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This study investigated the changing patterns of language use and language attitudes of younger generations of Mauritians over the last two decades. This article discusses the shift in language attitudes of students in secondary education with special emphasis on Kreol, taught since 2012 in primary schools and from 2018 in secondary schools. A comparison with results from earlier studies suggests a positive attitude shift towards Kreol in education as well as an acceptance of multilingualism and multiculturalism as an integral part of being Mauritian. Asian heritage languages lag behind in the multi-diglossic patterns of language use. Nonetheless, despite a steady decline in the home domain, students choose to study them in schools and attitudes towards them highlight a strong sense of cultural and religious attachment to ancestral heritage.

In Haiti, 49% of students cannot read a single word in Creole by the time they start grade 3, which is reflective of a broader learning crisis in low-income and fragile contexts. Read to Learn, an early-grade literacy intervention, was implemented and evaluated from fall 2014 through spring 2016 with the aim of improving students' reading skills. Students were given learning materials in their mother tongue, teachers were provided with training and instructional coaching, and various supports for program implementation were established. In a randomized evaluation, the authors assessed students' reading skills at the beginning of grade 1 and at the end of grades 1 and 2 in treatment and control schools. The authors estimated the impact of the program at the end of grades 1 and 2 with a hierarchical linear model and found positive effects on emergent reading skills and oral reading fluency, with effect sizes ranging between 0.19 and 0.79. The results of this study are an important contribution to knowledge about what works to improve literacy outcomes for students in Haiti and other fragile contexts.

The aim of this article is to analyse the early childhood education and care (ECEC) language policy in the city of Strasbourg, focusing on an ethnographic case study of a newly established bilingual English-French crèche in the city. In France, establishing an early childhood education structure--more specifically, a day care centre catering to young children--involves close coordination with national, departmental, and local government entities. Associations that embark on this process go through a long administrative process. Taking this fact into consideration, we maintain that to understand the language policy in ECEC, it is imperative to examine the overlapping participation of different government entities and services from the national, regional, departmental, city, and local levels. Our data reveal that the conceptualization of the language policy at a newly created bilingual crèche structure was highly influenced by top-down language policies and pervading language ideologies. Yet, the crèche personnel needed to interpret, negotiate, and appropriate this policy in order to consider its feasibility and to take into account the children's interests and welfare within the normal functioning of this early years structure.

The global dominance of the English language has led to intense debates with the emergence of studies of English as a lingua franca. These debates can be positioned along a continuum stretching from those who see the spread of English as a force of good representing progress and those who see it as a destructive force of globalisation. Between these two extremes are those who suggest that languages such as Creole and other 'hybrid' languages are essential in particular contexts, while also supporting the use of standardised English in others. Such debates are particularly salient in the context of Jamaica, where the official language and the language of instructions at all levels of schooling is Jamaican Standard English (JSE) but many of the people are first language speakers of Jamaican Creole (JC). Despite its valorisation, JC has not substantially challenged the prestige position of JSE in the Jamaican classroom. Such perspectives have been used to situate and position the English language as a hegemonic force that serves to reinforce inequalities in the teaching and learning of science. Against a background of the Creole-speaking environment in Jamaica, this paper investigates the dominance of English language in secondary school science. Participants were selected from five school types in Jamaica: junior high, private, technical, traditional and upgraded secondary. Data concerning students' and teachers' attitudes and opinions were collected using semi-structured interviews. The results suggest that, despite evidence that attitudes towards JC are changing, it was clear from the student and teacher interviews that JSE continued to dominate scientific discourse in Jamaican classrooms. Evidence of JSE as a hegemonic language was pervasively present throughout the discussions with the participants, with many supporting the use of JSE as the sole medium of instruction in science discourse. The argument that JSE speakers were more intelligent and more likely to be successful resonated with many participants and highlighted an ideological acceptance of the hegemonic order.

