Indigenous Language in Education in Canada: Risk and Protective Factors

Jessica BallSchool of Child and Youth Care

University of Victoria

Comparative and International Education SocietyConference 2011Montreal, Canada

Languages at risk in Canada

60 Indigenous languages

11 language families in Canada

10 Indigenous languages lost in past 100 yrs

All may be lost within this century

Ojibway (Anishnaabek), Cree and Inutitut may survive

Languages of power

Languages not at risk of extinction in Canada:

The Queen’s English & Quebecois French

(Indigenous English dialects have been pathologized and a program for Standard English as a Second Dialect has been introduced in 3 provinces: visit www.ecdip.org)

Colonialist context of language loss

The story of language loss in Canada is one of genocide and cultural holocaust and ongoing assimilationist policies

Indigenous population declined from possibly several million before European contact to 270,000 by the end of 1800s.

2006: 1.3 million Indigenous peoples (First Nations, Metis, Inuit, urban Aboriginal).

Many languages are spoken by fewer than 100 people.

“Mother tongue”

Skutnabb-Kangas & McCarty (2008) identified mother tongue as including the language with which one identifies (e.g., as an ethnic signifier), even if one cannot speak that language.

This is the situation for the vast majority of Indigenous Peoples in Canada.

Less than 25% speak an Indigenous language.

Steady decline in % of Indigenous children who are

‘learning’ their mother tongue (2001: 17%; 2006: 14%).

“Heritage mother tongue”

The living root of contemporary identities, regardless of whether one speaks the language.

(McCarty)

Education: Liberating or assimilating?

Schooling is the primary vehicle for colonization and ongoing assimilation of Indigenous Peoples in Canada.

Government policies explicitly aimed at “taking the Indian out of the child”

• Apartheid: Indian Act (1887)• Indian Residential Schools: Indigenous language prohibited• English or French medium of public education

– Submersion approach resulting in subtractive bilingualism.• Only Ontario and BC allow an Indigenous language to be taught as

an alternative, required second language instead of French or English.

Language in education policies are the main contributor to ongoing language loss and extinction, attenuation of cultural identity, and loss of Indigenous knowledges

No data, No problem

Aboriginal children & youth are not identified in most population level data collection exercises,

Few disaggregated analyses of early childhood program participation, educational trajectories, health outcomes, and language use.

No known controlled studies of comparative language in education programs

No federal or provincial government investment in Indigenous language research, maintenance or restorative initiatives…

only for curating languages as objects of antiquity for museums.

Under what circumstances is MTB-MLE in the early years effective, for what purposes, according to whom, as evidence by what indicators?

Role of education (especially early childhood education) in mother tongue restoration

One way to counter linguistic & cultural loss & to fulfill children’s rights to learn in their mother tongue is to encourage parents to teach their youngsters their home language & to deliver early childhood education programs & formal education systems in children’s mother tongue(s).

Ball (2010). Literature review on MTB-MLE in early childhood programs. Paris: UNESCO.

– Explore this proposition, and implications for policy, practice, and research

Two main scenarios in Canada:1. Intergenerational transmission

Two main scenarios in Canada:

Parent(s) speak an Indigenous language: In varing circumstances, a child may learn:

An abbreviated ‘baby’ version of the language (e.g., baby Inutitut, Ojicree)

A fully elaborated version of the spoken language (more often in rural & remote settings)

The written language (some not written)

Literacy in the language (very little text material)

Two main scenarios in Canada:2. Restoration/Revitalization

Parent(s) speak little or no Indigenous language, but want their child to learn.Protective factors:• High motivation, • Some vestiges of the Indigenous language in the dialect of English or

FrenchChallenges:• Children are learning their ‘mother tongue’ as a second language, with little

or no home language support. Therefore learning must be based in ‘language nests’, early childhood programs, schools, language clubs.

• Very few proficient speakers to teach the language• Proficient speakers are typically not well prepared to teach young children

(e.g., Elders).• No one literate in the language to support emergent literacy• Little or no textual materials• Extreme skepticism on the part of government and general public about the

value or wisdom of children learning an Indigenous language.

Educational achievement gaps

Challenges to intergenerational transmission of Indigenous languages and to revitalization efforts following widespread loss are compounded by persisting large gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous education outcomes.

Many Indigenous young children are perceived as not ‘school ready’ and identified as having ‘special needs’ as early as kindergarten and primary 1.

Is promoting Indigenous language revitalization through early childhood immersion programs benefitting or disadvantaging those children whose mother tongue may be an Indigenous language that has been all but lost, and whose home language is English or French?

