MULTILINGUAL TALK, CLASSROOM TEXTBOOKS AND LANGUAGE VALUES: A LINGUISTIC ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY IN TIMOR-LESTE by Ildegrada Leopoldina da Costa Cabral A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY School of Education College of Social Sciences University of Birmingham June 2015 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. “UTILIZAMOS DUAS LÍNGUAS NUMA SÓ VEZ” “W E USE THE TWO LANGUAGES AT THE SAME TIME” (Teacher Lucia, Transcript of Classroom Interaction, 05/06/2012) ii iii ABSTRACT This thesis presents a multi-layered study of multilingual classroom discourse, with two teachers, in a primary school in Timor-Leste. The wider context for the study was a major shift in language-in-education policy – to the use of Portuguese and Tetum as media of instruction – on the independence of Timor-Leste in 2002. This is the first study in this context to use linguistic ethnography to investigate the ways in which teachers are navigating the policy shift and to analyse the links between multilingual classroom interaction and wider policy processes and language ideologies. Fieldwork for the study was conducted in 2012. It included classroom observation, note-taking, audio/video-recording of classroom interaction, interviews with teachers and with policymakers. The data analysis presented here centres on talk around Portuguese textbooks, in Tetum and Portuguese. The findings were as follows: (1.) teacher-pupil relationships were discursively co-constructed as strict and asymmetrical; (2.) code- switching practices evoked beliefs associated with hegemonic ideologies about bilingual education; and (3.) teachers mediated textbooks language and content by building bridges between textual knowledge and local knowledge. The study foregrounds teacher agency in language policy processes, but also makes connections with powerful political and academic discourses about language tied to nationhood and culture. iv DEDICATION I dedicate this thesis to all the teachers and pupils in Timor-Leste. v ACKNOWLEDGEMNTS My family in Portugal, in the UK and in Timor-Leste have supported and encouraged me over these years of my doctoral journey. I would like to thank them all. Agradeço principalmente aos meus pais, Joaninha e Paulo, pelo amor, cuidado e esforço desmedidos dado a todos os seus filhos. I owe a debt of gratitude to the local mediators, headteachers, teachers, pupils and policymakers in Timor-Leste who took part in this study. Without them this thesis would not have been possible. I am grateful for all of them who gave me their time so willingly and displayed openness to share their views with me. I am sincerely and deeply grateful to my supervisor, Professor Angela Creese, for her immense guidance, invaluable knowledge, hearty support and continuous encouragement throughout this whole doctoral journey. She has read several of my drafts and provided me with insightful comments, empowering and motivating me to achieve personally and academically more than I thought I could. This study could not have been carried out without the financial support provided by the School of Education, University of Birmingham. I gratefully appreciate this sponsorship of my research endeavours for three years. Particular gratitude goes to Dr. Sheena Gardner for encouraging me to start this doctoral research journey. I am also indebted to Professor Marilyn Martin-Jones. Her wisdom, altruism and advice have been invaluable. Her words provided me great intellectual incentive and clarity which contributed considerably to my academic growth. vi A word of gratitude also goes to all the doctoral researchers I have met in the School of Education. Many became good friends and I still engage in depth and lively dialogues with them. I would also like to mention Helen Joinson who invariably provided the answers to all of my questions regarding the administrative procedures involved in my doctoral process. My circle of friends has also been helpful in moving forward with this study, providing the emotional support throughout the whole journey. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract ………………………………………………………………………………. iv Table of contents ……………………………………………………………………. viii Figures and tables ………………………………………………………………….. xiv Extracts ………………………………………………………………………………. xv Abreviations …………………………………………………………………………. xvi Transcriptions conventions of classroom interactions ………………………….. xvii CHAPTER 1: Introduction Introduction ………………………………………………………………………….. 