Students in Mauritius experience difficulties in conceptualising Shakespearean texts, often remaining disarticulated between exclusively subjective or completely disengaged reflections. This contribution aims to explore the perspectives provided by using the Experiential Altero-Reflexive (EAR) model, complemented by the use of YouTube video clips and creative tasks, in the way 11 undergraduate students construct meaning of a small selection of Shakespearean sonnets. A complexity case-study method was adopted and initial findings indicate a level of engagement with the texts and development of an appreciation of Shakespeare in relation to participants' own culture, context, and personal experiences.

Eight adult Aboriginal people residing in a remote community in the north-west of Australia participated in this research. The data were collected from an 'inside' perspective and, as culturally appropriate, through informal interviews (yarning) and ongoing conversations. These data were recorded as field notes and audio files which were transcribed and used to formulate case studies. Because the authors are not Aboriginal people, the voices of the participants were used to tell their personal stories and experiences. The findings indicate that each identified as Aboriginal and according to their language group. They recognized their wide-ranging linguistic repertoire which included Aboriginal English (AE), Kriol and, to various degrees, traditional languages. They believed they were more connected to their culture because of their Aboriginal dialects and languages. Their language use was fluid and they engaged in translanguaging. Not all claimed to be proficient in Standard Australian English and some described feeling 'shame' when speaking this and their Aboriginal language varieties. They also reported experiences with linguicism and racism, even in their own community because of their language use and because of the color of their skin. Our findings suggest a key role for education in providing support for multilingual Aboriginal people.

Informed by the theory of identity in practice, this study examined an immigrant student's (Yulia's) language learning experience. A narrative analysis of Yulia's personal stories reveals that her perceived identities as an intelligent, different, and special multilingual speaker have isolated her from her communities. She desperately tried to fit in with various groups in multiple communities of practice. Unfortunately, although she felt a sense of belonging, she became a modified version of herself. Shuttling among languages, cultures, and groups, Yulia found that her true self was invisible in any culture in which she found herself. Moreover, positioned as her parents' secretary and translator, Yulia believed that her lived experiences have shaped her as a resilient, mature, and independent immigrant who shouldered many familial responsibilities at a young age. Her reversed role as a parent deprived her of time and joy to be a child. Yulia's multilayered and complicated identities interacted with her actions and perspectives on herself and experiences as an immigrant. Findings indicate that this immigrant's self-formation in action at times matches and mismatches her self-conceptions based on her learning trajectories and unique situations. Thus, the researcher argues that linguistic competence does not necessarily facilitate community membership establishment.

Schools in the United States have historically conducted language policing in favor of standardized American English. The current study examines links between language policies in eight immigrant families in relation to educational language policies of two public elementary schools operating under an English-only policy in Massachusetts. The study places a focus on the agency of children and parents expressed through interviews, while paying attention to the institutional power of schooling. The participating families spoke Cape Verdean Creole, Mandarin, Portuguese, and Spanish as their heritage languages. Two theoretical frameworks informed our findings. Firstly, we use "family language policy" to define language decisions in families as a multifaceted construct. Secondly, we analyze family language beliefs and practices through a "language ideology" lens to unveil power structures influencing them. Our findings showed that the participants' spoken beliefs positioned bilingualism and heritage language maintenance as valuable. However, family language decisions showed an increasing preference for English that inherently aligned with the English-only educational policies and practices and alienated heritage languages. Our study contributes to the existing body of literature on family language policy by adding more nuance to the contextual and fluid nature of language decisions in bilingual families.

While the Global North's academic culture is romanced by generalizability, testimonio offers an enticing way to incorporate diverse knowledge sources into the curricular cannon. Testimonio offers a radical, critical, spiritual humanizing pedagogy for ethnic-racial socialization (Menchú, 1983). In this paper, I conduct a semi-structured interview with tía, my aunt, a Haitian native, who raised me and has worked for 30 years in special education and English language instruction in New York City and Maryland. She also served as a Sunday school teacher in our Haitian church. Her experience as a secular and spiritual educator makes her a unique voice to speak to how her experiences and identity informed her polyrhythmic pedagogies.

