Pidgins and Creoles in Education (PACE)NEWSLETTER

Number 10 December 1999

WELCOME TO THE

10th ANNIVERSARY ISSUE

The PACE Newsletter started in 1990, andnow has over 170 subscribers in 27 countries.Many thanks go to all of you who have beensending in contributions over the years.

This 10th issue contains the usual reportsand information about new publications,theses and conferences dealing with the use ofpidgins, creoles and minority dialects ineducation. But in this issue, we have threespecial longer reports from three differentcountries and an article about adult literacyprograms in Vanuatu using Bislama(Melanesian Pidgin).

Special thanks to all the contributors forthis issue. Please pass it around and urgepeople to send in contributions for the nextissue in 2000!

Jeff SiegelLinguisticsUniversity of New EnglandArmidale, NSW 2351Australiajsiegel@metz.une.edu.au

IN THIS ISSUE page

Short reports 1Special Reports French Guiana 2 St Lucia 4 Hawai‘i 5Article: Literacy Programs in Vanuatu 7Publications 11On the Web 16Conferences 17

SHORT REPORTS

USAfrom: Georgette Gonsalves

308 Columbus AveBoston, MA 02116 USA

Despite the general, hostile climate towards theuse of languages other than English in USschool classrooms, the City of Bostoncontinues to support the role of nativelanguages in its Transitional BilingualEducation programs. Current efforts areunderway to develop learning standards in thefollowing languages: Spanish, Chinese,Vietnamese, Haitian Creole and CapeverdeanCreole. Truly exciting! Especially for the lasttwo languages. Of course they are spoken bysignificant numbers of students in the schools,grades K-12.

Starting October 1998, I will be teaching aninnovative graduate course for Haitian andCapeverdean language teachers in the Bostonschools. Entitled “Creoles in Education: theRole of Reading and Writing in Capeverdeanand Haitian Bilingual Education”. It is offeredthrough the University of Massachusetts,Boston, supported by Dr. Donaldo Macedoand by Dr. Michel DeGraff of M.I.T.

The timely announcement in July 1998 bythe Government of Cape Verde to support theofficialization of a unified orthography for theCapeverdean language is most encouragingfor those of us who are working for validationof creoles in the area of formal education.

Finally, the Capeverdean Creole Institute,Inc. of Boston is sponsoring the Novembervisit of Dr. Manuel Veiga, author of the firstcomprehensive linguistic study ofCapeverdean Creole entitled “Introdução àGramática do Crioulo” (1995,1996). Moreinformation about the Institute can be obtainedby e-mail to me: GRGET @AOL.COM or byaccessing the web using keyword“Capeverdean”

A Luta Kontinua!

Solomon Islandsfrom: Fr Bernie O’Donnell

LASIBox R4Honiara, SOLOMON ISLANDSnac@welkam.solomon.com.sb

LASI (Literacy Association of SolomonIslands) continues to conduct its literacyprograms in SI Pidgin as well as other locallanguages. These adult literacy programs haveproved very useful in getting older people ableto read and at a later stage, to write, ifnecessary. Those who are well-motivated areable to read in 6 months with a couple of 1-1.5hour classes every week.

In general, while English is still the officiallanguage of instruction in formal education,much education is effectively done in Pidgin.Officially in the Solomon Islands, Pidgin islooked down upon, but it is increasinglyspoken, making it necessary for everyone tobecome more conversant in it and also to read,write and speak it accurately.

Swedenfrom: Karl Erland Gadelii

Department of Oriental and AfricanLanguagesGöteborg UniversityBox 200SE-405 30 Göteborg, SWEDENgadelii@african.gu.se

I do not know how relevant the stuff I amdoing now is but I am still working on thegrammar of Lesser Antillean French Creoleand my present (and also past) endeavour is toshow that this language has a grammar of itsown which can neither be derived from itssuper- nor substratal languages. I suppose thishas educational implications because it meansthat Lesser Antillean has to be treated as alanguage in its own right in the educationalsystem.

Australiafrom: Jennifer Munro

6 Dudley StRapid Creek, NT 0810AUSTRALIA

I have been involved in 2 main programs thatinvolve the use of Kriol in education:

1. Kriol literacy workshop for GeneralStudies students of Batchelor College duringthe Aboriginal Languages Fortnight.

This was held in May 1999 for 2 weeks; 23students attended, mostly from the RoperRiver region of the Northern Territory. Theworkshop was held in Katherine. The main

aims of the workshop, which were allachieved, were: a) to introduce and developKriol literacy skills; b) to explore the domainsand roles of Kriol literacy in Aboriginalsociety; and c) for each student to produce awritten text based on one such role. As thelinguist, I designed and delivered the coursewith assistance from the two lecturers andsupport from Diwurru-wurru-jaru AboriginalCorporation (Katherine Language Centre).The students displayed great enthusiasm andinterest and it was felt the workshop wassuccessful both in this way and in meeting itsaims.

2. Kriol used as the language of instructionin Language Revitalisation (LR) Programs inprimary schools.

Since 1996 I have worked as a teacher-linguist on 4 LR programs, largely in theRoper River region. It has becomeincreasingly obvious that Kriol must beemployed both orally and in literacy as thelanguage of instruction. There are 3 mainbenefits, and they are: a) Aboriginal teachersand teaching assistants will only claimownership over material written in Kriol andthese are therefore the only ones they will use.b) It broadens the scope of the program fromsimply teaching a traditional language as asecond language to one where Aboriginallanguage and culture can begin to find a placewithin the school. c) Children’s compre-hension is immediate and therefore moreeffective.from: Margaret Sharpe

33A Brown StArmidale, NSW 2350AUSTRALIA

Currently working on the final draft of theAlawa-Kriol-English triglot dictionary. Alawapeople are now centred around Minyerri orHodgson Downs in the Northern Territory.Children (whose first language is Kriol) arelearning some Alawa in the school at Minyerri,aided by Jen Munro who is employed byDiwurruwurru-jaru (Katherine RegionalAboriginal Language Centre).

SPECIAL REPORTS

MULTILINGUAL EXPERIMENT INFRENCH GUIANA

by Laurence Goury

French Guiana, a French overseasdépartement, presents a large multilingualsituation where typologically different

Pidgins and Creole in Education (PACE) Newsletter 10 (1999)

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languages are represented: Creole languagesfrom two lexical bases (French and English),Amerindian languages (from three linguisticgroups: Arawak, Carib and Tupi-Guarani),Hmong, Chinese, and others.

Since French is the only official language,and no official place is given to otherlanguages, such a complex situation raisesmany problems, especially in the educationalfield.

The IRD (Institute for Research andDevelopment - ex ORSTOM) has a Depart-ment of Social Sciences where linguists areworking on Amerindian languages andthe English based creoles spoken by theMaroons, both in French Guiana andSurinam. In addition to fundamental researchon these languages, we try to suggestalternatives to the problems of teaching inNon-French Speaking (NFS) communities.

We are presently leading the ‘bilingualmediator project’ which is described below.

