New Report on Native Languages:Hertiage Language Immersion is Viable Alternative to English Only Immersion for Native American Students

An interesting report Language Planning Prospects and Challenges in Native American Communities and Schools by Eunice Romero Little and Theresa McCarty has been publish by the education policy lab at Arizona State University. This report can also be found at the web site for the Language Policy Research Unit (LPRU Education Policy Laboratory at Arizona State University. The Report EPSL-0602-105 LPRU can also be found at http://edpolicylab.org The report can be directly linked at http://lpru.asu.edu/content/features/EPSL-0602-105-LPRU.pdf

The findings of this report regarding Native language programs indicate the “benefits of ‘additive’ or enrichment approaches to language education and stand in contrast to ‘subtractive’ programs aimed at eradicating or replacing non-English mother tongues.

These include
Heritage-language immersion is a viable alternative to English-only instruction for Native Students who are English-dominant but identified as Limited English proficient.
Time spent learning a heritage/community language is not time lost in developing English, while the absence of sustained heritage-language instruction contributes significantly to heritage-language loss.
It takes approximately five to seven years to acquire age-appropriate proficiency in a heritage (second) language when consistent and comprehensive opportunities in a heritage (second) language are provided.
Heritage-language immersion contributes to positive child-adult interaction and helps restore and strengthen Native languages, familial relationships, and cultural traditions within the community.
Literacy skills first developed in a heritage language can be effectively transferred to English, even for students with limited proficiency in the heritage language upon entering school.
Additive or enrichment language education programs represent the most promising approach to heritage and second-language instruction.
The aforementioned language planning and policy LPP efforts are fundamental to tribal sovereignty and local education choice.

The report notes that though there is limited federal support for these efforts, these efforts are threatened by the growing movement for high stakes, English standardized testing. This movement is represented most palpably in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Research on the consequences of NCLB for Native American and other language minority learners suggests that NCLB is widening rather than closing the achievement gap.

For American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians the time is now a “policy moment” that something must be done with regarding to Native Languages. These languages, known no where else in the world but in the communities and tribes where they have thrived until the 1960’s are so threatened that unless we do something they will disappear forever. To be able to improve cognitive ability, have academic success and retain Native Languages in social conversation settings is a vital aspect of policy development affecting the education of Native Americans.