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

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

PROBLEM 2. Students' knowledge of English grammar was not sufficient for understanding of contrastive features.

Owennatekha commented that a rich vocabulary and understanding of English grammar and usage is essential for Mohawk learners, but that many of the students do not have adequate knowledge to comprehend grammatical explanations of the contrasts between English and Mohawk.

For example, English uses "who" as both an interrogative and a relative pronoun. However, in Mohawk, different forms are required. The problem was heightened because naive students did not notice that in a sentence like "The woman you saw was my cousin," the relative pronoun (who) has been deleted in English but must be pronounced in Mohawk. Some basic grammar lessons pointed out these structures and contrasts in both languages. PROBLEM 3A. Students rely on writing to learn vocabulary and grammar, rather than working to develop pronunciation and listening comprehension.

An initial period devoted to practicing the sound system and some oral dialogues to introduce phonology accustomed learners to hearing Mohawk. In future, the instructors may continue with this practice even after spellings have been introduced, using dictation to reinforce phonic awareness. Owennatekha noted that writing became a problem because having written down items in their notebooks, the students then neglected to review and memorize them: "If everything in their books was in their heads, they'd be fluent!" A review at the end of each day was therefore instituted to reinforce learning.

PROBLEM 3B. Students continue to use English pronunciations when reading Mohawk.

For example, K in Mohawk is pronounced [k] or [g], depending on the context; the English pronunciation is irrelevant. When reading, some students forgot that the familiar letters did not represent English sounds. To counter this problem, recitations and oral practice exercises were used to make students listen and speak to one another, focusing on making and decoding comprehensible pronunciations.

PROBLEM 4. Students had unrealistic expectations about an immersion program.

During the interview, Kanatawakhon commented that "immersion is the wrong term," both because it leads students to expect that they will become fluent speakers by the end of the program and because it suggests a situation where the entire environment supports the target language.

It gives people a false sense of what's going on. The term implies that learners are immersed in all facets of the language: they are hearing it all the time, they're using it, they're using only the language that they are learning. We don't have the ability or capability right now to provide a totally Mohawk-speaking environment. I think we should use a title like intensive rather than immersion. We have to use English in class.

Initially, the instructors had planned a "communicative" setting, with informal talk as the basis for language learning. The classroom language was to be Mohawk, with English used only when necessary for comprehension. The focus would be on meaning, even if the usage were not "correct" at first. They expected that the learners' knowledge would expand gradually and that correctness would increase as their language skills grew and became more complex. However, the learners in the first cohort did not distinguish language learning from other kinds of learning, and hence believed that they should progress in a linear fashion, mastering each segment before moving to the next. Unwilling to put up with understanding only a little of what they were hearing in the classroom, they wanted to know in English exactly what they were hearing in Mohawk, and kept asking for translations and explanations in English. As a consequence, the instructors found themselves using English as the language of instruction rather than just speaking Mohawk; the classes were becoming traditional language lessons rather than conversations supporting the development of communication.