I think this is a BIG issue, with one language a day disappearing. It isn't just a case of quantity though, rather quality. A language is a way of seeing / forming reality. We lose another world, another planet blown out of the sky. It doesn't bode well for the future for language is but freedom.....
I
made a long blog post here. Watch the great speach by Wade Davis, sterling. My undergrad was in anthropology and I am still a student of the world....
David
EFL CLASSROOM 2.0