SYILX LANGUAGE HOUSE
  • Home
    • waý iskʷíst
    • The Syilx and Their Land
    • Supporters
  • Programs
    • Opportunities
  • Elder Recordings
    • Elders' Stories 1
    • Elders' Stories 8
    • Elders' Stories 9
  • Media
    • Student Films
    • Songs
  • Updates

Media

Be sure to check out our Student Films and Songs as well

SLH in the media & publications

​​Efforts to Preserve Syilx language reach new chapter in Vernon - A trio of Syilx Elders spoke at a book launch in Vernon, celebrating the ninth edition of Elder recordings. Vernon Morning Star. December 2023.
Syilx Language House welcomes 10 new language warriors  - Kelowna Now story covering the 2021/22 cohort graduation from their one year program. April 2022.

Keeping Indigenous languages alive for future generations - CBC Radio interview with Michele Johnson & LaRae Wiley regarding the International Decade of Indigenous Languages, adult fluency programs, and the Salish School of Spokane immersion school. December 2021.

Realistic Solutions to Creating Grassroots Fluency: N'syilxcn excerpt of Dr. Michele Johnson's keynote address at the “Restoring and Protecting Our Native Languages and Landscapes” Conference, published in Cultural Survival Quarterly Magazine. December 2021.

Academic publication written by SLH staff with a transcribed Elder's narrative. Elder Story transcription published in UBC Working Papers in Linguistics. July 2020. 

Despite Challenges, Syilx Nation language students celebrate graduation (over zoom) -Kelowna Capital News. (N1 and C1 evening class started in person at WFN. SLH was an early adopters of zoom delivery when the program was sideswiped by the global pandemic, to finish their 7 month program with 100% retention. The language was our medicine each week). June 2020.

Syilx Language Program comes to West Kelowna - Kelowna Capital News interview with evening language teachers at WFN, Krista Lindley & Michele Johnson. November 2019.

Critically Endangered Language Being Brought Back to Life - interview with SLH E.D. and teacher, Michele Johnson, about the adult fluency program, January 2019.

Saving a Culture - Media blurb on SLH, adult delivery and nest, January 2019.

Syilx Language House celebrates special milestone as graduation gets closer - Oliver Chronicle. About the four-year cohort and their 12 hour a week dedicated progress towards fluency. December 2017.

Syilx Language House: How and Why We Are Delivering 2,000 Decolonizing Hours in Nsyilxcn - Michele Johnson (peer reviewed article) Canadian Modern Language Review, November 2017.

Breathing Life into New Speakers: Nsyilxcn and Tlingit Sequenced Curriculum, Direct Acquisition, and Assessments - Michele Johnson (peer reviewed article) Canadian Modern Language Review, May 2017.

Increasing Adult Fluency in the Tlingit Language​ - Citation about Dr. Michele Johnson and the "Language House" method from Xh'unei Lance Twitchell, Tlingit language warrior. An estimate that it takes 6,000 hours (2 hours a day for TEN years) to reach advanced fluency. June 2016.
​
n̓łəqwcin (clear speech) : 1,000 hours to mid-intermediate N’syilxcn proficiency ​- Dr Michele Johnson's PhD thesis, University of British Columbia, 2013, sharing the first language house.

Other Links & Resources

knxčútn̓s "Helper" video supplements to N̓səlxčin̓ 1

SLH alumni Jordan Coble & Levi Bent, supported by Westbank First Nation and First Peoples' Cultural Council, created fun videos to accompany the Salish School of Spokane's introductory N1 curriculum. These videos, 6 minutes each, give a taste of each of the 45 lessons in Textbook 1. 

Find the videos here.

To access the complete series of textbooks, audio, and lesson plans to which these videos accompany, please visit interiorsalish.com and click N̓səlxčin̓ Curriculum to find free downloads. 

Language revitalization links

United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UN 2007)

Indigenous Languages Recognition, Preservation & Revitalization Report (FPCC 2016) 
​

Report on the status of BC First Nations Languages (FPCC 2014)

Learning Tlingit through Story (Paul Creek model of writing curriculum) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NdG-VePBHo&t=2s 

Home

Programs

Elder Recordings

Media

Updates

  • Home
    • waý iskʷíst
    • The Syilx and Their Land
    • Supporters
  • Programs
    • Opportunities
  • Elder Recordings
    • Elders' Stories 1
    • Elders' Stories 8
    • Elders' Stories 9
  • Media
    • Student Films
    • Songs
  • Updates