CWU Presentation Looks At "Native American Language Immersion"

November 10, 2003

ELLENSBURG, Wash.-- "Native American Language Immersion" will be the topic of discussion during a special presentation at Central Washington University Thursday, Nov. 13, at 3 p.m. in Barge 412 on the Ellensburg campus.

The presentation will focus on research conducted by Dr. Janine Pease, the 2003 CWU distinguished alumna recipient for the College of Arts and Humanities.

Pease, who served for 18 years as president of Little Big Horn College, holds bachelor's degrees in sociology and anthropology from CWU along with a master's degree and Ph.D. in adult and higher education from Montana State University-Bozeman. In July, she assumed the post of vice president for Native American affairs at Rocky Mountain College, Billings, Mont. That appointment came on the heels of her recently-completed research for the American Indian College Fund. Called "Native American Language Immersion: Innovative Education for Families and Children," the study determined that students learn better if they are taught in their own language and in the context of their own culture.

"Language immersion gives the people back their language, culture and history," says Pease, a member of the Crow Tribe of Montana.

A nationally known educator and Presidential Appointee to the National Advisory Council on Indian Education, her research involved two years of study on Native American communities of the U.S. and the indigenous communities of Native Hawaii and New Zealand and the effectiveness of indigenous language immersion as a teaching tool for language and cultural preservation and as a means of delivering effective and comprehensive education.

Her research further indicates that cultural immersion improves students' self-respect and pride, while leading to a decrease in dropout rates.

Born in Colville and raised in eastern Washington, Pease lists Hidatsa Indian, German and English as also among her ancestry.

A MacArthur Fellow, Class of 1994, Pease currently serves as a presidential appointee to the National Advisory Council on Indian Education. Previously, she served on the board of directors of the prestigious American Indian Higher Education Consortium and National Museum of the American Indian.

In addition, she is a recipient of the Jeannette Rankin Civil Liberties Award, presented annually by the American Civil Liberties Union of Montana.

Light refreshments will be served at her free, public presentation, at which she will also receive her Distinguished Alumna award.

For more information, or for persons of disability to arrange for reasonable accommodation, call (877) 846-2287, (509) 963-2752, or (for the hearing impaired) TDD (509) 963-2143.