IN
THIS ISSUE (No.10) |
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| THESIS |
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Creoles
in Education – A discussion of the issues with reference to
Northern Australian Kriol Siobhan
K. Casson In
the last two decades, creole studies has established itself within
the field of linguistics. Creolists have worked at gaining recognition
for creole languages as autonomous languages in their own right
and not mere “broken” or “bastardised” versions
of a European colonial language. With the melding of the theoretical
and sociological aspects of creole studies…has come the drive
to use creole in education as a right for the speakers or as a pedagogical
tool to aid second language acquisition and literacy. In
this essay I investigate some of the issues surrounding the use
of creole in education. In order to illustrate various points I
look at a creole spoken by Aboriginal people in the Katherine region
of the Northern Territory of Australia – Kriol. In
the first section I summarise some of the main theoretical arguments
in creole genesis in order to illustrate the language status of
creoles… I then outline the origins of Kriol and its sociohistorical
background. In
the second section I explore various language issues. Using the
Australian situation as an example, I discuss the acceptance of
Kriol as an identity marker and its links to traditional Aboriginal
culture in order to show the importance of evaluating these issues
in the educational context. Additionally, I briefly outline the
problems of language standardisation, which is relevant if creole
literacy is being considered for use n a creole language program.
I also describe the creation of an orthography and existing applications
of Kriol literacy. In
the third section I discuss four factors which I feel are important
when considering the use of a creole in education, drawing on the
issues discussed in the previous sections. I comment on various
studies, but in particular those relating to the use of creoles
in Australia. In conclusion I present some recom-mendations for a comprehensive approach to introducing a creole into education. |
