1. Creating Speakers: 4) Assessments & Goals
Owennatekha (Brian Maracle)
A.N.L.R.I. Fairbanks
May 21-24, 2018

2. Montreal *
Six Nations *
Detroit *
Boston *
New
York *

3. 3 out of 6 languages still spoken 13,000 people living on-reserve
Six Nations
3 out of 6 languages still spoken
13,000 people living on-reserve
2 First-Language Mohawk speakers
(2,000 speakers live in the East)

4. Onkwawenna Kentyohkwa
(Our Language Society)
1999
Full-time adult immersion
Two years long
Prog. Co-ordinator
Founded with wife
Based on work of Kanatawakhon
Create “fluent” speakers
Like this one:

5. * Adult Immersion Program (Year 1 & Year 2)
* On-Line Program
* Youtube: onkwawenna kentyohkwa
* web:

6. Four Presentations
#1 Root-Word Method
#2 Simple-to-Complex Curriculum
#3 Teaching Method
#4 Assessments & Goals

7. Assessments are not a white man’s thing.

8. Think “Proficiency,” Not “Fluency.”

10. The Oral Proficiency Interview is a valuable tool because it assesses:
Students
Instructors
Programs

11. A..T.F.L. Proficiency Levels: Novice (Low, Mid, High)
Intermediate (Low, Mid, High)
Advanced (Low, Mid, High)
Superior
Distinguished

12. Novice Level Speakers
* speak in memorized words and phrases
* can not create language
* can not sustain a conversation

13. Intermediate Level Speakers
* speak in complete sentences
* can create language
* can sustain simple, basic conversations
on personal matters

14. Advanced Level Speakers
* speak in paragraphs of “interconnected
discourse”
* can make an argument and defend an opinion
* can sustain in-depth conversations
on a wide variety of subjects
* has full control over grammar and rarely makes
grammatical mistakes

15. A.C.T.F.L. classifies languages by how long it takes to learn them.
Group 1 are the languages that are grammatically closest to English:
French, Spanish, Italian
A highly-motivated adult student can become an Advanced Level French speaker
after 600 hours of instruction.

16. Annual Convention
New Orleans
Nov 16-18

17. Program Goals

18. 1st Year Program Goal:
Intermediate-Low
2nd Year Program Goal:
Advanced-Low

19. If you have set your program goal,
How long will it take to achieve it?
If your program has a pre-determined length,
What level of proficiency
can your students achieve?

22. Group 1 Languages: Spanish, French, Swedish
600 hours - Advanced High
Group 2 Languages: German, Greek, Hindi
1,320 hours - Advanced High/Superior
Group 3 Languages: Russian, Thai, Turkish
1,320 hours - Advanced High
Group 4 Languages: Japanese, Arabic, Korean
2,500 hours - Superior

23. Because there are so many levels (11),
A.C.T.FL. assessments are more precise and useful
than the European Framework
of Reference for Languages
(E.F.R.L.)

24. demo

25. Saving a Dying Language Isn’t Cheap
We didn’t lost the language overnight
and we won’t get it back overnight.
It will be expensive.
Saving a dying language isn’t cheap.
We pay our students $10 an hr, up to $300 a week but that’s less than minimum wage.
We have three and half teachers who are paid less than public schoolteachers.
Our budget this year is about $360,000.
We get no government funding.
It all comes from the community – ½ from elected band council
and one-half from the traditional chiefs.
In our first five years we got the local native job training agency to fund us on the same basis as they funded people to go to welding school. Students received a training allowance and we were paid so many dollars per student per day, the same as a welding school.

26. 2018-19 budget (if approved): $500,000 (No Government Funding)
* 1st & 2nd Year Program
* On-Line Program
* Third-Year Planning Project (Gov’t.)
* On-Line Transfer Project (Gov’t.)
* Verb Generator Project with N.R.C. (Gov’t)

27. Staff and Students are paid

28. Owennatekha (Brian Maracle)