P id gi ns a nd C re ol es i n E d u c a t i o n ( P A C E ) NEW SLETT ER Number 13 December 2002

SHORT REPORTS where I was able to discuss and consider many issues in regards to the Norfolk Island and views of methods we could apply From: Pieter Muysken to revitalize our language. I would be interested ATD/Linguistics, KU Nijmegen to hear from readers with examples of Postbus 9103 introducing their language within the school, 6500 HD Nijmegen creation of resource material, training native The Netherlands language teachers, etc.” [email protected] “On February 5 [2002] Viveka Velupillai de- PUBLICATIONS fended her thesis in Nijmegen on the Tense- Mood-Aspect system of Hawai‘i Creole Journal articles English. Supervisors were Bernard Comrie and Pieter Muysken. The thesis was based on In “Confronting local and culture a rich corpus of newly collected data on HCE. issues in the classroom” (Language, Culture Viveka concludes that the TMA system of and Curriculum vol.12, no.1, pp.31-41, 1999), HCE is rather different from the way it is Valerie Youssef and Beverly-Anne Carter portrayed in earlier descriptions, and presents describe the experience of preparing Spanish- many typologically unmarked features.” speaking Venezuelan EFL students to perform a play in Trinidad Creole. The students were From Suzanne Evans enrolled in a short course in Trinidad at the PO Box 602 Lower Intermediate level. According to the Norfolk Island 2899 abstract of the article (p.31): South Pacific The exercise was used to teach local culture in [email protected] relation to the native culture of the students and “The Norfolk Island language is traditionally also to teach functional and grammatical re- an oral one and is a creole established by the lations between the local Standard and Creole mutineers of “The Bounty” and their Tahitian varieties. It also served to enhance a focus on pronunciation, stress and intonation. The pro- companions. We are looking at revitalizing the cess was enthusiastically pursued by the entire language on Norfolk Island through the group, bringing them to a greater communi- community and particularly the school. I have cative awareness than might have been achieved just had an opportunity to complete a Graduate by other means in equivalent time. The use of Certificate in Linguistics at Adelaide local drama for the purposes outlined is University with Professor Peter Mühlhäusler recommended in the broader context of a need to equip 21st century students with the tools to manipulate the international variety(ies) most IN THIS ISSUE pertinent to their specific situation and needs. page In the same journal is: “A case study of the Short reports 1 sociopolitical dilemmas of -speaking Publications 1 students: Educational policy and practices” by Meta Van Sickle, Olaiya Aina and Mary Blake Cuttings from Newspapers 4 (Language, Culture and Curriculum vol.15, Special Report 6 no.1, pp.75-88, 2002). The article starts out Conferences 7 with the statement (p.75): “Early research in reading comprehension has supported the 1. teachers must learn enough about the culture belief that divergent language usage has a and language of the children to be able to negative impact on the visible demonstration of find the right answers in what the students academic achievement.” However, they put do say. forward the alternative point of view that lower comprehension scores “may be more a 2. Schools must develop a local curriculum that builds on the students’ strengths and function of teachers not accepting a reader’s gives them options for communicating the particular dialect than an actual lack of knowledge they possess. It is necessary to comprehension”. understand the life experiences that the To investigate this question with regard to students have in order for the teacher to use knowledge of science and mathematics, the relevant examples. authors conducted an in-depth qualitative study, over 3 years, of 12 students on Johns Book chapters Island (South Carolina) who speak a “Linguistics, education, and the Ebonics negatively valued creole language, Gullah. This firestorm” by John R. Rickford is a chapter in involved working with the students, listening to Linguistics, Language and the Professions, their stories, and discovering their own papers from the Georgetown University knowledge and world view. Then they did Round Table on and Linguistics content-specific language development with the 2000, edited by James E. Alatis, Heidi E. students to enable them “to communicate their Hamilton and Ai-Hui Tan (Georgetown Uni- knowledge to the outside world” (p.81). The versity Press, Washington DC, 2002), pp.25- authors noted: 45. The author presents disturbing statistics Because our goal was definitely not to eradicate showing how K-12 schools have been failing their native language and culture, we focused on African-American students, and describes how code switching as a means of preserving their the 1996 resolution by the Oakland School heritage while giving them two ways to Board attempted to take corrective action. He communicate about the same topics. In addition, illustrates how the goal of the nine the alternative terminology that we used with recommendations was basically to use the the students was designed to stretch both their students’ home language – African-American thinking and their precise