Although Hawaiian did not exist as a written language until about 1823, three years after the arrival of missionaries, it soon flourished as the spoken and written language of business, society, and government in the Hawaiian Kingdom. By the early 1830s, nearly 50,000 students in more than 1,100 schools were becoming literate in Hawaiian translations of religious texts (Daws, 1968). When public elementary education was taken over in 1840 by the Kingdom of Hawai'i, classes were taught exclusively in Hawaiian. The first high school west of the Rocky Mountains was established the following year, and texts in Hawaiian were developed and published for a wide range of courses and content including trigonometry, geography, selected Shakespeare texts, and Ivanhoe. Hawaiian language literacy rates for Native Hawaiians during this period have been estimated at greater than 90%. Over the years, up until 1948, nearly 70 different newspapers were published in Hawaiian, and Hawaiian was the language generally used by the Territorial Legislature through the turn of the century (Lueras, 1989).

Hawaiian continued to be the language of instruction until 1896, when it was forbidden by the government of the Republic of Hawai'i as part of a move to consolidate non-Hawaiian power and to encourage annexation of Hawai'i by the United States (Hale Kuamo'o, 1995). This ban was later reversed, but in spite of a territorial law passed in 1919 requiring Hawaiian to be taught in high schools and teacher education programs, use of the language declined dramatically in the ensuing 6 decades. This decline was at least symbolically reversed in 1978 when the state Constitutional Convention passed provisions declaring Hawaiian and English as the official languages of the state, and asserting that the state will promote the use of the Hawaiian language. These provisions came at a time when it was estimated that fewer than 2,000, mostly elderly, native speakers of Hawaiian were still living. Dire predictions were made, such as the following: Because the native speakers "rarely speak Hawaiian to their children...the language will probably die with them sometime during the next 20 to 25 years" (Lueras, 1989, p. 318).

Recent Developments

More recent developments that have had a more visible impact on the revitalization of the Hawaiian language include the establishment of private nonprofit immersion preschools (Pünana Leo) in nine sites throughout the state beginning in 1984, the expansion of Hawaiian language classes for adults through the University of Hawai'i and community programs, and the establishment of the Papahana Kaiapuni 'Ölelo Hawai'i (Hawaiian Language Immersion Program). In 1987, the first public school immersion classes in the state were established at Keaukaha Elementary and at Waiau Elementary on O'ahu, with a total enrollment of 74 students (Hale Kuamo'o, 1995). Continual expansion of the grade levels served and the number of immersion sites has created the need for a pool of qualified teachers (kumu kaiapuni) who are fluent and literate in Hawaiian. An estimated 1,400 preschool and public-school students were enrolled in Hawaiian immersion programs in 1996 (Wilson, in press). The vast majority of the immersion teachers in these schools are not native speakers of the language, but have recently learned oral and written Hawaiian as adults through intensive language and culture courses of the Hawaiian Studies Program at the University of Hawai'i. Although more than 2,000 college students and an equal number of high school students have studied Hawaiian as a second language (Wilson, in press), only a small percentage have achieved high fluency and completed teacher training. Teachers must go through the same certification process as English language teachers in addition to demonstrating oral and written proficiency in Hawaiian before they can be hired permanently as immersion teachers.

The teacher shortage crisis is being challenged in court by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs in a suit that contends that Hawaiian language fluency and teaching expertise have primacy over English language based state certification (Wilson, in press). Ironically, the State of Hawai'i Department of Education was fighting the suit at the same time that the state government declared 1996 as "The Year of the Hawaiian Language." Although lack of qualified teachers has slowed the expansion of the Kaiapuni program, there are now 14 sites, including 2 high schools, on 5 different islands. These schools and the teachers working in the immersion programs have faced the daunting tasks of developing both oral language competence and literacy proficiency in Hawaiian with extremely limited materials available. Because almost no commercially published materials are available in Hawaiian, the use of translated materials and the use of technology by teachers and students have been crucial to the development of curriculum and the ultimate success of the immersion program. The geographic isolation of the immersion sites from one another has created additional challenges that have been met partially through the use of technology. Other sections in this article describe ways that technology has been incorporated by teachers and students to enhance Hawaiian language development (see Technology in the Future and The Use of Technology by Teachers).

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