The Canadian Modern Language Review
Volume 73, Issue 4
Read online: http://bit.ly/cmlr734
Special Issue: Indigenous Language Teaching, Learning, and Identities / Langues autochtones : enseignement, apprentissage, identités
Articles
Beautiful Words: Enriching and Indigenizing Kwak’wala Revitalization through Understandings of Linguistic Structure
Trish Rosborough, chuutsqa Layla Rorick, Suzanne Urbanczyk
British Columbia (BC), Canada, is home to 34 Indigenous languages, all of them classified as endangered. Considerable work is underway by First Nation communities to revitalize their languages. Linguists classify many of the languages of BC as polysynthetic, meaning that words are composed of many morphemes, or units of meaning. While strong fluent speakers and linguists who work with these languages have knowledge and appreciation of these units of meaning, those understandings are often not reflected in the approaches for teaching and learning BC languages. Drawing on examples from Kwak’wala, a language of coastal BC, we discuss how an Indigenized approach to language revitalization can recognize and respect the highly regarded ancestral origins and messages about identity that are reflected within the language. In developing understanding of the morphemes of the language, learners can grasp literal meanings and metaphors embedded in Kwak’wala words, leading to deeper understandings of Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw worldview and appreciation of the beauty of the language. In addition, learners can be supported to use morphemes as building blocks in their language learning. Rather than memorizing words and phrases, learners can be encouraged to listen for and use the morphemes they know to understand and produce new words and phrases.
Read online: http://bit.ly/cmlr734a
Transformational Bilingual Learning: Re-Engaging Marginalized Learners through Language, Culture, Community, and Identity
Shelley Tulloch, Adriana Kusugak, Cayla Chenier, Quluaq Pilakapsi, Gloria Uluqsi, Fiona Walton
The Miqqut project was a participatory action research project through which Inuit language and literacy learning was embedded in a traditional skills program. Community-based researchers tracked learners’ progress through entrance, exit, and post-program interviews and questionnaires, as well as through participant observation. Results show that participants became more willing to communicate and improved in Inuktitut language and literacy. The program built strong identities and relational networks. Participants became anchored in lifelong learning as they gained confidence in contexts within which they would continue to practise and develop what they had learned.
Read online: http://bit.ly/cmlr734b
Translanguaging on Facebook: Exploring Australian Aboriginal Multilingual Competence in Technology-Enhanced Environments and Its Pedagogical Implications
Rhonda Oliver, Bich Nguyen
In this study, we explore how Aboriginal multilingual speakers use technology-enhanced environments, specifically Facebook, for their translanguaging practices. Using data collected from Facebook posts written by seven Aboriginal youth over a period of 18 months, we investigate how the participants move between Aboriginal English (AE) and Standard Australian English (SAE) creatively and strategically to express humour and group membership, and to identify as an Aboriginal person. We also observe how these practices have the potential to enhance rather than detract from their development of SAE. The findings of the study have important implications for teaching bilingual and bidialectal speakers in general and AE speakers in particular, highlighting the importance of creating a translanguaging space to enable them to maximize their knowledge and understanding of different subject matter and develop competencies in their various linguistic codes.
Read online: http://bit.ly/cmlr734c
Ten Years of Mi’gmaq Language Revitalization Work: A Non-Indigenous Applied Linguist Reflects on Building Research Relationships
Mela Sarkar
Language revitalization work at one First Nation in eastern Canada has been ongoing for over two decades. Several approaches have been put in place: core teaching of Mi’gmaq as a primary school subject, language documentation and the creation of an online dictionary, and an Elders’ focus group on language, as well other shorter-term projects. In 2006, a group of university researchers was invited to collaborate with local Mi’gmaq language instructors who were trying out an image-based way of introducing adult community members to their language. After 10 years of continuous community–university contact, from 2006 to 2016, a non-Indigenous researcher reflects on the involvement of the academic applied linguist outsider in a constantly changing learning process.