The ‘Bilingual Mediator Project’The aim of this project is to take on some

young people, native speakers of anAmerindian language or speakers of theMaroons’ English based Creoles, and allowthem to teach literacy in the mother tongue forNFS communities, [by] sharing time andexperience with the teachers, and receiving asimultaneous training in linguistics andpedagogy by some qualified researchers orteachers.Profile• native speaker of one of the Amerindian or

the English based Creoles from FrenchGuiana

• qualification required: ‘bachelier’ (i.e.High School diploma or A level) and/orcultural experimentation

• motivation for pedagogical and culturalwork among the NFS communities

(Special permission available in some cases whereage or qualification requirements are not met)

Aimseasier access to literacy for NFS children andexperimentation of bilingual teaching by: • presence in the class room for literacy

teaching in the mother tongue • production of classroom materialsImplementationalternatively: linguistic and pedagogicaltraining at the IRD, and practice in the classroom

1. Training: in Cayenne (IRD Center), one or

two, 2 week sessions per term.Activities:• linguistics: introduction to phonetics and

phonology of the mediators’ languages;reflection about existing alphabets (critics;changing); approach to comparativegrammar

• pedagogy: methodology of literacyteaching and language activities

• production of classroom material (hand-books for reading training; handbooks forliteracy teaching...)

The experiment began with a two weekstraining session:• introduction to pedagogical and linguistic

questions• discussion about writing systems• preparation of a first reading handbook

2. Practice in the class room: into thecommunity; under the teacher’s authority,during eight to ten weeks per term:

Activities:• literacy in mother tongue• vocabulary exercises; language practice

(mother tongue)• experimentation of handbooks and class-

room materialsTraining staff• linguistics: researchers working on the

previously cited languages, based inFrench Guiana or in metropolitan France

• pedagogy: two teachers (training masters)• pedagogy of writing: specialists of the

CEFISEM (Organization for French asForeign Language teaching)

This kind of experiment is nothing new inthe educational field, especially in SouthAmerica where different linguists of theDepartment have already been working, withAmerindian languages and bilingualeducation. But it might be something new inthis specific multilingual context which wewant to become not an obstacle, but anopportunity for cultural and linguisticenrichment.

Our web site is still under construction, butI will give the address when it is ready so thatmore people can share this fascinatingexperiment.

Laurence GouryCentre ORSTOM-CayenneBP 16597323 Cayenne cedexFRENCH GUIANAgoury@cayenne.orstom.fr

ST LUCIAN KWÉYÒLNEW TESTAMENT

by David Frank

In St. Lucia people will sometimes say that(French) Creole is not really a language; itdoesn’t have any rules and couldn’t be writtendown. I don’t hear that much any more,though, because times have been changing.More and more the sentiment is spreadinghere, as I heard the Minister of Culture say ontelevision last night, “Annou enjoy sa ki sanou! Annou sélébwé sa ki sa nou!” [Let’senjoy what is ours! Let’s celebrate what isours!]

On October 10, the St. Lucian KwéyòlNew Testament (Tèstèman Nèf-la) was madeavailable to the public, after about a dozenyears in the making. The publisher is the BibleSociety in the East Caribbean. SIL is nowjoining the Folk Research Centre in spreadingCreole literacy around the island. We have abooklet called Mannyè Ou Sa Li Ek EkwiKwéyòl (English title: A Guide to Readingand Writing St. Lucian Creole), and we aregoing around the island teaching transitionalliteracy classes to those who can speak Creolebut so far can only read English. In addition,we have developed a complete primer with 80lessons for adult Creole speakers who neveracquired literacy, to teach them how to readand write in their mother tongue.

St. Lucian Creole has been basically apurely oral language, but as more and more isbeing written, including folktales, oralhistory, government notices, and the Bible,people are becoming more and more interestedin learning to read it.Below are some quotes from the Launching ofthe St. Lucian Kwéyòl New Testament:

The Hon. Damian Greaves, Minister of Culture andEcclesiastical Affairs:

What we are seeing today is of historicalimportance, linguistically-speaking, because weare seeing a language that was once seen assomething that we should not respect come tofull maturity on this particular occasion. If theNew Testament can now be translated intoCreole, then nothing can stop the onward marchand progress of our Creole language. When wehave the Bible now being translated into thelanguage of the people, one cannot overstate thepower and might that can emanate from such anexercise. I want to express to all of you whohave contributed to this most important andsignificant event the hearty gratitude of thegovernment and people of St. Lucia. This is anexercise which will have our people to understandthe Bible even better. And perhaps now there is aneed for us to emphasise the importance ofteaching our people to read and write our Creolelanguage.

Her Excellency Dame Pearlette Louisy, GovernorGeneral of St. Lucia:

Fwè ek sè, mwen asiwé tout jan Sent Lisi té kayédé mwen wimésye tout sé moun-an ki twavayasou twavay twadouksyon Bib sala. Lawout-la telonng, twavay-la pa té fasil, mé jòdi nou ka wéki sa twavay épi dédikasyon sa pwodwi. Twavay-la sé sa nou, Tèstèman Nèf-la sé sa nou. Mwenka envité tout moun pou anbwasé twavay sala.Li pawol di Dyé an lanng nou, an lanng jan SentLisi. Mwen asiwé i ni adan moun ki jòdi-a pa sali ek ékwi Kwéyòl-la, mé mwen asiwé sa sé onbagay ki kay ankouwajé’w apwann li épi ékwiKwéyòl-la.” [“Brothers and sisters, I am sure allSaint Lucians would help me thank all thosepeople who worked on this translation of theBible. The path was long, the work was noteasy, but today we can see what this work anddedication can produce. The work is ours, theNew Testament is ours. I invite everyone toembrace this work. Read the word of God in ourlanguage, in the language of the St. Lucianpeople. I am sure there are a lot of people todaywho cannot read and write the Creole, but I amsure this is something that will encourage you tolearn to read and write the Creole.”]

Monsignor Theophilus Joseph, Vicar General of theCastries Cathedral:

Apwézan tan-an vini pou nou jan Sent Lisiwéyalizé enpòtans, pa jos an langaj, me enpòtansnou, kon on pép. Atjwélman nou pa sa jos paléKwéyòl-la, nou sa li Kwéyòl-la. Pwenmyétwadouksyon-an sé on twadouksyon ki enpòtan,épi an légliz Katòlik nou kay fè tout sa nou pépou enkouwajé sé pép nou, pa jos pou achté onliv, mé pou apwann li Kwéyòl-la, paski sé lanngmanman nou tout.” [“Now the time has come forus people of St. Lucia to realize the importance,not just of language, but the importance of us, asa people. Now we cannot just speak Creole, wecan read the Creole. The first translation is atranslation that is important, and in the CatholicChurch we will do all we can to encourage ourpeople, not just to buy one of these books, butalso to learn to read the Creole, because it is themother tongue of all of us.”]

June King-Frederick, Executive Director of the FolkResearch Centre:

It gives me great pleasure to stand here thisafternoon and to receive this translation of theNew Testament in Kwéyòl. Our country is abilingual country. Lanng manman nou séKwéyòl. [Our mother tongue is Creole.] TheFolk Research Centre started about twenty-sixyears ago, and it started because of one little mannamed Monsignor Patrick Anthony. He realisedthere was a majority of people in our countrywho were being ostracised because of the fact thattheir first language was Creole. Because of thefact that they had no voice, and because of thefact that they were treated with such contempt,the rich Creole culture in which those peoplelived was in danger of dying. Therefore the Folk

Pidgins and Creole in Education (PACE) Newsletter 10 (1999)

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Research Centre was formed so that we couldensure that we preserved the culture of ourpeople, and, of course, the language. This NewTestament makes me feel very proud because weare saying to the people of the Creole culture thatyou are equal to everybody else. Your language isan acceptable language internationally. It is notnow only an oral language. We are now workingtowards making sure it is a written language.And ladies and gentlemen, I am going to imploreyou, our programme within the next three yearsit to teach the language, to make sure people readand write it. What we at the Folk ResearchCentre are saying is, it is not either English orCreole, it is both English and Creole, andtherefore they should be treated equally.

