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Article published In: 10th Anniversary Celebration
Edited by Pádraig Ó Duibhir and Laurent Cammarata
[Journal of Immersion and Content-Based Language Education 10:2] 2022
► pp. 343–373

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Progress, challenges, and trajectories for indigenous language content-based instruction in the United States and Canada

ORCiD logo with link | University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo
 | University of Toronto
 | St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin Tribal Member
 | University of California, Los AngelesLos Angeles
Published online: 8 September 2022
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jicb.21023.wil
Abstract
Indigenous language content-based instruction in the United States and Canada is primarily known as Indigenous language medium or Indigenous language immersion (ILI) education. In spite of huge barriers, it has grown over the past decade. Programs have emerged from concerns about language loss and a desire for language revitalization. Language revitalization takes several generations since it seeks an outcome where the Indigenous language is primary with high, but secondary, proficiency in the nationally dominant language. To establish a trajectory to reach such an outcome, the majority of schooling until high school graduation should be through the Indigenous language. Indigenous language medium schooling also seeks to produce sufficient mastery of academics and English for access to English medium higher education. Where a sufficiently strong model has been implemented, as in Hawaiʻi, those results are beginning to be produced. At present, the models being implemented elsewhere in the two countries are at varying stages of development, with minimal government support.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Language shift and Indigenous language reclamation movements
  • 3.The challenges of Indigenous language content-based education
    • 3.1Challenge 1: A language revitalization movement with strong leadership
    • 3.2Challenge 2: Initial small enrollment by sacrificing families
    • 3.3Challenge 3: A supportive receiving institution and government
    • 3.4Challenge 4: A unified Indigenous language of instruction
    • 3.5Challenge 5: A distinctive approach to multilingualism
    • 3.6Challenge 6: The “middle” or “missing” generation
    • 3.7Challenge 7: Teachers and curriculum developers
    • 3.8Challenge 8: A curriculum and aligned materials
    • 3.9Challenge 9: A self-sustaining Indigenous language dominant community
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • References
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2024. Adult Immersion in Kanien’kéha Revitalization. Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics 27:2 ► pp. 112 ff. DOI logo

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