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Abstract Bilingual education is thought to be one of the principal means of simultaneously revitalizing threatened language and preparing students for success in mainstream society. However, little research has examined, in a comprehensive and longitudinal fashion, bilingual programs in Aboriginal contexts. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to conduct a longitudinal analysis of the language skills of 110 Inuit students participating in an Inuktitut–English/French program in a remote Arctic community. Students’ skills in English or French improved from Grades 4–6, after a switch to second language instruction; whereas, their skills in Inuktitut showed no significant improvement across these grades. Baseline heritage language skills in Grade 3 were found to be predictive of later success in both the heritage and mainstream languages, providing evidence for cross-language transfer and pointing to the pivotal importance of heritage language instruction for Aboriginal students.
Usborne et al. (Thu,) studied this question.