You shouldn’t get the idea from the wonderfulthings that were said at the Launching of theKwéyòl NT that St. Lucian Creole is beingaccepted here now in a revolutionary way. Wein St. Lucia are way behind Haiti, Curaçaoand Seychelles in terms of the officialacceptance and use of the Creole language,and I don’t know that we will ever reach thatpoint here. The situation here looks better andbetter all the time, but it is still very slow-going.

We have a Creole publication house herecalled An Tjé Nou (In Our Hearts) that isanother exciting development in the pastcouple of years. It is the vision of a well-known author of ESL books, Michael Walker,living in St. Lucia in his retirement. We havemade a partnership with him, as we produceCreole materials and they publish ourmaterials as well as others they producethemselves. The bad news is that the publicand government response, while good, hasnot been enough to keep this from being atremendous drain financially, and the future ofthis publishing house is in serious doubt.

In addition to coordinating the translation ofthe Kwéyòl New Testament, published by theBible Society in the East Caribbean, we haveproduced other Creole books that wepublished ourselves. Here are the three mostpopular ones still in print:Jou Lavi Nou (Days of Our Lives), 1989, 41 pages: A

collection of 14 stories told by St. Lucians, writtenin Creole.

Sé Kon Sa I Fèt (That’s How It Happened), 1989, 46pages: A collection of 12 stories told by St.Lucians, written in Creole.

Mwen Vin Wakonté Sa Ba'w (I’ve Come to Tell Thisto You), 1991, 90 pages: An alphabet storybook,with an animal story told by Evans Leon for eachletter of the Creole alphabet.

In addition to the transitional primer calledMannyè Ou Sa Li Ek Ekwi Kwéyòl (HowYou Can Read and Write Creole), designed to

be used as the textbook in a Creole literacyclass, we have a complete primer, still in draft,comprised of 80 lessons, also designed to beused in a classroom situation, for illiterateadult Creole speakers. I have given away allmy draft copies of the latter and can’t tell youright now how many pages it is, but it is quitecomprehensive. It is in the hands of St.Lucia’s Ministry of Education right now, andwe understand that they have plans toimplement a program with that resource as thefoundation.

Also we have in draft a unique textbookentitled Latè-a, Soley-la, Epi Sé Plannet-la(The Earth, the Sun, and the Planets), approx.25 pages, which is supposed to be publishedby An Tjé Nou. This is the first textbookwritten in St. Lucian Creole that focuses onanything other than the language itself.

David FrankBox 1030Castries, SAINT LUCIAWest Indies)david_frank@sil.org

[Thanks go to Michelle Winn for help with preparingthis report. Ed.]

NEWS FROM DA PIDGIN COUP INHAWAI‘I

by Diana Eades

In Hawai‘i negative and misinformed attitudesto the local creole language are pervasive. Likepidgin and creole languages around the world,Pidgin (aka Hawai‘i Creole English orHawai‘i English Creole) has been denigratedsince its origins earlier this century. In 1921,curriculum materials for teachers in Hawai‘ipublished in the Hawai‘i Educational Reviewincluded this statement by an anonymousauthor: “Tell [children] that the Pidgin Englishwhich they speak is not good English; that it isnot spoken by good Americans... .” Show thechildren, the author continues, that “PidginEnglish implies a sense of inferiority.”

In 1987 a public controversy arose whenthe Board of Education attempted to mandateagainst the use of Pidgin in school. Indiscussing this unsuccessful attempt, and thepublic outcry which resulted in a weakerposition (encouraging teachers to modelStandard English), Sato (1991) points out thatthis was the first time that Pidgin had receivedwidespread public support and recognition.Perhaps it is not surprising that Pidgin hasreceived such support, as it is spoken by amajority of people in the state of Hawai‘i, andis recognized by linguists as a legitimate

language, and local writers as an importantlocal language. Yet despite all of this, thereremains considerable resentment andmisunderstanding about Pidgin among allsectors of society, including educators andlegislators.

Now again in 1999, public attention isfocused on issues surrounding Pidgin andeducation. It began in September, when theChairman of the Hawai‘i State Board ofEducation, Mitsugi Nakashima, made astatement implicating Pidgin in the poorresults by the students of Hawai‘i on nationalstandardized writing tests. “I see writing as anencoding process and coding what one thinks,and if your thinking is not in standardEnglish, it’s hard for you to write in StandardEnglish,” he said. He also said that StandardEnglish should be the norm in everyclassroom, because “If you speak Pidgin, thenyou think Pidgin, and you write Pidgin”(Honolulu Advertiser 29 September 1999).

The Chairman’s statement sparked off arenewed public debate about Pidgin andeducation, with the newspapers carryingnumerous letters about Pidgin, mostlynegative and misinformed. Readers of thisnewsletter can no doubt imagine the kinds ofprejudice that are held by a wide range of thepopulation towards this creole language. Anaccountant alleged that “Any child today whogrows up speaking pidgin English will neverget a good job and never be able to afford ahouse” (The Honolulu Advertiser October 6,1999). Another person is quoted on the samepage as saying: “Pidgin has degenerated to agutter language. Pidgin doesn’t workanymore”.

But other letters to the Editor reveal morepositive attitudes, and call for a seriousinvestigation of the cause of low national testscores for Hawaii’s students. A high schoolstudent wrote: “I disagree that pidgin Englishis the cause of low test scores. I myself don’tspeak pidgin English and I still don’t do wellbecause I don’t apply myself” (Honolulu Star-Bulletin 1 November 1999). A communitycollege professor wrote: “The perennial debateabout the use of pidgin English in theclassroom diverts the attention away from thereal issues and solutions concerning ourstudents’ weak writing skills... So can westop talking about pidgin English and starttalking about class size, workload, and theenforcement of the Department of Educationwriting standards that are forever beingreinvented” (Honolulu Advertiser 8 October1999).

In November the state Governor, Ben

Cayetano weighed in to the debate, saying:“The only time we should be using PidginEnglish in the public schools is when they’restudying Pidgin itself, from a historical orcultural point of view.... They should neveruse Pidgin in the public schools” (HonoluluStar-Bulletin 20 November 1999).

The BOE Chairman’s statement was thecatalyst for a group known as “Da PidginCoup” to prepare a position paper on Pidginand education. Da Pidgin Coup comprisesmainly University of Hawai‘i faculty andstudents in the Department of English as aSecond Language, who have been meetingregularly since Fall 1998 to work on aspectsof Pidgin. The main focus of the group is onlinguistic, applied linguistic and educationallinguistic issues in Pidgin and similarstigmatized language varieties.

Our position paper, titled “Pidgin andEducation”, is intended to form the basis ofour discussions with education officials andteachers, and our public education efforts. Ouraim is to provide well-researched advice aboutthe complex relationship between Pidgin andEnglish, and the issues involved in discussingthe role of Pidgin in education.

Da Pidgin Coup strongly questionsassumptions and conclusions such as those ofthe Education Chairman and the StateGovernor, and a number of related statementsbeing made about Pidgin. The introduction toour position paper says (p 3): “There is nodispute as to the importance of studentslearning Standard Written English, but there isno evidence that Pidgin speakers are lesscapable of learning to write, or that Pidgin cannot be used to facilitate learning. The notionsthat spoken or written Pidgin is inferior“Broken English” and that children who use itare deficient, are not only unjustified andbiased, but also wrong.”

