The Canadian Modern Language Review / La revue canadienne des langues vivantes

Sequenced curriculum and lesson plans

In the Syilx Language House we follow a sequenced curriculum with detailed lesson plans. Co-teachers and students meet for two full days a week from 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m., with a lunch hour and two breaks; there are 11 hours of instruction per week. Two teachers deliver the material, taking turns in half-hour blocks.

I cannot overstate the importance of sequenced curriculum as a support to both learners and teachers. Without curriculum, the teacher has no support or structure, and lessons can devolve into speaking English or talking "about" language rather than doing language (Maracle & Richards, 2000; Nicholson, 1990; Richards & Maracle, 2002). In critically endangered languages, learners must become teachers (Hinton, 2003). This is an undisputed reality as our precious Elder speakers disappear. The role of a language teacher is to provide plentiful language input that is meaningful, comprehensible, and grammatically accurate. It is nearly impossible for beginner-speaking teachers to provide grammatically correct input to students unless [End Page 515] they are following a sequenced curriculum designed for learners to teach.

I know of two examples of a curriculum designed for beginner teachers: the Nsyilxcn Curriculum and the Chief Atahm school curriculum, discussed below. The Nsyilxcn Curriculum has six textbooks, audio, teaching materials, teaching methods, and teacher training, following what is known by its teachers and developers as the Direct Acquisition method, described below. The six textbooks are outlined in Table 1. Grammar is introduced sequentially in the six textbooks. The choice and ordering of the grammatical concepts, vocabulary, and example sentences was made by Christopher Parkin and Sʕamtíc̓aʔ Sarah Peterson. Chris was a Spanish teacher for 20 years before becoming an Nsyilxcn learner and curriculum developer; Sʕamtíc̓aʔ is a fluent Elder and speaker of two Interior Salish languages as well as English.

Something to keep in mind when deciding which order to introduce the grammatical structures in one's own language is that the needs of learners and teachers are quite different from the descriptive systems of linguists. For teachers it is important to teach one thing at a time. As teachers who are beginners ourselves, we are tasked with understanding a new grammatical structure enough to deliver it to the students. When I asked Chris Parkin how he chose the order of the grammatical structures, he told me that he himself was a beginner when he started writing the textbooks and was delivering the grammatical structures in the order that he himself was able to understand them.

Vocabulary items for Book 1 were chosen for the 45 lessons based on common objects and activities from daily life. Vocabulary items for Book 2 are from sentences from 16 traditional stories told as simply as possible by a fluent Elder speaker. Grammatical constructions introduced in the first two books include intransitive verbs and nt transitive verbs in simple past and future. Nsyilxcn has a highly complex system of transitivization. Later books include more tenses, paradigms, objects, the st, xt, and It transitivizers and their future forms. I have found in practice that introducing more than one tense at a time frustrates learners.

Following a sequenced curriculum is a relatively radical technique. We know that the very best method of transmitting language is in the home to young children. Once the children are older, the best follow-up is having them attend schools where teachers teach in the language to children who are already fluent from their home exposure to language, similar to the francophone-school experience in Canada and the newly emerged Hawaiian schools in Hawai'i. We do not currently [End Page 516] have this luxury, so our efforts are directed at creating the first cohort of adults who will have the capacity to bring the language home. We have therefore turned to second language acquisition techniques, including following a sequenced curriculum, and this is working.

Direct Acquisition – beginner methods

The Direct Acquisition method was developed by Christopher Parkin (Peterson & Parkin, 2007; Peterson et al., 2015) and, like the curriculum, is a gift to learners. It is a collection of numerous techniques, all based on full immersion. Each lesson is provided with audio, a lesson plan, teaching materials, activities, a quiz, and homework sheets. Model sentences are provided. A teacher can practise the forms ahead of time, keep the lesson on topic, and provide perfectly modelled sentence forms.

