Sixth International Conference on Immersion and Dual Language Education: Connecting Research and Practice Across Contexts

Paper/Best Practice Session (1 hour)

Indigenous Languages

Indigenous Language Immersion

Post-Secondary

This paper highlights the role and impact of adult immersion programming in Kahnawà:ke: Mohawk Territory. Sharing community efforts to revitalize Kanien'kéha though primarily school based initiatives, the presenter describes how consideration for preparing teachers with skills to implement programming has led to a whole community approach in Kanien'kéha language revitalization. 

After over 40 years of efforts in language revitalization in the Mohawk community of Kahnawà:ke, the language can be heard in many domains within the community. Following many years of hard work, patience and dedication, Kanien’kéha revitalization in Kahnawà:ke seems to be at a threshold and it seems as though the next steps in language revitalization will be pivotal.

This paper shows that because the majority of all Kanien’kéha language programming is initiated, facilitated and maintained by second language speakers in Kahnawà:ke, community planning needs to continue its investment in adult second language speakers in order to insure highly accurate unabridged language will be passed on to the next generations. The intent of this research paper is to inform future language planning in Kahnawà:ke as well as to offer an example of successful initiatives for other Indigenous communities invested in revitalizing their precious languages.

Using a qualitative research design, a community survey was conducted to give voice to adult L2 speakers in Kahnawà:ke in order to determine how they can be supported in maintaining and achieving very high proficiency. Past graduates of the Kanien’kéha Ratiwennahní:rats Adult Immersion Program were surveyed to represent the growing demographic of adult L2 speakers in Kahnawà:ke. The adult immersion program has been in existence for 12 years, seeing over 145 graduates with varying degrees of spoken language proficiency. Until now, there has never been any study to follow their language use after completing the program.

This paper describes how they are using Kanien’kéha in community, how they are continuing their language learning and what resources have been useful for their language maintenance or growth. This knowledge highlights the significance of adult second language learners in Indigenous languages revitalization and contributes to our understanding of the integral role of adult learners in revitalizing Indigenous languages.