In preparing the position paper, we drewon research around the world to presentinformation and discussion on the followingmain points:1) an explanation of the origins and development

of Pidgin, and its linguistic status as a creolelanguage,

2) a history of attitudes to Pidgin, showing hownegative terms to describe Pidgin have apowerful history in shaping island attitudestowards the language and its speakers,

3) the concept of Standard English, rebutting thenotion that it is the best language, and showingthe relevance of Lippi-Green’s (1997) languagesubordination model to Pidgin in Hawai‘i,

4) why researchers in the fields of education andlanguage support the important role of languagevarieties such as Pidgin in the learning process,

Pidgins and Creole in Education (PACE) Newsletter 10 (1999)

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5) why writing is a ‘foreign language foreveryone’, and why there is no good reason toassert that Pidgin speakers are held back in theirwriting development by their Pidgin language,

6) the myth that Pidgin is English, providingsome examples to illustrate features of Pidgin,

7) issues central to current concerns over Pidginand testing, arguing that the relationshipbetween Pidgin and English is too complex tosuggest that we can raise students’ test scoressimply by eradicating Pidgin, and

8) recommendations about the important role thatPidgin plays in the learning process.

The paper is written in non-technicallanguage for the most part, in the hope that itwill be accessible to a wide range of people inHawai‘i who are concerned about Pidgin. Inorder to keep the paper to a reasonable length,our treatment of each issue is necessarilybrief. Each of the 8 main sections each startswith a myth and reality, followed byexplanation and selected references. InterestedPACE readers may read this paper on the webat:

http://www.lll.hawaii.edu/esl/langnet/(website of the Language Varieties Network).

The position paper is intended to be thebasis for our dialogue with state educationofficials, as well as for a number of publicawareness activities which we are planning.We are well aware that our discussions witheducators will not get very far unless we arealso providing widespread public informationabout Pidgin. Watch this space next year foran up-date on developments.

References:

Lippi-Green, Rosina. 1997. English with an Accent.London: Routledge.

Sato, Charlene J. 1991. Sociolinguistic Variation andLanguage Attitudes in Hawaii. In J. Cheshire (Ed.),English around the World: SociolinguisticPerspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress.

Diana EadesDept of ESLUniversity of Hawai‘i

` 1890 East-West RoadHonolulu, HI 96822 USAeades@hawaii.edu

ARTICLE

ADULT LITERACY PROGRAMS INBISLAMA

by Claire Ngwira“Why are there so many dropouts from your

literacy class?”

“We need glasses – none of us can see to read!”

IntroductionThe central focus for my thesis research

was implementation of adult literacy projects.Language policies and literacy models weredescribed, discussed and compared with theactual management of two adult literacyprojects in Vanuatu, which have been set upby the two non-governmental organisations,World Vision and Baha’i Faith. These twoMelanesian literacy projects visited by the

Niuples Village literacy classauthor, unlike most previous donor aid inVanuatu, were Melanesians trainingMelanesians in their own locality or village,using Bislama [the local dialect of MelanesianPidgin] and the vernacular. Called grassroots

literacy, such participatory projects may beassuming a paradigm for educationalsuccesses. The following review focuses onlanguage policies and language models withina Melanesian context. The conclusion

identifies two key factors for successfulgrassroots literacy provision.

Language PoliciesIn Melanesia, it is now national policy,

either formally or de facto, for pidgins to bethe unifying national languages rather than thelanguages of colonisation (Crowley,1990:33). In Vanuatu, the official governmentlanguage policies, drawn up on the eve ofindependence, made Bislama the new nationallanguage; the official languages Bislama,English and French and the principlelanguages of education English and French(Thomas, 1990:240,241). Papua New Guinealanguage policy states that each individual hasthe right to Tok Ples [the indigenousvernacular], a national lingua franca, e.g. TokPisin or Hiri Motu and/or English and themedium of education should be English. Inthe Solomon Islands, however, governmentpolicy states that English is to be the nationallanguage (Jourdan, 1990:167) following therecommendation made by 1972 BritishSolomon Islands Protectorate educationConference that English be the language ofinstruction in schools. Pijin is not mentioned,in spite of its wide use. In fact, vernacular andPijin are so widely used it became obviousthere would be difficulties in implementation.Thus, the following recommendation withregard to the teaching medium in schools is:

Where the teacher finds that children meetdifficulties in understanding, he should use thevernacular. When pupils find it difficult to askquestions in English the vernacular can be usedagain. (BSIP, 1972, cited in Jourdan,1990:169,170)

Language policies are made with perceivedfuture gains in mind. These can be anycombination of personal, social, cultural,religious, economic and political gains, whichare variable, according to who the policymakers are and for whom they are making thepolicy. However, Luke, McHoul and Mey say“language planning can be compared to alinguistic analysis without a social context”(1990:38). To provide a real example of this,in Vanuatu a policy may have been created tohave Bislama as the unifying language, but, ifAnglophones and Francophones wish tocontinue their segregation, then no amount ofofficial Bislama unification will prevent themmanifesting their separation in spokenBislama. They will liberally anglicise it orinclude French in it in some way (Crowley,1990:20). A broader example is the fact thatMelanesian vernaculars and pidgins survivedthroughout the one hundred and fifty years of

English-only, German-only, French-onlyregulations. R.K. Johnson (1977:459) states:“Pidgin, the real success story amongst thelanguages of Papua New Guinea, wascondemned outright by almost every languageplanner, who was consulted or who offeredan opinion on the subject until very recently. Itflourished in spite of them.”

Language of EducationIn most schools in Melanesia, the language

of education is a colonial language. Thismeans that students are educated in a newlanguage different from their home orcommunity language. Gee (1992:40) explainsthat to acquire a new discourse involves:

risk in terms of gaining a new identity andpossibly losing or undermining old ones; it alsoinvolves the vulnerability of “lookingincompetent” while engaged in guidedparticipation in the zone between what one canonly do with others and what one can do alone...

If the real apprentices do not trust the teacherswho will socialise them into the new Discourse,no real development can take place. (Delpit,1986; 1988, Erikson 1987 cited in J. Gee,1992:40)

It may be that a village school teacher isable to achieve educational outcomes moresuccessfully using the vernacular orcommunity lingua franca in the classroomrather than the language of the languagepolicy, if it be a colonial language such asEnglish or French. The degree of success foruse of different mediums in education may bedifficult to analyse, but a conclusion drawn byGee is that entire education systemsperpetuating failures should be examined moreclosely (1992:41). Humanistic attempts tounderstand and assist indigenous forms areoften, in terms of power, structurally identicalwith previous attempts to control and eliminatethem (Luke, McHoul and Mey, 1990:38). Itappears crucial therefore to look carefully atparadigms used when making andimplementing policy.

Pidgins and Creole in Education (PACE) Newsletter 10 (1999)

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Literacy ModelsHistorically, literacy has been linked to

state formation or nation building - a threadrunning between people for trade and culturalexchange, urbanisation and economicexpansion (Lind & Johnson 1990:39). Thosewho remain illiterate are often rural groupsfrom multilingual areas, or regionally, withoutthe need to be part of a bigger state or nation(ibid.). This was clearly illustrated in theMelanesian literacy projects visited by theresearcher.

Writing used to be for specialists only, with90% of the world being excluded, but the 14thcentury invention of the printing press made ittechnically possible to spread control, or forrevolution and freedom. Access to knowledgeand proficiency in literacy to more people.From then on, the printed word was used foreither power or for literacy has often beenlinked to particular types of education, forexample, religious education or education forwar, such as naval training. That models andstrategies for literacy have been guided bywhat appeared to be priorities at the timesuggests that aims and objectives of literacyprogrammes should be examined carefully inrelation to the development of emerging newpriorities.

