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TAHLEQUAH, Oklahoma – Despite some parental concerns about English language proficiency, the Cherokee Language Immersion Program is thriving and the students continue to refine their skills of reading and writing the language in the Cherokee syllabary, said Dr. Neil Morton, Education Services group leader. Some parents have voiced concerns at meetings that the children are falling behind their public school counterparts in English reading and writing skills. Morton said those concerns are normal and parents should express concerns to Education Services because they and their children are making a tremendous effort to save the Cherokee language. “They’re choosing to provide something that’s extremely valuable to their student, but there’s the other side of the coin. It’s a long-haul situation,” Morton said. The overall plan is to introduce English language instruction to the immersion students when they enter the fourth grade, which is how the Hawaiian Language Immersion Program is established. “Significant research says that after fourth grade the bilingual student will surpass his monolingual counterpart in basic subjects,” Morton said. Another aspect parents should consider is that once the children leave the immersion setting at day’s end, they will be exposed to English language environments such as the home, he said. “I can understand and empathize with parents who think ‘wait just a minute,’ especially if they have cousins or other members of the family or real close friends who are in one of the public schools in Cherokee County or Adair County or one of the surrounding areas, and they concentrate on what level they’re reading English,” Morton said. “I can see where they’d say ‘oh golly, my kid’s doing alright in Cherokee, but they can’t read on a second grade level yet.’ I can see where that would cause some concern.” Although English language instruction will begin in the fourth grade, English language tutoring will be offered at the school beginning in the spring semester. The tutoring sessions will be offered after school in another classroom. Immersion Program officials expect to hire an early childhood teacher on a contract basis for the after school tutoring sessions, Morton said. However, he said English would not be taught in the immersion classrooms because students could encounter difficulties differentiating between the languages. “I don’t think it would be detrimental as long as it’s not (taught) in the same classroom,” Morton said. Although many of the children are Cherokee and are able to speak the language, the Immersion Program isn’t immune to the issues that occur in public school classrooms. “The fact that they are all Cherokee may be cause for us to think that there would be more unison of thought, more compassion. But that’s not true,” Morton said. “Children that go to public school, they have to face the same thing.” Overall, he said the program is on track, and from an academic standpoint, it is growing. “We started it in the old-fashioned method of teaching like early New England schools where the teacher said a word and then the student said a word,” he said. “We’re getting more of a system to the program.” Program officials are also consulting with a University of Kansas language team that evaluates the program and gives advice as to where it might need more attention or where it is showing success.