The present study tries to apply the postcolonial approach to V.S. Naipaul's "A House for Mr. Biswas". It has been tried to investigate what happens to the people of other nations immigrating to a creole society. In this novel by Naipaul, the writer draws our attention to the characters who are immigrant Indian people spending their lives in the creole society of Trinidad under the dominance of colonial power. By studying the three generations of Indian in this novel we can observe how the characters of the novel change their identity, religion, education, customs, etc. as a result of living in the creole society. It is seen that as the generation changes the belief of the characters on their original culture fades away and they merge into the colonial power. The characters in the novel, when encountering the colonizer's culture, change their identity and become who they want them to be. Moreover, during the course of the novel, the characters find ambivalent personality as a result of experiencing unhomliness in the society of mixed cultures. This ambivalence makes them have a double consciousness, to be attracted toward the colonizer's culture and at the same time repulsed from it.

This mixed questionnaire survey sought to determine if lecturers who learned to speak and understand Nigerian Creole before English are willing to use the language as medium of instruction. The respondents were comprised of 560 lecturers and graduate students (i.e. master's, doctoral) selected through a purposeful random sampling frame from 15 public institutions of higher learning in Nigeria. Lecturers declined to use Nigerian Creole as medium of instruction because they feared that its use might negatively affect their students' learning of English. Graduate students indicated willingness to receive instruction through a combination of English and Nigerian Creole because they perceived the use of Nigerian Creole as "fun" and representative of the voice of a new generation of Nigerians. The sample reported that prior knowledge of Nigerian Creole does not facilitate the learning of English because both languages are too different to facilitate a transfer of learning.

The adoption of the English language paradigm and the subsequent implementation of bilingual policies worldwide are generating new linguistic hierarchies. These have an effect on the linguistic diversity at the sub-national level and on individuals' linguistic human rights. This article reports the results of a case study on an individual's re-engineering of his in-group language identity. Through the analysis of a narrative written by the participant (Fidel), this article intends to show the effects of language ideologies on the discursive and sociocultural practices of a member of a "raizal" community from San Andrés (Colombia). As a multilingual individual surrounded by multiple ideologies of language, covert and overt language policies, and language hierarchies of prestige dictated by a scope larger than his immediate social group, Fidel preserves, challenges, and transforms his in-group linguistic identity.

This study describes how in-service teachers in the pre-vocational sector in Mauritius adopted specific strategies to overcome the language barrier in the learning of science (Van Driel, Verloop & de Vos, 1998). Students of form III were taught few basic ideas related to "Earth & Space" through the use of role play and ICT. The concepts chosen for this study were "occurrence of day and night", "relative positions and motions of the Earth, the Moon and the Sun" and "main constituents of our solar system". Classroom observations, focus group discussions with students, interviews with educators and post-test for students show that role play and ICT can potentially overcome the language barrier in the learning of science at pre-vocational level. Findings reveal that reading and writing should be kept to a minimum while use of Mother Tongue (Kreol language) and hands-on activities with oral interactions must be encouraged during lessons conducted in pre-vocational schools.

Most research related to communication skills in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been obtained from monolingual English-speaking children from high-income countries. Based on questionnaires completed by parents, this pilot study aimed to describe the communication characteristics of six children with ASD living in Jamaica. Parents had concerns about their child's speech intelligibility, expressive language, and social communication. All children were reported to speak using Standard Jamaican English (SJE). Exposure to SJE and Jamaican Creole (JC) was reported by half of the parents. Emergent literacy was considered a relative strength. All parents reported that their child could recite the alphabet and identify some letters and that family members also helped their child print and read letters or words. Other aspects of the home literacy environment and early literacy skills were varied. Information from this group provides some insights into communication skills in children with ASD from Caribbean backgrounds.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to characterize grammatical production in Jamaican Creole (JC) and English using the Index of Productive Syntax (IPSyn; Scarborough, 1990) in a sample of typically developing bilingual Jamaicans. Method: Spontaneous language samples were collected in JC and English from 62 preschoolers aged 4-6 years. Language samples were analyzed for IPSyn subdomains (Total Score, Noun Phrases, Verb Phrases, Questions/Negations, Sentence Structures), mean length of utterance in morphemes, and number of different words. Child and family demographic information were also collected along with nonverbal IQ performance. Results: IPSyn Total Score in JC and English were significantly correlated, and significant correlations were found between IPSyn subdomains in each language for Noun Phrases, Verb Phrases, and Sentence Structures, but not Questions/Negations. Item analysis for the IPSyn items showed that only 7 of the 56 items did not perform similarly in both languages, with performance on only 2 of these being significantly different. IPSyn scores in both languages were correlated with mean length of utterance in morphemes and number of different words, but only IPSyn JC was correlated with nonverbal IQ and age. Conclusion: The IPSyn shows promise as a mainstream tool useful in characterizing grammatical productions across languages in typically developing bilingual Jamaican preschoolers.