The historical process of literacy provisionhas shown distinct areas of development,starting with Fundamental Education wherebasic reading and writing skills are taught inno particular context and literacy is seen as aseparate entity from the participants’ lives. Itemploys a top-down approach. FunctionalLiteracy, in an effort to include context, also

unwittingly employs a top-down approach,thus, preventing much real growth. It showsevidence of limited success yet continues to beused and reassessed. The ConscientisationModel (Freire) attempts to alter all previouslyexisting paradigms and initiate revolutions inliteracy education. This continues to bedeveloped with some success. In 1989,UNESCO issued a call for “Education for All”at the world conference in Jontein, Thailand,and campaigns to remedy the huge percentageof worldwide illiteracy are still in existence.

Frank Laubach was a Christian missionary,focusing on the teaching of literacy. In hisclassic book "Thirty Years with the SilentBillion", Laubach describes his literacy modelin the form of letters home and a fully-detailedpersonal journal of his thirty years travellingthe world, teaching literacy to the “silentbillion”. It exists as a most remarkable storyof the early mass literacy programmes on aworldwide scale. He constantly reinforced theneed to use informal and idiomatic language ofhigh interest and intelligibility in order toretain motivation, stressing how it was crucialthat the literacy process be drawn from thelearners’ prior knowledge, and, mostimportantly, be drawn only from their culture.This is illustrated perfectly in the openingparagraphs of the first-ever-printed page ofMaranaw, the language of the Moros in thePhilippines:

This is the beginning of a story in the Morolanguage, to be distributed around the four sidesof Lake Lanao. All Moros feel delighted becausethis paper is being started. The leading datos(chiefs) will furnish stories for

Nuvi Village literacy class

the newspaper, telling of the famous ancestorsof early days, and the events in Mecca and otherimportant places. Our paper will also be helpfulfor business. It will tell the price of rice, corn,beans, various kinds of cloth and thread, of silkand woven hemp, of lumber, brass, silver andgold articles and betel nuts. (Laubach, 1960:29)

Laubach worked tirelessly to reverse the morecommonly accepted practice of imposing thecolonial teacher’s knowledge, culture andpower on the students, which would havemerely been a continuation of the oppressiveand tyrannical rule Moros had first from theSpanish and then the Americans (Laubach,1960:25).Two Key Factors for Literacy Provision

Current advice on the setting-up ofgrassroots literacy projects atinternational/national/local levels includes twokey factors, which were strongly evident inthe two grassroots projects observed by theresearcher in Vanuatu. One is the need toconsider the character of the participants, inorder to establish ways for them to assumedevelopment of their own programmessuitable for their own needs. The other isrecognition of the importance of a literacyworker, preferably from within the culture ofthe participants, to be the intermediarybetween the literacy provider and the villageliteracy class.

The intermediary, called “area supervisor”in both the World Vision and Baha’i projects,negotiated with village chiefs when presentingthe grassroots approach and its possibleadvantages. Each village literacy programme

gathered momentum largely through thestamina, commitment and dedication ofindividual area supervisors. They took theprocess slowly, spending time with thepeople, learning to fit in with the localcustoms, and, assisted by the chief, were ableto identify potential local teachers who weretrained to teach literacy programmes suitablefor their particular village. Literacy projectmanagement in Port Vila constantlyemphasised that “quick-fixes” be avoided –that human resources within the village besought, rather than buildings and teachersfrom outside.

Evidence of a gap between the theoreticalgrassroots model intended for the participantsand the actual implementation of the projectswas observed in the Vanuatu literacy projects.The grassroots model appeared to be actingwithin a transition period for ni-Vanuatu –between literacy and illiteracy, and, betweenthe ways of colonial rule and the ways ofindependence. Ni-Vanuatu had been subject tothe European model of formal education, andthus, the methods and approaches used inclasses at times reflected practices that mightbe associated with colonial education. This isnot to say that such practices are ineffective orinappropriate. Indeed it is possible that theytake on a new significance under changedownership.

A transition period requires flexibility in thedevelopment of the grassroots process, and itis possibly too soon to evaluate theeffectiveness of the approaches adopted insuch projects until the transition phase is over.

Santo Bush villagers preparing for a Baha’i study class

Pidgins and Creole in Education (PACE) Newsletter 10 (1999)

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For each age, models are developed to copewith the changing perceptions of effectivelearning. It is always hoped and often believedthat the current model is the “right one”. Thereis a need, however, for literacy models to beconstantly reassessed, inasmuch as priorityaims identified for literacy models constantlyevolve.

The two grassroots adult literacyprogrammes observed in Melanesia showeddistinct elements of success, appearing not tomarginalise the participants, rather centralisethem and their cultural milieu in a way thatgrowth and direction was derived from thevillage level rather than from the financialprovider or initiator of the programmes. Thisgrassroots model appears to be an emergingand successful model for Vanuatu.

ReferencesBSIP. 1972. British Solomon Islands Protectorate

education conference recommendations.Delpit, L.D. 1986. Skills and other dilemmas of a

progressive educator. Harvard Education Review56(4), 379-385.

Freire, P. & Macedo, D. 1987. Literacy: Reading theWord and the World. Bergin and Garvey Publishers,Inc.

Gee, J. 1992. Socio-cultural approaches to literacy(literacies). Annual Review of Applied Linguistics12, 31-48.

Johnson, R.K. 1977. Administration and languagepolicy in Papua New Guinea. In S.A. Wurm (Ed.),New Guinea Area Languages and Language Study.Language, Culture, Society, and the Modern World,Fascicle 1.3 (pp.429-459). Canberra: AustralianNational University (Pacific Linguistic Series C-40).

Jourdan, C. (1990). Solomons Pijin: An unrecognisednational language. In R. Baldouf Jr. & A. Luke(Eds.), Language Planning and Education inAustralasia and the South Pacific (pp.166-181).Clevedon, Avon: Multilingual Matters.

Laubach, F. 1960. Thirty Years with the SilentBillion. Westwood, NJ: Fleming H. RevellCompany.

Lind, A. & Johnson, A. 1990. Adult literacy in theThird World: A review of Objectives and Strategies.Swedish International Development Authority(SIDA), ERIC Microfiche: ED 339819

Luke, A.; McHoul, A.W. & Mey, J.L. 1990. On thelimits of language planning: Class, state andpower. In R. Baldouf Jr. & A. Luke (Eds.),Language Planning and Education in Australasiaand the South Pacific (pp.25-44). Clevedon, Avon:Multilingual Matters.

Thomas, A. 1990. Language Planning in Vanuatu. InR. Baldouf Jr. & A. Luke (Eds.), LanguagePlanning and Education in Australasia and theSouth Pacific (pp.234-257). Clevedon, Avon:Multilingual Matters.

Claire Ngwira

31 Kelvin RdN.E. ValleyDunedin, NEW ZEALANDcngwira@olc.ac.nz

PUBLICATIONS

CreolesThree articles dealing with pidgins and creolesand education appeared in recent issues of theJournal of Multilingual and MulticulturalDevelopment (JMMD). The first, “The politicsof Creole language education in Jamaica:1891-1921 and the 1990s” by Lena McCourtie(Vol.19, no.2, 1998, pp.108-27), focuses onthe unique pedagogical situation in Jamaica buttypical of other creole-speaking countries,where teaching falls somewhere betweenmother tongue and foreign languageeducation. Part I of the study examinesarchival and historical data from Jamaica’scolonial period which reveals systematicfailure of students to acquire English inelementary schools. Part II reports on a studyconducted by the author in post-colonialJamaica which found a similar cycle ofunderachievement in secondary schools.Although education policies sinceindependence have aimed to empower Creolespeakers, in practice, the majority of schoolleavers remain an “undereducated underclass”.The author suggests that this is due in part toteachers being poorly equipped to deal withthe complex situation found in Creole-speaking countries. Several studies funded bythe World Bank have looked at the problemand made recommendations for reform. Oneway forward is summarised in this directivefrom a 1992 report: “Pupils entering schoolare usually fluent Creole speakers moving toEnglish as a target language. The resources ofboth languages must be utilised in the learningprocess” (pp.123-4).

