Social and Educational Issues in Jamaica: with Reference to the Use of Creole and Standard English in Secondary Schools by Lena Lee NcCourtie Wright This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Institute of Education, University of London. Joint Department of English and Media Studies April, 1990 BIBL 1.0NDIN ) INN ABSTRACT As the argument of this thesis deals with the polarities of language usage in Jamaica, Part One presents the historical context in which a language 'continuum' came to exist in the society. Then it analyses the systemic contrasts between Jamaican Creole (JC) and Standard English (SE), and the language varieties between these two polar lects. A case history of Elementary/Primary schools in the late nineteenth and early twentieth._ centuries drew attention to the Creole-Standard debate. Educational administrators misunderstood the nature of the linguistic configuration - denying pupils' Creole the right to exist - while teachers were singularly ill-equipped to help boys and girls acquire English. Part Two deals with the empirical investigation which centres on a substantially representative sample of 530 Secondary pupils. The study seeks to determine the extent to which the Secondary sector, which is designed for the masses, can achieve two divergent linguistic goals laid down by the Ministry of Education - 'appreciation of Creole' and 'a high level of competence in English'. The study probes in some depth the concept of 'linguistic focusing' as it seeks to assess pupils' access to English through the printed word and the media. Then it closely analyses their perspectives on language use and attitudes to both languages. Finally, the assessment of two written tasks provides evidence of pupils' productive abilities in English. The data clearly reveal that they have not acquired English, even after eight years of exposure to formal teaching. Indeed, the majority leave school with negative attitudes to JC and a legacy of linguistic insecurities. The thesis concludes on a hopeful note, however, as it suggests how a new political will, the insights of linguistic scholarship and new vistas in teacher education could combine to resolve the Creole-Standard debate. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract 2 Table of Contents 3 List of Tables 6 List of Figures 9 List of Appendices 10 Dedication 11 Acknowledgements 12 Introduction 14 PART ONE SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL ISSUES CHAPTER 1 THE PROBLEM: ITS DEHOGRAPHIC AND LINGUISTIC HISTORY 17 1.1 Introduction 17 1.2 Demographic History 22 1.3 Linguistic History 31 1.4 The Linguistic Configuration 36 1.5 Summary and Conclusions 39 CHAPTER 2 NEGATIVE PERCEPTIONS OF CREOLE LANGUAGE AND USER: A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW 41 2.1 Introduction 41 2.2 A Frame of Reference 42 2.3 Adverse Criticism: a Diachronic View 44 2.4 The Caribbean: A Synchronic View 54 2.5 Summary and Conclusions 57 CHAPTER 3 JAHAICAN CREOLE: A LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS 59 3.1 Introduction 59 3.2 Linguistic Contrasts separating JC and SE. 62 3 3.2.1 Lexis 62 3.2.2 Phonology 65 3.2.3 Morphological and Syntactic Characteristics 68 3.2.4 Jamaican Creole versus English Constructions 78 3.3 The Co-existence of SE and JC 79 3.4 Continuum Analyses: Problems and Issues 84 3.5 Summary and Conclusions 88 CHAPTER 4 THE CREOLE-STANDARD DEBATE: SOME EDUCATIONAL ISSUES 91 4.1 Introduction 91 4.2 Recognition of Language Differential: the British West Indies 93 4.3 Inside Elementary Schools: a Case Study 100 4.4 A Needs Analysis: in Retrospect 112 4.5 Unmet Educational Needs: a Diachronic View 117 4.6 Unmet Educational Needs: a Synchronic View 119 4.7 Summary and Conclusions 123 4.8 End of Part One: Summary of Argument 127 PART TWO THE EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION 130 CHAPTER 5 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY 131 5.1 Introduction 131 5.2 The Purpose and Aims of the Investigation 133 5.3 Methods 134 5.4 Multi-stage Random Sampling 136 5.5 Design and Construction of Research Tools 144 5.6 The Pilot Study 152 5.7 The Main Survey 154 4 5.8 Data Analysis 156 5.9 Summary and Conclusions 157 CHAPTER 6 LINGUISTIC FOCUSING: A QUESTION OF ACCESS 159 6.1 Introduction 159 6.2 Pupils' Linguistic World 161 6.3 Access to SE through Exposure to the Radio and Television 176 6.4 Access to SE through the Written Word 186 6.5 Summary and Conclusions 193 CHAPTER 7 PUPIL PERSPECTIVES ON LANGUAGE USE 197 7.1 Introduction 197 7.2 Patterns of Language Use: Persons 201 7.3 Patterns of Language Use: Specific Situations 214 7.4 Pupils' Language Preferences 219 7.5 Positive Responses 220 7.6 Negative Responses 228 7.7 Summary and Conclusions 235 CHAPTER 8 THE VERBAL GUISE: LANGUAGE ATTITUDES OF PUPILS AND THEIR TEACHERS 238 8.1 Introduction 238 8.2 The Findings: the Pupils 244 8.3 Overt and Covert Attitudes 251 8.4 Co-variation of Language and Sex 254 8.5 The Findings: the Teachers 258 8.6 Language Attitudes in Education 266 8.7 Summary and Conclusions 268 5 CHAPTER 9 PUPILS AS COMPETENT WRITERS? 