This article reports on a set of language attitude experiments undertaken in Belize in 2013--2014. The experiments tested attitudes toward Belizean Kriol in two different situational settings among 96 Belizean university students, exploring the extent to which experimental 'setting' had an effect on survey results. We administered verbal guise tests to 48 university students in classroom settings at the University of Belize campuses in Belize City and Punta Gorda. We then administered the same tests to 48 students in non-classroom settings in these same two cities. We found significant differences in both sets of results, with classroom participants registering stronger preferences for Belize City Kriol in status and solidarity traits. Our results add to a small but important body of literature in which setting is shown to influence language attitudes, and they provide support for an understanding of the quantitative survey as a meaning-making activity.

The examination of a mid-18th-century biography about a significant developer of Ojibwe and Cree-based syllabics is the starting point for an interrogation of socio-historical cultural cohesion in Canada. The textual creole of syllabics, used widely in business and commerce, provides clues to the dynamics of cross-cultural linguistics. In this essay, I use a discussion of the influence and crucial role played by the creole language Papiamentu in the southern Caribbean island of Curaçao, and its elevation to a core language of instruction in the post-secondary system, as a means to better understand the necessity for greater intercultural dialogue in Canada's post-secondary environment. Through this discussion, I draw on the combined views of Paulo Freire, Michel Foucault, and Herbert Marcuse to illustrate ways in which Canadian learning institutions could do a more effective job to support, engage, and promote cross-cultural dialogues in the classroom. Notwithstanding policy and funding for greater cross-cultural discourse in Canadian post-secondary classrooms, teaching institutions continue to focus less on engaging in necessary difficult discussions that address diversity and far more on a Eurocentric, Westernized education concentrating on the application of dominant cultural values. In spite of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's call for Indigenizing the academy and the federal government's creation of an Aboriginal Languages Act, Canada's higher-education realm does little to explicitly promote cross-cultural thinking in the way that creole would. A lack of culturally elaborate thinking is especially pronounced in areas that should touch all aspects of Canadian life, such as curricular initiatives for reconciliation. Instead of relegating such courses to focusing solely on these issues, an integration strategy is necessary. A more effective approach would be the inclusion of diversity-focused work across disciplines within the regular curriculum in order to generate a more effective intercultural developmental capacity across the curriculum.

The diversity of language in Australia in pre-invasion times is well attested, with at least 300 distinct languages being spoken along with many dialects. At that time, many Indigenous people were multilingual, often speaking at least four languages. Today many of these languages have been lost, with fewer than 15 being learned by children as a first language. However, despite this, much diversity remains. This diversity includes the remaining traditional Indigenous languages (TILs) spoken in more remote areas, largely in the north of Australia, as well as the new varieties that have developed since the invasion, and the dialects of Aboriginal English spoken across Australia. In remote communities where TILs are spoken, individuals and in some cases communities often maintain a high level of multilingualism. However, diaspora populations of TIL speakers are emerging in cities such as Darwin, Katherine, Port Augusta and Kalgoorlie. In some communities, new varieties are emerging as speakers change the way they talk. These include 'new' mixed languages such as Light Warlpiri or Gurindji Kriol, as well as a wide variety of creoles, including, for example, Roper River Kriol, Fitzroy Valley Kriol and Yumplatok in the Torres Strait) and the various dialects of Aboriginal English spoken across the country.In this article, we explore this language diversity, examining its historical underpinnings and development, its implications for education and engagement in the wider community, and how Aboriginal people are using the new varieties to forge group identities.