use of words… (pp.81-2) English, or Ebonics – as a bridge to learning . The goal was not to This resulted in the following (p.82): “While teach Ebonics to African-American students, as maintaining their ability to describe a ‘right’ was falsely portrayed by the media and most answer in a holistic manner (as is typical in the commentators. ), they have become more The chapter goes on to present four precise and detailed in their writing (more arguments for the Contrastive Analysis (CA) typical of Standard English).” The authors approach advocated for use by the Oakland report that all students seem to have benefited School Board resolutions: (1) The approach as a result of the project, in terms of being proceeds from a position of strength, using a released from the Special Education Program, valid, systematic variety that the students are passing the South Carolina Exit Exam, or already competent in. (2) It is likely to have graduating with a diploma. The article positive effects on both teachers’ expectations concludes with the following suggestions and vernacular-speaking students’ self- (p.87): identity and motivation. (3) Other alternatives, such as ignoring or constantly correcting This newsletter is published yearly, free of charge, students’ , simply do not work. (4) with the support of the School of Languages, Several empirical studies demonstrate that CA Cultures and Linguistics at the University of New really works. Finally, the author refutes several England, and of the Australia Research Council. arguments against the CA approach. Please send contributions to: The book Literacy in African American Jeff Siegel Communities edited by Joyce L. Harris, Alan Department of Second Language Studies 1890 East-West Road G. Kamhi and Karen E. Pollock (Erlbaum, Honolulu, HI 96822 USA Marwah NJ, 2001) contains a chapter by [email protected] Noma LeMoine entitled “Language variation

2 Pidgins and Creole in Education (PACE) Newsletter 13 (2002) and literacy in African American students” Evaluation Unit of the Los Angeles Unified (pp.169-94). This chapter examines “the School District in 2000 (Publication No. 781). implications of language variation for teaching The main purpose of this evaluation was to SAE [Standard American English] and school determine the effectiveness of the Academic literacy to African American children for who English Mastery Program (AEMP) in increasing standard English is not native” (p.170). It students’ general and academic use of starts out with background information about Mainstream (MEL) as the origins of what she calls “African measured by the Language Assessment Writing American Language” and about the “deficit” and Speaking Measures. A pretest-posttest and “difference” perspectives towards the control design was used to examine the impact language. Then the author describes six of the AEMP over time. The pretest-posttest approaches used by effective teachers of condition allows measuring student academic African American SELLs [Standard English gain influence by confounding effects of Language Learners] (pp.176-87): maturation (time) and program effect. A control group was selected to isolate program impact 1. Build knowledge and understanding of non- from the maturation effect. (p.vi) standard languages and the students who use them. The most important finding of the study was: 2. Integrate linguistic knowledge about African There was a statistically significant and educa- American language into instruction. tionally meaningful difference between experi- mental and control groups at the end of the pro- 3. Use second language acquisition methods to gram as measured by the Language Assessment support acquisition of school language and Writing Test. AEMP program participants out- literacy. performed those who did not participate in the 4. Use a balanced approach to literacy program. (p.vii). acquisition that incorporates language experience, whole language/access to books, The authors concluded that the AEMP is “an and phonics. effective program in improving academic use of English language for speakers of non- 5. Infuse the history and culture of SELLs into the curriculum. mainstream English language” (p.vii) and recommended that the program be continued 6. Consider the learning styles and strengths of and expanded. African American SELLs in designing instruction. Resources for teachers The remainder of the chapter lists important The Department of Education in the state of features of the classroom environment and Western Australia has just published a useful several kinds of instructional strategies that resource kit about Aboriginal English called foster literacy acquisition in African American Ways of Being, Ways of Talk (2002). It is the SELLs. result of a collaborative project between the Department of Education, Western Australia, Report and the Centre for Applied Language and The author of the book chapter just described, Literacy Research, Edith Cowan University. Noma LeMoine, is director of the Los Angeles The materials comprise four videos and a School District’s Academic English Mastery booklet including information about using the Program (AEMP), designed to serve the materials, a glossary of terms, scripts and language needs of students who are not background papers for each of the videos, and proficient in Standard American English information on other related resources, (SAE). A comprehensive evaluation of this readings and websites. The videos are: “ A program was conducted in 1998-99. The shared world of communication”, “Now you report of this evaluation, prepared by Ebrahim see it, now you don’t”, “Two-way learning Maddahian and Ambition Padi Sandamela, was and two kinds of power” and “Moving into published by the Program Evaluation and other worlds”. Research Branch of the Research and

