“Language Immersion Tepee” as a Facilitator of Sámi Language Learning

Abstract

Due to the history of assimilation, power relations, and their sociolinguistic situation, the Sámi languages are categorized as endangered. The position of the Sámi languages in Sámi education is reviewed, and language immersion as a teaching method and as a means of language maintenance is discussed. Sámi language learning is described through the theoretical model of a “Language Immersion Tepee,” adapted from an idea in which the pupil advances to more and more skillful levels in language proficiency through affective, social, cognitive, and practical learning and in which the status of the language, the community context, and indigenous epistemology are taken into consideration. This model was created for use in situations in which the reality of Sámi teaching is diverse and complicated.

Keywords:

• indigenous epistemology
• Sámi people
• Sámi language teaching
• indigenous language maintenance
• indigenous language immersion