This article assesses the position of post-colonial societies within a neoliberal paradigm through an analysis of the role of language in education and the importance of adequate academic preparation for social development. Generally, teacher-student interactions constitute the foundational substance of learning processes. Since education revolves around language, omitting the way language affects classroom instruction amounts to omitting a key factor that might impede or facilitate education. Because these interactions tend to happen around textbooks, and given that textbooks are often ideologically saturated, an analysis of interactional patterns and textbook discourses may help to assess how the education system can improve students' academic development and the external efficiency of the system. The article makes the case for post-colonial societies to define strategic visions that are in concert with their specific needs, as opposed to being strangled into grand narratives such as neoliberalism that may be counterproductive for the growth of their societies.

This article describes the development and uptake of two dual-language, culturally relevant picture books in five primary schools in Papua New Guinea (PNG). The purpose of the books was to disseminate agricultural and livelihood messages both at school and at home. Schools were provided with big-book versions as permanent school resources and asked to send small-book versions home to families to both support children's reading and encourage the uptake of the agricultural messages. Evaluations at two different time points showed that, although many teachers valued and used the books, some schools were reluctant to share the books with families. Teachers appreciated the dual-language text and culturally relevant pictures and stories, and many requested that more of these types of books be made available. For more effective book distribution, mobile phones and church networks should be used to distribute books to families and support obtained from school boards and provincial education departments of PNG.

Caribbean students are repeatedly engaged in rigid forms of writing to meet the requirements of external exams, which often leads to negative attitudes to writing. With current shifts to multimodal and multi-literate texts to engage students' multiple literacies in learning, students' creation of graphic novels in Caribbean English classrooms can enable their engagement in meaningful creative writing. To illustrate this, I draw on my recent experiences with four inner-city boys at a Jamaican high school who showed marked improvement in their attitudes and their creative writing skills after creating graphic novels. The preliminary findings from my research suggest a need for more personalised learning strategies and for more opportunities for students to use their home language in Caribbean classrooms.

In this article, two applied linguistics researchers who conducted qualitative studies in educational contexts in Italy and Jamaica reflexively interrogate identity tensions among their ascribed, felt and evolving insider/outsider identities and positions. The juxtaposition of selected discursively analyzed research vignettes reflects similarities and differences in our experiences in two very different contexts, but a convergence in the complexity of our (linguistic/cultural) identities, positions, and intersubjectivities as insider/outsider researchers. In both cases, as we sought to reconcile tensions in positions within interviews about language attitudes and language education policy, we performed "discursive dances" aimed at creating positional spaces as we collaboratively produced and co-constructed our experiences, identities, and positioning with our participants. We argue that the approaches, presentation, and re-presentation of our research are filtered through identity tensions. Therefore, in making these tensions explicit, we became sensitive to the role of power and positionality in our research process.

This paper sheds the light on Asian pidgin Arabic, particularly linguistic features of pidgin Arabic in Kuwait. The phonology, syntax and lexicon of the language are described on the basis of interviews conducted with forty Asian informants. The data are discussed in its relation to other studies. Also, the researcher discussed the implication of the findings for the study of pidgin as well as Creole languages in general, and on Arabic-based pidgin or contact language in particular.

The present study focused on investigating (a) what authentic texts were used and (b) how they were used for instruction in three elementary schools, where learners' L1/D1 was a Caribbean Creole. Three findings emerged: First, teachers focused considerable attention on developing students' vocabularies and knowledge of English grammar. Second, they used a variety of easily available textual resources for developing children's reading and writing skills. Third, they explored topical issues, which they felt would provide meaningful prompts for wanting to read and write. The findings suggest that authentic materials can be seen as supplementing, not supplanting, established basal readers and workbooks.

