"If They Want Navajo to Be Learned, Then They Should Require It in All Schools": Navajo Teenagers' Experiences, Choices, and Demands Regarding Navajo Language

"If They Want Navajo to Be Learned, Then They Should Require It in All Schools":Navajo Teenagers' Experiences, Choices, and Demands Regarding Navajo Language Tiffany S. Lee (bio) Introduction When I was a middle school student in the interior region of the Navajo Nation in the early 1980s, all my peers' first language was Navajo. Their choice in school at that time was to speak Navajo among themselves and with Navajo teachers. When I became a high school teacher on the reservation some fifteen years later, my students mostly spoke English with one another. Even if they spoke Navajo well, their language of choice in school was English. Yet, from my conversations with them, I knew that they were proud of their heritage and strong in their conviction that the Navajo language is important to know and understand. At a time when schools were eagerly trying to promote the Navajo language and federal programs supported these endeavors, Navajo teenagers were choosing not to speak Navajo, at least not publicly in school. Today more Navajo teenagers come to school with less Navajo fluency or with English as their only language. My personal and professional observations and experiences with language loss prompted my interest in what was going on in Navajo high schools and especially in what was influencing Navajo teenagers' choices in their language. The high school I attended greatly valued the Navajo language and provided for Navajo language learning in all facets of curriculum and school events. I knew a school could have a positive impact on language learning because it did for me and my peers. The purpose of this [End Page 7] research study is to contribute to efforts at language revitalization by understanding Navajo teenagers' language learning experiences and choices, and so better identify strategies for intervention at the high school level. The student quoted in the title of this article suggested that Navajo be required in all schools. At the high school level, the question remains how and to what extent Navajo language can and should be taught. One hour a day in a separate Navajo language class is typical at the high school level.1 Even with this limited level of contact, the schools in my study still had a positive impact on students' language levels and usage. This suggests that, with more thoughtful and comprehensive intervention strategies, schools can have a larger and more meaningful impact. The rapid language shift2 that is occurring in the Navajo Nation makes such interventions vital. Given these linguistic and cultural changes within the Navajo Nation, the research question addressed in this study is "What influences Navajo teenagers to learn and use Navajo language?" My interest in teenagers stems from the fact that we know the least about them. There are common perceptions, which research supports, that among Navajo children the language is vanishing.3 The Navajo tribal government, educators, and community people have been putting much time and effort into developing truly bilingual teaching and language revitalization programs over the years. For example, bilingual education has been interpreted as a means to maintain Navajo language.4 Navajo people and educators of Navajo children concerned with maintaining Navajo language have created schools that use Navajo as the medium of instruction in an effort to help Navajo children become literate in Navajo language.5 They have developed teacher-training programs for Navajo teachers' aides to become certified and endorsed in bilingual or English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) education.6 The tribal government has established an education policy that all schools must teach Navajo language and culture, but their power to enforce the policy is limited. Consequently, the tribe has recently established a more powerful Department of Diné Education in an attempt to gain more control over Navajo education and schools by shifting the responsibilities of the state to this department.7 These reinforcement and revitalization efforts demonstrate the attempts to address the problem that the tribal government and people see with language loss. Personally, I am also concerned with language loss, and this was the position I brought to the study. My perspective is shaped by the fact that I am a Navajo woman, a parent of Navajo...