IN
THIS ISSUE (No.4) |
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| REPORTS |
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Nethelands Antilles (Dutch West Indies)
Marta
Dijkhoff “The
institute where I work (Instituto Lingwistiko Antiano, ILA) is a
governmental institution. We provide the government of the Netherlands
Antilles with advice on language matters. And we also are responsible
for research on language, and language programs which the government
considers to be of importance. One of our ongoing projects is the
standardization project [for the local creole, called Papiamentu],
which has been going on since 1983. “This
project was started in order to provide the government and all other
interested institutions such as schools, writers etc. with a body
of standardized words. In Papiamentu there are sometimes many variants
for one and the same word e.g. asepta, aksepta, apsepta, apseta,
which are all variants for the English word ‘to accept’.
The Standardization Committee, a body of 30 with representatives
from Curaçao, Aruba and Bonaire, has already standardized
a body of 6000 words and the next project at hand is a dictionary
in the native language to describe their meaning. “I
myself am involved in research for this committee (morphology).
I am also respon-sible for the publication of a grammar of Papiamentu,
of which the first volume has already been published. Three other
volumes are already on paper but they are not yet available in print… “As
our institute does not work for one particular island, we are not
directly involved with schools or teaching. We are, however, involved
in the design of curricula for the Papiamentu language for the upgrading
courses of teachers of primary education. We are also involved in
the design of a curriculum for the teaching of Dutch as a foreign
language. “The
role of Papiamentu in education is a complicated issue. Since 1982
the Nether-lands Antilles have a law that allows Papiamentu as a
language of instruction in the first and second grade of primary
schools. But this law was never implemented. Many schools could
not implement it for there were no teaching materials available.
There was also a lot of opposition outside the government, and the
minister himself did not enforce his decision. The situation in
the schools continued as it has always been. Papiamentu was used
unofficially by some teachers in some schools, whereas Dutch kept
being the official language of instruction. “In
1983 Papiamentu was introduced as a subject in all schools and all
grades. Many teachers received upgrading in the native language
(a process that is still going on at this moment). Since then Papiamentu
has to be taught half an hour each day in all grades. But the language
of instruction of all subject matters in primary school is still
Dutch. And children still have to acquire their writing and reading
skills through Dutch. Many schools, moreover, still boycott this
decision, by arguing that they do not have the necessary amount
of trained teachers (upgrading was voluntary) and they use this
half hour for other subjects. “The
fact that many children (more that the expected average) fail to
pass their exams at the end of their sixth year in primary education,
prompted the Minister of Education to reopen the discussion to introduce
Papiamentu in primary education as a language of instruction. He
then went a step further and proclaimed in 1990, that Papiamentu
should be the language of instruction during all six years of primary
education. The government is preparing a project now, which has
to result in this ultimate goal. “As history showed us, decisions about the native language do not always result in concrete measures. The big problem is that many decisions are not followed by concrete plans and the necessary means (money) to implement the programs we wish to be effectuated. “It seems that the present Minister of Education is serious in his endeavours. I am directly involved in the process this time, and maybe this once we will make a real breakthrough.”
St Licia and Dominica
Jeff
Allen
“The
following is a report on literacy for the French-lexicon Creole
(Kwéyòl) of St Lucia and Dominica. “There are basically two institutions and two other individuals involved in such work in St Lucia. The first is the Folk Research Center (FRC) which coordinates and authorizes all cultural research for the island. Between 1983 and 1991 the FRC contributed to 15 issues of a bilingual Creole/English newsletter called Balata. At present, a bi-annual brochure called Bulletin is put out by the FRC. “SIL [Summer Institute of Linguistics] is the second institution active in linguistic fieldwork and literacy work, with a presence in St Lucia over the past 8 years. They have produced numerous publications of moralistic folktales and of Bible stories. “Dr. Didacus Jules of the International Literacy Support Service has conducted a number of literacy projects in St Lucia in the past. [One of these is described in Education as conscientization: a case study of a prison literacy project in St Lucia (Folk Research Centre and University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, 1978).] “Dr. Lawrence Carrington of the University of the West Indies in Trinidad initiated the Creole Discourse and Social Development project for St Lucia. However the lack of funds has not allowed the project to move on as hoped. “As for Dominica, literacy work is primarily being done by the Folk Research Institute of Dominica, the project headed up by Marcel Fontaine in collaboration with the British linguist Stephanie Stuart. Their ongoing work has led to the publication of Dominica’s Diksyonnè Kwéyòl - English - Creole Dictionary [Folk Research Institute, the Konmité Pou Etid Kwéyòl (KEK), and the Department of the Use of English and Linguistics, University of the West Indies, Dominica and Barbados, 1991]. The University of Amsterdam is also taking part in the Dominican context with the participation of Jonathan Leather [see Publications section]. “A significant amount of literacy work is currently being done in the UK by Ms. Husibi Nwenmely, a native St Lucian. She teaches a beginner’s course in St Lucian Creole at the Tower Hamlets Institute of Adult Education and an advanced class at East London Black Women’s Organisation. There are hopes of beginning a new Kwéyòl class at the Booker T. Washington Centre in the North Westminster Community School. Nwenmely is currently a research assistant in the Reading Centre at the University of Reading where she is writing her PhD dissertation on Kwéyòl literacy in the UK.”