Gambling with the future

Research suggests that MTB early childhood programs can:Promote enrolment in preschool and school (in some Canadian

communities, up to 35% of Inuk children don’t go to school because it is not in a language they can understand)

Reinforce positive cultural identity & belongingEngage parents in their children’s schooling, esp those interested in

retaining or regaining their mother tongueSupport ways of learning and communicating that may be uniquely

Indigenous (e.g., observation, listening, pragmatics of communication including turn-taking protocols, non-verbal dimensions, etc).

Promote positive health outcomes?One study in Canada showed a highly significant correlation between

Indigenous language proficiency and suicide, which is extremely prevalent among Indigenous Peoples in Canada. (Chandler & Lalonde)

Gambling with the future

Research suggests that children who learn a language in early childhood but who are not supported to continue learning in that language do not do better, and may do worse, both academically and in language proficiency, than if their early childhood program focused on establishing strong oral language in the language of primary schooling. And children can as easily learn an Indigenous language later (e.g., in their secondary school years.)

Complications

Indigenous children in Canada show inequities on every health indicator, including:

• Early hearing loss• Speech & language delays & disorders• Learning disabilities• Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

While children with various special needs can learn two or more languages (Genesee et al), their language acquisition and academic trajectories are much slower and require more support.

There is a relative vacuum of meaningful support in Canada in situations involving MTB-MLE.

What combination of factors suggest what combination of approaches?

Indigenous Rights, including the right to self-determination, are primary.

However, as language activists and educators, what combination of factors need to be brought to mind in recommending what combination of approaches to:

• Language preservation/restoration• Preservation of culture knowledge, ways of

thinking, and cultural diversity• Mother tongue acquisition• Academic success

Immersion programs

Immersion programs, such as language nests and MTB preschools, are provided entirely in a language that is new to the child.

Popular in foreign language instruction (e.g., French immersion) and in heritage mother tongue revitalization initiatives

Eskasoni Immersion Program: A place to be Mi’kmaw

Confidence in identity, fluency,

& other academic areas

Building confidence in identity

Cultural spaces: Talking circles

Teacher as Mi’kmaw model

Indigenous pedagogies,

Indigenous forms of interaction “Speaking Mi’kmaw helps to make the classroom a more

comfortable place because the way you explain things is

a part of your culture, and we teach and organize the

environment in ways that are part of our culture. The

children learn to relate to each other as Mi’kmaw.”

Ida Denny, Mi’kmaw

instructor

Reading and writing

Reading and Writing: Spelling

Reading and writing: Journal writing

Reading and writing: Read Alouds

Reading and writing: Word wall

Confidence in English language arts

“Their writing too…the year before I had Mi’kmaw kids from

the English program…They would write “I like red….I like

blue…I like green” and the next day “I like red….I like

blue…I like to go to town”. Every single day was the

same thing. I saw a big difference. These Immersion kids

had stories to tell and long, nice stories. And I really

enjoyed reading their writing. Their grammar was really

good too.” (Mary Prosper, Mi’kmaw instructor)

Beyond lingua-centric criteria for success

Cannot assume a one-to-one correspondence between meaningful outcomes from an American, English language and literacy framework to an Indigenous framework.

E.g., • Reading speed• Comprehension (rhetorical questions about linear content)• Conversational complexity• What about the whole testing situation?• What are children in MTB education learning besides literacy?• Children’s learning isn’t always verbally mediated but our measures of

success of an intervention typically rely on verbal and written indicators

Many Indigenous people in Canada declare that even is their child fails in colonial schools, if they learn their language, have pride in who they are, and know how to read social situations and life on the land, they are ‘educated’ in their eyes.

“Speaking our language reminds us of who we are as Indigenous People, and our relationship to the Creator. Speech is enabled by our breath, and our breath is our spirit. There is a spiritual dimension to speech, and when we speak, our words go around and around the world forever.”

Sharla Peltier, Anishnaabek scholar

Moral imperative/ moral dilemma

Affirming the inherent right of each family to raise children in the language(s) of their choice.

Affirming the responsibility of the global community to protect linguistic and cultural diversity and to strengthen languages at risk of being lost.

Supporting educational and health equity for Indigenous and other minoritized children.

Discussion

Children’s rights to use their mother tongue in early education . . .

– Challenges– Opportunities– Insights– Promising practices – Under what circumstances?

Find out more: www.ecdip.org/reports

UNESCO online library

UNESCO (2008b). Mother tongue instruction in early childhood education: A selected bibliography. Paris: UNESCO.

Ball, J. (2010). Educational equity for children from diverse backgrounds: Mother tongue-based bilingual or multilingual education in the early years: Literature Review. UNESCO. http://www.unesco.org/en/languages-in-education/publications/