“It have more soft words”: A Study of Creole English and Reading in Carriacou, Grenada

[Ann Arbor, University Microfilms, 1985]

by:

Ronald F Kephart
Department of Language & Literature
University of North Florida
Jacksonville, FL 32224-2645 USA

ABSTRACT

Children in the officially English speaking West Indies have two major problems in learning to read. They must adjust to the multiple patternings and irregularities of traditional English orthography, a hurdle they share with all people learning to read English. They must also deal with a grammar which differs significantly from their native Creole English. This makes it difficult to develop an internal model of the reading process. The result is that few West Indian children attain true literacy in English.

Since the skill of reading is not language-specific, a possible solution is to give children access to literacy first through Creole English. In 1982-84 this was attempted with a small group of twelve year olds who had failed to learn to read competently. A phonemic orthography was used to represent the children's speech. Reading materials were based on stories, anecdotes, etc. contributed by the children. The children were tested at regular intervals in English and these results were compared with a control group.

The research showed that reading Creole English neither confused nor impaired the children’s reading of English, as predicted by some educators. While it was not possible to prove conclusively that reading Creole English helped the target population’s reading of English, the enjoyment and enthusiasm displayed by all children in reading the Creole materials strongly imply that West Indian children should be allowed to read and write Creole as part of their language arts programs. Other children and adults who were already relatively literate were able to read the materials with no difficulty. Finally, the reading materials were prepared at very low cost with technology available to most schools, refuting the claim that provision of materials in minority languages such as Creole English is too expensive.