Reyhner, J. (2003). Native Language Immersion. In L. L. Jon Reyhner, Octaviana V. Trujillo, Roberto Luis Carrasco (Ed.), Nuturing Native Languages (4th ed., pp. 1–6). Flagstaff, AZ: Northern Arizona University. Retrieved from http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/NNL/NNLpi.pdf
When my soon-to-be father was preparing to visit the United States from across the world in India, his mother advised him to follow the adage of “When in Rome, doest as the Romans do.” Although he was well-educated, worldly, and ambitious, he heeded her warning, as follows in Indian culture. She wanted her son to be afforded all the opportunities of America and, to her, that meant that he assimilate himself into the Western culture and language so that his “foreignness” would be overlooked.
A few years later, he met and married my mother, and moved to my mother’s hometown, a small, rural town in Tennessee. About a year later, I was born. It was at the beginning of my life that I would receive and later recognize as my first lesson in language and culture. My grandparents from both sides, hailing from India and my mother’s hometown, had specifically arrived for my birth. As mine was a timely birth, my grandparents from India were able to attend my arrival through careful planning. As is Indian custom, my father asked my grandparents what I should be named. My paternal grandfather stated that he wanted me to be named Kalyani, after his beloved sister who had passed away decades earlier from tuberculosis. However, after some discussion, everyone agreed that I should have an “American” first name so that I would not face future discrimination. After being asked several times by the nurse to state a name, my parents asked her, on her last round of prompting, for the most common name of the year. As you may well have guessed, it was Brittany. My mother, in order to carve some uniqueness to the name, decided to spell it with an “i.”
Growing up, I remember weekly phone calls between my immediate family and my grandparents in India. While I eagerly looked-forward to our phone calls, they were often abbreviated and static-filled with delays and misunderstandings. Although both of my grandparents, and my father for that matter, were taught British-English in the Indian school system, I recall one phone conversation that was very revealing about the importance of language. It was through a phone call filled with eager and frustrated moments of silence caused by delays, when finally my grandmother asked angrily, “Why haven’t you taught them Hindi or Bengali?” My father looked shocked before asking my sister and I, “Why haven’t you learned Hindi or Bengali?” My mother ended up answering that we had not learned the languages because he never taught us. At the time, I realized that I was missing other languages that would deepen the linguistic connection and close the physical divide between my grandparents and I.
Furthering this realization were the monthly letters my grandparents would send my family. The biggest segment was written in Hindi and addressed to my father, but they would always write in English for my sister, mom, and I. Although I had these very revealing and informative experiences, it would take me years to realize the gravity, depth, and pain of them, both for myself and my grandparents. The thought that my grandparents wanted to transmit traditional Indian culture to my sister and I through language, language that my sister and I never learned, must have hurt them to some degree. The only real way to explain and transmit nuanced culture and worldview is through language, the very element that I am missing.
Through these experiences and my absence of language, I have gleaned the significant connection shared by language and culture. This understanding, combined with my years teaching on the Navajo Nation, have lent a unique lens from which I perceive the complex issues of language and culture faced by American Indians today. Jon Reyhner (2003) in his article “Native Language Immersion” deepened my understanding of these challenges and supportive strategies surrounding language and culture acquisition for American Indians.
Reyhner(2003) purports in that the transmission of language can be taught in schools through immersion teaching methods, namely indigenous mother-tongue immersion programs. Indigenous mother-tongue immersion programs should implement similar approaches to second language immersion programs. However, the distinction of purpose should be raised as indigenous mother-tongue immersion programs revolve around the transmission of indigenous language, content, and culture. Second language immersion programs foster the acquisition of the second language and its relevant content and culture with minimal or no use of the first language. The ideal ratio of first language to second language use in typical language immersion programs is half-day or partial immersion for students in the language they are to learn. However, “the less students are likely to be exposed to a new language [such as an indigenous language] they are learning outside of school, the more they need to experience it in school” (Reyhner, 2003, p. 1).
Total Physical Response (TPR) is one strategy that many practitioners implement in language acquisition programs. TPR takes place when language learners physically respond to simple directions by following gestures. It can aid in students remembrance of auditory phrases. TPR Storytelling (TPR-S) can also be utilized by students to comprehend and act-out stories. TPR-S lessons helps students comprehend and memorize new vocabulary through the vocabulary’s incorporation into stories by encouraging students to “hear, watch, act out, retell, revise, read, write, and rewrite” (Reyhner, 2003, p. 2). TPR and TPR-S have demonstrated to be effective strategies in teaching the indigenous Northern Cheyenne and the Ho Chuck languages, and should be included in indigenous mother-tongue immersion programs.
Reyhner (2003) draws on two impactful and influential programs adopted by indigenous peoples both in New Zealand and the United States. The Maori of New Zealand initiated the Kohanga Reo, or mother-tongue immersion program for preschool. In the preschool program, elders would speak nothing but Maori, so the students were completely immersed into the Maori language and culture. The parents demanded that the government establish public schools in which their children could continue learning Maori. So, the New Zealand government established Maori immersion elementary and secondary schools. Eventually, the immersion program was extended to universities to offer Maori immersion teacher training.
The Hawaiian language immersion program was based on the Maori example. Therefore, the immersion program began with preschools and later spanned public schools after the English-Only law for schools had been amended. The movement has now been described as the “renaissance of the Hawaiian language” (Reyhner, 2003, p. 3). While the Hawaiian language immersion program has been established, indigenous mother-tongue immersion programs throughout the mainland are still being explored, and are mostly implemented at the preschool and primary school levels. A significant reason for this relegation is that bilingual literature for older students that includes both indigenous languages and English is nominal.
There are numerous benefits to indigenous mother-tongue immersion programs, such as the propulsion of endangered languages and cultures. Furthermore, based on the natural approach to language acquisition, the acquisition process of a second language is very similar to that of the first language (Reyhner, 2003, p. 4). Consequently, there are numerous studies and strategies that can be implemented to foster the acquisition of the second, indigenous language. However, the larger, more pressing challenge is the lack of indigenous literature. Moreover, the lack of bilingual indigenous and English curricula that can be implemented in the teaching of academic content directly impacts equitable education for American Indian students.
The National Center for Education Statistics (1989) states that, “American Indian and Alaska Native students have a dropout rate twice the national average; the highest dropout rate of any United States ethnic or racial group… Academically capable Native students often drop out of school because their needs are not being met while others are pushed out because they protest in a variety of ways how they are treated in school” (Reyhner, 1992). Therefore, if the current educational system, which is based on the transmission of academic knowledge through the English language, is not resulting in more American Indian students graduating, then the system should be altered to be more inclusive.
Another study that may build on this article would be how American Indian communities are dealing with this systemic issue. Are they creating and implementing programs that teach their indigenous languages and traditions? Are there programs to guide students both academically and traditionally? If there are no programs that address these issues in the United States, then the lens should expand to include other indigenous communities that have set up programs to address these challenges, and studies should be done to measure the effectiveness in the achievement of their goals, so they can be implemented here in the States.
Resources
Reyhner, Jon. (1998). Plans for Dropout Prevention and Special School Support Services for American Indian and Alaska Native Students [Abstract]. Journal of American Indian Education. Retrieved from http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/INAR.html#1