1 1.1 The context of study ……………………………………………………………. 1 1.2 My rationale……………………………………………………………………… 3 1.3 Research questions …………………………………………………………… 6 1.4 Structure of the Thesis …………………………………………………………. 7 PART I – HISTORICAL AND SOCIOLINGUISTIC CONTEXT OF LANGUAGE POLICY DEVELOPMENT IN TIMOR-LESTE …………………… 10 CHAPTER 2: History, a changing sociolinguistic landscape and language policy Introduction ………………………………………………………………………… 11 2.1 The changing multilingual landscape of Timor-Leste ……………………… 11 2.1.1 Early contacts and colonisation by the Portuguese: from 1516 to 1975……………………………………………………………… 13 2.1.2 The Indonesian occupation and the East-Timorese Resistance: from 1975 to 1999 ……………………………………………………………… 15 viii 2.1.3 The United Nations Administration (UNTAET): from 1999 to 2002 ……………………………………………………………… 18 2.2 Independent Timor-Leste and the implementation of language policy in the schools: from 2002 to 2012 …………………………………………………… 20 Chapter summary …………………………………………………………………… 25 PART II – LITERATURE REVIEW ……………………………………………… 27 CHAPTER 3: Ethnography and Linguistic Ethnography Introduction ………………………………………………………………………… 28 3. 1. Ethnography: origin and principles ………………………………………… 28 3.1.1 An ethnographic approach: Procedures and methods ……………… 32 3.1.2 The need for researcher reflexivity …………………………………… 33 3.2 Linguistic Ethnography ………………………………………………………… 34 Chapter summary …………………………………………………………………… 37 CHAPTER 4: A long standing tradition of research in language-in-education in multilingual contexts: Locating this study Introduction ………………………………………………………………………… 39 4.1 Research on multilingualism: Connecting the interactional order with the wider social and ideological order ………………………………………………… 39 4.2 The interface of multilingual classroom discourse analysis and language policy and planning ………………………………………………………………… 44 4.3 Studies in multilingual educational settings of the global south …………… 47 Chapter summary …………………………………………………………………… 48 ix CHAPTER 5: Combining research on classroom discourse practices and wider social and ideological processes Introduction ………………………………………………………………………… 50 5.1 Textbooks and construction of the text talk ………………………………… 51 5.2 Participant structure …………………………………………………………… 53 5.3 Safetalk ………………………………………………………………………… 55 5.4 The classroom discourse model (IRF or IRE) ……………………………… 57 5.5 Research on code-switching in classroom discourse, with a focus on participant- related code-switching ……………………………………………… 59 5.6 Language ideologies: in nation building and educational contexts ………………………………………………………… 64 5.7 Scales and deictics …………………………………………………………… 68 Chapter summary …………………………………………………………………… 73 PART III – LINGUISTIC ETHNNOGRAPHY IN TIMOR-LESTE: MULTILINGUAL, TEXT-ORIENTED DISCOURSE PRACTICES AND IDEOLOGIES IN THE CLASSROOM AND AT A NATIONAL LEVEL …….. 75 CHAPTER 6: Ethnographic fieldwork as an intersubjective process Introduction ………………………………………………………………………… 76 6.1 Research questions …………………………………………………………… 77 6.2 Research methodology ………………………………………………………… 78 6.3 Entering the research settings and accessing the participants ……………. 79 6.4 Research mediators …………………………………………………………… 82 6.4.1 Accessing participants at schools ……………………………………… 89 x 6.4.2 Accessing representatives of the government and university ……… 92 6.5 Methods of data collection …………………………………………………… 93 6.5.1 Participant observation ………………………………………………… 94 6.5.2 Fieldnotes ………………………………………………………………… 97 6.5.3 Audio- and video-recording of the classroom interactions ………… 99 6.5.4 Document collection …………………………………………………… 100 6.5.5 Interviews ………………………………………………………………… 101 6.6 Relationship between the researcher and the participants ………………… 107 6.7 Ethical Considerations ………………………………………………………… 109 6.7.1 Gaining informed consent ……………………………………………… 110 6.7.2 Protection and respect ………………………………………………… 111 6.7.3 Confidentiality and anonymity ………………………………………… 112 Chapter summary …………………………………………………………………… 112 CHAPTER 7: Ethnographic process of data construction and data analysis: a ‘progressive problem-solving’ Introduction ………………………………………………………………………… 113 7.1 Transcription process and organisation of data …………………………… 114 7.1.1 Construction of the interview data sources …………………………… 115 7.1.2 Construction of the classroom data sources: Fieldnotes and audio- and video- recordings ………………………………………………………… 118 7.2 Linking analytical categories: From bottom-up to top-down parsing …………………………………………… 121 7.3 Research site and research participants: School B, Teacher Dalia and Lucia with the