Language

education of
indigenous
peoples
General information
(Lee and McCarty,2015)

• Indigenous bilingual and multilingual education encompasses a vast

CULTURAL territorial space.
• There are around 370 million indigenous people., who speak 4000-5000 of the
world’s 7000 spoken languages (Lee and McCarty,2015:409)
General information
(Lee and McCarty,2015)

• Indigenous languages are usually

transmitted as first languages in the
context of family & community life.
• What about schools?
Case study
(Lee and
McCarty,2015)

Research conducted in the

United States
• Indigenous language
education (ILE) in the U.S. is
diverse and broad.
• There are around 5.2 million
American Indian and Alaska
Native people. Native
Americans reside in every
U.S. state.
Case study
(Lee and McCarty,2015: 412)
Navajo-language situation in the U.S.
Navajo is one of the southernmost
Athabaskan languages (169,000)
speakers)
Rock Point Community School:
contract school, whereby contract
with the federal government
enabled the community to exert
control over the school’s academic
programme (Holm and Holm,
1990)
Case study
(Lee and McCarty,2015: 413)

• Community members served as teachers and resources for implementing

the Navajo-language curriculum.
• Over the years the school demonstrated Navajo-language maintenance
efforts.
• Results: monolingual and bilingual students who learned to read first in
their home language (mother tongue) OUTPERFORMED comparable Navajo
students in English-only programmes (Rosier and Farella,1976)
Case study
(Lee and McCarty,2015: 413)

• Success: “a concern for quality

education in two language, for Navajo-
ness and relevance in that education,
and for parental and community
involvement in and control of the
education” (Holm and Holm,1990:176)
General information
(Lee and McCarty,2015)
• Another successful revitalization effort of the Navajo-language:
• Immersion programme & Navajo-rich learning environment
• These programmes verify positive impacts on cultural identity, Navajo-
linguistic skills, and family involvement
• Native American students perform equally well as their peers in English-
only programmes, while becoming bilingual and biliterate in their heritage
language (Aviso and Holm,2001)
Conclusion
(Lee and
McCarty,2015)
• Research indicates that
indigenous language
maintenance and
revitalization efforts are
most effective if they are
community-driven &
tailored to local conditions,
resources, and needs.
Monoglossic
language
ideologies
Bilingual perspectives (Flores and
beardsmore,2015:203)

Billingual Education Programmes (BEPs): serve many functions in the societies

Language-majority students: a vehicle for increasing their priviledge position in

society through the development of the MARKETABLE skills (de Mijia,2002).

BEPs help stimulate:

- Greater openness and tolerance for other cultures
- Greater opportunities for creative thinking
- Increased mutual understanding (Beacco,2007)
Bilingual perspectives (Flores and
beardsmore,2015:203)

Language-minority
students: BEPs are often Serve as tool of
the outcome of political community
struggle for autonomy empowerment
and self-determination
Bilingual perspectives (Flores
and beardsmore,2015:203)

• BEPs can be:

- Tools for reinforcing privilege
- Tools for emancipatory efforts
- Tools celebrating & appreciating
cultural and linguistic diversity
Monoglossic language ideologies
(Flores and Beardsmore,2015:206)

Monoglossic language ideologies: begin with the assumption that

monolingualism is the norm

1. Subtractive bilingual education

2. Additive bilingual education
Subtractive bilingual education
(Flores and Beardsmore,2015: 206-208)
Subtractive bilingual education: targets language minority students living in
the societies where their home languages are either excluded from or
minimally included in, education.

• The ultimate GOAL: to develop student proficiency in the dominant

language of society, with little (or no) interested in the development of the
home language.
• Submersion: extreme form of subtractive education which entails a
complete prohibition of the use of the home language in school.
Subtractive bilingual education
(Flores and Beardsmore,2015: 206-208)

• Transitional bilingual education (TBE): vary in forms depending on the

context and resources available
1. Some programmes have no clear structure- leave it up to the teacher to
decide how the minority language will be used (Garcia,2009)
2. Other programmes use a minority language for a percentage of the time
that gradually declines as students progress in their schooling
3. Other programmes uses a minority languages exclusively for few years
before there is an abrupt shift to the majority language.
Additive bilingual education
(Flores and Beardsmore, 2015:20)

• Additive bilingual (ABE): can serve language-majority/-

minority/both student populations
• The main GOAL: promote the development of BOTH languages
of instruction in order to achieve equal competency in these
languages
Additive bilingual education
(Florrs and Beardsmore,2015:209)
Immersiion: a form of elite bilingual education that aims at teaching language-
majority students an additional language

Three different models for immersion programmes;

1. Early immersion model: immerses students in the new language from first
years of schooling
2. Mid immersion model: begins immersion in the 4th or 5th grade
3. Late immersion model: begins immersion in 6th or 7th grade
Additive bilingual education
(Flores and Beardsome,2015:210)

Dual language bilingual programmes: target language-minority

students & develop competency in two languages

Two types of programmes can be distinguished:

One-way programme: exclusively serves language-minority student
from ONE ethnolinguistic community
Two way programmes: serves language minority student from ONE
ethnolinguistic community as well as language-majority with little (or
no) background in the minority language
Conclusion remarks
(Flores and Beardsmore,2015)

In monoglossic language ideologies two languages are

kept separate.
General information
(Flores and Beardsmore,2015:213)
Heteroglossic language ideologies (HLIs): languages are seen
neither, nore as a ssociated with nation-states

Heteroglossic perspectives make bilingualism the NORM and

Acknowledge multilingual speaker’s fluid language practices
in their full complexity (Garcia,2009)
Heteroglossic language ideologies
(Flores and Beardsmore,2015: 213)
• HLIs have emerged alongside changes in our society
associated with globalization
• HLIs have emerged as a critique of monoglossic language
ideologies along with larger political and economic SHIFT
from nation-states toward a globalized world
Heteroglossic language ideologies
(Flores and Beardsmore,2015:214)

• GOAL: is NOT to develop equal competencies in all three

languages, but for students to develop plurilingual
competence that they can continue to develop throughout
their lives
Heteroglossic language ideologies
(Flores and Beardsmore,2015:214)
• The promotion of Mother tongue + 2 other languages in education
encourages EU member states to use a variety of permutations in
programmes, depending on REGIONAL needs

• E.g. In Spain, the autonomous governments may implement

programmes where the regional language (Catalan, Basque) may be
used as medium of instruction, together with varied doses of
Castilian, and English as a third target language.
Conclusion remarks
(Flores and Beardsmore,2015)
• Heteroglossic perspectives challenge monoglossic language
ideologies in education.
• Heteroglossic programmes, with many potential
combinations, with their flexibility, their adaptability to
different contextually determined groups, can be adapted to
suit a wide variety of populations.