Global Lessons: Indigenous languages and multilingualism in school programs
Summary of Case Studies
Māori — New Zealand
Māori language revitalisation began from the grassroots level, as part of a broader movement for recognition and political change and to address concerns about language loss and shift. Speaker numbers dropped radically between the 1930s and 1960s but have grown once more, in large part due to education based language revitalisation efforts and strong government support for these.
The Māori immersion program is a successful model of language revitalisation. Indigenous peoples around the world look to Māori for inspiration, leadership and guidance. The New Zealand Ministry of Education has found that ‘whole school’ immersion programs have advantages over other programs. They create positive environments for children to learn Māori, where te reo Māori is valued throughout the school and language learning is not overshadowed by English.
The Ministry acknowledges that it takes time to learn a second language at school to the same academic level as a first language — at least six years. However, after that time students are multilingual and are seen to achieve wider academic success.
Key lessons:
- Language revitalisation is possible through education programs and action outside of schools
- Strong rigorous immersion programs lead to bilingual, biliteracy and academically successful students
- Commitment to education infrastructure — teacher training, curriculum development and a language commission are required.
Ojibwe and Dakota — United States of America
In the 1980s and 1990s, Ojibwe and Dakota people recognised that there was a decreasing number of strong speakers and began to act on this concern. They began culture and language revitalisation efforts, through community learning and school-based programs, some of which were immersion programs. Waadookodaading in Minnesota is an Ojibwe immersion school that began in 2000. Like other immersion programs, it has a focus on learning on country. The immersion program teaches through Ojibwe and integrates cultural concepts and practices into their curriculum.
University programs were developed to provide language teaching and language teacher training and accreditation, crucial for growing a local pool of professional and academic specialists in the language and ensuring sustainability of teaching in schools and the community. In service teacher training and team teaching are also vital to the success of the revitalisation efforts, as are self-directed learning programs to grow the number of speakers and use of the language in all domains of life.
Key lessons:
- Creating proficient speakers and uses for language in all areas of life is important
- Immersion programs for students and teachers who are language learners are demanding but effective
- Learners should have many options to learn language, through education programs at all levels and self-directed learning
- ‘Exposure activities’ are not part of language revitalisation, as to revitalise a language there must be continual increases in language proficiency among learners
- Official status, official support and strategic planning make effective revitalisation efforts.
Secwepemctsin — British Columbia
In Canada, schools are important sites for language maintenance and revitalisation, with a small number of immersion programs leading the way in reviving languages. At one school, Chief Atahm School in Adams Lake Territory, British Columbia, immersion instruction in the early years is in Secwepemctsin (Shushwap), an eastern dialect of the Interior Salish language family. It began as a community initiative and continues to be a parent-operated school with staff, seniors and parents working together. Adult language classes are also offered and Thompson Rivers University offers a program for students to learn the language and gain teacher certification.
Key lessons:
- Concerted efforts through language immersion programs can increase the number of fluent speakers
- Language revitalisation efforts are best supported by activities at all levels — from early childhood to tertiary, and out of school community activities
- Dedicated teacher accreditation programs are necessary to build strong speakers and language educators.
Mother tongue education in Timor-Leste
The Timor-Leste Strategic Development Plan 2011–2030 introduced mother tongue based education. In the Plan, local languages were recognized as the language of instruction in the initial years of schooling to help ‘build a solid foundation for future literacy and numeracy’ in Portuguese as well as Tetum. The plan was subject to independent evaluation in 2013 (Taylor-Leech, 2013). Mother tongue is defined as the language/s in the home environment of the students.
Student’s mother tongue is used for instruction in the beginning with the gradual addition of Tetum and Portuguese and later Indonesian and English. The focus is on teaching the student in the language that the student knows the best.
According to the 2013 evaluation, the introduction of mother tongue based education has seen first language literacy development, development of curriculum knowledge, positive learning environments, improved relations between students, teachers, parents and communities, improved school attendance and a more child-centred approach in education.
Key lessons:
- Providing learning in the language children know best is effective, and other languages can be added to a firm foundation in the mother tongue
- Program evaluation is important for identifying and documenting strengths and areas to change or improve.
