Inuvik (Sep 26/03) - Delta language instructors were given some instruction on program delivery last week at a three-day seminar held in Inuvik.

Pat Winfield is the co-ordinator of the Inuvialuit Cultural Resource Institute and said the Gwich'in and Inuvialuktun teachers learned some new skills on teaching second language programs.

The situation calls for some unusual methods of instruction, she says, because many of the high school students have only an elementary grasp of the traditional languages.

"You have a situation in the schools where the child in kindergarten is learning the same thing that a child in Grade 9 might be learning," she said. "There is no spiral curriculum, there is no learning holes ... we talk about lack of materials, but the problem is sometimes we don't even know which grade level to direct the materials to, until we have a curriculum."

Winfield said they are currently building a language curriculum for all Beaufort Delta schools.

"The Gwich'in and Inuvialuit are working now to develop a second language curriculum for both language groups," Winfield said.

She said last week's seminar was very helpful to bring the educators together to teach different methods of language instruction.

More than just teaching a language, Winfield said the instructors are also feeling enormous pressure to save a culture.

"Both the Inuvialuktun and Gwich'in languages are on the brink of disappearing," Winfield said.

"Schools alone are not going to solve the problem," she said. "They are part of the equation -- a very essential part of the solution -- but not the whole equation." She said the children will unlearn as quickly as they learn the language, so it needs to be reinforced from other sources.

"The children go home after school and parents and elders and community members need to get involved," she said. "If we're going to turn this around, we can't expect three and four-year-olds to do it and we can't expect the language teachers in the schools to do it by themselves."

"It's got to be a group effort and an individual commitment," she continued. "Teach your grandchildren, teach your children and if you don't know how, go out to language classes."

Having both Inuvialuit and Gwich'in educators at the seminar meant sharing the cost of the three-day session, as well as allowing for sharing of experiences.

Winfield said English is the working language of the world, but culturally, people need to preserve their language to preserve their heritage.

"It is so tied into the culture and the history and who they are as a people," Winfield said. "You can be Inuvialuit without speaking the language, but you're going to be so much richer and so much more tied into your own heritage if you are able to speak the language."