Read online: http://bit.ly/cmlraop_f
Syilx Language House: How and Why We Are Delivering 2,000 Decolonizing Hours in Nsyilxcn
Sʔímlaʔxw Michele K. Johnson
The Syilx Language House has completed two years of a four-year, 2,000-hour program to create new adult Nsyilxcn speakers, based on Syilx communities’ specific priorities. Our critically endangered status requires radically decolonizing teaching techniques. Nsyilxcn (Okanagan) teachers are learners, trained to deliver sequenced curriculum in full immersion using cutting-edge teaching techniques. Teachers employ strategies that prioritize effective immersion, frequent assessment, and a high level of classroom safety. This article shares our story, applied teaching methods, student testimonials, community feedback, and our 2020 Plan. After completing our second year, students have completed 900 hours of intensive immersion. Students state that our teaching methods are the fastest, most effective language learning they have ever experienced. After four years, students will emerge as mid- to high-intermediate speakers, capable of bringing language into homes, teaching new cohorts of adults, and creating immersion workplaces.
Read online: http://bit.ly/cmlraop_c
The Role of Pronunciation in SENĆOŦEN Language Revitalization
Sonya Bird, Sarah Kell
Most Indigenous language revitalization programs in Canada currently emphasize spoken language. However, virtually no research has been done on the role of pronunciation in the context of language revitalization. This study set out to gain an understanding of attitudes around pronunciation in the SENĆOŦEN-speaking community, in order to determine what role pronunciation should play in language revitalization and how best to strike a balance between remaining faithful to the Elders’ ways of speaking and allowing the language to change as new generations become fluent. The survey clearly showed that pronunciation is very important to the SENĆOŦEN language community, as a means of supporting communication as well as for cultural and social reasons. Several specific areas of concern came up with respect to pronunciation, as did more general challenges to learning SENĆOŦEN. Addressing pronunciation challenges involves two broad strategies: raising awareness about the types of variation considered acceptable in the SENĆOŦEN-speaking community, and addressing the types of variation that can be corrected with appropriate support. These views will lay the foundation for future pronunciation-related work on SENĆOŦEN, facilitating ongoing collaborative projects between community-based teachers and learners and university-based linguists.
Read online: http://bit.ly/cmlraop_e
Négociation et reconfiguration des identités en classe de Langues et Cultures Nationales au Cameroun
Gilbert Daouaga Samari, Léonie Métangmo-Tatou
Les langues d’origine camerounaise ou langues autochtones sont enseignées sous l’appellation officielle de Langues et Cultures Nationales (LCN) dans des établissements d’enseignement secondaire pilotes du pays. En les intégrant dans l’éducation, l’État voudrait protéger et promouvoir son patrimoine linguistique et culturel qui semble menacé de disparition. Cet article se propose d’étudier comment, dans des classes où cette nouvelle discipline est enseignée, le non-respect de certains rituels pédagogiques par les apprenants, avec ou non la permission de l’enseignant, ouvre des séquences dans lesquelles les identités de ces acteurs de classe se complexifient, se négocient et se reconfigurent. En effet, à ces moments de déritualisation, lorsque certains rôles de l’enseignant sont joués par un apprenant, celui-ci se positionne pour un temps comme « enseignant » de la salle, ce qui finit par le motiver. C’est souvent le cas quand l’enseignant demande à un apprenant d’utiliser une langue nationale (c’est-à-dire une langue locale) ou de parler des pratiques culturelles non connues de cet enseignant. Toutefois, l’enseignant, dans ses tentatives de négocier son identité, a recours à des stratégies qui lui permettent de reprendre son expertise. Ce travail repose sur une enquête essentiellement qualitative menée dans un établissement d’enseignement des LCN à Ngaoundéré.
Read online: http://bit.ly/cmlraop_b
Book and Software Reviews / Critiques de livres et de logiciels
rémi a. van compernolle et janice mcgregor (dirs.) Authenticity, Language and Interaction in Second Language Contexts
Isabelle Pierozak
Read online: http://bit.ly/cmlr734h
icy lee Classroom Writing Assessment and Feedback in L2 School Contexts
Zhicheng Mao, Lin Jiang
Read online: http://bit.ly/cmlr734i
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