France From: Marie-Christine
Hazaël-Massieux [This description of the Institut d’Études Créoles et Francophones (IECF) is a rough translation from French .] Our institute, the centre for research on French creoles, is particularly interested in linguistic, sociolinguistic and anthropological issues. Educational questions have an important place, in particular the question of teaching creole in French creole-speaking countries. This was the subject of several papers given at the 7th International Colloquium of Creole Studies, held in Mauritius 30 September to 5 October, 1992 [sponsored by IECF with the theme “Languages, education and development in the creole-speaking world”, one of institutes research priorities]. [The editor was lucky to spend two days at IECF in June. The library contains an outstanding collection of books, articles, reports, papers and theses on pidgin and creoles languages, in both French and English. See “Publications” for a description of the institute’s own newsletter.]
Vanuatu
From: Enikelen
Netine “The Melanesian adult literacy project [teaching literacy in Bislama, the Vanuatu dialect of Melanesian Pidgin] began in 1989 in the northwest area of Malakula. It began with one adult literacy class and one preschool. From then it has increased in number of classes each year. This year we have 21 adult literacy classes. “The initial phase of the Vanuatu Melanesian literacy project has accomplished a great deal, given the challenging nature of the project and the limited resources. The lack of teaching materials, initial suspicion of the people and the limited official attention being given to Bislama literacy were critical difficulties which the project has had to address. Although only a small project, with a limited current budget from AIDAB through UNESCO for a period of two years, the project has made steady progress since its inception…The project now has been established on four islands. Hopefully, we will take in one more island this year.”
Solomon Islands
From: Jack
Rekzy, Co-ordinator “With the formation of LASI (Literacy Association of Solomon Islands) in July 1992, a boost has been given to using Pidgin in educational work, especially to teach literacy and reproduce materials which can be used by a number of groups of people. “With assistance from LASI, a highly successful text book Hao fo ridim an raetem Pijin has been reprinted as a request from many people. This book can teach people, who can already read, to read Pidgin in a week’s course. These books are on sale and will help a Printing Fund which has been set up in order to do further printing. “Small reading books have also been produced in Pidgin. These can readily be bought by people to improve reading skills. These have been cyclostyled, but the printing is sufficiently large to allow easy reading. The topics include religious, social and cultural areas and have been prepared by local village people to make sure that the appropriate level of literacy is reached. “The co-ordinator of LASI attended a Regional Conference held in Fiji in October 1992 and jointly sponsored by the Commonwealth Youth Program and the Bahai International Community. “Later on in December, a meeting was held between people who are funded by the Canadian Organisation for Development through Education (CODE) and the Sasakawa Peace Foundation (SPF), involving Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Kiribati and Solomon Islands. “Through this we were able to see that we are making progress in getting people to use Pidgin to teach literacy in relation to the more frequent use of Tok Pisin and Bislama programs in Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu.”
Mauritius
From: Philip
Baker “There is absolutely no sign of Kreol being written in schools, and publications in Kreol are becoming less frequent. However, the volume of spoken Kreol used in radio and TV has increased enormously. This is partly because there are now two TV channels (not counting the French only transmissions beamed from Réunion) and two radio stations – instead of only one each. There are various phone-in programs in Kreol…In TV, there are programs which switch between Kreol and French.”
Cape Verdean Creole in the USA From: Georgette
Gonsalves
“The status of the implementation of the Cape Verdean creole in classrooms in our schools has unfortunately not changed. Despite its being officially recognized as a ‘legitimate modern language’ by Massachusetts Law, its use by teachers is still as an instrument of translation ‘while one is on the road’ to learning the second language, in this case the English (American). There continues debate in the Cape Verde Islands regarding a fixed agreed upon orthography. US advocates have, however, gone ahead and developed some literacy level materials because of the immediate needs of older students who have little or no schooling. The results have been successful, particularly at Madison Park High School here in Boston. There continues to be resistance by many Cape Verdean teachers to the use of the language as an effective means for language development. My own sense is that many years of colonial indoctrination hampers their vision of what is possible in the formal education of the people. Old habits and ‘more’ die hard, even after nearly twenty years of political independence from Portugal. “Those of us who see the possibilities wish to express our interest in collaborating with you in our joint efforts to open doors to opportunity for our language minority students. We see this as an issue not of language per se but as an issue of social justice.”
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