Inuktitut fluency overstated, watchdog says (fwd)

[Phil CashCash]

October 10, 2003

Inuktitut fluency overstated, watchdog says
Statistics Canada survey could mislead decision-makers: Eva Aariak

PATRICIA D'SOUZA
http://www.nunatsiaq.com/news/nunavut/31010_06.html

The overwhelming strength of the Inuktitut language reported in
Statistics Canada's Aboriginal Peoples Survey last month does not
reflect the reality in Nunavut, the territory's language watchdog says.

Statistics Canada researchers collected data from about 9,000 Inuit in
53 communities in the Canadian Arctic, including 4,500 Nunavummiut.

Of those, 90 per cent of adults and children reported being able to
speak or understand an aboriginal language.

About 89 per cent of adults and 70 per cent of children said they could
speak it relatively or very well.

But in an interview last week, Nunavut Language Commissioner Eva Aariak
said the numbers sound surprisingly high for a language that has been
in steady decline for the past 50 years.

The 2001 Nunavut Household Survey reported that three-quarters of the
territory's population identified Inuktitut or Inuinnaqtun as the first
language learned at home.

That's a more accurate reflection of the current state of the language,
Aariak said.

And the most recent census, which included Inuit respondents in southern
Canada, found that 82 per cent spoke and understood enough Inuktitut to
carry on a conversation.

Karen Kelly-Scott, an Statistics Canada analyst on the Aboriginal
Peoples Survey, said the word "understand" may account for the high
numbers. Many more people can understand at least part of their mother
tongue than actually speak it.

But the danger of the Aboriginal Peoples Survey's high numbers, Aariak
said, is that they could threaten future support for programs aimed at
strengthening the Inuktitut language in Nunavut.

"It's great to have figures at that level at this point, but on the
other hand, I hope that it will not portray to the decision-makers
that, hey, the Inuktitut language is surviving well so we don't have to
worry about it," Aariak said.

"It's not like that."

However, Statistics Canada researchers did not evaluate language
proficiency as they collected their data, so the numbers do not
indicate the true strength of Inuktitut in the Canadian North. What
they do indicate is the individual perceptions of a sample group of
Inuit who were asked to rate their ability to speak or understand
Inuktitut.

And what that shows, Aariak said, is an overwhelmingly strong desire to
speak and understand Inuktitut, regardless of actual ability.

"There is that desire by the young people to learn their language,
especially since the creation of Nunavut. There is this enhanced sense
of expectation that, hey, now that we have our own territory, our
culture and language will be more present and more readily available
for me to learn," she said.

The problem is that the language has not actually been more readily
available    to learn. The desire to learn Inuktitut among Inuit youth
has not been paired with the tools of instruction, a reality that the
Aboriginal Peoples Survey does not accurately reflect.

"The increasing number of people who are not learning [Inuktitut] is
evident among the youth especially," Aariak said.

"Perhaps the reason it's surviving is that there's enough
[instructional] spaces to date that are keeping it alive, but still,
our government has stated that Inuktitut will be the working language
of government by the year 2020."

But the resources aren't available to help Inuit who are functional but
not fluent in Inuktitut improve their language skills.

"We have young civil servants now who are recruited after Grade 12 and
post secondary who are not very comfortable in their written and
comprehension levels in Inuktitut. And in our schools, the [Inuktitut]
language of instruction only goes up as far as Grade 3 or 4 and not
much beyond that," she said.

"There is a high expectation from the younger generation that these
kinds of programs will be available to them, but they're not readily
available to them yet."

But if they were, Aariak said, the Inuktitut levels in Nunavut would
soar.

"Fifty years ago in our environment, the majority of people in Nunavut
were unilingual Inuktitut-speaking people. And the decrease in the
numbers of speakers, the rapid decrease, is kind of scary within that
short period of time," she said.

"We learned our English language skills from school only. It wasn't
taught at home.... I think it's very well understood that speaking the
Inuktitut language at home is most desirable, but in today's society,
we also have to supplement it from outside the home.

"What you're learning at home is mostly spoken word in Inuktitut. And
that has to be enhanced by teaching Inuktitut in terms of proper
speaking, reading and writing. And that is in the hands of our
education system today."

Survey participants in the four Canadian Arctic regions were asked, "Who
helps children learn an aboriginal language?"

[see original for statistics]