Dear new Minister of Education,
World Mother Language Day was celebrated globally on February 21. The day passed without notice in Jamaica. Is this because, for the government, the media and for those with social, political and economic influence, the issue of mother language/mother tongue does not arise since, ‘unlike those benighted countries in Africa and the Pacific, thank God, we speak English in Jamaica?’ But, do we?
Well, in a nationwide survey conducted by the Jamaican Language Unit in 2006, 36 per cent of the sample surveyed demonstrated no ability to describe a simple everyday object using spoken English. By contrast, 83 per cent were able to do so using the Jamaican language, 47 per cent demonstrating the ability to use both languages.
To mark World Mother Language Day, the Global Education Monitoring Group of the UNESCO put out a position paper with the deceptively simple title, ‘If you don’t understand, how can you learn?’ The study looked, across many countries, at the impact that speaking as a home language the language used in the school has on children attaining an international minimum learning standard in reading. In all cases, children who spoke the language of the school as a home language did considerably better than those who did not. The effect varied across countries, with those whose home language was also the school language scoring between 15 and 30 per cent higher than those who did not have as a home language the language of the school.
We could apply a commonsensical approach to this issue, the one which was, according to a Gleaner news report of August 22, 2012, reportedly applied by Minister of Education Ronnie Thwaites. He was, at the time, commenting on the poor results of the CSEC English A examinations. He is reported to have exhorted Jamaicans to”stop glorifying Jamaican Patois” and encouraged all parents and teachers to speak and write ‘correct English’ in order to serve as good language models for children.
The Donald Trump-like simplicity of the reasoning flies in the face of the facts, of course. As we have already seen, 36 per cent of the population may not have any control of English and, of the 46 per cent who speak both English and Jamaican, the control of the former is likely to be rather weak.
Let us assume that teachers can and do maintain English as the sole language medium they use in the class. That minimal amount of exposure to English is unlikely to develop competence in English for a child who spends the bulk of his or her waking hours in a Jamaican Language speaking environment. In addition, members of a family or of a community speak a language which is most effective for communicating with those around them. There are very few communities in Jamaica where English could perform this role. For the honourable minister to blame members of a community who do not choose their speech forms so that their children can do better in school is as pointless as King Canute cursing the sea for not obeying his exhortation to come no further.
WHAT DOES UNESCO SAY?
Perhaps the most important statement in the UNESCO paper is the recommendation that “at least six years of mother tongue instruction is needed to reduce learning gaps for minority language speakers (my emphasis)”. The term ‘minority’ here is telling. It is usually minority groups whose languages are not used in schools and who find that their languages are discriminated against. Ironically, in Jamaica, the majority, made up of the 83 per cent who, according to the results of the study quoted above, speak Jamaican, are treated in the same discriminatory fashion as minorities in other countries. The language discrimination existing in Jamaica is, by that measure, even more unacceptable.
The Bilingual Education Project (BEP), run by the Jamaican Language Unit in Jamaican primary schools, pioneered the implementation of an approach which uses both English and Jamaican, alongside each other, as 1) languages for teaching and learning literacy, 2) mediums of oral instruction and classroom interaction, 3) subjects and 4) mediums for teaching and learning content subjects. The Biliterate Transitional Bilingual approach, modelled by the BEP, was stated in the Ministry of Education 2001 Language Education Policy, to be ideal for Jamaica. The same document, however, rejected the option as impractical.
Implementation took place in 2004-2008 for a cohort of children moving from grades one to four in that time period. The BEP had the official blessings of the Ministry of Education and sought to demonstrate to the ministry as well as parents and the public, that the option was indeed practical and doable. The project had completing university students in linguistics translate the school textbooks into Jamaican.
A training programme was run for teachers to deliver lessons in both Jamaican and English, and to use the textbook material in both languages. An important new skill teachers had to acquire was familiarity with the Cassidy-JLU system for representing the Jamaican language in writing. Teacher training took place during the May-June period before implementation and during the life of the project.
HAITIAN EXAMPLE
Ever since the 1980s, Haitian Creole has been recognised in the Constitution of Haiti as one of the two official languages of that country, alongside French, and as the language which unites all Haitians. In the period after the 2010 Haitian earthquake, under the leadership of Michel DeGraff, a Haitian professor of Linguistics at the Massachusetts of Technology (MIT) in the USA, got funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the USA to pioneer Haitian Creole language medium education in Haiti and to create online digital instructional materials for the teaching of science, technology, engineering, mathematics in Haitian Creole. This took place under what came to be known as the Haiti-MIT Initiative.
The research conducted within the framework of the project established that the use of the mother language produced children much better at their content subjects than those who learnt them in French. The mother language pupils were also superior in the learning of French.
This research activity was followed by a formal agreement in mid-2015, between the Haitian Ministry of National Education and the Haitian Creole Academy, founded by Michel DeGraff, to introduce Haitian Creole as the language of instruction throughout the education system and throughout the country. The Haiti-MIT Initiative has been involved in the training of teachers and the ongoing development of teaching materials in support of the ‘creolisation’ of the Haitian education system. The whole project has received overt statements of support from perhaps the best known linguist in the world, even better known for his political writing, Noam Chomsky, a colleague linguist of DeGraff at MIT.
