Resumen de Language and literacy development in a Canadian native community: Halq'eméylem revitalization in a Stó:lō head start program in British Columbia.
Danièle Moore, Margaret Joan MacDonald
The following study is part of a larger community-based project that began in 2007 to document Halq'eméylem language and cultural transmission among Elders, family members, and teachers in the Stó:lō First Nation located in Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada (MacDonald et al., 2010; MacDonald et al., 2011). Within the larger project, this article focuses on Halq'eméylem language and literacy transmission and the ways that literacy practices, including the creation of a Halq'eméylem orthography, and theories of school-based second language acquisition have influenced language revitalization within a British Columbia Aboriginal Head Start program. Using ethnographic methods and grounded theory, findings illustrate how a lack of teacher fluency has influenced the transmission of Halq'eméylem by creating the need to rely on a unique bi-/multiliteracy base where environmental print, translated names, translated songs, and interactive text-based computer games are used to support Halq'eméylem language development among parents and teachers who are jointly and concurrently learning and teaching their ancestral language. The study is anchored in a critical perspective on multilingualism (Creese & Blackledge, 2010) that moves away from ideologized beliefs that linguistic systems should be strictly separated, including within second language classrooms (Cummins, 2008; Lüdi, 2003; Lüdi & Py, 2009; Moore & Gajo, 2009; Swain & Lapkin, 2005). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