This section describes the activities used to teach vocabulary and sentences in the first textbook (also described in Johnson, 2016). The first two textbooks are taught using what Larsen-Freeman and Anderson (2011, p. 25) would describe as the "direct method" and the "total physical response" method. The Direct Method has "one very basic rule: no translation allowed" (p. 25). Chris Parkin, during teacher training, adds two rules for teaching beginners which stress the importance of classroom safety: never test, and never correct. Never put a learner on the spot in front of other learners, for example by pointing at an object and saying "what is thisʔ" Rather, vocabulary words are reviewed by giving a choice of two words. Never overtly correct students' grammar or pronunciation, as this can raise anxiety levels. Rather, repeat the utterance with correct modelling. After 1,000 hours of instruction the lessons become more complex and different rules apply, but for the first 1,000 hours these simple rules serve our teachers well.

Beginner lessons are taught with no explicit grammatical explanation and follow several phases of learning: pre-production (the comprehension or silent phase), early production, speech emergence, intermediate fluency, and advanced fluency (Krashen & Terrell, 1988). In the Teacher's Manual: Direct Acquisition Lesson Activities (Peterson & Parkin, 2007), the teaching activities are grouped into three phases: comprehension, limited production, and full production. Vocabulary words are taught with three to five comprehension activities first, where the students hear several iterations of the sentences and words before they are asked to speak them. The teacher may have the students silently point at pictures of the words, illuminate them with a laser pointer, or hit them with a fly swatter. In limited production activities, students repeat the words and play games where they say a [End Page 517] few words; for example, the teacher may point at a picture and give students a choice of two words – "is it salmon or breadʔ" – and students answer with one word. In full production exercises the students are guided to simple activities using full sentences.

The first book of the Nsyilxcn Curriculum, Nsyilxcn 1, has 45 beginner lessons. Each lesson follows a detailed lesson plan found in the teacher's manual. Following a well-practised familiar method provides a sense of safety for both learners and teachers. After first learning the material, beginner teachers can be trained in the teaching method in two days. They are then able to provide 90 hours of immersion instruction from the first book. There is very little focus on form for the students in the first two books. The teacher, on the other hand, focuses on form as she is required to produce the grammatically correct sentences in each lesson.

The second book of the Nsyilxcn Curriculum, Captík^wł 1, is based on 16 traditional stories, taught using Direct Acquisition. Each story has a list of vocabulary. Teaching images are provided for each new vocabulary word and for each new sentence. New vocabulary words are taught as in the first book, following comprehension, limited production, and full production exercises. The story sentences are taught, five at a time, following the same sequence. The benefit of this teaching method is that students are able to acquire more complex forms but are still using a familiar format. The teacher is the most active learner and is required to produce increasingly complex sentences, but she has the familiarity of her well-practised teaching method.

Total Physical Response (TPR)

Total Physical Response (TPR) is a popular term in BC language revi-talization. It was popularized by the Chief Atahm immersion school in Chase, mentioned above, which has become known for developing the TPR method (Dick-Billy, 2003) and for being the longest-running immersion school, one of only four immersion schools in BC (Ignace, 2016, p. 33). TPR is based on comprehensible, low-anxiety immersion input based on actions and with very little to no focus on form (Asher & Adamski, 1986; Krashen & Terrell, 1988). The Chief Atahm School developed two textbooks to be used with the TPR method, TPR I and TPR II (Dick-Billy, Michel, Michel, LeBourdais, & Michel, 2004, 2007), and offers annual workshops in the TPR method, well attended by First Nations language teachers, mostly beginners themselves. The TPR technique forms the basis of a text developed for BC kindergarten teachers by Kathryn Michel (2013), a founder of the Chief Atahm School. TPR I has been translated into Nsyilxcn (Peterson, Elkink, & Parkin, 2008). The TPR technique is the backbone technique of four of [End Page 518] the 45 lessons in the first book of the Nsyilxcn Curriculum. I find it an excellent way to teach action-based vocabulary (verbs) at the beginner level, and I utilize it as much as I can, even at intermediate levels. For example, when teaching songs, I have the students gesture with their bodies. I use TPR gestures to indicate the first person, second person, and third person singular and plural as a way for the class to demonstrate the grammar without using English.

Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS)

At levels higher than beginner, more teaching techniques are introduced. Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS) has become popular in teaching Indigenous languages (Cantoni, 1999, p. 5; Johnson, 2014). I have heard TPRS introduced at Indigenous language teaching conferences. Blaine Ray originated the technique in the 1990s, based on TPR, as a low-anxiety way to teach stories, with very little focus on form. (See Ray and Seely [2004] for a full description of TPRS and its application in the second-language classroom.) TPRS is based on comprehensible input; from the first day, the student understands (almost) everything she hears. It involves a series of questions and answers about a story, after the story has been learned through other methods (the sequence is detailed in Johnson, 2014, pp. 190–193).

The TPRS method is one of my favourites at a high-beginner level when students are ready for the challenge. Once students are at the level where they can ask and answer simple TPRS questions about a story, we can really begin to play with language.

Direct Acquisition – intermediate and advanced methods

After the first and second books, at the intermediate and advanced levels an array of techniques are outlined in the lesson plans. We continue to use hand gestures while speaking to demonstrate first person, second person, and third person singular and plural, alone and in sentences. Some techniques focus on form (grammar drills, partner exercises, and sentence production) and some on fluency ("word description" activities, described below; "what did you do last weekendʔ" conversations, and playing the card game UNO). A combination of communicative strategies and focus on form produces more accurate students (Archibald, 2016). Activities and partner exercises are learned and enacted in immersion, but in the third to fifth books, grammatical concepts are introduced in English for about 20 minutes per day. [End Page 519]

Constant review and peer-learning

Constant review is a cornerstone of the Nsyilxcn Curriculum. Of the total teaching time 75% is spent on new lessons and 25% on review. Constant review can introduce the principles of interleaving, effortful recall, variation, spaced retrieval, and peer learning (Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel, 2014). Review can become an opportunity for peer learning when students lead the review sessions for lessons they have already learned and gain leadership experience speaking confidently and leading a group in a safe environment.

Word description activity

The word description activity is a low-intermediate activity or game for learning vocabulary in the third to fifth books. Each lesson in the third to fifth books introduces 20 to 40 new vocabulary words. In the activity, a student randomly chooses a word from the list. Without using any gestures, the student describes the word (storytells) using as many other words as possible, until another student correctly guesses the word from the list. The first student repeats the correct answer three times. The next student goes, until all words are described or 20 minutes have elapsed. The first few times the descriptions are short, but after a few times the students gain confidence and fluency. The descriptions then become detailed and hilarious. This exercise focuses on fluency rather than form. My students and I enjoy this activity since it gives us an opportunity to play with language. By the fifth book, we introduce the word description race. The list of vocabulary words is cut into strips and shuffled. Students are given one minute to describe as many words as possible and have other students correctly shout out their guesses. The next student tries to beat their total.

Flashcards

Flashcards are a well-known language acquisition tool. The Nsyilxcn Curriculum uses flashcards starting with the third book, when the vocabulary is too plentiful to be taught in the classroom and the onus is placed on the student. Students create flashcards of new vocabulary words and grammatical concepts. Once a word is known, it is placed in a separate pile. Remaining cards are shuffled and reviewed until all words are known. I had a love-hate relationship with flashcards until I read about the scientific basis for this low-tech learning tool. Flash-cards are known to be more effective when reviewed regularly. The cards must be shuffled, which provides the principles of spaced retrieval, interleaving, and effortful recall, which are effective forms of self-testing (Brown et al., 2014). [End Page 520]

Walking and storytelling review method

I developed the walking and storytelling method for intermediate students after reading about the value of effortful recall (Brown et al., 2014): the higher the effort, the greater the learning value. It is of great value in reviewing stories. Remember that constant review is a cornerstone of the Nsyilxcn Curriculum. After a Captík^wł 1 story is reviewed in class using audio and images, the students stand up in pairs, walk outside, and walk around the park for 10 minutes telling each other the story from memory. They are not to help each other so as not to interfere with the effortful recall. Because they are at the same level, they find this exercise safe and fun. It is a joy to walk around the park hearing pairs of students speaking, laughing, struggling to remember, and supporting each other. Captík^wł 2 stories and Nsyilxcn 3 lessons are reviewed similarly, but students are allowed to assist each other.