3 CUTTINGS FROM NEWSPAPERS obviously have not mastered these basic concepts, and cannot apply this knowledge to more complicated concepts. Despite this, Papua New Guinea Post Courier, teachers are already introducing more complex 3 April 2002 mathematical concepts. Cultural practices: A link to formal This has implications for the training of learning elementary and lower primary teachers, who by Patricia Paraide teach these basic concepts. Elementary and lower primary teachers can relate math- The development of elementary literacy and ematical concepts to traditional counting numeracy skills using the children’s own systems so that they can help the children to language allows them to make linkages better understand these concepts. Teachers at between the traditional world which they the elementary level are supposed to be people understand and the formal learning of new who can competently speak the children’s first concepts. language. Basic Papua New Guinean Parents, teachers, and the public in general mathematical concepts can be strengthened in have assumed that children who have formal language learning. completed three years of education in English However, those children who live away perform better in school than those who did from their parents’ traditional homes may not their elementary education in another know the traditional counting systems, unless language. However, data from a study of their parents reinforce this knowledge in their English, Tok Pisin and Tok Ples [indigenous present locations. Many children who did their language] elementary graduates suggest that elementary education in English are weak in there is no marked difference in the cognitive sounding letters and words. The spelling development of any of the children. They have errors which they made indicate that they rely the same strengths and weaknesses. These mostly on memory. They have yet to learn to data also suggest that there are differences in sound words and write them accordingly. the mastery of some language and Those children who start learning in a mathematical concepts. language they know best can sound the letters Many of those children who did their in the English alphabet, sound basic English elementary education in English had some words, and write them as they pronounce difficulty when identifying colours. They only them. They are beginning to master the correct pointed to the dark shades of the colours. spelling of common English words. Some can However, those children who did their already spell some simple English words. elementary education in a language that they With increased exposure to English in primary know best were aware that colours have school they should be able to learn the correct different shades. Also, they could point out spelling of more simple English words. Many any shade of most colours. of these children are beginning to comprehend Many children in the sample schools had simple English text. This is encouraging, as it difficulties with the concepts of 2+0 =2 (they indicates that these children are beginning to multiplied and wrote 0 as the answer), 2x0 =0 transfer their Tok Ples and Tok Pisin literacy (they added and wrote 2 as the answer), 2–0 =2 skills across to the English language. (they divided and wrote 0 as the answer), and It is a great concern that some children who 0÷2 =0, (they added and wrote 2 as the did their elementary education in English answer). The average students, and those who cannot, as yet, read simple English text. These need special assistance in all sample schools children just copied phrases from their test had difficulties in adding two-digit numbers. papers, as their answers. When they were Some of the mathematical exercises showed asked to read what they had written they stated that Grade 3 children were already doing two that they could not read. Although these and three digit addition, subtraction, children’s first languages were Tok Pisin or multiplication, and division. Tok Ples, English was the elementary language However, many children were having of instruction for three years. difficulties, as shown by the number of The actual cause of this problem was not mistakes in the exercises that they did in class. established in this study, but it could be This is of great concern because the children attributed to teacher training. … There are

