ABSTRACT

The growing demand for Indigenous language education in the United States often relies on community teachers with widely varying proficiencies as part of local language reclamation efforts. While these English-dominant ‘teacher-learners’ play a central role in the success of classroom-based K-12 language programs, their classroom experiences and practices have received little attention in second language acquisition research. I address this gap in the literature by examining an English-dominant Ojibwe teacher-learner’s pedagogical practices in an English-dominant tribal school. I theorise the use of colonial language and materials by relying on linguistic ethnography’s multi-scalar approach to language in use as well as a focus on sign-makers’ transformations of local resources. Findings show how the teacher-learner’s reliance on relational knowledge and colonial language framing scaffolds translingual practices and opens up discursive space for learners to experiment, play, and learn. This study highlights how one teacher-learner negotiates the ideological and material conditions that shape the learning and use of an Indigenous language within a colonial institution (school) that has long been a tool of assimilation and erasure.

摘要

美国对土著语言教育日益增长的需求通常依赖于熟练程度各不相同的社区教师，作为当地语言恢复工作的一部分。虽然这些以英语为主导的“教师-学习者”在基于课堂的 K-12 语言课程的成功中发挥着核心作用，但他们的课堂经验和实践在第二语言习得研究中很少受到关注。我通过检查英语占主导地位的 Ojibwe 教师-学习者在英语占主导地位的部落学校的教学实践来解决文献中的这一空白。我依靠语言民族志对使用中的语言的多标量方法以及对标志制作者对当地资源的转变的关注，对殖民语言和材料的使用进行了理论化。研究结果表明，教师-学习者对关系知识和殖民语言框架的依赖如何支撑跨语言实践，并为学习者提供实验、游戏和学习的话语空间。这项研究强调了一个教师-学习者如何在长期以来一直是同化和擦除工具的殖民机构（学校）内协商塑造土著语言学习和使用的意识形态和物质条件。