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Monday, MordH 4, 1964Educator Finds Teaching Isi Two Languages Is BestBy JOAN RYANAssistant Professor of Education University of AlaskaWhen people from two different cultures speak the same language, there is often room for misunderstanding flue to cultural connotations of given symbols.But when two people from dissimilar cultures speak different languages and are forced to communicate through an interpreter, the problems are even more complex, Perhaps the most complex of communication problems arise when one person has learned sufficient of the second’s symbols to communicate11 but not necessarily to understand the bases of thesymbols.Such is often the case in the north when an Eskimo or Indian has learned English but speaks it from his own cultural standpoint.The words simply do not mean the same thing to the native and the non-native speakers who are at-tnmrvt^cT to communicate due tottie cultural contexts each gives theterms used.Second LanguageThus much misunderstanding is engendered. The additional problem which is inherent in such contacts too is the “feeling” that underlies the need to learn a second language in order to meet one's basic needs. Often there is resentment due not to the learning of the second language but to the necessity of obliterating the first.Why does such a situation exist? Tn an era when people are spending many leisure hours attempting to learn a second language, when university students at the graduatelevel are being asked to show proficiency in three, if not four languages. why is a group who could easily be bilingual being urged toforget their language and learn anew one?The genesis of the situation datesback many years when the concept of assimilation, then meaning the superimposing of one culture (Western! over another (Eskimo and Indian). had as its first goal the removal of native languages.Link of CultureAfter all. people without a language of their own have no vehicle for the transmission of their culture, Therefore if you want to destroy a major part of the culture, you simply have to remove the means by which it is transmittedfrom the old to the young.If the coming generation cannot understand the elders and there is no written language, the latter are left to reminisce among themselves and the young must find new directions from the superimposed culture.Indeed the method worked ir Alaska with the exception of a few villages and without the realization of many genuine people who helped the process along,The recognition that a culture and a language (indeed several) as well as a spirit of identification and ethnic pride have been destroyed has come too late to be useful. In the few remaining villages with native speakers, the linguists will make their recordings and bemoan the passing of another generation.However, in a few places in Alaska and in many villages in the north of Canada there is still a nucleus of native speakers. It is as a plea for the preservation of these remaining traces that I recount the following positive and enlightening experience I had when I taught for the Department of Northern Affairs in the Northwest Territories of Canada.Difficult CommunicationWhen I first joined the Department in 1957 I was assigned as com-1♦—-— — ,munity teacher to a small isolated village of Athabascan Indians just northwest of Yellowknife. My job at Lac La Malt re was to teach basic English, a basic primary program. and to help raise the standard of living through village projects.I was instructed that I was never to speak a word of Indian in the classroom or in the village as this would decrease the motivation of the people to learn English. And so I wont through the difficult process of attempting to teach children to count in English when they had not yet learned to count in Indian!Among the adults, I used an interpreter and the results were more fruitful; several village projects were completed and yet there was little sense of communication. It is difficult to know what people think and feel, what makes them laugh or cry when one has to use an interpreter who in this case was barely understandable. And so the months went on with much lack of understanding between us for we had no real way to communicate.Less ArduousBy the second summer, T decided that I would adhere to Departmental policy as far as the classroom went but that T would learn to communicate in Indian outside the school. So, I began to carry copious notes with my written approximations of Dogrib on them.My ear was never quite accurate and the process was a slow one. However, at the end of four months T could manage without an interpreter for day to day matters,I reverted to a translator when a crisis arose, someone was ill with internal complications etc. But. Idid sense in those few months a new respect among the people which reflected itself in their willingness to cooperate even when they did not fully understand the project or the method.Evening hours became filled withstories and pleasant conversations with much effort on the part of the people to help me understand words 1 had not yet learned. For example, upon several occasions one of (he Council members would do a pantomime of an animal until it registered with me and I couldidentify it.And the process became a reciprocal one: many of the adults found themselves greeting me in English or asking to borrow an item which they named in English. All of us felt pleased with ourselves and with each other. The tasks became (ess arduous, the days brighter and ►he pattern of human relationships warmer and more trusting.New Difficulty I was assigned to the Arctic Education Section when I returned to head office in the fall of 1958, In May. 1959. I went to Ungava Bayto teach in the Eskimo fish camps. This time communication waseven more difficult as I had no interpreter and no one spoke any English. I taught Basic English and learned a few words of Eskimo but not many due to the lack of someone to explain what the words meant.It was a good way to learn how difficult it is to learn a new language if the person is not familiar with the underlying concepts. Yet this was what we were asking the children to do.Effective WayTn September I returned to Ottawa, convinced that the most effective way of teaching would be to use both languages. In this way, the children (and adults) would have only to learn a new symbol for a concept they already knew, (Continued on Page Five)
Newspaper Details
Tundra Times
Fairbanks, Alaska, US
Mon, Mar 04, 1963
Page 2
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USA 13 Apr 2022
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