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“Our number one goal is to create new speakers," says Donald Soctomah, the project administrator for a new language immersion school to teach the Passamaquoddy language to children ages 3 to 5. The tribe recently was awarded a three-year $750,000 grant for the program from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Native Americans.
"The Passamaquoddy language is endangered," Soctomah points out, noting that only about 10% of tribal members are fluent speakers. "Native language is the strong bond that ties a culture together."
Of keeping the language alive, Margaret Apt, who will be the program's project director, comments, "For us it's so important. We've lost so many speakers. No one under the age of 40 really speaks it. We're in real danger of losing this if we don't teach it, and it will be the children bringing it back."
The program aims to create a new generation of speakers through the immersion program. The classes will begin the first year with seven children at both Pleasant Point and Indian Township, and then the numbers will be doubled each year so that after three years there should be about 40 children who can speak the language.
Classes will start in January or February, and the children have already been signed up. The language immersion schools will be located in the Koluskap Community Center at Sipayik and at The Pines at Indian Township. In the school, the children will be taught games and will use the Passamaquoddy language in the games.
"Their minds are like sponges and adapt to languages faster," says Soctomah. He notes that studies have shown that children who learn two languages perform better and that the learning of a second language "doesn't slow them down" in learning other material. "If you can speak two languages, you have a larger view of the world," he notes.
"People in the community will have the opportunity to be part of this," Soctomah points out. The program will reach out to the children's parents so that they can become active participants in helping the children learn. After speaking only Passamaquoddy for four hours in the immersion program, Soctomah hopes that the children will go home and the learning will be reinforced by the parents, whether they are tribal or non-tribal members.
"The hope is to get the parents involved," Apt says, with the children teaching their parents, who also will be given language materials to help them learn. She says people in the community are excited about the immersion program. "People have said they feel the need to get the language back."
Presently children attending the schools at Sipayik and Indian Township are taught about tribal culture and just basic Passamaquoddy terms. Soctomah notes that the U.S. Congress has been considering funding for language immersion programs for tribal schools, and if that funding comes through "we'll have the curriculum developed that the school can incorporate into the school system."
According to a survey conducted last year, about 10% of the tribal members are fluent in the language, and most of them are over the age of 60. About half of the tribal members who are ages 30 through 60 are considered "fluent comprehenders," and later on the project will be working with them to help them with speaking the language.
Reasons for the decline in the number of tribal members fluent in the language include cultural and societal changes such as television. Also, Soctomah observes that the current generation of parents and grandparents may be trying to protect their children so that they don't have to endure the trauma that they suffered when they were looked down upon by non-Natives when they spoke in their Native language. "Parents started speaking the language just to their parents and not with their children," he notes.
Apt, who is one of the co-authors of the Passamaquoddy-Maliseet dictionary, will also be the lead master speaker teacher, with Gracie Davis and Eleanor Stevens as the master speakers. Language apprentices are Seana Tompkins, Plansowes Dana, Newell Lewey and Stephanie Francis. They are now taking part in a three-month training program. "We have good people in place to do this," notes Apt.
Among the consultants who will assist in teaching language immersion techniques are linguist Robert Leavitt, another co-author of the Passamaquoddy-Maliseet dictionary, Passamaquoddy language educator Wayne Newell and Ben Levine and Julia Schulz of Speaking Place of Rockland, which manages projects in the areas of endangered language documentation and revival and community education, along with others who specialize in teaching language immersion for children.
Another part of the grant will focus on upgrading the Passamaquoddy-Maliseet audio-dictionary, which is one of the largest audio-dictionaries in the country. The Passamaquoddy-Maliseet Language Portal links the 19,000-word online dictionary with over 100 videos of conversations and activities of Passamaquoddy-Maliseet speakers. It will be made more interactive and will have a larger video screen. Lesson plans and more videos will be added, and for the children's language immersion program cartoons will be used. The portal is located at <www.pmportal.org>.
"I think my language is beautiful and will share it with anybody," says Apt. She stresses the importance of teaching the language, "so that when I cross over, it will be here with the next generation and they will carry it on." |