4 Pidgins and Creole in Education (PACE) Newsletter 13 (2002) weaknesses in linking formal lessons with the how these can lead to misunderstandings in knowledge that the children already have. the classroom. Teachers need to develop mathematical, Professor Stewart examined and wrote science, and physiological concepts by using widely about how this creates testing prob- Papua New Guinean languages, and apply lems for such children. He argued that certain such concepts to classroom teaching. Some grammatical peculiarities of the dialect, like teachers are already doing this. However, there “he busy,” meaning “he’s busy right now”, is room for improvement in the linkages and “he be busy,” meaning “he’s always between traditional concepts and what the busy”, make nonstandard English into a children already know, and formal learning. separate language. There are also weaknesses with the Asking its young speakers to express these interpretation and implementation of policies ideas in standard English simply could not concerning the use of language in elementary reflect what the pupils intended to say, education in the provinces. Some elementary Professor Stewart argued. He demonstrated schools use Tok Ples in Elementary Prep, then that speakers of nonstandard English were, in Tok Pisin in Elementary 1, then English in fact, speaking the remnants of a creole, Elementary 2. Some use both English and Tok melding languages of African slaves and the Pisin in all elementary grades, as is the case English of American settlers. with some schools in the provinces. However, Creoles are languages resulting from con- this practice may affect the mastery of reading, tact between two different tongues, one of writing, and numeracy skills in the languages them usually being English, French, Spanish, of instruction. As a result, children may have Dutch or Portuguese. Professor Stewart’s difficulties in transferring these skills when particular fascination lay with Gullah, the learning English. speech of a dwindling number of rural This practice is common in many African-Americans along the Carolina coastal elementary schools because of pressure from delta, down to the Florida border. parents and primary school teachers to The Gullah “I en bin dey, yall know,” for introduce English as the language of example, translates to “I have not been there, instruction. They believe that children will you know.” Gullah, a word derived perhaps learn better, if English is used in elementary from Angola, draws to some degree on a mix schools. The data collected during this study of West African languages like Ewe, Ibo and do not support this view. Yoruba. Born in Honolulu to Scottish immigrants, New York Times, 10 April 2002 William Stewart grew up speaking four W.A. Stewart, Linguist Who Studied languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese and Ebonics, Dies at 71 Hawaiian. He was an Army translator in Frankfurt and Paris in 1952 and graduated in by Wolfgang Saxon 1955 from the University of California, Los William Alexander Stewart, a Hawaiian-born Angeles, where he also received a master’s Scot who grew up multilingual in California degree in 1958. and became an authority on creole languages, After study as a Fulbright scholar at the in particular Gullah, the West African-flavored University of Pernambuco, Brazil, he was speech of the Sea Islands off South Carolina recruited as a staff linguist by the Center for and Georgia, died on March 25 at Columbia- Applied Linguistics in Washington in 1960, a Presbyterian Center in Manhattan. He was 71 job entailing much travel in the and and lived in Manhattan. Africa. By then he was fluent also in German, The cause was congestive heart failure, French, Dutch, Wolof, Haitian, Papiamento according to the City University of New York and Gullah, a dialect born in 16th-century Graduate Center, where he had been on the Barbados. faculty since 1973. In 1965 he proposed that it was not the A professor of linguistics, he was an early vocabulary or pronunciation of the African- scholar of what has come to be known as American vernacular but its grammar that ebonics, the nonstandard English many Afri- stumped some children with reading problems. can-American children hear and learn at home. Three years later, he became co-director of the He explored its grammatical differences and

5 Education Study Center in Washington, which Norfolk will now have much easier access to helped ghetto children with their reading. the language through her work at the school.” Early in his career, he lectured on Before returning to Norfolk, Ms Evans Portuguese and Spanish at Georgetown spoke with the Adelaidian. She said her first University, taught at Johns Hopkins task was to prepare a syllabus for use at the University and joined the faculty of Teachers school, which caters for 300 students from College, Columbia University, in 1968. Reception to Year 12. “Studying at Adelaide He started teaching at CUNY in 1973. The opened my eyes and helped me to look at new Graduate Center named him a full professor in ways of doing things,” she said. 1984. At CUNY he taught pidgins and creoles, , sociolinguistics, applied linguistics SPECIAL REPORT and forensic linguistics. Professor Stewart leaves no immediate survivors. Valuing Jamaican /Creole by Mark Sebba Adelaidian, July 2002 A conference on the theme “Valuing Jamaican Norfolk Islander to teach threatened Patois/Creole” was held on 29th May 2002 at language in school Newman College of HE in Birmingham, by Ben Osborne England, under the auspices of 2K, a British based organisation which amongst The fight to revive Norfolk Island’s [creole] other things, supports the development of indigenous language has received another Community Learning Centres with Basic boost from the University of Adelaide – but Skills and ICT across Jamaica. this time through an island