People have to have the will to do that. Languages are apparently different from biological species in this way, since it is possible to revive them. For the survival and revival of Hebrew, the deep devotion to the academic approach had great value. Finally, I note around here that people are not doing some of the things they need to do to save their languages because they are in a state of denial about language loss. They are blinding themselves to the danger threatening their languages, because of the painful process they went through, being punished in school, for example, for speaking their language and being educated with so much English and with none of their own language that it takes extra effort to speak it now.
Denial is a key word.
I believe it now represents the most important barrier that impedes the stabilization, revival, and maintenance of our languages. Dr. Michael Krauss is a former president of the Society for the study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas and is currently Director of the Alaska Native Language Center at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.