Learning by teaching

Little has been written about learning by teaching. I wrote about it in my thesis (Johnson, 2014) and found only one other published mention (Grzega, 2005). Brown et al. (2014) refer to it as peer learning, although without going into detail about what it involves. Nevertheless, it is known that Indigenous language learners must stand up and become teachers. The difficulty and tension in teaching as a learner are so great that Hinton (2003) refers to us as "heroes." The Nsyilxcn Curriculum is generally taught by a pair of co-teachers, ideally with one of them more experienced and mentoring the other. As described above, it is absolutely necessary to be armed with well-designed teaching materials and methods in order to be successful. When I hear learners teaching, my heart sings (Johnson, 2016). I can personally attest that learning by teaching the Nsyilxcn Curriculum has created fluent speakers at the Salish School of Spokane.

Addressing language tension for teachers and learners

Something needs to be said about the mental effort required to teach a second language as a non-fluent teacher. I wish something was documented about this phenomenon, and I have asked French as a second language teachers if there is anything written to encourage teachers in this situation. While apparently it is uncommon for French teachers not to be fluent, in our critically endangered languages contexts it is common for teachers to be beginners, especially in the first stages of revitalization.

When my assistant teachers begin teaching as beginners, they say the room becomes hotter as they step up to the challenge of producing rapid-fire, correctly modelled sentences. The support of the sequenced [End Page 521] curriculum is the only thing that stands between them and losing immersion. I watch as they gain confidence in the repetitive patterns in the teaching method. In our first year, I started each day with words of encouragement (in English) to mindfully address the language tension. Addressing the tension helps to reduce it. I remind students and teachers that immersion will naturally induce tension. This tension can show up in various ways: an urge to speak English, crack jokes in English, arrive late, criticize the teacher, skip classes. I remind students to support each other and say that speaking and joking in English distracts other students and adds to the teacher's mental strain due to code switching.

From my own observations and conversations with French teachers, teaching language as a second language is far more taxing than teaching content-based language in immersion. By the same token, teaching in a French immersion school would be more taxing and less effective (for both teacher and students) than teaching in a francophone school, something that bears thinking about as we plan our schools and move toward an Indigenous language legislation in Canada. Once we bring groups of adults to fluency, they can form immersion schools and move from second language instruction to content-based instruction, as in the examples of immersion schools formed in Hawai'i by advanced second language learners (Kamana & Wilson, 1996).

Positive psychology in the classroom

Learner anxiety is a known factor in second language acquisition and teaching (Dewaele, 2002; Ignace, 2016; Johnson, 2014; MacIntyre, Gre-gersen, & Mercer, 2016). Direct Acquisition methods are designed to reduce learner anxiety and produce a safe classroom space. Positive emotion in the classroom increases learner motivation and enhances learning (MacIntyre et al., 2016). As teachers we can incorporate positive exercises. When we review songs I review the happy ones more often. At the intermediate level I introduce positivity-based discussion topics such as "Describe your favourite day in the past ten years; your favourite vacation; your best birthday" as substitutes for "What did you do last weekendʔ" During the exercise, students are paired up, walk around the park, and storytell to each other for four minutes each. Then they switch partners and tell the same story to a different partner for two minutes each. Then we return inside and each student retells their story to everybody for one minute. This exercise, designed to increase fluidity, helps us get to know each other and makes us cheerful and happy. [End Page 522]

