Creole Speakers and Standard Language Education

2010

Department of Education. 2002a. Fundament voor Funderend Onderwijs: Nascholingsnoodzaak en basisaanbod nascholing voor de verdere invoering van Funderend Onderwijs. Manuscript, Willemstad, Curaçao. Department of Education. 2002b. Verschillende instructietaalmodellen in het Funderend Onderwijs: consequenties voor de uitvoering.

Negotiating Crosswinds: Trans-linguality, Transculturality and Trans-identification in the Greater Caribbean. , 2020

The English-based Creole in Trinidad has been seen as a language of low status for decades by some educators, parents and students. Although the Ministry of Education mandated that this substrate be used in the instructional process in classrooms, it was done so in a marginal way whereby it was 'tolerated' (Youssef ,2002) until the students' Caribbean Standard English was at an acceptable level. Teachers at Don Martina Central Secondary School* (DMCSS) express concerns about the usage of Creole in both students' speech and writing in the classroom, and some see it as a major reason for poor results at the Caribbean Examinations Council's (CXC) Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) English Language. This study seeks to provide a comparative insight into these perceptions held by teachers of English Language and teachers of other disciplines, with a view to addressing related concerns. The mixed method study was informed through the use of non-participant observation, structured group interviews and questionnaires. Data was transcribed, coded and categorized, then presented qualitatively and quantitatively. The study also offers recommendations to assist in the instructional process as well as in curriculum planning that may be of interest to all stakeholders inclusive of the Ministry of Education, the secondary school system, school administrators, language and non-language teachers, the home and, most importantly, the secondary school student.

Creoles in Education, 2010

Department of Education. 2002a. Fundament voor Funderend Onderwijs: Nascholingsnoodzaak en basisaanbod nascholing voor de verdere invoering van Funderend Onderwijs. Manuscript, Willemstad, Curaçao. Department of Education. 2002b. Verschillende instructietaalmodellen in het Funderend Onderwijs: consequenties voor de uitvoering.

Language in Society, 1996

Sustainable Multilingualism, 2019

Summary Regional languages in France have historically struggled to find their place in the national linguistic landscape, and French-based Creoles, like those of Guadeloupe and Martinique, are no exception. Despite laws and initiatives like the creation of the Creole CAPES (2002) and the propagation of research like Poth (1997) and Cummins (2009) on the benefits of bilingualism, Creole-language education in French overseas departments, like Guadeloupe, is still stigmatized for a lack of standardization by academic policymakers, despite its attested success in the classroom as a tool for improving students’ metalinguistic capacities in French. Using a corpus of official Creole-language educational guides, pedagogical guides and one elementary textbook featuring exercises focusing on correction of regional French phrases, along with observations of two elementary Creole-language classes in Guadeloupe, this paper aims to analyze and demonstrate that educators often receive mixed messa...

2019

Abstract. The battle has been raging for years. However, this sort of combat is not being fought on a literal battle ground but a psychological one. It is the battle of two languages- the Jamaican Creole and the Jamaican Standard English within the context of the English Language classroom. The paper highlights the critical role of the teacher in orchestrating an environment where both languages can coexist without the demise of the other. It examines the need for teachers to develop language awareness and to engage in professional development through research on theories applicable to developing language competence in the Jamaican language context. Hence, the purpose of this study is to examine the impact of the complex nature of the language situation on English language classrooms through the lens of an observed English language session at a non- traditional high school in rural Jamaica. It also seeks to analyze the extent to which this teacher of English successfully navigates such challenges to develop English language competence in her students.

Acquisition et interaction en langue étrangère, 2009

Second language (L2) acquisition is widely assumed to have played a role in the emergence of creole genesis. However, the impact of L2 acquisition may not have been restricted to its genesis. In Surinam, newcomers outnumbered locally-born speakers of the Creole throughout the 18 th century. To date we know little about the effects that this disproportion of non-native vs. native speakers may have had in the initial and subsequent stages of development of these Creoles. In this paper we combine historical and contemporary data in order to investigate the impact of L2 acquisition and use on developing creoles. We examine several linguistic features in contemporary native (L1) as well as non-native (L2) creole speech in order to reveal the differences in the underlying L1 and L2 systems. These are then compared with their equivalents in the available historical sources. The findings suggest that L2 acquisition affected the development of some linguistic subsystems while others appear little influenced.

Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, 2008

This book, intended to focus on "the educational implications of the spread and use of diverse varieties of English and related creoles" (introduction by Nero, p.1) contains twelve chapters. Each chapter begins with a listing of key points, and ends with suggestions for further reading and with "questions for discussion and reflective writing. " This makes the volume useful for classroom use as a textbook. The volume is organized into seven sections, based on regional origin of the relevant varieties. The impression thus created is that different parts of the world are represented, including North America, the Caribbean, the Pacific (Hawai'i), West Africa, and Asia (India and the Philippines). However, all chapters but one focus on how migration of vernacular-and creole-English speakers has affected educational practices in North America rather than in the countries of origin. The exception is the chapter on Hawai'i. The reality is that the needs of children in the context of displacement are not identical to those of children in the countries of origin, where, as pointed out by Lise Winer for the Caribbean context (p. 108), the children's vernacular varieties are at least understood by educators. In practical terms, this means that the volume will be more useful for educators in North America. Nonetheless, the balance between chapters which outline general issues and those that are practical in orientation makes the book under review a valuable resource. This review will focus on the sections most relevant to Caribbean educators.

Language in Society,, 2018

The College of The Bahamas Research Journal, Vol. 15, 22-35, 2009

Lack of accurate information on many aspects of the Haitian culture and society; preconceived ideas about Haïti and its people; dated information on the linguistic status of the Haitian Creole (HC) language; and the socio-economic condition of HC speakers living in The Bahamas are some of the factors that have negative effects on the practice of teaching and learning HC as an academic subject at The College of The Bahamas (COB). This article consists of three main sections: Section one clarifies the obsolete question of HC being considered as a variety of French. It provides theoretical, practical, linguistic and sociolinguistic evidence that HC is a distinct language in its own right with its own pronunciation, spelling system, grammar, structure, and pragmatics. Section two describes the socio-linguistic situation of the HC speakers in The Bahamas as a factor influencing the use of the language in the country. Section three describes the challenges of teaching HC at COB and examines the perceptions and attitudes of students on New Providence to the HC language.

Manual of Romance Sociolinguistics, 2018

This chapter discusses specific methodological concerns when working with creoles. We provide a survey of data collection techniques employed in the analysis of social variation and language use in Romance creole settings. A presentation of Romance creoles and previous sociolinguistic and dialectological research on them is followed by a discussion of central concepts in the study of creoles: diglossia, creole continuum, prestige asymmetry, and language endangerment. Best practices in the collection and analysis of creole data focus on ethical aspects and contextualization of research with creole communities, and access to data through participant observation, interviews, and surveys. The chapter ends with a case study of Chabacano perceptual dialectology that combines several sociolinguistic methods in the collection of data on variation and speaker perceptions in a multilingual setting.

2018

The literature about Haitian immigrant children’s achievement in the United States and elsewhere is very limited, and so is the information regarding teachers’ viewpoints about these students’ achievement in relation to teachers’ practices. The present exploratory study’s purpose was to assess whether there was a relationship between middle school math teachers’ personal and professional background and constructs and their appraisals of new-comer Haitian teens’ (NCHT) learning outcomes. The mathematics teachers’ personal backgrounds include their fluency in Haitian Creole. Their professional background includes their years of experience teaching mathematics, as well as their years of academic preparation in teaching mathematics in Haitian Creole, and their constructs include their personal teaching efficacy, their approaches to instruction, their perception of administrative pressure to prepare for high stakes testing, and their instructional endorsement of Haitian Creole (IEHC). Fi...

2017

Language Ideologies and the Schooling of Caribbean Creole English-speaking Youth in New York City by Dale Michael Britton Adviser: Ofelia Garcia This dissertation seeks to illuminate the ways in which Anglocentric ideologies operate to marginalize and exclude the linguistic and cultural resources of Caribbean Creole English (CCE)-speaking in New York City’s education system. Data was gathered from youths and teachers, and then analyzed to identify the language practices and ideologies relating to both Standard English (SE)and Creole varieties and how they shape teaching and learning for these two groups. Several broad themes were identified. First, CCE-speaking youths are homogenized as simply black students and as a result, their specific cultural and linguistic resources are rendered invisible and are not included in teaching and learning. Secondly, teachers’ language ideologies are mostly Anglocentric, focusing on the value of Standard English especially for society at large, but...

1984