Creating a Language Learning Environment: Salt River...Pima-Maricopa Indain Community...Language Program

Jeffrey P. Shepherd, University of Texas at El Paso

Abstract

This article analyzes a language revitalization program implemented in an elementary classroom on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, outside of Phoenix, Arizona. The authors created the program under the assumption that classroom pedagogy cannot help students learn their native language without everyday usage of the O'odham and Pipash languages at home. The authors provide the social and historical context for the community, and the language policies applied to the two tribes, and then they provide a detailed look at strenghts and weaknesses of implementing a language community model in the classroom. In addition, the authors discuss the importance of family, non-school involvement with elementary student language acquisition.