AN intensive native language program for adults: The instructors' perspective

McGill Journal of Education, Fall 2002 by Merle Richards, David Maracle

Still, the instructors are satisfied that they are achieving their main goals. Owennatekha comments on the students:

That's the thing about these guys: they are not bashful about [the language] because they are in here all day, and they are used to using it all day and they go outside. They're not bashful - they don't care who hears them. They're just going to holler across the bank or the plaza or something like that, and you'll see heads turn all over the place. That's one of the goals, [to make others aware of how they're using the language].

Kanatawakhon remarks,

Every year this course is getting better. It's as much the students as it is the fact that most of us involved are kind of learning from past mistakes and dealing with things differently.

2. Given your experience, what would you say are the best and yet most realistic objectives for an intensive Native language program?

Owennatekha articulates the aims of the program thus:

Create speakers: that's it. Create speakers and with that create that ripple effect. Those speakers will increase language in their own home, and they'll increase knowledge in the circles around them and gradually create more awareness and knowledge and use of the language throughout the community.

Kanatawakhon focuses on instructional goals that can be achieved in the course of an intensive academic year, and on ultimate goals:

I think realistically for a first year, we should aim to provide students with an excellent sense of the language and a fairly good vocabulary, so that they will be able to organize the language quite competently. For fluency, I think we definitely need to have another year, when we would be able to actually move into a full immersion situation.

I remember one time being in St. Regis and listening to old guys repairing a car. They spoke Mohawk all the way through - they just messed around with this car for a couple of hours, and it was all in Mohawk and they talked. They were chattering away while they were doing it. I thought, "Wow, that's real language, that's where people really need to have students, where they're involved because this is language in action." They've learned all the grammar stuff, they've learned all the formal stuff they need, they can read whatever they need to read, they can organize their thoughts given the time; what they need is to hear an actual living situation of the language in order to get to a point where they can do it, do the language as automatically as the people they are listening to.

CONCLUSION

Educators have long recognized experiential knowledge as the basis for adult learning. Among Canadian Aboriginal learners, this implies not only building upon learners' personal knowledge, but also developing curriculum that incorporates cultural and community knowledge and respect for their values (Te Hennepe, 1993; Stairs, 1994). Paterson and Hart-Wasekeesikaw (1994) emphasize both the social context of learning and the use of teaching methods familiar within Aboriginal cultures so that known cultural meanings are part of new learning. Moreover, community-based programs may encourage students to complete their programs because the learning environment is familiar and likely to promote success (National Indian Brotherhood, 1972). In the intensive language program, the linguistic approach was novel and at first, intimidating to some of the students. However, the familiar environment of a house on the reserve, the presence of elders, and the conversational tone of classes encouraged learning in a safe and comfortable setting. Hence, the students were able to focus on language learning without distracting anxieties about the classroom context, and the instructors were able to apply complex strategies that might not otherwise have been acceptable.