s individual role and agency in studying the language, showing ways that this learner negotiated his position and privilege in learning a language previ- ously only spoken by members of the Lenape cultural community. The article considers the utility of narrative analysis and the constructs of investment and imagined communities in a language revitalization context. © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Introduction Spurred by dire predictions of an endangered language crisis, endangered language advocates have in the last several decades developed many models for teaching endangered, primarily Indigenous, languages. Ranging from approaches that look like traditional foreign language classes to innovative models such as immersion preschools or master-apprentice partnerships (e.g., Hinton, 2013; Hinton & Hale, 2001; Hinton, Vera & Steele, 2002), language revitalization has become an area of experimentation with language instruction, and also a field of scholarly inquiry beyond the documentation and analysis of these languages. Scholarship on language revitalization both describes and advances means of engaging with such projects (e.g., Amery, 1995; Dick & McCarty, 1996; Dorian, 1994; Goodfellow, 2003; Grenoble & Whaley, 1998; Hornberger, 2008; Leonard, 2012) and critiques these projects, often for employing discourses of disappearance or essentialism (e.g., Costa, 2013; Dobrin, Austin & David, 2007; Duchêne & Heller, 2011; Hill, 2002; Meek, 2010; Moore, Pietikäinen & Blommaert, 2010). Research on language revitalization rarely intersects with research in applied linguistics, in spite of clear areas of common concern, such as understanding the conditions that allow for successful language learning. Reasons for this disconnect may include the fear of demonstrating that revitalization programs are not effectively churning out new speakers with native-like proficiency, and dynamics of distrust between Indigenous communities and academics. This gap is occasionally lamented, * Tel.: +977 984 928 5267. E-mail address: mirandaw@gse.upenn.edu http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2015.03.005 0898-5898/© 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.