The Role of Adult Immersion in Kanien’kéha Revitalization

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dc.contributor.advisor Saft, Scott L.
dc.contributor.advisor Wilson, William H.
dc.contributor.author DeCaire, Ryan Oheróhskon
dc.contributor.department Indigenous Language and Culture Revitalization
dc.date.accessioned 2023-06-23T22:22:01Z
dc.date.available 2023-06-23T22:22:01Z
dc.date.issued 2023-05
dc.description.degree Ph.D.
dc.identifier.uri https://hdl.handle.net/10790/42513
dc.subject Linguistics
dc.subject Native American studies
dc.subject Foreign language education
dc.subject adult immersion
dc.subject adult language learning
dc.subject Indigenous language revitalization
dc.subject Kanien’kéha (Mohawk)
dc.subject language vitality
dc.subject second-language acquisition
dc.title The Role of Adult Immersion in Kanien’kéha Revitalization
dc.type Thesis
dcterms.abstract In the face of colonial efforts to extinguish Indigenous language and culture, Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk people) have been working to revitalize Kanien’kéha (the Mohawk language) since the 1970s. However, Kanien’kéha continues to experience greater speaker loss than gain. Through a comprehensive vitality assessment, this dissertation examines the continued causes of Kanien’kéha decline and argues that adult second-language (L2) speakers play a crucial role in revitalization as they are essential for establishing critical speech domains, populating language revitalization structures, and restoring intergenerational language transmission. Kanien’kehá:ka have created full-time adult immersion programs that are uniquely designed to create advanced young adult L2 speakers. This dissertation highlights adult immersion as the most effective and expedient pathway to create speakers, and argues that concentrated efforts to strengthen, expand, and perfect adult immersion are essential in advancing Kanien’kéha revitalization. The foundational components of an effective adult immersion program are described, as well as the challenges that these programs continue to face. As an applied contribution, this dissertation also provides a scope and sequenced curriculum organized into structurally-based units for the second-year of Kanien’kéha immersion programming, a period in program delivery that moves L2 speakers from intermediate to advanced speaking proficiency. Overall, this work seeks to increase recognition and understanding of the importance of adult immersion programs for so that they can become more prominent and stable institutions in strategies to revitalize Indigenous languages.
dcterms.language en
dcterms.publisher University of Hawaii at Hilo
dcterms.rights All UHH dissertations and theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission from the copyright owner.
dcterms.type Text
local.identifier.alturi http://dissertations.umi.com/hilo.hawaii:10237
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