Salish School of Spokane seeks to be a supportive partner for other endangered Indigenous language communities and learners.
Winter Immersion Symposium 2026
Will be held at Salish School of Spokane, Feb. 12-13, 2026.
Registration is now open.
Creating an Indigenous Language Fluency Transfer System that can Power Immersion Schooling
Symposium Goal: provide training and inspiration for Indigenous language leaders, teachers, and activists on how to develop a successful fluency transfer system that can power successful Indigenous immersion programming and schooling.
Salish School of Spokane serves students from 1 year old to 8th grade with Salish immersion care and instruction. Our students are becoming fluent speakers and have high achievement in literacy, math, science, culture, physical education, music and art.
We are also training 26 adults in our Salish Language Educator Development (SLED) program, and serving 50 adults in our evening and weekend Salish language classes.
Winter 2025 Immersion Symposium participants will learn about:
our Indigenous Language Fluency Transfer System (ILFTS)
how we train new fluent adult speakers & teachers with the ILFTS
how other communities can adapt and adapt our ILFTS for their own languages to power successful Indigenous language revitalization.
Training will include observation in Salish immersion classrooms, lecture about the elements of successful language revitalization and intensive training on the Indigenous Language Fluency Transfer System (ILFTS).
Past Symposiums
Salish School of Spokane has had success developing an effective fluency transfer system, the training of new advanced fluent speakers, and the establishment of a successful n̓səl̓xčin̓ immersion school.
Periodically, we offer Immersion Symposiums. These symposiums are fundraisers for SSOS, and offer training for other Indigenous language learners and communities. Symposiums are offered both at SSOS in Spokane, and on-site with hosting communities. The topics of our Immersion Symposiums change depending upon the needs and interests of participants. The focus of previous Immersion Symposiums have included:
How to develop and implement the SSOS Indigenous Language Fluency Transfer System (ILFTS)
How to establish, administer, and fund an Indigenous immersion school meeting Head Start, ECEAP, and K-10 standards in an Indigenous immersion school setting
Orthography and literacy theory and methodologies for Indigenous immersion schools
Culture-based science programming and curriculum for Indigenous immersion schools
Immersion math as a first focus of Indigenous language immersion instruction
ILFTS curriculum building from archival language recordings and resources