Applying the 8 Classic Language Teaching Methods in the Classroom of the Formosan Indigenous Languages

Most language teaching and learning research and discussion have long been only focusing on the so-called “major languages” like English, French, Chinese(Mandarin), etc. However, teaching and learning indigenous language in fact involves very different challenges and requires a different set of skills due to the special social contexts of each indigenous language. Thus, simply applying the “textbook methods” to the classroom of an indigenous language is virtually impossible. As a researcher at “Indigenous Language Research and Development Foundation, I have been working on a methodology book for instructors of all the indigenous languages of Taiwan since 2022. In this, I’d like to share my findings during this process and examine the possibilities of applying “the 8 classic methods” to indigenous language teaching and learning.