Adult literacy education in a multilingual context Teaching, learning and using written language in Timor-Leste PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan Tilburg University, op gezag van de rector magnificus, prof. dr. Ph. Eijlander, in het openbaar te verdedigen ten overstaan van een door het college voor promoties aangewezen commissie in de aula van de Universiteit op woensdag 17 december 2014 om 10.15 uur door Danielle Anna Bernarda Boon, geboren op 30 mei 1969 te Wijnandsrade Promotor: prof. dr. Sjaak Kroon Copromotor: dr. Jeanne Kurvers Overige leden van de promotiecommissie: dr. Yonas Asfaha prof. dr. Jan Blommaert prof. dr. Benjamim de Araújo e Corte-Real prof. dr. Marilyn Martin-Jones prof. dr. Piet Van Avermaet The project was supported by NWO-WOTRO Science for Global Development under file number W 01.65.315.00. Cover design by PrismaPrint Layout by Carine Zebedee Pictures by Danielle Boon ISBN 978-94-6167-225-4 © Danielle Boon, 2014 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any other means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without permission of the author. For my parents Table of contents Preface 1 1 Introduction 7 1.1 Research project 8 1.2 This study 9 1.3 Relevance 11 1.4 Outline of the book 13 2 Adult literacy acquisition, education and use 15 2.1 Adult literacy acquisition in a second language 17 2.2 Adult literacy education 22 2.2.1 Teaching adult literacy 22 2.2.2 Language, literacy and education policies 26 2.3 Literacy uses, practices and values 32 2.4 Conclusion 35 3 Timor-Leste: history, languages and literacy 39 3.1 History and languages 39 3.2 Languages in formal education 42 3.3 Adult literacy rates and education 43 4 Research questions and design 51 4.1 Research questions 51 4.2 Research design 52 4.2.1 Broad study 53 4.2.2 In-depth study 61 4.2.3 Database 65 5 Results of learning in adult literacy programmes 67 5.1 Research questions and method 67 vi ADULT LITERACY EDUCATION IN A MULTILINGUAL CONTEXT 5.2 Adult literacy education in Timor-Leste: 70 programmes, teachers and learners 5.2.1 Programmes 70 5.2.2 Teachers 80 5.2.3 Learners 82 5.3 Basic literacy ability 85 5.3.1 Basic literacy ability of all learners 85 5.3.2 Learning to read and write for the first time: 88 the impact of learner and educational variables 5.3.3 Predictors of success 102 5.3.4 Development of adults’ literacy ability 106 5.4 Processes in initial reading and writing acquisition 107 5.4.1 Initial reading: word recognition strategies 108 5.4.2 Initial writing: spelling stages and strategies 116 5.5 Conclusions 122 6 Adult literacy teaching: practices and ideas 129 6.1 Research question and method 130 6.2 Class observations 132 6.2.1 Two Los Hau Bele groups 132 6.2.2 Two Hakat ba Oin groups 138 6.2.3 Two Iha Dalan groups 143 6.3 Teaching practices and classroom interaction 147 6.3.1 The teaching of reading and writing 147 6.3.2 Connecting letters and numbers in Los Hau Bele 152 6.3.3 Multilingual classroom talk 162 6.4 Discourses and ideas on literacy teaching/learning 176 6.5 Conclusions 184 7 Literacy uses, values and contexts 187 7.1 Research questions and method 188 7.2 Discourse on literacy uses and values 192 7.3 Linguistic landscapes in learners’ communities 197 7.4 Conclusions 211 8 Conclusions and recommendations 215 8.1 Conclusions 216 8.2 Discussion 230 8.3 Recommendations 234 8.4 Valorisation 239 TABLE OF CONTENTS VII References 243 Appendix 1 List of literacy programme materials 259 Appendix 2A Teacher questionnaire (in Tetum) 263 Appendix 2B Teacher questionnaire (in English) 269 Appendix 3 Learner data form and grapheme recognition task 275 Appendix 4 Word reading task 277 Appendix 5 Form-filling task 279 Appendix 6 Word-writing task 281 Appendix 7 Overview in-depth study 283 A Classes observed 283 B Interviews conducted 284 Appendix 8 Class observation checklist 285 Appendix 9 Interview guidelines 287 1 Guideline for interviews with adult learners 287 2 Guideline for interviews with teachers 288 3 Guideline for interviews with coordinators 290 Appendix 10 Overview content class observations 293 Abbreviations 297 Summary 301 Dissertations in Language and Culture Studies 311 Preface This book is about adults who learn to read and write in Timor-Leste, a small developing country in Southeast Asia. I became interested in the topic of adults learning to read and write during my master studies in ‘language and minorities’ at Tilburg University that I finished in 1993. In the years that followed my interest deepened. In 1994 I worked as an intern in a literacy class for adult immigrant learners learning Dutch as a second language; this intern- ship was part of a post-graduate teacher training course for Adult Education. In my first job at the Language