Fort Providence (Sep 04/06) - Deh Gah school is introducing a new Slavey immersion program and it's aimed at the youngest students in the building: Kindergartners.

The program had been in the planning process for a number of years, said principal Theresa Bonnetrouge.

Although the school has a Slavey language program it wasn't moving forward, said Bonnetrouge.

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 12 new students.

"I'm very excited," said Gargan.

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

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.