Your language-teaching mission, should you choose to accept it, is to get students thinking about endangered languages and their preservation.
I think a lot about language revitalisation. In fact, I have a whole blog post (in French) here.
Obviously, I think it's an important conversation to have with students as well. I was volunteering with foreign exchange students during COVID, and developed an activity package and facilitated a very interesting session where we discussed this issue! I've decided to post it the blog(it's more of a social studies resource than a language one, but it can be adapted! Or left for a sub who doesn't speak the target language!)
The activity has four parts, along with multiple extension activities:
individual exploration, using online resources for and against language preservation, of the question: Should governments and international organizations be willing to spend money and time on language preservation efforts?
individual exploration, using UNESCO's online atlas of endangered languages, of the question: What do endangered languages look like in your country? (This was for exchange students so the students were from all over the world, but could be fun if students have international connections, or focus on Spanish-speaking or French-speaking countries).
individual exploration, the video Marie's Dictionary, of the question: Do the last speakers of a language have a responsibility to preserve it? (There's also a part about students' host families' locations on Indigenous land, which can be adapted to where students currently live in the US or Canada).
Important vocabulary clarifications
Feel free to pull whatever you'd like to use, personalize it to your students, or do whatever! I've used the Marie's Dictionary video with my language students and had GREAT discussions. I'll let you guys know if I translate this into French!
RESOURCE: Language Preservation Activity 2020