Mary Katharine, one of the things in California, kids apparently who speak English as a second language have a year in which they can take classes that are taught in their native language in addition to English, and some people would say that that should help them really get established and after that, you're on your own, go take all the tests in English.
Additional Alaska Native language programs have been offered by the Goldbelt Corporation and Sealaska Corporation. Elementary, intermediate, and advanced Tlingit, as well as elementary Haida, have been taught at the University of Alaska Southeast by Native speakers who are fluent and also understand the worldview expressed by the languages, as reflected in their syntax and grammar and their cultural references.
What is your mother tongue?
- What's your native language?
English is my mother tongue.
- English is my native language.