The second article in JMMD concerns thelanguage situation in the South pacific countryof Vanuatu: “Double trouble, and three is acrowd: Languages in education and officiallanguages in Vanuatu” by Robert Early(Vol.20, No.1, 1999, pp.13-33). Accordingto Vanuatu’s constitution, Bislama (the localdialect of Melanesian Pidgin) is the nationallanguage and one of three official languages,along with English and French. However,only English and French are designated asprincipal languages of education. Theconstitution also guarantees protection of the

105 vernacular Oceanic languages spoken inthe country and requires that the Ombudsmanreport to Parliament every year on “theobservance of multilingualism” and “themeasures likely to ensure its respect” (p.13).This article critically responds to theOmbudsman’s reports of 1995-1997, assummarized in the abstract (p.13):

Various deficiencies are claimed, including thedefinition of multilingualism, the bias towardsFrench, the misunderstanding of language equity,and the misinterpretation of the Ombudsman’srole in language matters. Crucially, the reportsfail to acknowledge the complexities of the post-colonial language situation in Vanuatu, anddisdain both the important unifying role ofBislama as the national language and the diverselinguistic and cultural base provided by themultiple vernaculars

The third article in JMMD is “Challengesfor multicultural education: Sociolinguisticparallels between African American Englishand Haitian Creole” by Flore Zéphir (Vol.20,No.2, 1999, pp.134-54). It starts out bydiscussing the concept of multiculturaleducation in general, characterizing it as aform of “critical pedagogy” whose purpose is“to contest the established historical order, thetraditional curriculum and teaching practices inschools, by rejecting racism and other formsof discrimination in schools and society”(p.137). Then the author describes languageissues in multicultural education, showing thatdespite the recognized positive effects ofnative language instruction on academicachievement, Black vernaculars have beenmarginalized in American education. This hasled to high failure rates among both AfricanAmericans and Haitian immigrants. She notesthat “using African American English as apedagogical tool enhances the changes ofacademic success for speakers of this variety”and wonders “why, at a time whenmulticultural education appears to be theprevalent educational model, AfricanAmerican English, unlike Chinese or Spanish,still has to wage a legitimacy battle” (p.146).In the Haitian community, severalorganizations as well as parents and studentshave filed a class action civil rights lawsuitagainst the New York City Board ofEducation, several local communities, and theState of New York, demanding qualitybilingual education programs using HaitianCreole. The author calls for equality andjustice for all through curricular reform in theeducation system by allowing Blackvernaculars into the classroom.Minority dialects

In 1996, the Oakland School Board resolvedto use African American Vernacular English(AAVE) or Ebonics in education to helpAfrican American students acquire standardEnglish. This sparked a great deal ofcontroversy in the USA, and the debate is stillgoing on three years later. Several books haveappear which are relevant to this controversy.

The Real Ebonics Debate: Power,Language, and the Education of African-American Children is a collection of essays,interviews and other materials edited byTheresa Perry and Lisa Delpit (Beacon Press,Boston, 1998). The book has five parts. Part1, INTRODUCTIONS, has two essays: “I ’onknow why they be trippin’: Reflections on theEbonics debate” by Theresa Perry and “Whatshould teachers do? Ebonics and culturallyresponsive instruction” by Lisa Delpit. Part 2,WHAT IS EBONICS?, contains essays byGeneva Smitherman, Wayne O’Neil, ErnieSmith, James Baldwin and Mary RhodesHoover, plus an interview with JohnRickford. Part 3 is about Classroomimplications, containing interviews withOakland teachers Carrie Secret (“EmbracingEbonics and teaching standard English”) andHafeezah AdamaDavia Dalji (“Listen to yourstudents”). It also has contributions by PaulLaurence Dunbar, Terry Meier, Mary RhodesHoover and Monique Brinson, about the use

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of literature, testing and other matters.The Ebonics Resolution itself is the topic of

Part 4. The texts of the original resolution andrevisions are given as well as the Oaklandpolicy statement and recommendations of theTask Force on Educating African-Americanstudents. The Standard English ProficiencyProgram is described. Also included are aresponse to critics of the Ebonics policy by theOakland superintendent of schools, CarolynGetridge; the Linguistics Society of Americaresolution on Ebonics; a piece by GenevaSmitherman; an interview with OaklandSchool Board member, Toni Cook; a piece byan Oakland student, Michael Lampkins; andan interview with activist Isaac Taggert aboutEbonics and the role of community. Part 5consists of personal essays by Joyce HopeScott and Beverly Jean Smith.

The book also contains a useful list ofresources on Ebonics, a section “Clarifyingterminology”, and detailed notes andreferences.

African American Vernacular English:Features, Evolution, Educational Implicationsby John R. Rickford (Blackwell, Malden MA,1999) is a collection of the author’s writingson AAVE. Part III, Educational Implications,has four chapters. The first, (Chapter 13),“Attitudes towards AAVE, and classroomimplications and strategies” (pp.283-89)discusses the importance of educators being

aware of the attitudes toward AAVE held bystudents, parents, employers and otherteachers. These affect both expectations, thedecision teachers must make about whether orhow to use AAVE in their teaching. Thechapter outlines the results of many studies,many showing predictably negative attitudes,but others surprisingly positive. Somepreliminary remarks are made about specificteaching methods and strategies, such as usingcontrastive analysis, which are expanded uponin later chapters.

The next chapter, “Unequal partnership:Sociolinguistics and the African Americanspeech community” (pp.290-319), wasoriginally published in Language in Society in1997, and is discussed in the PACENewsletter no.8, p.15.

“Suite of ebony and phonics” (pp.321-28)shows that there are more positive attitudestowards AAVE than were reported in themedia during the Oakland Ebonicscontroversy in 1996, and that AAVE is moresystematic and has a longer history thanusually assumed. The chapter also notes theeducational implications of the scientific studyof AAVE – in particular the value of thecontrastive approach which the OaklandSchool Board was advocating.

Finally, Chapter 16, “Using the vernacularto teach the standard” (pp.329-47), details thedevastating rate of failure in schools amongAfrican Americans, and considers possiblelanguage and non-language factors. It goes onto discuss how AAVE could be taken intoaccount when teaching language arts. Threeapproaches are described: the linguisticallyinformed approach, contrastive analysis andintroducing reading in the vernacular (using“dialect readers”). Rickford concludes:

I would argue that to continue with traditionalapproaches in light of their dramatic failurerates, and to ignore innovative methods oftaking the vernacular into account, despite theirsuccess and promise, represents an unconditionalsurrender, bordering on disgrace.