Guugu Yimidhirr
Today children in traditionally Guugu Yimidhirr communities in Northern Queensland rarely hear their heritage language spoken by adults, due to language shift. In recent years, language teaching at Hope Vale Primary School has seen remarkable outcomes, with language competency increasing, along with energy and interest in language across the community. Factors supporting these outcomes include good resources, innovative classroom ideas, the commitment and skill of a committed teacher and a productive collaboration with regional education and language organisations.
Students learn the language for 2–3 hours per week, in a planned and structured program. The program actively encourages language awareness and use in the community, with this exchange fostered through community development and arts practices. Students compose and sing songs in Guugu Yimidhirr and perform these for the community. Language teacher training and succession planning, language camps for school-aged children, and a language nest for preschool children are planned to further build the program.
Key lessons:
- Qualified, experienced and passionate teachers and future planning for teacher development are crucial
- Alignment to standard curriculum documents provides rigour, structure and accountability
- Extensive support from regional education and language organisations spreads the load and consolidates and sustains program development and growth.
Gumbaynggirr
Muurrbay Aboriginal Language and Culture Co-operative began in 1986, when Gumbaynggirr Elders, particularly Aunty Maggie Morris, came together to revive their language. They worked with Brother Steve Morelli who supported the linguistic demands of the task of accessing old recordings of the language, analysing the grammar and producing the first Gumbaynggirr dictionary-grammar. Initially, language learning activities were focused on elders so that they could appropriately lead Gumbaynggirr’s revival. Language classes began in 1997 and many graduates have gone on to teach Gumbaynggirr in schools and community groups.The State Government’s release of the Ochre Plan in 2014 saw Gumbaynggirr included as one of five NSW languages to be funded as a ‘language nest’. ‘The Aboriginal Language and Culture Nests operate within participating schools aiming to provide Aboriginal students and their families with a continuous pathway of learning, from preschool to Year 12 and into tertiary education (TAFE and universities) and to offer Aboriginal students a new opportunity to consider language teaching as a vocation.’
Muurrbay Co-operative offers strategic support in project planning, accessing linguistic, IT and teaching support and assisting language revival by publishing dictionary-grammars, developing teaching resources, employing language workers and delivering community-based language workshops and accredited courses.
The success of these years of activity have been highlighted in the recent sharing of Gumbaynggirr through the television series Cleverman, inspiring cast, crew and audience alike.
Key lessons:
- Partners such as regional language centres, linguists and adult education providers spread the load by providing ways to create resources and pathways for adults to revive and learn language and gain accredited skills
- Commitment from government and its departments to community goals is important for upscaling, implementation and sustainability of strong language teaching programs
- Media partners are important for raising awareness, getting language out into the world and giving speakers real purposes for learning and speaking languages.
Kaurna
Kaurna is the language of the Adelaide Plains. Kaurna language was not acquired or used extensively for many decades until the late 1980s when a small group of committed Kaurna language activists and learners, working with an equally committed linguist, began to revive the language from historical sources. School based language programs, beginning in 1992, served as the powerhouse for Kaurna revival and provided a crucial role for Kaurna language. The programs also provided a training ground and motivation for language activists and learners, as language learners, teachers and resource developers. By 1997 Kaurna programs had been established at all levels of education, including early childhood, primary, junior secondary, senior secondary, adult and tertiary level programs. Teachers in schools became the pool of experts to expand to other sectors and to train other adults to take up these roles.
The revival efforts commenced in schools have lead to the spread of Kaurna in the public domain, in public ‘Welcome to Country’ addresses and place naming. As Kaurna has become more familiar through public performance there has been a growing interest from Adelaide schools to deliver Kaurna language and culture curriculum, and in community interest in learning language to meet the need.
In the early stages of language reclamation, language literacy is a major focus as the language is being re-learnt from historical sources and attention is on developing reference and teaching materials for use with children. However, as the process matures, speakers being to focus more on fluency and language use in everyday life.
Key lessons:
- Language revival is a gradual process with a number of stages. As languages are revived, adults learn and teach the language to higher levels of expertise and proficiency, and the purposes for and profile of the language begins to expand.