native. The conference was billed as being “for Ms Suzanne Evans, a schoolteacher on the educational professionals to explore the island, completed a Graduate Certificate in language and literacy continuum between Applied Linguistics under the Head of Jamaican Patois/Creole and Standard Linguistics, Professor Peter Mühlhäusler, English”, with its main aim during the first semester of 2002. She has since returned to Norfolk’s sole to provide a forum […] to gain a better school to add the Pitcairn-Norfolk language to understanding of the importance and status of the curriculum and help it propagate through Jamaican Patois/Creole, to discuss issues and the latest generation of islanders. share ideas to move forward understanding of the importance of recognising Jamaican Patois/ The language dates back more than 200 Creole as a language, or way of speaking, to be years, when mutineers from The Bounty valued in its own right. This understanding is founded a new community on Pitcairn Island crucial to the development of effective teaching in 1790, which transferred to Norfolk Island in strategies when working with Jamaican 1854. Patois/Creole learners studying in a Standard Professor Mühlhäusler, internationally English speaking learning environment. regarded for his work in Pacific Islands The conference was attended by around 40 languages, has been visiting Norfolk since people representing primary, secondary, 1997 to work with locals to try and halt the further and adult education, ethnic minority language’s decline (only 500 islanders speak achievement units, higher education and other the traditional form of Pitcairn-Norfolk, out of sectors. The conference heard three keynote a population of 2000). He said it was an addresses. important step for a local teacher to become directly involved in the revitalisation process. • Prof. Gus John, Visiting Professor of Edu- “It’s part of the overall plan for the Govern- cation and formerly Director of Education ment to give the language official recogni- for the Borough of Hackney, re- tion,” he said. called the early days when were “To set up a language revival program classed as “educationally subnormal” associated with that, you need to have the because of a lack of awareness about school involved, and Suzanne is a big part of Creole. He brought copies of Cassidy’s that. I’m very confident that children on Jamaica Talk and the first (1967) edition of the Dictionary of by

6 Pidgins and Creole in Education (PACE) Newsletter 13 (2002)

Frederic Cassidy and R. B. Le Page, and and some of the main sources of support and spoke about how important these books development, like the Inner London Education had been in the 1960s in establishing the Authority, having been abolished. right of Jamaican Creole to be considered a It seems to me that future meetings need to language. decide what the priorities are and focus on • Clement Lambert from the Institute of specific issues. Different people have different Education at the University of the West agendas and there are a variety of actual or Indies outlined three options relating to the possible goals: for example, to integrate role of Creole and Standard English in children from Jamaica, support their language education. development, and help them to speak and write 1. Develop Creole as a language of Standard English; to encourage adult learners instruction, with the accompanying of Caribbean heritage and to help them to resources which will be required to write Standard English; to motivate British- enable children to become bilinguals in born African-Caribbeans to use and appreciate Creole and Standard English. Patois (either for its own sake or as a means to 2. Recognise that many children entering help them develop their writing skills in school have Creole as a first language, Standard English). support and value it, and then “move One thing was little touched on, but I think aggressively” towards acquisition of the it may be significant. Unlike other minority target language, Standard English. languages, Creole/Patois actually has high, 3. Pretend Creole does not exist, and treat though often covert, prestige among the children as first-language speakers adolescents of all races. The associations of of Standard English. Jamaican Creole with music and dance make it popular well beyond the boundaries of the Of these the third had been tried and failed; . This fact should and the Jamaican education system had provide a way of both promoting Patois as a now accepted (2). Option (1) was ruled out language of culture (enabling it to be taken due, amongst other things, to lack of ‘seriously’ as a language) and making it resources. interesting to adolescents. What we need to • Mary Nelson (Ethnic Minority Achieve- develop is a strategy for doing this. ment manager, Wolverhampton Local Education Authority, West Midlands) talked about her work with new arrivals CONFERENCES from Jamaica and longer established children in schools in her area. There are in Past Conferences and symposia fact a substantial number of children arriving from Jamaica (in spite of a The National Foreign Language Resource widespread perception that migration is Center at the University of Hawai‘i held a now the other way, if any) with obvious summer institute titled: “Heritage Learners language issues. She brought along a and