School for Refugees in Rotterdam in 1994-1995, I taught Dutch as a second language to adult refugees from all over the world, many of whom were low-literate. In my later jobs, there has always been a link with adult education and integration of ethnic minorities. My first involvement in adult literacy education in Timor-Leste dates from late 2003, when I started to work at the Timor-Leste Ministry of Education as an adviser on adult literacy through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). This work would become the starting point for the study reported on in this book. My task as a UNDP consultant was to advise the Minister of Education on adult literacy education policy and practice. As requested by the Minister of Education, my work focused on the development and implementation of a new national adult literacy programme. My work included: needs assessment and policy development, network building with NGOs and UN-organisations and the joint development of an adult literacy curriculum plus the development, piloting, revision and implementation of contextualised course materials for beginners and advanced learners in both Tetum and Portuguese (which later became the Hakat ba Oin and Iha Dalan materials in Tetum and the Passo em Frente and A Caminho materials in Portuguese, as described further on in this book). The delivery of teacher training and train-the-trainer courses, plus the capacity building of ministry staff with respect to monitoring and evaluation of adult literacy development were other important elements in my work. My activities at the Ministry included meetings, writing of documents, field visits and material develop- 2 ADULT LITERACY EDUCATION IN A MULTILINGUAL CONTEXT ment, all of which took place in Portuguese and Tetum. Early 2004 I started to learn both these languages. My assignments with UNDP and my work at the Ministry of Education in Timor-Leste continued until the end of 2008. During those five years I spent 25 months in the country; the first year full time and the next four years at least three months per year. Through this work, I learned how Timor-Leste’s adult literacy education is affected by the country’s history and its multilingual context. The language backgrounds of the people whom I worked with varied along their age: older people who had gone to school in Portuguese times spoke Portuguese, whereas younger generations who had gone to school during the Indonesian occupa- tion, had learned Indonesian. Apart from Portuguese and/or Indonesian, people spoke their regional languages and the lingua franca Tetum. Although all literacy materials had been developed in Timor-Leste’s two official lan- guages, Tetum and Portuguese, the Tetum versions were used much more than the Portuguese ones. People’s ideas on literacy education varied with their experience in this field. Some had built experience in literacy education pro- vided by FRETILIN and NGOs since the early 1970s; others knew more recent literacy initiatives by NGOs such as GFFTL, OXFAM and Timor Aid. Some had participated in the Brazilian literacy programme Alfabetização Solidária that was provided in partnership with Timor-Leste’s Ministry of Education in Timor- Leste in 2000-2002. Others had worked with UNICEF and UNESCO that have been supporting the Ministry of Education in providing adult literacy education in Timor-Leste since 2000 until today. Late 2005, in cooperation with the same Ministry, Cuban advisers started piloting the Sim Eu Posso literacy programme (the Brazilian-Portuguese version of Yo sí Puedo), that later on was adapted to the Timorese context in the Los Hau Bele programme in Tetum. All these different ideas on literacy education and acquisition, from the past and the present and from inside and outside Timor-Leste, had their influence on how adult literacy education took place. During my work in Timor-Leste, I became intrigued by the passionate discussions on adult literacy among all these different players in the adult education field. Our joint discussions and activities led to a number of questions about adult literacy learning, teaching and use in this specific setting: how adult people learned to read and write in a language other than their home language, how literacy was taught to them in classes, how they valued literacy, how they used literacy in their daily lives in this rapidly changing country, in what ways literacy made a difference to their lives and what impact that would have on the teaching and learning of literacy. In 2006, I discussed the subject with Jeanne Kurvers and Sjaak Kroon at Tilburg University, the Netherlands, who enthusiastically supported my idea of con- ducting research on adult literacy in Timor-Leste and suggested to place it in a broader context.