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The present case study is inspired by preliminary observations of a young adolescent's use of private speech within pretend play to develop disciplinary knowledge in the home domain. Using audio-recordings of the learner's pretend play as a starting point, followed by informal conversations with her, the parent-as-researcher investigates the learner's choice and use of mediational tools and texts as she engages with disciplinary contents and navigates disciplinary challenges. The findings indicate that the informant uses a combination of mediational tools and texts, both digital and non-digital, as part of her disciplinary literacy practices. Interestingly, she also uses vocalized private speech within the privacy of her pretend play to develop, extend and practise her disciplinary language and literacy skills. It is argued that the informant authors her personal learning space as an empowered and an increasingly autonomous learner by choosing and using different mediational tools and texts, each of which has its own affordances. It is also argued the informant's choice and use of each of the mediational tools and texts available to her are shaped and constrained by the physical environment which she inhabits.

In Mauritius, Kreol is the home language of the majority of school children, while English is the main language of literacy and the main written medium of instruction as from the first year of primary schooling. This has had a backwash effect on the preschool sector, where English is introduced. A cross-sectional study of local preschools revealed that while English number names are systematically taught, there is less planning in the teaching of general English vocabulary. This article reports on a comparative study of a "regular" English preschool class and an Oral English Intervention Programme in two local preschools over 2005. The comparison between pre-test and post-test results showed that the children in both programmes improved significantly in receptive English vocabulary, with the experimental subjects unsurprisingly outperforming the 'regular' group. However, the implementation of the intervention programme revealed the many potential challenges of teaching English to pre-schoolers in an English-poor environment.

In Mauritius, English, the least socially used language, is the main language of literacy and the main written medium of instruction throughout the education system, starting from the first year of compulsory primary education. The importance of English as a school language is reflected in the 2003 Preschool Curriculum Guidelines, which mention the need for preschools to introduce children to English in preparation for compulsory primary schooling in English. The development of oral English proficiency as a basis for literacy instruction and education in English is in line with the extant evidence-based reading research which shows that oral language proficiency, often investigated and tested through receptive vocabulary, is a stepping stone to early literacy development. The aim of this study is to test the receptive English vocabulary of a group of preschoolers at the beginning and end of their final preschool year, in order to assess their developing English language proficiency. To do so, a contextually relevant test was designed and administered to a group of 4-year-olds using a pre-test/post-test design. The results indicate that during their final preschool year, preschoolers develop minimal English receptive vocabulary skills, characterized mainly by their knowledge of English number names and related number concepts, body parts and marginal familiarity with general English vocabulary items. This negligible and slow progress in English receptive vocabulary development is discussed in relation to the quantity and quality of comprehensible input being provided in the preschool classroom, as revealed by the data collected from a longitudinal study using ethnographic data collection tools. The paper ends with pedagogical implications for preschool education in Mauritius and other similar contexts.

While the extant literature has highlighted the important contribution of home literacy experiences to early literacy development, limited research has been carried out among children living in postcolonial contexts, where there is a mismatch between the home and school language. Such is the case of Mauritius. The present exploratory case study investigates the home literacy experiences of two groups of Mauritian pre-schoolers. Interviews with the children's mothers indicate that these children are immersed in home environments which value informational and educational reading materials, rather than pleasure reading materials. This preference for a skills orientation, rather than an entertainment approach, to early home literacy experiences is explained by the specificities of the local culture. The social and educational background of interviewed mothers, the gap between language of the home and language of literacy, and local reading and cultural practices all contribute to the didactic nature of the early home literacy experiences.

Negotiating their double identity as Mauritians and Muslims in multilingual and in multiethnic Mauritius, Mauritian Muslims have been socialised into reading and writing in Kreol in madrassahs, while they have never been exposed to Kreol literacy in mainstream education. At the point where Kreol is being introduced as an optional school subject, and given that the Mauritian Muslim community has made particular use of written Kreol in the madrassah, this community becomes an interesting test case to explore its language and literacy ideologies with respect to Kreol. A case study approach was used to investigate madrassah informants' language and literacy ideologies, their attitudes to and perceptions of Kreol at the madrassah and at school. The findings reveal that they tolerate written Kreol at the madrassah, but that they use a French-Kreol literacy variety and aspire to shift to French in the near future. Furthermore, they have ambivalent attitudes towards the introduction of Kreol as an optional school subject and potential medium of instruction. These findings are discussed in relation to the micro-practices occurring in the madrassah and the macro-context, both of which reinforce dominant historically situated popular ideologies about Kreol literacy. (Contains 1 table, 1 figure, and 4 notes.)

Mauritius is a linguistically diverse island: most people on the island are native speakers of Mauritian Creole, a French-lexified Creole; English is the written medium of instruction in primary schools and French is taught as a compulsory subject. The discontinuity between the home language and the school languages is viewed as problematic by some local educationists, who argue against children being made literate and receiving education in languages other than their first language. Focusing on Mauritian children's initial contact with education in the preschool, this research paper uses a case study approach to investigate preschool teachers' language choices and language practices in a context where they can use Creole, French or English. The data show that the observed teachers adopt French as the dominant language of communication, with switches to Creole, English and the oriental languages, often leading children to being mute or engaging in very restricted communicative interactions. Analysing the relationship between the existing language policy and the local language dynamics, the author of this paper argues that in such ex-colonial multilingual contexts where existing language policies are vague, the preschool is a site where preschool teachers juggle emotional, educational and social concerns through their language practices.

Most Mauritian children face a language challenge as they leave their homes and start school. While most Mauritian children speak a French-lexified Creole as home language, the Mauritian primary education programme promotes English as the main language of literacy and the only written medium of instruction. In such a context, the preschool has the implicit role of preparing the 4- and 5-year-old Creole-speaking children for the English-mediated primary education curriculum. This paper examines the role of the preschool in bridging the language gap between the home and the school. On the basis of an analysis of the English language teaching practices of teachers in seven preschools, it is argued that there is a lack of coherence and continuity between the preschool curriculum and the primary school curriculum and that the preschool inadequately prepares children for the language challenges of the primary school programme.

The present study was carried out in the context of the recent (2012) introduction of Kreol in the primary school curriculum in Mauritius. The time-tabling of Kreol as an optional subject offered at the same time as the other existing ancestral languages, institutionalised Kreol as an ancestral language, despite its status as a national language. The aim of the study was to investigate the ways in which the Standard 1 Kreol textbook reveals or reflects the ancestral identity that it has been institutionally assigned. In order to do so, a comparative perspective was adopted: the Standard 1 Kreol textbook was compared with the Standard 1 Hindi and Urdu textbooks, given that Hindi and Urdu are long established ancestral languages. A social semiotic analysis of the textbooks indicates that each textbook mediates ethno-religious discourses in varying ways and to varying degrees. It is argued that while changes in language policies and curricula open up ‘implementational and ideological spaces’ (Hornberger, N.H. 2002. “Multilingual Language Policies and the Continua of Biliteracy: An Ecological Approach.”Language Policy1: 27–51), textbooks can be seen as one such space within which identities are maintained, (re)defined or resisted. As an ‘implementational and ideological space’, the textbook is historically, socio-culturally and politically embedded, shaped and constrained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]