National Language Needs” from 17-19 document produced by the Education June 2002. This included a workshop on Service called Meeting the needs of new “Unstandardized Varieties as a Classroom arrivals from Jamaica: information and Resource”, conducted by Terri Menacker, advice for schools. This was developed as a Kent Sakoda and Jeff Siegel. Here is a resource for teachers and other education description: professionals working with new arrivals. For many people in the world, their heritage language is an unstandardized variety, such as Chicano Spanish, A personal reflection on the conference Louisiana French, or Hawai‘i Creole English. Such varieties are usually seen as obstacles to educational It was good to find a large number of advancement, and are thus banned from the classroom. people interested in issues to do with Creole, But the theme of this workshop was that such and for them to have a chance to meet and talk stigmatized varieties can be an important educational to each other. On the other hand, there was resource. Participants learned about the various something a bit depressing about the contentious issues surrounding the use of impression that in 20 years, little had changed, unstandardized varieties in the classroom, and then got with few new resources having been created, involved in some innovative classroom activities

7 which do focus on these varieties. These included some time, but it has a new urgency in the present-day sociolinguistic awareness, basic linguistic analysis and world. For Caribbean creole-speaking populations, contrastive studies. Such activities aim at valuing and what continues to be appropriate is that primary and validating the students’ home language while at the secondary schools should have a range of creole- same time helping them to acquire the “standard”. utilisation procedures, from which selection can be made, and that can be used flexibly and in varying The 14th Biennial Conference of the Society ways, depending on sociolinguistic conditions, to for Caribbean Linguistics was held at the St optimise children’s education. The paper concludes Augustine campus of the University of the with an outline of some creole-utilisation possibilities. West Indies in Trinidad & Tobago, 14-17 August 2002. The theme of the conference was Bringing Language Awareness into the High Caribbean Linguistics: Theory and School Curriculum: The Opportunities Application”. Several papers were on the topic Offered by CAPE Communication Studies of creoles in education. Some of the abstracts Silvia Kouwenberg are given below. The introduction of the CAPE syllabus “Communication Studies” in Jamaican high schools Making Language Visible: Language has been greeted with mixed reactions. In many Awareness in a Creole-speaking Environment schools, the course is taught by teachers who are either Beverley Bryan not qualified to teach all aspects of the programme and/or not interested in doing so, but even those Language awareness, as an essential component in teachers who like the course, have pointed out that language learning/teaching, has been variously defined they need support and possibly retraining for the and discussed in the literature on Language Education. “Language in Society” module. This module focusses This paper will explore some of these meanings and on aspects of grammar of Creole vernaculars as present the case for language awareness as a compared to English on the one hand, on the linguistic particularly useful and innovative concept for enriching situations in Caribbean territories and their historical language teaching and the teaching of English in a background on the other hand. Creole-speaking environment. With a specific focus on An invitation extended to final year linguistics using Jamaican Creole (JC) to teach English, this students in L32B Creole Linguistics at UWI Mona paper will take the form of a multi-media presentation during the second semester of 2000-01 to assist in foregrounding instances of good classroom practice in filling this gap was enthusiastically taken up. It Jamaican schools. resulted in four groups of three students each developing a lesson plan for a topic in the comparative /laik yu nu waan mi pikni fi laan di waitmaan analysis of Jamaican Creole and English and piloting langwij !/ or Creole, without Controversy, in their lessons at a Kingston high school. After West Indian Education compiling and editing the material, it was distributed to high schools across the island, and used as a basis Dennis Craig for training high school teachers, both in individual Linguists have often assumed the role of activists for schools and in a training session at UWI which creole-language literacy. The justification for such involved teachers from schools island-wide. An activism is examined. In this context, the growth of evaluation form came back with positive feedback and tolerance for cultural, including linguistic, differences requests for further training. The lesson plans are now has to be taken into account. Is the self-identity and used in schools across Jamaica, and teachers have self-esteem of the Caribbean creole speaker still under generally expressed appreciation for the material, in threat, as it was, say, fifty years ago? Undoubtedly particular for its explicit guidance through the topics. there is still a need for continued