Early Heritage-language Education and the Abrupt Shift to a Dominant language Classroom: Impact on the Personal and Collective Esteem of Inuit Children in Arctic Quebec  

Oleh:

Bougie, Evelyne ; Wright, Stephen C. ; Taylor, Donald M.

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism (Full Text) vol. 6 no. 5 (2003), page 349 — 373.
Topik: heritage-language education; self-esteem; Inuit children
Fulltext: Vol. 6, No. 5, 349-373.pdf (270.91KB)

Isi artikel

This research explored the impact of the abrupt shift from heritage-language to dominant- language education on Inuit children’s personal and collective self-esteem. Specifically, the following question was addressed: will early heritage-language education serve as an inoculation against the potential negative impact of being submerged in a dominant second-language environment, or will it just delay the negative impact of this submersion? Results show that the shift from heritage-language to dominant second-language instruction in Grade 3 was associated with a significant decrease in personal self-esteem.As for collective self-esteem,results show no effects of the abrupt shift into a dominant-language classroom. However, a clear pro-White bias for all Inuit children at both the fall and the spring of Grade 3 emerged. The results suggest that a more gradual introduction to the dominant language may be needed in order to protect minority-language children’s personal sense of self-worth. In addition, the data suggest that early heritage-language education did not prevent the development of negative collective self-views for Inuit children in the community and cannot fully protect children fromthe negative impact of late submersion in dominant second-language instruction. The implications for bilingual education programmes are discusse

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