The present study examines the tradeoff between the on-line construction of modifier-noun gender agreement and verb-subject person/number agreement vs. the automatization and entrenchment of agreement, through the study of bilingual speakers of Spanish and the Afro-Colombian creole language Palenquero, whose lexicon is highly cognate with Spanish, but which lacks morphological agreement. The study focuses on first language (L1) Spanish speakers who are acquiring Palenquero as a second language (L2), since when switching from the modifier- and verb-agreeing L1 to the agreement-less L2, the persistence or absence of agreement in cognate items can be taken as an indirect measure of the cost differential between producing morphosyntactic agreement and suppressing the carryover of obligatory agreement to the L2. The results of experiments, which was conducted with bilingual Spanish-Palenquero speakers in San Basilio de Palenque, Colombia, reveal the tenacity of Spanish gender agreement among L2 Palenquero speakers; heritage Palenquero speakers' retention of gender agreement falls between traditional speakers and L2 speakers. Spanish verb agreement, on the other hand, shows relatively little carry-over to Palenquero, suggesting that the suppression of L1 agreement during L2 acquisition is not a simple all-or-nothing matter.

This study provides preliminary data on the phonological development of Haitian Creole-Speaking children. The purpose of this study is to determine phonological acquisition in the speech of normally developing monolingual Haitian Creole-Speaking preschoolers, ages 2 to 4. Speech samples were collected cross-sectionally from 12 Haitian children divided into three age groups. Participants' utterances were recorded from spontaneous and/or imitative productions of target words. Data were analyzed through a relational analysis to determine phonemic inventories occurring in each age group's speech. A gradual increase in speech sound inventories was observed from 2 to 4 years of age. Results indicate that phonological development in Haitian Creole-Speaking children was influenced by both language-universal patterns and language-specific patterns. In conclusion, data obtained on the phonological development of monolingual Haitian Creole preschoolers can provide insight to speech language pathologists during the clinical assessment and intervention process of this population.

This study explores the interplay between early reading, identity and bilingualism. Reading identities, or understandings about what reading is and whom one is as a reader, have been linked to reading achievement and the development of reading skills. Only a small portion of the overall research on reading identities has included dual language learners. This exploratory study provides a description of the reading identities of three dual language learners in prekindergarten. Data include child-centered interviews, child and classroom observations, teacher interviews and a family questionnaire. Methods centered on the use of child-oriented data collection protocols, and the inclusion of children in the interpretation of their own work and language. Through the exploration of three cases, this study documents the ways that reading identities were constructed, taken up and expressed by the participants. This study provides evidence that dual language learners are actively constructing ideas about reading, bilingualism/biliteracy, and whom they are as readers as they learn to read. These findings show that framing early reading in an identity perspective presents opportunities to look more holistically at the language and reading practices of dual language learners as they learn to read and navigate two or more languages at home and school.

In January 1982, the Republic of Seychelles became the first country to make its Creole, Seselwa, an official medium of instruction in its multilingual education system. Overall, this innovative language policy has positively affected student levels of personal motivation and academic success. Nevertheless, the nation's continued use of Creole-mediated multilingual education (CMME) has not been without critics. Chief among them have been the expected purveyors of the CMME policy--teachers. Using a mixed-method survey research design, this study investigated teacher attitudes towards the nation's three official languages: Seselwa, English, and French; and the Seychelles' CMME policy. The overall research result was as sobering as it was clear. Despite the government's 30-year commitment to CMME, the majority of the teachers polled still questioned the efficacy of this policy. Importantly, as this investigation demonstrates, a primary source of this doubt may be found in the teachers' own language profiles. The implications of these research findings for the future of CMME in Seychelles are discussed and recommendations for future investigations of vernacular instruction are presented.

This paper provides an up-to-date report on the vitality or endangerment status of contact languages around the world, including pidgins, creoles, and mixed languages. By utilizing information featured in the "Endangered Languages Project" and the "Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Languages" online portals, 96 contact languages are assessed on the Language Endangerment Index, a method of assessment that is based on four factors including intergenerational transmission, absolute number of speakers, speaker number trends, and domains of use. Results show that the contact languages are most at risk with respect to intergenerational transmission and domains of use. This is explained by the social and historical nature of contact languages. Overall results further raise the concern that the proportion of pidgins, creoles and mixed languages at some level of risk is extremely high. Reasons are provided for why linguists should be concerned about the endangerment of these languages.