Learning by recording and transcribing Elders

If little has been written about learning by teaching, nothing has been written about the learning potential from recording and transcribing fluent Elders (though this technique, partnered with elicitation, works well for linguists who sometimes become speakers of Indigenous languages). Nsyilxcn's situation as a critically endangered language is dire, and as a teacher I feel multiple responsibilities. As a learner I must teach, fundraise, budget, train teachers, and run a program, all of which are challenging enough, but I also need to record our remaining Elders. Two years ago we chose a recording and archiving strategy and got started. I trained myself and then St̓aʔq^wálqs, Səx^wt̓ums, X̌astítk^w, Xáʔtma Sqilx^w, and Q^wyq^wʕayáx̌n to record, archive, and transcribe. Since 2015, the Syilx Language House has produced one publication per year of transcribed recordings with seven fluent Elders. Ten hours of recorded narrative and transcriptions were shared freely with community in a publication (Johnson, Gregoire, McGinnis, Barnes, Terbasket, & Edwards, 2015) and on our website.⁴

As any language learner knows, reading and writing are separate skills from listening and speaking (CLB, 2012). Recording and transcribing have noticeably improved our listening and writing skills. I can't assess exactly, but I can say that four years ago one minute of spoken Nsyilxcn took me an hour to transcribe, and now a first draft takes about 10 seconds. St̓aʔq^wálqs said that recording fluent Elders gave her confidence to approach and speak with new Elders. Recording strengthens relationships between learners and Elders, creates a valuable repository of wisdom, and builds a shared sense of history. I can attest that a lot of learning occurs through recording and transcribing and that these recordings are a valuable tool for future learners.

Assessment as a learning tool

Regular quizzing is an asset in the classroom, both as a learning tool and for program evaluation (Carless, 2007). Regular quizzing produces language gains that persist over time (Brown et al., 2014). Our daily written quiz at 9:00 a.m. serves the dual benefit of review and ensuring students arrive on time. Our mid-term and final exams have a written and oral component. Regular testing provides key benefits to learning: effortful recall, interleaving, and spaced recall (Brown et al., 2014), and the assessments provide objective information to teachers, students, and students' sponsors. In the first and second years of the Syilx Language House, of the 16 students, five received marks in the 90s and five in the 80s. Marks were based on daily quizzes, homework, attendance, journals, flashcards, a mid-term, and a filmed [End Page 523] final oral exam. For the first-year final oral exam, students were able to describe themselves, their families, and the life cycle of an animal, bird, and insect in Nsyilxcn. At the end of the second year, students were able to describe the cultural significance and traditional use of a plant or animal for their final presentation.

Assessment as benchmarking and evaluation tools

The other face of language assessment is relating students' proficiency to recognized benchmarks such as the Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB), Maori benchmarks (Edmonds, Roberts, Keegan, Houia, & Dale, 2013), Hawaiian benchmarks (Housman, Dameg, & Kobashi-gawa, 2011), or the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). Assessment is often poorly developed in Indigenous language programs. There is a lack of published material on applied Indigenous language assessments, and existing Indigenous assessments underdescribe the vast range between beginner and advanced. There is little documented evidence of learners gaining enough proficiency to raise their children in the language. A beautifully written exception is a book with first-person accounts of individual learners who are raising their children in the language (Hinton, 2013). Many Indigenous languages face similar challenges such as language complexity, limited personnel, lack of resources, and political reasons for avoiding assessments (Mellow & Begg, 2014; Miller, 2004; Wiggles-worth & Keegan, 2014). Assessment is well developed although not yet standardized in New Zealand (Edmonds et al., 2013; Wiggles-worth & Keegan, 2014). First Nations languages in Canada have not adopted standard benchmarks, although recent research in BC has proposed task-based benchmarks based on work in Secwepmctsin and Sm'algyax (Ignace, 2016). My favourite benchmark system is the CLB because of its concrete, task-based descriptions. I applied CLB benchmarks to Nsyilxcn and Tlingit learners and collected four Nsyilxcn terms for Nsyilxcn benchmarks (Johnson, 2014, 2017).

