Language immersion schooling can restore 'confidence in learning' (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Language immersion schooling can restore 'confidence in learning'

© Indian Country
Today September 11, 2006. All Rights Reserved
by: Jerry Reynolds
http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096413639

[AP Photo/Joshua Duplechian -- Michele Hernandez, shown above in her
classroom in Blackfoot, Idaho, in November 2005, teaches English to
American Indian pupils. A recent congressional field hearing in
Albuquerque, N.M., on Native languages explored testimony, oral and
written, that examined the links between language and the survival of
Native cultures throughout several tribal communities.]

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - An Aug. 31 congressional field hearing in
Albuquerque on Native languages generated a wealth of testimony, oral
and written, that underscored the links between language and the
survival of cultures, dual language learning and academic achievement,
and federal funding and the language immersion schooling programs that
have shown promising results among Native Hawaiians, the Maori of New
Zealand and approximately 75 tribal communities.

But perhaps three brief words - ''confidence in learning'' - said as
much as all the rest. They appeared in the testimony of Christine Sims,
of Acoma Pueblo and the Institute for American Indian Education at the
University of New Mexico, as she described the impact of learning a
heritage Native language, in addition to English, on other academic
studies. A fair amount of evidence offered at the hearing suggests that
this ''confidence in learning'' may be the lost link to lifelong
learning ability for Native students, and that language immersion
schooling can restore it.

To compress a good deal of the Aug. 31 testimony - and of Indian
educational history for that matter - into one expository paragraph:
Under assault by settler policies opposed to just about any expression
of Native culture, Native languages lost much of their traction in
Native communities. As intended by the settler states and their federal
administrators, the void in language opened the door to English and with
it a kind of assimilationist psychology that was no doubt a requisite of
survival in times that were hard indeed for most tribes. The threat of
assimilation to Indian culture has been thoroughly recognized since
then. But although in better times the Indian-controlled education
movement fueled the larger drive for tribal self-determination as
federal policy - as recognized in the title of the touchstone law, the
Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act - still the few
decades of Indian-controlled schooling have not thrown off a psychology
of assimilation realized in educational practice, to the ongoing
detriment of Native students. Learning the Native language of their
heritage, alongside English as a daily reality, may restore Native
students to an adaptive psychological stance, both individually and on
the whole. Confidence in learning, as reflected in across-the-board
academic achievement, is its public signature.

Sims touched on all this in another part of her testimony, concluding
that Native priorities, local school support and congressional interest
''have set in motion a whole new set of precedents concerning the
treatment of Native languages in schools.''

But history is still with us, as recognized time and again on Aug. 31.
Tribal language loss is at an acute stage. Only 10 Native speakers are
left alive among the Mescalero Apache, according to Rep. Heather
Wilson, R-N.M. Carol Cornelius of the Oneida Cultural Heritage
Department said that only five fluent speakers who learned Oneida as a
first language remain among the Oneida of Wisconsin; two are over 95
years of age and no longer able to help convey the language, while
three of over 86 years assist with eight tribal language trainees for
two to seven hours a week. Amadeo Shije, chairman of the All Indian
Pueblo Council representing 19 New Mexico pueblos, estimated that only
20 percent of present Native languages will still be viable 50 years
from now. Sam Montoya, a language and cultural resources administrator
for Sandia Pueblo, noted that the scarcity of fluent Tiwa speakers
there makes it difficult to create language immersion settings -
''situations where a large group of people are speaking nothing but
Tiwa in order to teach the language as it was traditionally passed
down: orally.''

A prominent theme of the hearing was that after helping to destroy
Native languages through misguided policy decisions for so long,
Congress must now help to restore them while that is still possible.
Ryan Wilson, executive director of the National Indian Education
Association, made a direct appeal to Congress, as represented by the
House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce.
''What we're saying here, everybody in this room - and you see this
huge crowd that's come out - is it really, it really exemplifies what's
dear to our hearts, and that we're in a crisis ... We're really saying
that it [Native language immersion schooling] belongs in our schools.
Maybe not in every school. But we have to create venues in our
communities where this could be taught. And we have to codify, forever,
a place in the Department of Education to fund these schools.''

A bill introduced by Wilson in the House, House Bill 4766, would amend
the 1990 Native American Languages Act to accomplish that - at a cost
NIEA estimates to be in the range of $8 million. With fewer than 10
working days scheduled on the congressional calendar before lawmakers
adjourn to campaign for the November elections, H.R. 4766 will not
become law in the current 109th Congress. Rep. Howard ''Buck'' McKeon,
R-Calif., chairman of the Committee on Education and the Workforce,
acknowledged as much after the hearing. ''I'm just trying to gin up
some support for the next Congress. I think that's more hopeful.''

Heading into that next Congress, McKeon; Wilson; Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M.;
and Rep. Thomas Petri, R-Wis., the committee vice chairman, all made
strong commitments to the purposes of the bill at the Aug. 31 field
hearing.

''Time is of the essence if we want to stem the loss of these
languages,'' Udall said, adding later, ''I believe we can all agree
that there is an urgent need to protect and preserve Native American
languages, and we must advance by implementing new immersion
programs.''