A Review of the Research Literature on the Influences of Culturally Based Education on the Academic Performance of Native American Students. Final Paper.

Abstract

as ‘bilingual education is better than...’ We have attempted to show that at Rock Point, Navajo students who had received bilingual education did better on standardized achievement tests than did Navajo students at comparable schools who had received English-language-only instruction...” (p. 3). The authors go on to point out that there are a number of other factors associated with the Rock Point program, all or any of which could explain the observed results. They say: “One cannot prove that the incorporation of Navajo language instruction into the Rock Point program caused these results. We must admit that the use of the Navajo language ...is part of a mix that includes...increased community control, increased parental involvement, increased number of Navajo and community teachers, intensive EFL activities, ongoing evaluation, and intensive and extensive NLT and ELT training” (p. 29). Study 6: Wright, S.C., Taylor, D., & Macarthur, J. (2000). Subtractive bilingualism and the survival of the Inuit language: Heritage versus second-language education. Journal of Educational Psychology, 92(1), 63–84. Description. This study examined the validity of a “subtractive bilingualism” and issues of language instruction and heritage language development in Native children. Briefly, “subtractive bilingualism” holds that increasing acquisition of a second, socially dominant language, corresponds with a slowing or reversing of competence in the heritage language. The study was conducted with Inuit children of Northern Quebec, kindergarten through grade two. The school and community in this setting offered some unique features for research. First, the community was reported to be very homogeneous. All children in the sample spoke their Native language (Inuttitut) as their first language. Additional groups for comparison were children whose first language was French or English. Second, the community is relatively isolated and there was homogeneity of background and social experiences in the sample. Third, the school offered parents three choices of language of instruction programs—Inuttitut, English, and French—for the first three years of schooling (kindergarten through grade two). Fourth, language programs were offered in the same school. Beginning in grade three, children were in either an English or French language of instruction program. The study was longitudinal using cohorts of children over three years. The setting for this study may have allowed for a degree of control for teacher, school, and home background effects. The independent variable was language of instruction— Inuttitut, English, or French. Assignment to groups was a function of parent choice. The dependent variables were measures of language competence in the three languages. For each language, a series of tests were developed in the project to measure general language proficiency, conversational language proficiency, and academic language proficiency. Tests were administered at the beginning and end of kindergarten through grade two, six administrations altogether. Data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance and covariance. Scores on the measures were similar across groups at the beginning of kindergarten. By the end of grade two, the major findings were that children in the Inuttitut program scored higher than children in the other two programs in Inuttitut tests, and Inuttitut language

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