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University of Hawai'i |
(808) 956-8856 Telephone |
For Immediate Release: |
December 9, 1998 |
Contact: Diana Eades, Associate Professor English as a Second Language, 956-3242 |
Charlene Junko Sato Endowed Memorial Fund announces
first award The Department of English as a Second Language has selected Nara Takakawa as the winner of the first Charlene Junko Sato Award. Takakawa, a master's degree student in ESL, is doing thesis research on attitudes of Honolulu jurors to Hawai'i Creole English (HCE), also known as 'Pidgin.' Media representatives are welcome at the award presentation Thursday, Dec. 10, at 6 p.m. on the fifth floor lanai of Moore Hall, UH Manoa. The award honors Charlene Sato, associate professor in ESL, who died in 1996. Educated at Leilehua High School, UC Berkeley, University of Hawai'i and UCLA, Dr. Sato was well-known internationally for her work in sociolinguistics, and pidgin creole studies. Dr. Sato devoted her academic career to the study of HCE and language policy in Hawai'i, and her early death has left a huge gap in the on-going struggle to have HCE accepted and legitimated as a valid language. The Sato Memorial Fund was established to carry on Dr. Sato's rich legacy and provide study awards to University of Hawai'i students who are pursuing work involving or related to HCE. Nara Takakawa's MA thesis is an investigation of Honolulu jurors' attitudes
toward HCE. HCE is widely spoken throughout the state, and is the first
language of many speakers. Studies have found that HCE speakers are regarded
negatively in educational contexts, where 'Pidgin' is erroneously taken
to be a lazy or colloquial form of English, instead of a perfectly legitimate
variety, like any other. Takakawa is investigating an institutional context
where language plays a major role in an individual's access to rights: the
courtroom. Her study, which combines a psycholinguistic test with open-ended
interviewing, will determine how jurors perceive evidence given in HCE and
how they feel about HCE-speaking witnesses. Results of her study are expected
early in 1999. |
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