Historically, Haiti has always led and Jamaica followed. Slavery was abolished in Haiti approximately 40 year before it was in Jamaica. The Republic of Haiti became independent some 158 years before Jamaica did. It is arguably because of Haiti’s pioneering role in clearing the path for the rest of the Caribbean that it has been made to suffer an existence even more miserable than the rest of us.
Haiti, however, with the help of powerful allies in the First World, and institutions of considerable status and prestige, is finally doing the right thing by its citizens, implementing an education system that operates in the language of the vast majority of the Haitian population, Creole. Where nine million Haitians go, maybe three million Jamaicans might eventually follow, to a future of genuine and sustainable economic and social development.
Maybe, too, like Haiti, we will need to look for an overseas saviour, with initials more powerful and persuasive than those of the UWI, and the JLU (Jamaican Language Unit), and to foreign experts whose complexions are several shades lighter than the norm in Jamaica. Perhaps, the foreign creditors of Jamaica, as represented by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), might wish to make a more enlightened language education policy a conditionality to further financial assistance for Jamaica. This might, from their perspective, help to create a more productive workforce and a growing Jamaican economy capable of repaying our foreign creditors.
Or perhaps, just this once, our policymakers might opt for home-grown solutions, based on solid research evidence, both international and local, coming from local institutions. Here is the opportunity to engage with local expertise, based firmly in international scholarship, in devising a language education policy that is appropriate to the language situation of Jamaica.
The new government of Jamaica, and the incoming minister of education, have a great opportunity. How about making a historical break with emotional and anecdotal approaches to decision-making on language education?
– Hubert Devonish is professor of linguistics and coordinator of the Jamaican Language Unit, UWI, Mona. Email feedback to [email protected].
As with everything else in our country, it is the outsiders that are more interested and is even fascinated with PATOIS..most Jamaicans are ashamed to use it, unless of course those outside ask that it be spoken. Not a ting going to happen unless someone from outside tek it up and mek money offah it or summn like that. Dem seh cow nuh know di use a dem tail ting dem lose it. It is a shame that we as a people are ashamed of what the majority use on a daily basis to communicate. Just like how dem mek foreener come and “stole” reggae.. Dem in change nuh no seh part of the charm of Jamaican’s tourism is the “first” language of our people. Mi nuh fraid fi chat mi patois, sometimes that is what reminds me of who I am and where I am from and will feel out of place, to be truthful, if mi nuh hear it and or talk it fi awhile.But know this mi can have a conversation with the queen of England if needs be. Educating the masses on speaking proper English does not mean that them need fi figet what is their heritage, that is the problem them want to replace all that is Jamaica suh dat is why it being ignored. Dem “refined” cititzens uptown, dem who hole di keys to Jamaica errything… only chat patois when it suit them, i.e “when dem want to seh, hey I am Jamaican” but don’t get it twisted it is when dem want something in return, dem use it. Suh it guh we too brainwashed in this place here, mek a next person come in and tell us what we should do and not do…smdh everytime this topic come up it just greeve the hell outah mi boxside. Unlike other countries, I do not think our government takes pride in who we are as a people, dat is why dem would rather sell out everything than recognize it for what it is. People/companies and organizations all ova deh mek money offah Jamaica and its byproducts except Jamaica of course and a deh suh dem want to keep it it seems, a hope this new Govt. really do something bout it..caz it nuh right!!
Verbose….
Dem and their “Sophisticated talk” i heard Assasin’s daughter opened her mouth and i was in awe! If my eyes were closed at the time i would have sworn it was a caucasion child speaking! It is impressive to speak good english but it is the style in which they speak in is the problem!! Toooo white yow!! Jamerica dis not Jamaica!
hayyyyyyyyyyyyyy mek a shake u hand das y mi tell fae fi look to uptown cause dem swear dem sound good imitating america lingua…my patois all day every day…if u cant understand it mi talk mi nice clean english fi u but das where it stop
Why call the Jamaican language patois?
Do you know the meaning of that disgusting word?
How is it disgusting?? For im really sadden its my everyday language inuh so JAy please edify… u know seh wen me talk like the sophisticated ones i feel oh so fake?? I wonder how dem dweet??! Twang twang twang pure twanging
Dem sound foolish to farrina mi wonder if dem know dat doe :ngakak
Lali mi big friend where are. Correct me if I am wrong. Patois-means part of many other nations to make us one.
Patois is word derived from French.Look up the meaning of the word .In the UK they refer to our language as Jamaican,why do Jamaicans insist on calling it patois ?
Patois means stuff like,language of thieves,language of backward people,language of uneducated people.
PS,people,if you are going to make an argument,please know what you are arguing about or against.
I love my Jamaican language,it’s part of my being,like my heart ,in no way did my post said anything negative against our language.I have written countless letters to the ministers of education over the years and influential people in Jamaica asking for end of the use of the denigrating word “patois” to describe our language. My first letter was to minister of education under the seaga government ,a man named Neville Gallimore.I was about 9 years old then.