Research shows that 2,000 hours are required to become highly proficient in complex First Nations languages such as Nsyilxcn (Ignace, 2016; Jackson & Kaplan, 1999; Johnson, 2014; Rifkin, 2003). Most Indigenous language programs in Canada fall far short of this and are not producing advanced speakers. In fact, there are "few highly competent second-language speakers of First Nations languages" (Ignace, 2016, p. 15). In the first year we delivered nearly 400 hours of lessons; by our second year we had delivered 900. Our four-year goal is 1,800 intensive hours.

Assessments are ongoing in the Syilx Language House. We performed a filmed storytelling assessment in June 2016 and again in [End Page 524] June 2017. We will compare students' speaking proficiency to CLB and Nsyilxcn benchmarks as ongoing research. Spoiler alert: as a teacher I can already tell that the students were speaking at a high-beginner level after 400 hours and are low-intermediate after 900 hours. Our delivery is on track in terms of both hours and proficiency. The intermediate phase is a lengthy phase, and students will spend the next 900 hours progressing from low- to mid-intermediate. At mid-intermediate, students can participate in full-immersion workplaces and continue to study and progress to the advanced level. The secret to achieving advanced-level proficiency will be in creating full-immersion workplaces, continued study, and exposure to more advanced or fluent speakers.

The definition of successful Indigenous language revitalization needs to expand to include these key assessment parameters: (a) How many advanced speakers have been createdʔ (b) How many are raising their children in the languageʔ (c) What percentage of learners' daily lives are conducted in the languageʔ In the Syilx Language House, our answers to these questions would be (a) zero (we have not yet created an advanced speaker); (b) zero in Canada and a handful in the United States; and (c) just under 10 percent (11 hours per week divided by 112 waking hours per week). After the fourth year of delivery, some students will begin to form full-immersion workplaces and raise that percentage. This final step will support students to grow from intermediate to advanced.

June 23, 2016 – Celebrating Year 1

Congratulations to sixteen students and teachers for achievement of the FIRST YEAR. It has been a phenomenal year, the first of four. 400 hours down, 1,600 to go! Thank you to Elders, community, and leadership for supporting our journey. The Elders who heard the students are proud, and we know the ancestors would be too. Students gave presentations on the life cycles of tmix^w, animals, birds and insects. We can't thank enough the supporters and families.… Thank you MP Richard Cannings for representing the Federal Government. It has been a week with losses and deep sadness in Syilx community and our graduation day this week was a glimmer of happiness reflected by the lived experience of decolonizing healing through language. Watch out for the class of 2020 … The 2020 plan and 2030 plan are underway … limlsmt p isnƏqsílx^w. iʔ nqilx^wcntƏt iʔ mrimstntƏt.

April 14, 2016 – Language teaching technique – effortful recall

Today I am recalling the many successful techniques we are using, direct acquisition, TPR, TPR-S, flashcards, word description games, games with images, grammar exercises, partner exercises, learning by teaching, full immersion, learning by recording, and learning by transcription. I wish there was a way we could share our lesson plans with everybody who is trying to succeed in creating adult speakers.

There is something very gratifying about being able to implement a new technique right away. I realize we are very lucky in the Language House to have such highly motivated students who are willing to try anything and give it their best effort. I read a book called "make it stick" over the weekend, with suggestions such as interleaving, interspersing, mixing it up, pre-testing, self-testing, "effortful recall," and shuffling flashcards. In fact, it got me interested in more effective flashcard use. It also motivated [End Page 529] me to intersperse more frequent moments of "effortful recall" into our lessons. Apparently the real learning occurs when the mind is activated to recall a word or phrase. I shared some of these concepts with my students this week. I counselled them to wait before "helping" each other with answers; to give each other the gift of struggling. This week I added several self-testing moments during lessons. The most exciting one was changing up our Captík^wł review. We usually do Captík^wł review by repeating the vocabulary words with the images, listening to the story and then doing TPR-S with the pictures in groups of four students. First, a student reads the vocabulary and the story to the whole group, then the story a second time with all students choral repeating. Then we break into groups and practice TPR-S for 20-30 minutes.

