By GINNIE GRAHAM
Tulsa World
2/9/2003
TAHLEQUAH -- Three-year-old Kenny Sohns points to his lunch tray and uses Cherokee and English words to describe what he is eating.
When he spills his milk, he uses the mix of words to explain what happened. His teacher Lula Elk just smiles and answers in Cherokee, telling him to help clean up the mess.
"To hear them say new words in Cherokee tickles me," Elk said.
Even though Kenny speaks English with his parents, he is beginning to use the Cherokee vocabulary spoken to him at school. He is part of the first class planned for a Cherokee language immersion school.
The Cherokee syllabary, an 86-character alphabet created in 1821 by Sequoyah, is located in three areas of the room. Pictures of animals with their corresponding Cherokee names hang on a wall in the reading area.
Children end story time with a song in Cherokee about weather, sung to a tune similar to "London Bridge."
Items such as chairs and tables are labeled in Cherokee, and Elk speaks only Cherokee to the children.
"I believe culture and religion all go with language," she said. "If you lose language, you will eventually lose it all."
The preschool has 10 children. Tribal officials want to add another class next year.
"Our goal is to produce native speakers," said Gloria Sly, the interim director of the Cherokee Nation's cultural resource center.
"We want to hear the language again. We want to hear it at Wal-Mart, bingo halls, community groceries and church. We want it used robustly in meetings and in social situations."
Planning the school: The tribe started the program with $150,000 for staff and supplies. It plans to expand the program each year.
It is the first American Indian-language immersion program in Oklahoma.
Other native language programs exist in other states. The Blackfeet tribe in Montana teaches kindergarten through eighth grade in its language. One Mississippi program teaches preschool in Choctaw.
A study funded by a federal grant and released in August examined the current rate of Cherokee-language proficiency and developed a long-range plan to revitalize the language.
"We use the word 'revitalize' because we still have a language," tribal development director Margaret Raymond said.
"We are not just preserving the language. Preservation is something you do to keep in a museum or in archives. We want to revitalize, or energize, the language to use it daily."
A Cherokee-language immersion school for children from age 4 through sixth grade is planned for completion in 2012. It will have an estimated 20 students per grade for a total of about 160.
The school is being established through Cherokee Nation Education Corp., which is a nonprofit corporation chartered under tribal code.
The plan to is add a new grade to the school each year starting in 2004. Next year, tribal officials want to add 10 more children to round out the 2004 class entering kindergarten.
"We want to get a mix of ages and levels," Sly said. "Kids learn from each other. So the various levels can be beneficial."
Sly estimates the annual operation of the completed school would cost $2 million to $3 million. She said the cost for a building for the school would be about $4.5 million. The site has not been selected.
The tribe wants to establish the program as a charter school, which would allow state funding without heavy state regulation.
But the state's charter school law is limited to areas at least 500,000 people. Tulsa and Oklahoma City are the only areas that fit that description.
Tribal officials are working with the state Education Department to explore other possibilities through the law. If not, they may seek to change it.
"We are analyzing the wording because we want to open it up to ourselves and other tribes and not let it be so limiting," Sly said.
Immersion benefits: Several studies of immersion language programs have shown that their students equal or surpass non-immersion students in measures of verbal and mathematical skills.
It has been shown that students may become fluent in a foreign language by the third grade. But educators suggest continuing with language courses in later academic years.
Tulsa Public Schools was a pioneer in the state with a Spanish immersion program about 20 years ago. The program grew and was moved to Eisenhower International School in 1991.
The school added a French immersion program in 1992.
The immersion programs were expanded through the middle school years in 1998 at Thoreau Demonstration Academy.
"English will always be the dominant language; it is not going away," Sly said. "They are going to learn English, no matter what. In other countries, a person is not considered educated unless that person knows two or three languages."
Cherokee officials have modeled their program after Hawaiian language schools, established in 1984 with a preschool immersion class of 12.
The Hawaiian effort was started in 1983 by seven Hawaiian teachers to increase the use of the Hawaiian language, which previously was taught only as a foreign language at the University of Hawaii.
After winning a legal challenge to win the same legal status as other foreign language public schools, the Hawaiian language program has grown to 123 schools ranging from preschool through university studies.
"I think (the Hawaiian model) fits in with our culture," Sly said. "It was a grass-roots movement and started out with preschool, and that is what we need to do. The Hawaiians have been very, very encouraging toward us."
Teacher challenge: The challenge for the budding school is finding teachers. Native speakers may need to be trained in linguistics and early childhood education.
Elk grew up speaking Cherokee. She needed an English translator when she entered public school, but she eventually learned to speak both languages fluently.
She continues to take both linguistics and early childhood development courses offered through university workshops.
"I never knew how complicated the language was because I never thought about it before," Elk said.
"The children are coming in here with no idea what is said. But I use a lot of facial expressions and acting out. It doesn't take very long for them to catch on."
School officials have been developing a curriculum with university professors and experts in linguistics, early childhood devel opment and secondary education.
Sly said native speakers might not want to attend the extra classes or work with young children.
"To have someone come into a job and work with children at that age is very exhausting," she said. "It will be difficult, but we're working on several recruitment ideas. We are developing the right teacher recruiting program and curriculum and employing the appropriate teachers for the grade level."
Assessments and parents: To assess the program, the tribe has been working with Tracy Hirata-Eds, a childhood language development graduate student from the University of Kansas, for more than one year.
Hirata-Eds does not speak Cherokee but has been part of the classroom almost each day and has begun some testing measurements. The assessments will measure students' progress in various academic and behavioral skills.
The evaluations will help determine the needs of the child and assess the success of the teaching methods.
"We want to get everything documented," Sly said. "If you don't have it on paper, it is like it didn't happen. We want to develop the evaluation for accountability purposes."
The school also plans to offer courses to parents and other adults.
Sly said children tend to pick up on the language easier, but that's because they are immersed in it all day.
"If their parents were here eight hours a day, they might be as proficient," she said. "But we've got to do more work with the parents. They can work more with their children at home with their daily routines. But a lot of parents work and that makes it more difficult."
Sly said she was confident that future assessments will show academic and social benefits for the students.
"Our language is a descriptive language," she said. "They are big concepts contained in big words. It is a circular way of thinking, and English is more linear.
"Students will have not just one language to draw upon, but two in order to express ideas."