- Small teams with small beginnings can begin a movement.
Walalangga Yawuru Ngang-ga
Yawuru language is being woken up in the community. Its region covers the town of Broome in the west Kimberley, a town which celebrates its cultural diversity and heritage. In the past ten years, Mabu Yawuru Ngan-ga, the Yawuru Language Centre in Broome, has been overwhelmed with requests for the supply of Yawuru language teachers for the provision of school based language programs. The Yawuru community was fortunate in that it had some trained teachers who were also speakers and were initially able to support the demand.
After spending a number of years dedicated to school programs, there was a growing realisation that teaching language one hour a week could not produce a community of language speakers. Furthermore, the available language speakers were working as teachers across schools and thus were not getting sufficient opportunity to talk to each other in Yawuru and thus maintain their language skills.
It was decided that using Yawuru and developing more adult speakers needed to be prioritised over teaching in the school programs. To meet this need, the language centre has committed to reaching the target of having 20 conversational Yawuru speakers by 2021. From this critical mass, the community plans to expand the Yawuru language use into the future to ensure that it plays a critical role for Yawuru’s nation building and cultural security for generations to come.
To achieve this goal the language centre looked at language revival programs from around the world and combined the elements most relevant to them in a program called Walalangga Yawuru Ngan-ga. The aim of the program is to rebuild the daily use of Yawuru at home, at work and in the community to facilitate intergenerational language learning. The course is open to any Yawuru persons, regardless of language ability and age. Participants are employed as ‘language researchers’ for two years of Yawuru immersion sessions/classes. The students must attend classes for three hours every workday from Monday to Friday, during which they undertake language research and use across twenty areas of life (for example food, environment, relationships). Graduates will be expected to continue to use and grow their Yawuru language skills and support other language learners where possible.
Key lessons:
- Communities can prioritise language revitalisation goals and strategies, particularly in the face of limited resources
- Low contact school programs have little impact on language proficiency for students and do not maintain the skills of teachers, therefore, contribute to language revitalisation in limited ways
- Evaluating progress, planning for strategic use of resources and goal setting are important aspects of community language revitalisation
- Developing fluent speakers requires planning, commitment by and resourcing for a group of teachers and learners and the identification of appropriate strategies
- Setting and achieving goals and the willingness to stop, review and change plans as required are important in language revitalisation programs.
Warlpiri
Warlpiri is one of the few traditional languages still acquired as a first language by children. It is spoken in four communities in Central Australia, Lajamanu, Willowra, Nyirrpi and Yuendumu. Bilingual Warlpiri-English programs in Central Australia began in the 1970s and 1980s as part of the Northern Territory Bilingual Education program. The mandated model for the bilingual program was a transitional bilingual model, called the ‘step model’ or ‘stair-case model’. In this model, the language of instruction in the early years is the children’s first language, with first language literacy instruction and structured oral English language teaching. At year four, it shifts to a Dual Language model, as English literacy is introduced. The proportion of English teaching time continues to increase after year four.
The Territory-wide program suffered over the years under cutbacks and policy changes, impacting the stability of programs on the ground. Locally, Warlpiri-English programs enjoyed very positive times when the programs were well staffed and supported by high-quality principals. Many Warlpiri educators took up and completed Remote Aboriginal Teacher Education and held leadership positions in the schools. Locally designed curriculum with cultural knowledge and country visits allows for structured teaching of first language and culture and the important involvement of families, elders and the community. However, at times the programs were diminished under unsupportive principals or struggled to maintain consistency under a lack of skilled staff, Warlpiri teachers, teachers of English as an Additional Language, and the pivotal teacher linguist role which supports teaching and learning across the school. Despite the challenges, the Warlpiri programs have created hundreds of books and materials in Warlpiri, a consistent country visits program, as well as a rich local curriculum. They have produced many bilingual and biliterate young adults. The programs continue to run and community support is high.
Key lessons:
- Stable policy, institutional commitment, staff expertise and support are crucial for maintaining program quality
- Accessible and appropriate teacher education is crucial for staffing the program
- Team teaching pedagogy can support bilingual teaching and learning, and professional learning among staff.
