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Certified teachers to save endangered language
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Contact:
Ethel Gardner, 604.291.6795;
Ethel Gardner, 604.291.6795;
February 24, 2004
The Stó:lö nation’s endangered Halq’eméylem language may soon enjoy a renaissance thanks to an unusual partnership between SFU and the Stó:lö Nation. This month the Stó:lö celebrated the first graduates of a new certification program designed to preserve and teach Halq’eméylem in the B.C. school system.
Stó:lö member Ethel Gardner, a SFU assistant professor in the faculty of education, and her predecessor, professor Carolyn Kenny, established the three-year program. It incorporates language acquisition and cultural heritage courses at the Stó:lö Nation and then a customized 12-month SFU education program focusing on teaching techniques, foundation courses in education and a teaching practicum. Many of the participants, says Gardner, were already teaching Halq’émaylem on an ad hoc basis in the school system.
The new education program, taught by SFU education faculty in a classroom at the Stó:lö Nation, provides students with an accredited developmental standard terms certificate from the B.C. College of Teachers allowing them to teach in band and public schools in B.C.
"If we took these teachers away from the community to put them through a five-year university education program, the language might be gone because there are so few speakers left," explains Gardner. "The program is designed so that graduates may move on to eventually earn a full, professional teaching certificate and be able to teach across the curriculum in public schools."
The 15 currently enrolled in the program have already been teaching Halq’eméylem in a variety of band and public schools in the Fraser Valley. "These 15 are a group of people who have committed their lives to learning the language and then learning to become teachers of the language," says Gardner. "The hope is that at some point they will develop enough fluency in the language to be able to teach in the language."
-30-
Website:
B.C. College of Teachers; www.bcct.ca/
Stó:lö member Ethel Gardner, a SFU assistant professor in the faculty of education, and her predecessor, professor Carolyn Kenny, established the three-year program. It incorporates language acquisition and cultural heritage courses at the Stó:lö Nation and then a customized 12-month SFU education program focusing on teaching techniques, foundation courses in education and a teaching practicum. Many of the participants, says Gardner, were already teaching Halq’émaylem on an ad hoc basis in the school system.
The new education program, taught by SFU education faculty in a classroom at the Stó:lö Nation, provides students with an accredited developmental standard terms certificate from the B.C. College of Teachers allowing them to teach in band and public schools in B.C.
"If we took these teachers away from the community to put them through a five-year university education program, the language might be gone because there are so few speakers left," explains Gardner. "The program is designed so that graduates may move on to eventually earn a full, professional teaching certificate and be able to teach across the curriculum in public schools."
The 15 currently enrolled in the program have already been teaching Halq’eméylem in a variety of band and public schools in the Fraser Valley. "These 15 are a group of people who have committed their lives to learning the language and then learning to become teachers of the language," says Gardner. "The hope is that at some point they will develop enough fluency in the language to be able to teach in the language."
-30-
Website:
B.C. College of Teachers; www.bcct.ca/