This paper presents preliminary findings about how literacy is taught at the elementary level in three grade-one classrooms in Jamaica. While this might seem rudimentary, there is a dearth of information in Jamaica about how teachers teach reading and writing. We attempted to fill this gap by conducting an exploratory small-scale qualitative case study. Interviews and classroom observations were conducted to obtain a snapshot of teachers' literacy practices in order to explore how teachers teach reading and writing in grade-one classrooms. Three themes emerged from the data. The findings illustrated that while teachers were working to create engaging classroom environments, they tended to adopt a reading readiness orientation to literacy. Also, while teachers valued the children's home language, they were ambivalent about how to teach literacy in a Creole-speaking environment. The study represents a first step in learning about the teaching practices of grade-one teachers in Creole-speaking environments.

As the racial and ethnic make-up of the United States (U.S.) further diversifies, the need for open dialogue around stereotypes and discrimination intensifies. Schools can provide students with the opportunity to begin to unravel the complexities of race and ethnicity. Students in bilingual classrooms inevitably bring up the issues surrounding intra-and inter-group conflicts. This study looks at how bilingual teachers from four ethnolinguistic groups address these unplanned micro-interactions. A bibliography is included.

This paper provides a critical analysis of the National Bilingual Programme in Colombia. It considers how and why it aims to extend the teaching of "a" foreign language in Primary and Secondary school in 1994, to the teaching of English to an internationally recognized standard in all sectors of education by 2019, while at the same time attempting to promote the bilingual education of the Creole and Amerindian speaking sections of the population. It suggests that although some of the aims of the programme are being met, the contexts in which it is being implemented are too diverse and the aims too broad for the programme to be implemented successfully in its current state.

Like plate lunches, aloha shirts, and lei, Pidgin is an important part of local identity in Hawai'i. While some people still think of Pidgin as "broken English," many now realize that it is a distinct creole language, similar to others that have developed in multilingual environments, and call it Hawai'i Creole or HCE (Hawai'i Creole English). Pidgin is integral to the development of modern Hawai'i and therefore it is surprising that there is nothing about it in the school curriculum. Even more surprising, however, is that in many schools, Pidgin is frowned upon and the language is kept out of the classroom. In some cases, Pidgin is even denigrated, and its speakers constantly corrected. But even when there is no overt negative treatment, teaching is often done completely in standard English as if Pidgin did not exist. In either case, Pidgin-speaking students are not allowed to express themselves in the language they feel most comfortable with. Again, this is surprising, since teachers and educational administrators normally have the interests of their students at heart, and want to do what's best for them. Most teachers would never think of putting their students down because of their ethnicity or socioeconomic status. Yet, when it comes to language, many teachers and administrators seem to abandon these principles--especially with regard to Pidgin--and these practices are supported by parents and the general community. Why is this? Part of the answer is that the acquisition of standard English is considered to be one of the most important goals of formal education. Most people in Hawai'i see a knowledge of standard English as the key to academic and economic success, and Pidgin as the greatest obstacle to the acquisition of this knowledge. Therefore it seems logical to avoid Pidgin at all costs, especially in the schools. In this article, the author examines some of the reasons behind current practices and looks at whether they are justified according to research into language varieties and alternative educational programs that do make use of vernaculars such as Pidgin. These reasons fall into three categories: (1) beliefs about the nature of Pidgin; (2) confusion about the nature of educational programs that would use Pidgin; and (3) concerns that the use of Pidgin in schools would be detrimental to students' acquisition of standard English. The author then discusses some of the potential benefits of alternative programs. (Contains 1 table and 2 endnotes.)

Every multicultural society has a language of power--the language spoken by members of the dominant group or groups--as well as languages that lack power because they are spoken by members of the subordinate group or groups. The ascension of one language over another has long been a source of controversy in Hawai'i, as it has in many parts of the world. In this essay, the author reviews what she has come to understand about Hawai'i Creole (HC) and its relationship to learning to read. The essay is organized around four topics: (1) language, literacy, and power in Hawai'i; (2) HC and literacy learning; (3) resistance to learning literacy in school; and (4) sustained school change to improve the literacy learning of students who speak HC as their primary language.