Another important book about AAVE andeducation in the wake of the Ebonics debate isMaking the Connection: Language andAcademic Achievement among AfricanAmericans edited by Carolyn Temple Adger,Donna Christian and Orlando Taylor (Centerfor Applied Linguistics and Delta Systems,McHenry IL, 1999). This is the proceedingsof the Coalition on Language Diversity inEducation, held in January, 1998. (See PACENewsletter no.9, pp.11-12.) The book hasnine chapters and an appendix, each of which

is important reading for educators:Chapter 1: Language diversity and academic

achievement in the education of AfricanAmerican students–An overview of the issues(John R. Rickford)

Chapter 2: The language of African Americanstudents in classroom discourse (Courtney B.Cazden)

Chapter 3: Enhancing bidialectalism in urbanAfrican American students (Kelli Harris-Wright)

Chapter 4: Repercussions from the OaklandEbonics controversy – The critical role of dialectawareness programs (Walt Wolfram)

Chapter 5: Considerations in preparing teachers forlinguistic diversity (John Baugh)

Chapter 6: The case for Ebonics as part ofexemplary teacher preparation (Terry Meier)

Chapter 7: Language policy and classroom practices(Geneva Smitherman)

Chapter 8: Language diversity, and assessment –Ideology, professional practice, and theachievement gap (Asa G. Hilliard, III)

Chapter 9: Lessons learned from the Ebonicscontroversy – Implications for languageassessment (Anna F. Vaughn-Cooke)

Appendix: Testimony of Orlando L. Taylor on thesubject of “Ebonics”

A dissenting point of view with regard to therole of AAVE in the classroom comes fromJohn McWhorter in his book The Word on theStreet: Fact and Fable about American English(Plenum Trade, New York and London,1998). Chapter 8 of the book (pp.201-61) isentitled “Dialect in the headlines – BlackEnglish in the classroom?”. According to theauthor, the differences between AAVE andstandard English are too minor to warrant theuse of dialect readers or contrastive analysis ina “bridging” approach. Most African Americanchildren already know some standard Englishand can code-switch to and from AAVE withrelative ease. He ascribes the failure of AfricanAmerican students not to differences betweenAAVE and standard English but to three maincauses: the decline in quality in the Americaneducation system; the socioeconomic disparitybetween blacks and whites, especially ininner-city areas; and a “less fundamentalorientation toward education” among manyAfrican American students than among othergroups (p.228).

McWhorter presents five recommendationsthat linguists could make to help AfricanAmerican students in educations. These are:

1. Train schoolteachers in the systematicity ofBlack English (p.236).

2. Institute Afrocentric curricula atpredominantly African American schools

(p.239).3. Allow young African American students to

speak in their home dialect in class (p.248).4. Teach African American children to read in

standard English (p.251).5. Only older students should be taught to

“translate” into standard English in writing, asa remedial approach (p.252).

Moving on to Australia, Towards More User-friendly Education for Speakers of AboriginalEnglish is the report of a research projectconducted in 1996-7. The authors are IanMalcolm, Yvonne Haig, Patricia Königsberg,Judith Rochecouste, Glenys Collard, AlisonHill and Rosemary Cahill. The report waspublished in 1999 in Mr Lawley (WA) by theCentre for Applied Language and LiteracyResearch at Edith Cowan University and theEducation Department of Western Australia.

The project set out to gain greaterunderstanding about Aboriginal English (AE)and how it differs from standard AustralianEnglish. The ultimate goal is to be able to usethis understanding to facilitate a moreaccessible (or “user friendly”) education forAE-speaking students in primary andsecondary schools. It concentrated on thefollowing previously under-researched areasof AE: semantic fields, functions of languageuse in relation to form, genres, particularregisters and codes. It also aimed to relateAboriginal ways of approaching experience

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and knowledge to the following areas:curriculum, student outcome statements andpedagogical strategies to support two-waylearning. (See the description of Language andCommunication Enhancement for Two-wayEducation by Ian G. Malcolm (Edith CowanUniversity, 1995) in the PACE Newsletterno.8, 1997, p.14.)

The project was carried out by two groupsof researchers: a “base team” made up oflinguists, educational administrators andresearch assistants, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, based in Perth; and a “field team”,made up of 6 Aboriginal and IslanderEducation Workers, each linked with acooperating teacher, at 6 state schools aroundWestern Australia. Members of the field teamgathered tape recordings of AE discoursewhich was transcribed and analysed bymembers of the base team. Both teams gottogether for 4 week-long live-in workshops.These resulted in “mutual awareness raising”on the part of both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal participants and enabled them todevelop joint interpretations of the data. Theydiscussed the implications of the linguisticfindings to two-way learning and establishedstrategies for developing curriculum andpedagogical approaches (p.v).

The project demonstrated the following(p.vi):

a) AE as used by the children and adults studieddiffers systematically from standard Englishwith respect to its phonology, morphology,syntax, semantics, discourse and pragmaticfunctions.

b) The differences in semantics suggestsignificant underlying cognitive differences, asexhibited in different prototypes, schemas,taxonomies and patterns of polysemy andmetaphor.

c) The distinctiveness of AE is already at thelevel of awareness of many of the adults andchildren studied and strategic use is made bythem of a bidialectal repertoire.

d) Bidialectal research, curriculum developmentand pedagogical innovation are achievable onthe basis of cooperative involvement ofAboriginal and non-Aboriginal personnel onan equal basis.

e) The principle of open investigation of dialectaldifference across cultural groups hassignificant application to academic research, totwo-way pedagogy and to professionaldevelopment.

Resources for teachers:

Teaching materials have been published for anacclaimed Los Angeles program: English forYour Success: A Language DevelopmentProgram for African American ChildrenGrades Pre-K-8 by the Los Angeles UnifiedSchool District and Noma LeMoine (PeoplesPublishing, Maywood NJ, 1999). Theteachers’ guide is titled A Handbook ofSuccessful Strategies for Educators. Itcontains chapters on normal languagedevelopment in children, the historicaldevelopment and characteristic features ofAfrican American Language (AAL) [i.e.AAVE], facilitating a shift in languageinstruction strategies, and goals and strategiesfor the mastery of mainstream AmericanEnglish (MAE) [i.e. standard English] . Laterchapters include sample lessons and lessonorganizers, information on implementationissues and questions about the programfrequently asked by teachers, parents andadministrators. The book also contains usefulreferences for African and African Americanliterature in general, African Americanchildren’s literature, the use of AfricanAmerican literature for contrastive analysis,reference books and journals, researcharticles, computer programs and videos. Inaddition, there is a glossary of selected termsfor educators.

The goals of the program (from p.44 of theHandbook) are given below.

Table 1: English for Your Success

Goals

1. Acquire an awareness and appreciation of homelanguage and culture

2. Develop receptive language in MAE

3. Acquire basic literacy skills

4. Develop an awareness and appreciation oflanguage and cultural diversity

5. Be able to recognize and label the differencesbetween AAL and MAE

6. Expand a personal thesaurus of conceptuallycoded word concepts

7. Analyze linguistic differences between MAE andAAL

8. Use MAE structure functionally in oral andwritten form

9. Recognize the language requirements of differentsituations

10. Demonstrate proficient use of MAE in writtenand oral form

11. Develop an expanded knowledge and appreciationof AAL and the language and culture of others

12. Communicate effectively in cross-culturalenvironments

Two publications for teachers have come outof the research project described above,Towards a More User-Friendly Education forSpeakers of Aboriginal English. The first isTwo-Way English by the same authors as thereport on the project, published in 1999 by theEducation Department of Western Australia,East Perth. The first chapter introducesteachers to Aboriginal English and the conceptof “two-way English”. The second chapterdescribes the research project in languageaccessible to both teachers and parents.Chapter 3 gives more details about AboriginalEnglish and codeswitching to standardEnglish, and goes on to present someimplications for the teaching of Aboriginalstudents. Chapters 4 and 5 present the officialcurriculum framework in Western Australiaand show how some of the findings aboutAboriginal English can be applied incurriculum development and teaching. Thefinal chapter and the appendices describeresources available for putting into practice theideas presented earlier in the book. Theseinclude learning from Aboriginal colleagues,additional training and written resources.

