Copyright by Sarojani S. Mohammed 2008 The Dissertation Committee for Sarojani S. Mohammed Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Trini Talk or the Queen’s English? Navigating Language Varieties in the Post-Colonial, High Stakes Climate of “Standard Five” Classrooms in Trinidad Committee: Diane L. Schallert, Co-Supervisor Barbara G. Dodd, Co-Supervisor Lars Hinrichs Zena T. Moore Marilla D. Svinicki Brandon K. Vaughn Trini Talk or the Queen’s English? Navigating Language Varieties in the Post-Colonial, High Stakes Climate of “Standard Five” Classrooms in Trinidad by Sarojani S. Mohammed, S.B. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin December, 2008 Dedication To the newest source of inspiration in my life, my nephew, Henrik Åge Lundgård. Acknowledgements In many ways, this document represents the love and support of the village that raised me. I regret that I cannot express my gratitude to every person who has helped me along the way, but I appreciate this opportunity to acknowledge in print those who have devoted inordinate amounts of time and effort to ensure the completion of this degree, and this project in particular. To my parents, who knew that I could do this even before it was a dream of mine, I thank you for your love and patience, help and advice, and especially for your encouragement and support over the past 27 years. To my brother and sister, thanks for making me who I am, and loving me as I am. To my husband, Fazal Mohammed, thank you for being as invested in this degree as I was. I am amazed and humbled by your calm and thoughtful support, tolerance, encouragement, and advice throughout the roller coaster that is earning a Ph. D. I am deeply grateful for the way in which you enthusiastically took on the role of research assistant to an unreasonably perfectionistic and micro-managing principal investigator. I want you to know that I love you, and I truly believe that no one else‘s transcription or data gathering skills would have met my specifications the way yours did. I was fortunate to have a dissertation committee made up of six individuals who each considered me to be one of ―their‖ students. This should not have been surprising to v me, in light of the collaborative and collegial atmosphere in the Educational Psychology department at UT-Austin. However, I do recognize and appreciate the time that each of my committee members took to individually contribute to my development as a person and as a student. Without your help with developing ideas, designing methods, recruiting participants, putting out fires, analyzing data, and interpreting results, I would not be where I am today. To each of my dissertation advisors, Diane Schallert and Barbara Dodd, I thank you for your thoughtful input throughout my time at UT, from help choosing classes, to the shaping of this project, to hours spent reading, editing, and advising. I always knew I could turn to you with questions large and small. I have enjoyed our many discussions about school and life, working and learning, and I look forward to our continued collaboration and friendship. To Marilla Svinicki, Brandon Vaughn, Zena Moore, and Lars Hinrichs, I appreciate the interest and attention you have devoted to this project, and the encouragement and support you have provided to me. I admit that I am often proud of myself for the way in which each of my committee members had a personal stake in this study, but if I am to be honest that is more reflective of your interest and drive as mentors and teachers, than of my skill as a student. Thank you for accepting me as a member of your academic family, and for guiding me through the process of conducting original research. Your recommendations and support, along with your encouragement and assistance with talking things out and thinking things through, were essential. Here I must also thank Claire-Ellen Weinstein and Virginia Stockwell who went out of their way to ensure that I even made it to Austin at all. Without Virginia and her vi frequent reminders, I am not sure I would have been able to complete all the requirements for this degree, much less before all their various deadlines. Throughout my graduate career, I have been blessed with supervisors who have taken a personal interest in my professional and personal growth, and who have happily become my mentors. Regina Blair, Shari Levy Butler, and Denise Bradley took a chance on a first-year graduate student, fresh out of college, and unhesitatingly provided numerous opportunities for career advancement, always supporting my academic pursuits and encouraging me to use my job as an avenue for enhancing my learning as well. I was very fortunate that they all acknowledged that I was a student first and an employee second, and ensured that my work experiences were always related to or compatible with my academic goals. Greg Roberts, in particular, has been a willing and constant source of advice, encouragement, and support. I especially appreciate the challenging professional opportunities he has provided throughout my experience as a graduate research assistant. Under his supervision, I have been allowed and encouraged to take on tasks that many are not, even years after obtaining advanced degrees. In all endeavors, his interest lay as much in my goals and interests as in his own need or desire to get a job done. His confidence in my abilities has amplified my confidence in myself, and has in no small part contributed to the completion of this dissertation and this degree. Without the supportive work environment in which I found myself, my graduate experience would have been much less rewarding. While all my friends have been supportive throughout this project, there are two who were integral to its completion. Rochelle Roberts in Texas and Annie Ali-Beharry in Trinidad both served as sounding boards throughout this study, and helped whenever they vii could. Their selfless offers to ensure that I wrote, listen as I vented, and even help me organize parts of this study did not go unnoticed. Thank you both. I would also like to thank Yvonne Lewis and Simone Rawlins from the Division of Educational Research and Evaluation (DERE) of the Ministry of Education in Trinidad and Tobago for their contributions to this project. Their support and prompt provision of information made this study possible. Similarly, I thank Roland Maharaj and Bernadine Dick of the Division of School Supervision of the Ministry of Education for granting permission for this study to take place. To the consultants who grappled with language feature classification with me when I could no longer tell the difference between Trini and standard English, I hope you found the task interesting and fun. You know how sometimes you write a word and even though you know it is spelled correctly, it looks absolutely wrong? We all experienced that same phenomenon with oral language. Fazal, Diane, Rochelle, Michelle Neely, Kathryn Young, and Dr. Dagmar Deuber (all the way in Germany!) spent almost as much time as I did reading, re-reading, and probably even saying the phrases from the textbooks and transcripts used in this study that proved hardest to classify as Trini or standard English. I am deeply appreciative of your kind assistance. I wish I could thank all those who participated in this study by name, but to preserve their anonymity I will hope that they know who they are. I sincerely wish to thank all the primary school principals, vice principals, and secretaries who spoke with me about this study, nominated their Standard 5 teachers to participate, and then coordinated their participation. Thank you to all the Standard 5 teachers who allowed me into their classrooms to record them, coordinated and reported all their students‘ scores to me, and to all those who took my survey. I also must thank everyone who expressed viii interest in the survey (including friends, teachers, parents, and other Trinidadians); your encouragement came at the time when I needed it most. To all my focus group participants, I am grateful for the seriousness with which you undertook the task of discussing Trini with me. Words cannot express how thankful I am for your willingness to meet during holidays, at incredibly short notice, and for extended periods of time with little or no compensation for your participation. I know that you are all very busy, yet you chose to spend significant portions of your days helping me wade through the complex concepts of stylistic variation in and linguistic features of Trinidadian English. I hope that the survey that was developed as a result your contributions is one that you are proud to be associated with. I also hope that you enjoyed our chats as much as I did. Thank you for your unfettered input. As I look back on these words, I cannot help but feel that they are woefully inadequate in expressing just how indebted I am to those I have mentioned here. However, words are all I have in this forum, so to make the best of them I will say one final time, wholeheartedly and with the utmost sincerity; thank you all. ix Trini Talk or the Queen’s English? Navigating Language Varieties in the Post-Colonial, High Stakes Climate of “Standard Five” Classrooms in Trinidad Publication No._____________ Sarojani S. Mohammed, Ph.D.