Is early immersion effective for Aboriginal language acquisition? A case study from an Anishinaabemowin kindergarten

Abstract

ABSTRACT Indigenous people in North America and around the world are in dire circumstances with respect to language maintenance and cultural continuation. However, Indigenous communities are also taking back increasing control of the education of their children. In so doing, they are frequently exploring culture-based education and language immersion models as a means of perpetuating language by passing it on to the youngest generation. This is the goal of the Mnidoo Mnising Anishinabek Kinoomaage Gaming (MMAK) Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe) immersion school on Manitoulin Island. In this paper, we describe the linguistic results of early years education at the MMAK. We begin with a description of the development of the MMAK and share its successes and challenges in the framework of larger policy developments in the region. We then discuss the linguistic outcomes thus far for students in the MMAK; having collected data with Junior and Senior Kindergarten students over the past two years using multiple assessment methods, we have been able to establish clear patterns with respect to the impact of Anishinaabemowin language immersion on the language development of these students. Finally, we explore how Aboriginal language immersion may be a tool for language revitalization for this and other communities.