Stop staring an argument in a empty room.
Teaching using our language would be of great benefit as most of the teachers we held dear were the ones who connected to us using our language.Jamaican not patois.
I cringe at ever time Jamaican is mentioned. Why not used Patois to describe the language of the Jamaican people. Most Jamaicans are not proud of themselves as well as their country. I have relatives still living there most of whom as never went on a plane or ship. But majority of them “twang” better than I do. I have a funny memory of an incident that every time I remember I burst out laughing. After being in America almost 2 decades I went home, my relatives was shocked at how down to earth I was, they kept making comparisons between me and other “foreigners” one occasion, I went out with a family Amber and I was speaking regular “patois” she kept pinching me aa d whispering stop chat so and talk like American. I kissed my teeth and mi eye, and kept on doing me.
My son and daughter are Canadian born. When I talk to them I speak proper English, but yu see when dem piss mi off, de patois comes out naturally, and guess wha? dem understand every rass word wey mi say!!!
All words with O-I-S is french related it is obvious to those who are familiar with the french lanquage, but why are we wandering away rom our culture? Most of these people who are giving PATOIS this backlash were once PATOIS speaking children growing up! But bcuz they want to feel belong/fit into this so-called society we forget who we were and what we are, nothing is wrong with speaking good english but some people just basic white and peroxide out the ting out!
Other caribbean countries dont hate us as a country, they hate what we r becoming! We are the only island that is not being nothing like what we truly are.. and mi guilty! Everything is America for us! Wi have visa wi feel wi have the world! But haaay my patois and me are best buddies! I cant stand Carolyn Cooper but dat woman loooooves her patois, to have coversation with that woman she’ll give u english speaking jamaican Language! not no American speaking Language!
Exactly patois is not gibberish when it is being talked! Only thing with patois is when it is written down, it can be somewhat complicated to decipher when one is reading it for people has their own different spellings, but it is very much understood when spoken..
jAY. I wasn’t disputing the meaning. Because Uncle google is there to explain every thing. I merely was talking about our Jamaican ancestors reasoning behind calling our language patois. From what I was told(which I said Lali correct me if I am wrong) the Africans, French, Indians, Chinese you name it, who inhabited the land at the time, spoke different languages and couldn’t understand each other, so they decided on patois as a common language. Because it is a part of many other languages.
Hello,
I am talking about the word used to describe the language.The word Patois is a very derogatory term,much like pidgin or nigga .
Do you get it now?
Our language is Jamaican not Patois.
Africans dont see pidgin as derogatory
The greatest of African musicians, Fela Kuti intentionally wrote and performed his music in pidgin English so that he could reach the greater masses. If you know anything about Fela Kuti, he is as powerful and Afrocentric as they come.
The writer of this article is as misguided as they come. He is no different from the ones who subscribe to utopian dreams. If you want to further isolate Jamaica from the rest of the world, change our mother tongue to that of broken English/Jamaican/Patois or whatever you want to call it. If our educational system was where it should be, most Jamaicans would have a command of the English language.
Bermudans and Bahamians have managed to better command the English language, we can do the same. Broken French has mostly crippled Haitians. Are we going to transliterate all of our written references to that of Jamaican/Patois? That is foolhardy at best. In doing so, we will lose the benefits of economy by scale; if our written references have to be written specifically for us, we would have a very difficult time finding anything.
Look at BlackBerry, only once in a blue moon do programmers create apps for BlackBerry–all for the fact that there are little or no BlackBerry users. When BlackBerry want app, they have to develop and maintain them for themselves–otherwise, they have to pay an exorbitant amount of money to developers.
Our own indigenous language would be dead on arrival. Things would not be so bad if the so-called language was probably developed with little or no fragmentations. I find pleasure in communicating in our colloquial tongue; however, there is no need for it to become our native tongue. Such is a backward step and our country would pay dearly if we were shun English for Patois or whatever it would be ultimately called.
Patois is not indigenous to Jamaica: “Patois is any language that is considered nonstandard, although the term is not formally defined in linguistics. It can refer to pidgins, creoles, dialects, and other forms of native or local speech, but not commonly to jargon or slang, which are vocabulary-based forms of cant.”
@Lalibela you are a worshipper of the English language.Do you know when the English language became stadardised and why ?
For example,the word used to describe the city Birmingham was very varied even within miles of the city at the time.People miles from each other spoke different versions of English and it is still normal for every day used words to differ in different cities and even within those cities.
I am talking about what orange is called not what the orange is used for.
The Jamaican language is older than Afrikaans,yet that which is spoken by white South Africans is referred to as a language yet Jamaican is a Patois?
Why dodge the meaning of patois to proudly where it as a banner?
Don’t tell me that some Africans are proud to call the language pidgin (which is actually very insulting) as that is in line with Jamaicans saying they speak Patois and Americans calling themselves niggers.
jAY the Americans were the first who successfully standardized the English language–reference Noah Webster. I am a pragmatist, I am necessarily fond of using the English language; it is just that English is the lingua franca of all lingua francas.