public education in The topics covered in the material are: (1) the the latter respect, but is it possible that linguistic comparative analysis of the vocabulary of Jamaican activism has served its purpose? The attitudes of Creole and English; (2) the comparative analysis of homes and communities are seen as determinants of the pluralization in Jamaican Creole and English; (3) the kinds of educational action that are possible. These comparative analysis of and their attitudes have to be currently evaluated against the combinations in Jamaican Creole and English; (4) the background of relatively rapid linguistic change in comparative analysis of tense marking in Jamaican contemporary times, globalisation, and the individual’s Creole and English. Each lesson plan contains a ever-increasing need for literacy in a world language. In background section which aims to familiarize the this context, while continuity of cognitive growth in teachers with the topic at hand, a step-by-step lesson one’s first language remains critically important, the plan, and worksheets intended for reproduction and use of one’s first language in education can justifiably distribution to students. assume different forms. This fact has been known for

8 Pidgins and Creole in Education (PACE) Newsletter 13 (2002)

We see this development as a prime opportunity for necessarily resulting in the development of proficiency developing language awareness issues which are in Standard English. Findings such as those reported in specific to the Caribbean situation in the high school the Siegel studies are unlikely to have been reproduced curriculum. It is important that this opportunity be in sources that are accessible to policy makers or used properly, so as not to give high school teachers, teacher educators. As a consequence, they have not many of whom are not devoid of the common prej- been considered in discussions on this issue locally, udices towards Creole vernaculars, a chance to per- and they have had no influence on educational policy or petuate inappropriate attitudes among their students. pedagogical practice in the Caribbean. This paper will present an overview of the material This paper presents the results of one component of which we developed. The aims of the presentation are a preliminary pilot study which implemented a model to initiate a discussion on the appropriateness of the for developing multi-literacy among first language material for high school use, its possible expansion to French Creole and English-lexicon vernacular speakers include other topics for which lesson plans can be in St. Lucia. The sub-sample on which this report is produced, and the possibility for the development of based comprises three children, two boys and one girl, similar materials for use in different situations across from Grades V and VI of a primary school in St. the Caribbean territories in which CAPE Com- Lucia. At the start of the study one boy (Grade VI) was munication Studies is taught. found to be reading at an early Grade I level, while the other boy and the girl (Grade V) were beginning readers Bringing Creole into the Classroom: with minimal decoding and fluency abilities. The three Views from Outside the Caribbean children had received six (in the case of the 5th graders) and seven (in the case of the 6th grader) years of Jeff Siegel instruction at the primary school where the study was Until fairly recently, creole languages have had no conducted. official place in the formal education systems of the The “preliminary pilot” study implemented a countries where they are spoken. While this situation slightly modified version of the first component of the has been changing in several areas, the status quo model, which was designed to develop bi-literacy in seems to remain in most of the standard French Creole and Standard English. The time which English/Creole-speaking parts of the Caribbean region. the full-scale model required was reduced to the This paper examines developments in the use of creole equivalent of a four week long intensive course with languages in formal education in other areas of the sessions conducted at different periods to facilitate world. First, it outlines the usual arguments for application of the intervention by the researchers. A keeping creoles and nonstandard out of the single subject research design was used for the study to classroom – especially the fear of interference. Then, it control for intervening variables that might have presents three types of education programs which influenced the outcomes. The findings from the first actually utilise these varieties – instrumental, phase of the study showed that all the children in the accommodation and awareness – and describes sub-sample were reading at least one grade level higher examples of each from Australia, the Seychelles, (in Standard English) than at the start of the study. All Hawai‘i, Britain and other parts of the world. The paper the children also learned to read French Creole during goes on to discuss evaluations of some of these the intervention and their comprehension of texts in programs, which show that they are successful in English was much enhanced by their developing improving overall academic achievement as well as abilities in reading French Creole. The study found a performance in the standard