Why Is This So Hard?: Ideologies of Endangerment, Passive Language Learning Approaches, and Ojibwe in the United States

Abstract

This paper describes 3 language learning approaches common in many urban and rural Ojibwe communities, as well as the ideologies of endangerment that drive and sustain them. Drawing from collaborative language revitalization work with teachers, learners, and community leaders, we analyze some of the teaching and learning practices that lead to the common mismatch between language learner goals and expectations, on the one hand, and the outcomes of language learning, on the other. We outline how these 3 approaches to language learning relate to cultural identities and place-based notions of authenticity as well as to current findings in the field of second language acquisition. We then profile 2 speakers who have learned Ojibwe successfully as adults to illustrate how their success was possible largely because they were able to engage with the Ojibwe language in interactive ways that run counter to common language learning approaches. We suggest that for language revitalization efforts, and individual learners, to experience higher levels of success, greater attention needs to be paid to how ideologies of endangerment impact language learning approaches.

Key words:

• language revitalization
• reversing language shift
• Native American
• authenticity
• ideology
• identity

Notes

¹ First speakers is a term used in many communities to differentiate between those who have learned Ojibwe as a first language and those who have learned it as a second language, although there are many who fall somewhere in between this dichotomy, including those with passive or receptive skills only, latent speakers, and those who learned as a first language but have had to relearn the language as adults. In many communities, “First speakers” is often used instead of “native language speakers,” which can be ambiguous (e.g., native language vs. native speaker of a language).

² For instance, U.S. parents often report relying on small levels of Spanish-language input provided through television shows and books (including the very popular Dora-the-Explorer materials) to support language learning (King & Fogle, 2006).

³ Due to space constraints, we exclude discussion of Master-Apprentice programs, which pair novice and fluent speakers for extended periods of time. Learners generally benefit from immersion in the target language but also from modified, highly contextualized input and interaction. These programs are time and labor intensive and thus available to a small number of learners (Hinton, 1997).

⁴ Blood quantum laws have long been used in the United States to establish membership in specific Native American tribes or nations. While initially used by the federal government to determine eligibility for benefits in the early 1700s, for decades tribes have set their own guidelines to determine membership or enrollment. Blood quantum laws are generally recognized as divisive and a common source of individual disenfranchisement and group controversy.

⁵ Important speaking roles in these domains are restricted to men.