In this article, the author describes a three-month study he conducted in Ellen Hino's classroom during writing workshop. The major purpose of the study was to look at the ways this native-born teacher responds orally to students who share her own bidialectical background. Most of these students are Native Hawaiian and speak a nonprestigious dialect called Hawai'i Creole (HC) as their primary language and Standard English (SE) as their secondary language. Not only do these students speak a dialect particular to the Hawaiian Islands, but their classroom interactions can be strikingly different from those of mainstream American culture. This study addresses issues of linguistic and cultural differences in the context of what is called "writing workshop."

For a number of years, Kent Sakoda has been teaching at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa in the Department of Second Language Studies. His course, "Pidgin and Creole English in Hawai'i," is popular among students on campus. He has also taught at Hawai'i Pacific University. Because of his expertise on the grammar of Pidgin (Hawai'i Creole), Sakoda is a frequently-invited guest speaker. Sakoda was born in Hanapepe, Kaua'i, and grew up there in the 1950s and 60s. His parents owned a garage repair shop, where they spent most of their waking hours. Sakoda recalls his youth as an idyllic time. Everyone in this small rural community knew each other and helped each other out. He and his friends spent many hours playing in the town's park, swimming in the nearby stream, and frequenting one or the other of the town's two movie theaters. They attended 'Ele'ele School, situated on a hillside overlooking Hanapepe. Sakoda's family lived right below the hill. Sakoda remembers the school having a courtyard and large wooden buildings with lots of greenery surrounding it. His classmates were Japanese American, Filipino American, and Native Hawaiian. Like many Japanese American children of his time, he also attended Japanese language school. And like the other youth growing up in Hanapepe, his first language was Pidgin or Hawai'i Creole. After graduating from the eighth grade at 'Ele'ele, he attended Waimea High. In this interview, Sakoda talks about his introduction to Pidgin as a subject of study and then discusses some of the basic features of Pidgin grammar. (Contains 1 endnote.)

In this essay, the author examines the attitudes that people in Hawai'i have about Hawai'i Creole. The author first describes the background of the language and explores educators' views from the 1920s to 1940s about Hawai'i Creole (HC), which was first viewed as the the "Pidgin problem" in Hawai'i. The frustrations expressed by educators might help to reveal why people believe that the "Pidgin problem" is still present today. In this essay, the author focuses on the connections people have made with HC and their own identity. In order to understand why the HC issue continues today the author decided to interview residents of Hawai'i. The author sought to understand the different values people hold towards this language. The people being interviewed considered themselves to be middle class, and that had a strong influence on their attitudes toward Hawai'i Creole. The persistence of this language issue reveals an interesting conflict that lies beneath the surface of Hawai'i's local culture. It reveals that people in Hawai'i are still divided on issues of material success and local identity. The interviews reveal that many HC speakers are affected unconsciously by numerous factors that challenge their identities. Ironically, HC serves as a means of identifying local culture that translates variously into a source of pride and shame.

This article presents an adaptation of a position paper written by Da Pidgin Coup, a group of concerned faculty and students in the Department of Second Language Studies (SLS). In fall 1999, the group became concerned about a statement made by the chairman of the Board of Education implicating Pidgin in the poor results of the students of Hawai'i on national standardized writing tests. The group's discussions led to the writing of this position paper. Their aim was to provide well-researched advice about the complex relationship between Pidgin and English, and the issues involved in discussing the role of Pidgin in education. (Contains 1 endnote.)

In this essay, the author discusses her experiences in creating her film about Hawai'i Creole. She shares how she chronicles the essence of local life in the film through Pidgin. She also discusses how she came to understand the power of Pidgin, its centrality in people's lives, and its place in defining the uniqueness of Hawai'i. As the author discovered, understanding the "thinking behind the language" is crucial to an understanding of a people.