Fort Providence (Sep 01/06) - Kindergarten students here at Deh Gah school will be doing more than just learning basics like counting and the names of colours this year. They will be doing it in Slavey.

The school is introducing a new Slavey immersion program starting with the Kindergarten class. The goal is to help preserve the language, said principal Theresa Bonnetrouge. Although the school has a Slavey language program it wasn't moving forward, said Bonnetrouge.

Kindergarten students at Deh Gah school, Paris Levavasseur, Karen Thurber, Amber Gargan, Mackenzie Matto, Dana McLeod, Adam Nadli, Anonda Canadien, Zachary Lesage, Jacob Gargan and Theoron Matto will be experiencing Slavey immersion taught by Angie Matto and Diana Gargan. Not seen are Dustin Bonnetrouge and Tristem Geddes. - photo courtesy of Christopher Carson

An immersion program had been in planning for a number of years but no one implemented it, Bonnetrouge said.

The final step came after Bonnetrouge attended a workshop in the spring taught by Dr. Stephen Greymorning, a political anthropologist who teaches about native American language retention.

Greymorning taught that in two months young people will be able to transition into immersion. In two to three months they will know around 120 words.

"I'm anxious to try it. I want to see if it works," said Bonnetrouge.

Kindergarten teacher Diana Gargan and aboriginal language instructor Angie Matto are responsible for introducing the immersion program to the 12 new students.

With students only in their second week of school it's too early to know how the program will work, said Gargan.

But most of the students have an advantage because they participated in the Aboriginal Headstart program that taught them some Slavey.

Many can already count from one to 10 and know the names of a few colours like red and green.

They also have clear pronunciation, said Gargan. For now the students are still hearing a bit of English as they are eased into immersion, but the goal is to have all conversations happen in Slavey.

"The students seem to catch on," said Matto.

Staff are also doing their part, said Bonnetrouge. Plans include a Slavey phrase of the week that staff will learn and use when speaking with students.

Bonnetrouge plans to speak to junior and senior high students completely in Slavey.

To enforce language use, she plans to have the junior high students record storybooks in Slavey on tapes for the Kindergarten class to use. Senior high students will be given a research project to trace the history of their families.

There are also plans for a celebration of communication where students will be asked questions, which they'll have to answer in Slavey.

"Maybe this way people will start to think of the native language as an important thing to learn," said Bonnetrouge.