The second publication is Solid English(Education Department of Western Australia,1999). It has three sections: (1) What eachAboriginal student brings to school; (2)Things teachers can do to capitalise upon whatAboriginal students bring to school; and (3)Strategies teacher might like to use. It also

includes appendices with notes aboutAboriginal cultures, information about whatmakes Standard Australian English thestandard dialect, and how Aboriginal Englishrelates to [Australian] Kriol and pidgins andcreoles in general.For more information on the 3 publications onAboriginal English mentioned above, write to:

Centre for Applied Language and Literacy ResearchEdith Cowan University2 Bradford StMt Lawley, WA 6050AustraliaorEducation Department of Western Australia151 Royal StEast Perth, WA 6004Australiaor contactPatricia Königsberg by emailpatricia.konigsberg@eddept.wa.edu.au

PUBLICATION ANNOUNCEMENTSBig Wok: Storian blong Wol Wo Tu longVanuatu, edited by Lamont Lindstrom andJames Gwero, is the first book to be publishedinternationally in Bislama. Published by andavailable from the Institute of Pacific Studies,USP, it relates stories of the involvement ofni-Vanuatu in World War II, the presence ofAmerican and other troops in Vanuatu, etc.Contact Linda Crowl (crowl_l@usp.ac.fj) formore information.

ON THE WEB

At least three essays on Haitian Creole areavailable in the weekly commentary section ofthe “Windows on Haiti” site:

http://windowsonhaiti.com

“Kreyolity in literature and education” byCarol F. Coates“On Creole and its role in Haitian society” byMax Blanchet“The language issue: My perspective” bySerge Bellegarde

“Language Varieties” is a new website is beingdeveloped for educators and interestedmembers of the public: http://www.lll.hawaii.edu/esl/langnet/home.htm.

It gives information on pidgins, creoles,minority dialects, and indigenized varieties ingeneral and on particular varieties as well. Thevarieties covered so far are Hawai‘i Creole

Pidgins and Creole in Education (PACE) Newsletter 10 (1999)

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English and Singapore Colloquial English.

THESIS

Creoles in Education – A discussionof the issues with reference to

Northern Australian Kriol

Siobhan K. Casson

University of Durham

In the last two decades, creole studies hasestablished itself within the field of linguistics.Creolists have worked at gaining recognitionfor creole languages as autonomous languagesin their own right and not mere “broken” or“bastardised” versions of a European coloniallanguage. With the melding of the theoreticaland sociological aspects of creole studies…hascome the drive to use creole in education as aright for the speakers or as a pedagogical toolto aid second language acquisition andliteracy.

In this essay I investigate some of theissues surrounding the use of creole ineducation. In order to illustrate various pointsI look at a creole spoken by Aboriginal peoplein the Katherine region of the NorthernTerritory of Australia – Kriol.

In the first section I summarise some of themain theoretical arguments in creole genesis inorder to illustrate the language status ofcreoles… I then outline the origins of Krioland its sociohistorical background.

In the second section I explore variouslanguage issues. Using the Australiansituation as an example, I discuss theacceptance of Kriol as an identity marker andits links to traditional Aboriginal culture inorder to show the importance of evaluatingthese issues in the educational context.Additionally, I briefly outline the problems oflanguage standardisation, which is relevant ifcreole literacy is being considered for use n acreole language program. I also describe thecreation of an orthography and existingapplications of Kriol literacy.

In the third section I discuss four factorswhich I feel are important when consideringthe use of a creole in education, drawing onthe issues discussed in the previous sections. Icomment on various studies, but in particularthose relating to the use of creoles inAustralia.

In conclusion I present some recom-mendations for a comprehensive approach tointroducing a creole into education.

CONFERENCES

Past

The 1999 meeting of the Society forPidgin and Creole Languages (SPCL)took place in conjunction with the LinguisticSociety of America (LSA) meeting in LosAngeles, 8-9 January. For the first timespecial sessions were held on AppliedCreolistics. The following papers weredelivered:

Creoles as medium of instruction (Malcolm A.Finney)

Using a stigmatized variety to teach thestandard: Interference or separation? (Jeff Siegel)

A Creole English reading experiment (RonKephart)

Applied creolistics in court: Linguistics,methodological and ethical dimensions of experttestimony (Peter L. Patrick)

The case of Aboriginal English in theAustralian legal system (Diana Eades)

The hegemony of English: Hau kam yu wenkawl wat ai spik ingglish wen yu no no waz?(Kent Sakoda & Ermile Hargrove)

Policies of teaching in a multilingual context:The case of creole languages in French Guiana(Laurence Goury)

Wat, bada yu? Voices Heard andVoices Unheard: Pidgin, LocalIdentities and Strategies forMulticultural Learning was a specialconference on Hawai‘i Creole English (locallyknown as “Pidgin”), held at the University ofHawai‘i 6-10 April, organized by the Officefor Women’s Research. The program includedpanel discussions and presentations on thefollowing topics:

• Pidgin in the 21st century: Deconstructing thehegemony of standard English

• Language discrimination: Creole English(es)and the courts

• Pidgin in the schools: Educational policies,learning environments and teaching strategies

There was also a session with readings inPidgin by nine well-known creative writers,and performances in Pidgin by the localpersonality Joe Balaz and the Kumu KahuaTheater.

Le 9e Colloque International desEtudes Créoles was held in Aix-en-Provence, France, 24-29 June 1999. Therewere two round tables relevant to PACE:

Orthographe: entre mythe et réalité?

Enseignement des langues maternelle et secondeen milieu franco-créolophone : problématique,enjeux, défis et perspectives

The following presentations were also ofinterest:

Complexion créole et complexe créole dans lespages des écrivains mauriciens (ShakuntalaBoolell)

Language for education and standardization, asfactors in language attitude ratings: Surveyfindings from urban, southern Nigeria on anglo-Nigerian Pidgin (Charles Mann)

Le créole à l'épreuve de l'école antillaise.Fantasmes identitaires et expériencesglottopolitiques (Lambert-Félix Prudent)

Enseigner pour instruire (Roger E. Savain)

Créole et école: de l'expérience seychelloise auxdéfis à venir (Rada Tirvassen)

Issues in “non-standard” dialectresearch was a special symposium held atthe 1999 conference of the AustralianLinguistic Society at the University of WesternAustralia in Perth, 30 September - 1 October.The following presentations were made:

Non-standard dialect research issues in legalcontexts (Diana Eades)

Non-standard dialect research issues ineducational contexts: New technologies inmultilingual classrooms (Viv Edwards)

Stigmatized and standardized varieties in theclassroom: Interference or separation? (JeffSiegel)

Non-standard dialect research issues incommunity contexts (Ian Malcolm & GlenysCollard)

Non-standard dialect research issues in workplacecontexts (Janet Holmes)

Work in progress: The ABC project, “Two waybidialectal education of speakers of AboriginalEnglish” (Ian Malcolm, Alison Hill, PatriciaKönigsberg, Glenys Collard & RosemaryCahill)

Program for Bidialectal Development in a USAschool district (Kelli Harris-Wright)

A study in progress: Teacher perceptions ofstudent speech (Yvonne Haig)

Work in progress: Socio-cultural dimensions ofthe English of Western Australian primaryschool children (Graham McKay, Rhonda Oliver& Judith Rochecouste)

The symposium also included a discussionand response on the first five presentations bySusan Kaldor, and a panel discussion onModels of bidialectal education, with GlenysCollard, Kelli Harris-Wright, PatriciaKönigsberg and Jeff Siegel.

Upcoming

The Fifth International CreoleLanguage Workshop will be held atFlorida International University 30 March - 1April, 2000. For further information contact:

Dr Tometro HopkinsLinguistics Program, Dept of EnglishFlorida International UniversityMiami, FL 33199 USAPhone: (305) 348-3096Fax: (305) 348-3878hopkinst@fiu.edu