This week, after the choral repeat, I asked the students to stand up in pairs, walk out the door and walk around the ball park, about a city block. One student would tell the story completely from memory, adding or embellishing in their own words, or simply struggling to say as much as they could. Their partner's role was to listen and not help. The only response allowed was nodding. Then they would switch roles. If they finished before the walk was over, they would run through the story together, asking TPR-S questions. They stood up and walked out the door into the bright sunlight of a spring afternoon. There was an uneven number, so I was paired with a student. He courageously started first, and told the story, struggling with numerous words. I could see the effort he was making, the smoke almost rising from his head. I have to say, to a fluent speaker, the story would have been only partially intelligible. Nevertheless, it was heartwarming to see a dozen sqilx^w adults walking on the land, speaking nqilx^wcn in full sentences, earnest concentration on their faces. When we came back inside I asked how it went, and they said it was exciting, they could feel the effort, and they loved it. We had the first student read the story aloud again, while holding up the pictures, and I saw several aha moments cross the faces of the students as they heard vocabulary words that they had almost recalled during their storytelling. These were golden learning moments.

February 20, 2016 – Penticton media coverage on Book 2 completion

Penticton newspaper picked up our story⁵ … Syilx Language House celebrates milestone ‖ Captík^wł 1 completed.

February 24, 2016 – First Peoples' Culture Council pays a visit

Aliana Parker from First People's Culture Council visited the Language House today and stayed for the afternoon to observe. We were in full swing, learning Nsyilxcn 2, reviewing Captík^wł 1 and Nsyilxcn 1, and playing UNO. She said, "I'm really impressed … It's so much more impressive in person than on paper," and, "It's four in the afternoon and [End Page 530] nobody's falling asleep!" She couldn't believe how many words the students were using while playing UNO. She asked for a copy of our UNO cheat-sheet. She said FPCC used UNO as an immersion game but the students weren't asked to raise the bar as high as we do. Our students have to say, "I pick one up," "I place down a red card," and "it's your turn" every time they play a card or they lose their next turn.

March 10, 2016 – praise from Sʕamtíc̓aʔ and Chris Parkin

Chris Parkin said in an email: ʕapnáʔ t sx̌l̓x̌ʕal̓t Sʕamtíc̓aʔ k^wu cus, "x̌ast iʔ sck̓^wul̓s Sʔímlaʔx^w… c̓x̌ił t mnim̓ łtət, k̓^wul̓m uł qłnus." (today Sʕamtíc̓aʔ told him, "Sʔímlaʔx^w is doing good work … just like us, she works hard and is getting there.")

June 12, 2017 – fluent speaker Grouse Barnes

When I first started working with them they were babies in the language and now I can have a conversation with quite a few of them. They are more confident, more outgoing, and they've come a long ways. One student [in particular] has kind of blossomed. Even in their personal growth they've grown, they're more assertive, they're more independent, nix^w stltalt, more true. They are not intimidated by an Elder speaker whereas before they were shy, x^wum t̓i ʔarsík^w, like a turtle.

June 19, 2017 – Sʕamtíc̓aʔ Sarah Peterson

Sʕamtíc̓aʔ told me, "wisíʔstmn," I hold you up, and, "k^w lk̓lak̓t," you are persistent.

June 23, 2017 – media coverage on year 2 celebration

Local media reported on our second year celebration and graduation ceremony. Sixteen participants celebrated the completion of Year 2, 900 hours, and were awarded Simon Fraser University First Nations Languages Proficiency Certificates. The evening was celebrated with speeches, language presentations from Nsyilxcn 3, and Nsyilxcn Karaoke by students and teachers (see Kelowna Capital News, 2017). [End Page 531]