272 9.1 Introduction 272 9.2 Initial Assessment of Task I 277 9.3 Presentation of Findings 280 9.4 Further Data Analysis: Five Ranks 296 9.5 Task II: Levels I-V 308 9.6 Interpretation of the Findings 310 9.7 Summary and Conclusions 317 Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations 321 Notes 328 Appendices 331 Bibliography 368 LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1 Numbers of Negro Slaves Compared with the White 28 Population 1658-1787 Table 1.2 Racial Composition of the Population 1844-1943 30 Table 1.3 The Principal Ethnic and Linguistic Backgrounds of Jamaican Slaves 1655-1807 33 Table 1.4 Languages and Language Varieties in use by 1850 39 Table 3.1 Derivation of JC Lexical Items Beginning with the Letter 's' 63 Table 3.2 The Comparative Morphology of the Singular Form of Personal Pronouns 71 Table 3.3 The Comparative Morphology of the Plural Form of Personal Pronouns 71 Table 3.4 Possessive Pronouns 72 Table 3.5 The Perfective Aspect in JC 75 Table 5.1 Showing the Response Rate of the Main Instruments 155 Table 5.2 Details of Target Population in the Survey 157 6 Table 6.1 Social/Occupational Stratification of Pupils' Parents and Guardians 161 Table 6.2 Family Types/Patterns 163 Table 6.3 Family Size expressed in Ranges 164 Table 6.4 Number of Adults in Households 165 Table 6.5 Number of Children in the Homes 166 Table 6.6 Number of Siblings expressed in Ranges 167 Table 6.7 Geographical Location of Pupils 167 Table 6.8 Two Educational Routes 171 Table 6.9 Early Childhood Education received by Pupils 171 Table 6.10 Cross-Tabulation: Response to Radio Programmes: by Sex 180 Table 6.11 Cross-Tabulation: Response to Television Programmes: by Sex 183 Table 6.12 Reading Habits of Pupils by School Type 189 Table 7.1 Pattern of SE Usage to Specific Persons 202 Table 7.2 Pattern of JC usage in Specific Situations 202 Table 7.3 Frequency Distribution of Languages used to the 203 Dentist: by Sex Table 7.4 Frequency Distribution of Languages used to the Bus-conductor: by Sex 204 Table 7.5 Frequency Distribution of Languages used to the Marketwoman: by Sex 205 Table 7.6 Frequency Distribution of Languages used when Angry: by Sex 205 Table 7.7 Languages spoken to Mother Languages spoken to Father 211 Table 7.8 Summary Table: Patterns of Language use Specific Persons/Situations 218 Table 7.9 Positive and Negative Responses in Outline 220 Table 7.10 Frequency Distribution of Positive Responses 220 Table 7.11 Frequency Distribution of Difficulties in Class: by Sex and School Type 225 7 Table 7.12 Five Categories of Positive Responses: by Sex 227 Table 7.13 Frequency Distribution of Negative Responses 228 Table 7.14 Seven Categories of Negative Responses: by Sex 234 Table 8.1 Frequency Distribution of Lexical Variables in Cluster A (Pupils) 245 Table 8.2 Frequency Distribution of Lexical Variables in Cluster B (Pupils) 245 Table 8.3 Unidimensional Responses to 'Friendly' and `Unfriendly' 253 Table 8.4 Frequency Distribution of 0-8 Positive Lexical Variables for JC I: by Sex 255 Table 8.5 Frequency Distribution of 0-8 Positive Lexical Variables for SE I: by Sex 256 Table 8.6 Frequency Distribution of Lexical Variables in Cluster A (Teachers) 258 Table 8.7 Frequency Distribution of Lexical Variables in Cluster B (Teachers) 258 Table 9.1 Distribution of Pupils in Five Ranks 298 Table 9.2 Number of Words, SE and Non-SE Verbs used by Rank I Writers 299 Table 9.3 Number of Words, SE and Non-SE Verbs used by Rank II Writers 300 Table 9.4 Number of Words, SE and Non-SE Verbs used by Rank III Writers 301 Table 9.5 Number of Words, SE and Non-SE Verbs used by 303 Rank IV Writers Table 9.6 Number of Words, SE and Non-SE Verbs used by Rank V Writers 304 Table 9.7 Frequency Distribution of Pupil Performance in Secondary Schools: Rank by Sex 305 Table 9.8 Frequency Distribution of Pupil performance in All-Age Schools: Rank by Sex 306 Table 9.9 Frequency Distribution of Pupil performance Combined Secondary and All-Age Schools: Rank by Sex 307 Table 9.10 Frequency Distribution: Rank by Level 310 8 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1 The Caribbean Region and Caribbean Creoles 21 Figure 2.1 Schematic Representation of Universalist and Substrate Hypotheses 50 Figure 5.1 Parishes Included in the Sample with Encoding Symbols 139 Figure 5.2 Typology and Location of Schools in the Sample 140 Figure 5.3 Distribution of Secondary and All-Age Schools in the Parishes 143 Figure 6.1 The Stages in Reporting the Empirical Investigation 196 Figure 8.1 Scatter-Plot Highlighting Pupils' Responses to SE I and SE II 247 Figure 8.2 Scatter-Plot Highlighting Pupils'