Lang backgrounds of LEP students in 2000-2001

[Ros' Haruo]

Jeffrey, you wrote (or quoted, I can't quite tell) "Note one student's
"language background" got listed as "Upper Chinookan"--which could be an
accurate report of heritage, but linguistically would be a 150-year
stretch."

Upper Chinookan is probably not dead, much less 150 years gone. The 1990 US
Census showed 69 speakers of Wasco-Wishram, including 7 monolinguals,
according to the Ethnologue:

http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=WAC

lilEnd


        ROS' Haruo / 2355 Eastlake Ave E / Seattle WA 98102 / Usono
    lilandbr at scn.org / lilandbr at hotmail.com / tel 206-324-3176
              ROS' Haruo = Leland Bryant ROSS





>From: Jeffrey Kopp <jeffreykopp at ATT.NET>
>Reply-To: Jeffrey Kopp <jeffreykopp at ATT.NET>
>To: CHINOOK at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
>Subject: Re: Lang backgrounds of LEP students in 2000-2001
>Date: Mon, 1 Mar 2004 14:50:27 -0800
>
>At 12:47 PM 3/1/2004, Jim Holton wrote:
>>Given the source and the disclaimer at the bottom, I am wondering if the
>>13 students didn't come from bi-lingual programs at Grand Ronde in
>>2000-2001.  They might be lumping bi-lingual programs in with LEP programs
>>for their estimate.
>
>Yes, that was my guess, too. It next occurred to me that not long before
>the program began, there were still great-grandparents who had spoken
>fluent Jargon, and I don't doubt they shared it lovingly with kids who
>remain in school today. In either case (pre-program or after launch), it's
>likely some of today's children were introduced to the Jargon as early as
>English.
>
>Mr. Roy also mentions the LEP categorical criteria included the "influence"
>(the criteria unfortunately employed the potentially pejorative term
>"impact") of previous generations' languages upon Native Americans, though
>I believe any such effect on today's Native children's English-learning
>capability would be socio-economic in origin rather than linguistic. (The
>goals of the LNCB Act might not even require distinguishing this point.)
>
>The source report appears a bit apologetic about its own sketchiness; the
>criteria were in the process of revision at the time, so they some had
>trouble getting fitting data out of the states:
>
>"Meaningful interpretation of the available data is challenging for several
>reasons." Survey of the States' Limited English Proficient Students &
>Available Educational Programs and Services, p. 9.
><http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/states/reports/seareports/0001/sea0001.pdf> or
>(HTML):
><http://216.239.53.104/search?q=cache:LQcFWWU4nvYJ:www.ncela.gwu.edu/states/reports/seareports/0001/sea0001.pdf>
>
>This quirk may have been encouraged by one of the data-gathering
>instruments, OMB No. 1885-0543. See page 4 (at 35 of the above .pdf):
>
>>A2. Languages Spoken by Grade Level
>>List ALL the non-English languages spoken by LEP students and the number
>>of LEP students at each grade level who speak each of those languages.
>
>This brought to mind the scenario of "Okay, kids.... Hey! Quiet down back
>there! ....what other languages do you speak?" (I thought Emmett might
>enjoy that.) It's an educational funding and planning report (and they
>apparently did the best they could), not an anthropological or linguistic
>study. Note one student's "language background" got listed as "Upper
>Chinookan"--which could be an accurate report of heritage, but
>linguistically would be a 150-year stretch. Of course, any kind of survey
>stat below a couple points may offer interesting ideas for further
>research, but can't be relied upon by itself.
>
>I kidded Dave privately about "trolling [his] own list" (not wishing to
>launch any pointless hoo-ha's--at least until today's email came in, which
>offered me the higher ground of rebutting them). But at least it got us a
>couple new posts, plus word from one specialist we hadn't heard from before
>(and welcome!)
>
>J.

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