Is Immersion the Key to Language Renewal? [David H. DeJong]

“This article reviews the literature to determine the importance of immersion in language restoration (or preservation). The author argues that a new paradigm is needed to halt the decline in the number of Native Americans speaking their aboriginal tongue. The primary focus centers on displacing misperceptions related to language immersion that may inhibit an Indian community from implementing such a program. It stresses the advantages of immersion, both to language reacquisition and in fostering advanced cognitive and academic skills in both the primary (English) and target (Native) language. The author reviews the success of other Indian nations in retaining (or restoring) their native language and concludes that if nothing is done additional Native American languages will become extinct in the next century.”