dialect. The paper positive transfer of reading abilities from the native to concludes with some possible explanations for the the second language. It therefore corroborates findings success of these programs from the perspective of of studies done elsewhere, namely, that instruction in research in second language acquisition. the child’s native language can be a help and not a hindrance to the development of literacy in the L2. The The Effects of Vernacular Instruction on the results of this experiment will be discussed within the Development of Bi-literacy Abilities of Native broader context of the multi-literacy model and its Speakers of French Creole implications for policy as well as its potential usefulness for pedagogical practice will be explored. Hazel Simmons-McDonald The NWAV 31 conference (New Ways of Research on vernacular literacy using native speakers of a pidgin as subjects (e.g. Siegel, 1997, 1999) shows Analyzing Variation) took place at Stanford that the use of vernacular can be a help and not a University 10-13 October 2002. John hindrance to the development of literacy in Standard Rickford and Angela Rickford presented a English. The use of Creoles and vernaculars as media paper entitled: “Updating contrastive analysis: of instruction has been resisted in the Caribbean for Extending students’ linguistic versatility several reasons, a primary one being the fear that such through literature and song”. Here is a slightly instruction might simply reinforce the Creole without edited version of their abstract:

9 Contrastive Analysis (CA) remains a powerful tool for versatility, in vernacular and mainstream English, in the language arts teacher seeking to increase the stand- Spanish and Swahili, in exposition, fiction and poetry, ard English competence of vernacular-speaking stud- in the sonnet and the haiku, and in rap as well as the ents. In the US, it has been endorsed by variationists blues. for over thirty years, and widely used (in California, Illinois and Georgia) with speakers of African Ame- The second annual Bamboo Ridge Writers rican Vernacular English [AAVE], more so than Institute took place at the University of “dialect readers” (Rickford & Rickford 1995). Where Hawai‘i on 25-26 October. It kicked off with data on its effectiveness has been available (this has readings in Pidgin (Hawai‘i Creole English) not always been the case), they have been positive, by two well-known authors, Lee Cataluna and with students in experimental CA programs showing Lois-Ann Yamanaka. One of the panel greater improvement than students in control programs sessions on the program was on the topic of which do NOT take their vernaculars into account. “The art of authentic dialogue”. The panel But traditional CA programs do have weaknesses included five local playwrights – Tammy H. too. Most of their exercises involve translation only Baker, Lee Cataluna, Yokanaan Kearns from the vernacular to the standard, not in both Victoria Kneubuhl and Edward Sakamoto – directions. This undermines proponents’ claims about and there was a lot of interesting discussion on the integrity and validity of the vernacular, and it runs counter to the underlying ideology of bidialectalism. the role of Pidgin in Hawai‘i literature. Traditional CA is also too dependent on boring (“drill Forthcoming conference and kill”) pattern practice exercises, and some students may be hostile to the message that standard English is The summer conference of the Society for the only variety worth emulating. Traditional CA also Pidgin and Creole Linguistics will be held 14- focuses too narrowly and myopically on language 17 August 2003 at the Imin International forms, as though “good language use” involves Conference Center at the University of nothing more than pronouncing think with a theta, and Hawai‘i in Honolulu. This is the first SPCL having an -s on the end of third person singular present conference to be held in the Pacific region! In tense verbs. We advocate instead an updated CA that would addition to the usual papers on the linguistic remedy the weaknesses of traditional CA by affirming aspects of pidgins, creoles and other language the validity of students’ ethnic identity and extending contact varieties, SPCL ’03 will feature special their linguistic versatility through literature and song. sessions on creole literature and applied issues, (We view extending versatility as the applied such as pidgins and creoles in education. counterpart of the theoretical/descriptive study of Other highlights include cultural and scenic sociolingusitic variation.) We would expose students tours, Asian-Pacific food and entertainment to models of writers and singers who look like them and the chance to hear Hawai‘i Creole English (e.g. African American, West Indian, Chicano, or (locally known as “Pidgin”). Asian American) but express themselves powerfully and effectively both in vernacular and standard varieties The call for papers and information about of English, as well as other languages. Using samples accommodation can be found on the SPCL from writers and singers as well as the students, we ’03 web site: http://www.hawaii.edu/spcl03 Or would explicitly teach about language variation and email: [email protected] train students to extend and exploit their linguistic

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