“Throughout Indian Country efforts to teach Native languages to non-Native speakers usually results with non-Native speakers only acquiring a limited number of words and phrases. Thus the teaching of Native languages has had little or no effect upon reversing the steady decline of the number of speakers of indigenous languages. A problem that has consistently plagued Native efforts to teach Native languages to successive generations is not having well defined examples and a clear understanding of methods that can actually yield successful speakers.
“A collection of pivotal papers from 1986-1993 on bilingualism and bilingual education, grouped in sections on policy and legislation, implementation of bilingual policy in schools, bilingualism in instruction, and using the bilingualism of the school community. Articles conclude with suggested student activities and discussion questions, encouraging students to take on an advocacy-oriented role.”
“Language and Literacy Teaching for Indigenous Education provides the academic and theoretical evidence to support what many indigenous parents, bilingual aides, elders, and school board members simply know is "good practice." Francis and Reyhner also provide a significant amount of research-based evidence that policy makers-especially those not directly involved at the classroom or community level-can use, at state and federal levels, to argue for the short- and long-term academic benefits of certain models and approaches for bilingual education.
“This is a discussion of the life and death of three indigenous languages in eastern Canada. Demographics and contexts of language shift are reviewed, emphasizing particularly the sharp contrast between a revival focus for Mohawk and a maintenance focus for still thriving and broadly literate Inuktitut. Issues of identity and ownership are addressed through both in school and community out-of-school language use controversies and efforts, ranging from teacher education to organized community programs to family and everyday life practices.
“Guiding Readers and Writers (Grades 3-6) is one of the most comprehensive, authoritative guides available today. It explores all the essential components of a quality literacy program in six separate sections.”
“This paper describes a U. S. Department of Education Title VII funded language preservation program at Leupp Public School in the Navajo Nation. Funded in 1997 for five years, this school-wide project is designed to help students become proficient speakers, readers, and writers of Navajo while enhancing their English language skills and preparing them to meet state academic standards. The program com-bines Navajo immersion with ESL inclusion, literacy initiatives, sheltered English/Navajo, parental involvement, and take-home technology.
“In formulations of school improvement and change, teachers all too frequently are positioned as the passive recipients of top‑down curricular mandates. This is especially problematic in indigenous settings when school administrators are imported from outside the community. Here we describe one school change effort in which those relations are being reversed, as Navajo bilingual teachers take charge of pedagogical transformation.
“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.
“Jim Cummins and Merril Swain offer a coherent synthesis of recent theoretical and empirical work relating to the educational development of bilingual children from both majority and minority language backgrounds.”
“Aimed at "empowering" teachers and students in a culturally diverse society, this book suggests that schools must respect student's language and culture, encourage community participation, promote critical literacy, and institute forms of assessment in order to reverse patterns of under-achievement in pupils from varying cultures. The book shows that students who have been failed by schools predominantly come from communities whose languages, cultures and identities have been distorted and devalued in the wider society, and schools have reinforced this pattern of disempowerment.”
