The teaching of less commonly spoken languages in a power-oriented world

In a world where the majority of learners seek to acquire demographically, economically, and politically powerful foreign languages (such as English, Mandarin Chinese, French, and Spanish), it is more critical than ever to ponder, with lenses of decoloniality in education, the value of teaching less commonly spoken languages.  

Speaking back to power, how do teachers of less commonly spoken languages (e.g. Greek, Mongolian) defend the importance of learning their languages?

Talk by Yan-Yi Lee for Kaleidoscope 2021, on June 4th, at 15:00 BST. Details seen here.