To become a comfortable speaker of a language, it is suggested language learners spend a minimum of 1,000 hours learning a language. Due to this time commitment, and often the lack of compensation, many language learners find it difficult to put this amount of time towards achieving high levels of language proficiency. At the Yukon Native Language Center, we aim to remove these barriers with the Youth Today, Language Leaders Tomorrow program. This intensive, full-time language program uses mentor-apprenticeship, immersion, and other language learning approaches to increase participants language proficiency and provides compensation to committed learners.
The Youth Today, Language Leaders Tomorrow program runs from August 2024 – August 2025 with the possibility of an extension into the following years. During this period, language learners will be paired with mentors, instructors and fluent speakers to spend a minimum of 20 hours per week learning the language.
Key Elements of the Program:
- • interaction with fluent speakers and Elders;
- • language immersion and mentorship;
- • career and leadership development;
- • language learning and teaching training;
- • language-related research skills;
- • ceremony;
- • immersive and experiential language learning.
Program Benefits for Youth Language Trainees:
- • The opportunity to interact with learning centred around Indigenous ways of knowing;
- • Interaction with cultural teachings, Elders, and fluent speakers;
- • Skills essential to continue with a career in language work. This training includes an introduction on teaching languages, development of language resources (videos, books, activities), research skills (Indigenous research, language documentation), and much more;
- • Compensation for time spent learning a Yukon First Nation language.
