Three publications in French deal specifically with the issues of using French-lexifier creoles in formal education.

Du créole opprimé au créole liibéré: Défense de la langue réunionnaise by Axel Gauvin (L’Harmattan, Paris, 1977) illustrates that Réunion Creole is a language in its own right and argues that its repression is associated with continuing French dominance of Réunion people. The author advocates a “true bilingualism” and the right of all creole speakers in the world to use their language as part of the struggle against colonialism.

A work in a similar vein is La langue créole force jugulée: Étude socio-linguistic des rapports de force entre le créole français aux Antilles by Dany Bebel-Gisler (L’Harmattan and Nouvelle-Optique, Paris and Montreal, 1981). The author gives a sociohistorical description of the development of French creole in the West Indies, and shows the relationship between linguistic and political subjugation.

Créole et éducation (Espace Créole No.7, L’Harmattan, Paris, 1990) is a collection of articles published by the Groupe d’Études et de Recherches en Espace Créolephone. Most of the articles have to do with writing and standardizing creoles or teaching French in a creole-speaking environment. However, one article deals with the issues of using creole in formal education: “Contribution à l’analyse des échecs scolaires: Compétences des élèves en lecture et en expression écrite et représentations sociales de l’école aux Antilles françaises” by Michel Giraud and Danièle Manesse (pp.31-48). It reports on a study done in Martinique and Guadelope on achievement in reading and writing and on attitudes towards using creole in formal education.

Also in French, Gazet sifon blé / Lavwa ka bay is a newsletter published four times a year by the Institut d’Études Créoles et Francophones in France (see “Reports” for
the address). It contains information about research, conferences and publications concerning pidgin and creole languages, especially those related to French.

Kwéyòl usage and attitudes of Dominican second-formers by Marcel Fontaine and Jonathan Leather (published by the Folk Research Institute, Old Mill Cultural Centre, Canefield, Dominica, 1992). This is the report of a survey of over 300 high school students in second form at eight schools in four different locations in Dominica, an island in the Caribbean where English is the official language but a French-based creole (Kwéyòl or Patwa) is widely spoken. The survey investigated students’ acquisition of Kwéyòl, their proficiency in it, in what circumstances they use it, and their attitudes towards it.

With regard to the use of Kwéyòl in education, the majority of students (67%) believed that speaking Kwéyòl has no effect on learning in schools; 12% believed that it has a positive effect, and 20% believed it has a negative effect. An even higher majority (73%) were in favour of teaching reading and writing in Kwéyòl in the schools. However, a smaller majority (51%) were in favour of using Kwéyòl as a medium of instruction to teach school subjects.

The summary preceding the text of report outlines the following overall results:

The results indicate that Kwéyòl has an important place in the lives of most pupils. The majority would like to learn to read and write the language, and believe it could play more of a part in the educational process. They acknowledged the importance of Kwéyòl to the Dominican national identity, and wished its position to be safeguarded.

In Haitian Creole literacy evaluation study: Final report. (Center for Applied Linguistics, Washington, DC, 1985), Michele Burtoff describes a study done to examine the following research question: “Do subjects who receive prior native language (Haitian Creole) literacy instruction develop greater proficiency in the second language (English) than those who receive only second language instruction when total instruction time is held constant?” (p.3). The study was done in the New York City area with illiterate adult immigrants. Two groups were compared: those who had ESL (English as a second language) instruction only for 24 weeks (control) and those who had ESL instruction for 12 weeks plus HC (Haitian Creole) literacy instruction for 12 weeks (experimental).

There were some problems with the research design and the low number of subjects, but some interesting results. First of all, on the basis of scores in the Basic English Skills Test (BEST), the ESL only group performed better than the HC literacy group in oral skills. However, despite having only half the amount of ESL instruction, the HC literacy group performed better in English literacy skills in the same period of time (but the difference was statistically non-significant). At one particular centre where the study was done, the HC literacy group developed ESL proficiency comparable to that of the ESL only group, as well as greater literacy skills. The author’s conclusion is as follows (p.14):

Therefore, it appears likely that students in an ESL program containing a native language literacy component could attain a comparable level of ESL proficiency in addition to better literacy skills when compared to students in a regular ESL program (i.e. one without a native literacy component), during the same period of time.

There was also another important spinoff of the program which could not be quantified. On the basis of questionnaires and informal conversations, some anecdotal evidence was gathered indicating that the program led to increased self-confidence, cultural pride, and motivation.

Atlantic meets Pacific: A global view of pidginization and creolization, edited by Francis Byrne and John Holm (Amsterdam John Benjamins, Amsterdam, 1993) has two relevant chapters.

In “Haitian Creole as the official language in education and the media” (pp.291-8), Kate Howe presents some historical background and then some information about the current linguistic situation in Haiti. She notes that while less than 10 percent of the population speak French fluently, it has been, until recently, the only language of government and education. However, in 1982 the Ministry of Education issued a decree making Haitian Creole the language of instruction and an object of study in a reorganized educational system. In the 1987 constitution, Creole was made an official language of the republic along with French. Nevertheless, negative attitudes towards Creole have persisted and debate continues about the use of Creole versus French in education. However, the status of Creole has increased since the President Astride made his inauguration speech in Creole in 1991.

“Pidgins and creoles in education in Australia and the Southwest Pacific” (pp.299-301), by the editor of this newsletter, was originally given as a paper to the first conference of the Society of Pidgin and Creole Linguistics in 1989. It describes the origins of the PACE project and gives some information on programs found in the earlier issues of this newsletter.

“Stage, transfer, and academic achieve-ment in dialect-speaking Hawaiian adoles-cents” by Carol Fleisher Feldman, Addison Stone and Bobbi Renderer, published in Child Develop-ment 61, 1990 (pp. 472-84) reports on a study done in an isolated, multiethnic rural community in Hawaii where Hawaiian Creole English is spoken. Many students in this community are similar to those of other nonstandard English-speaking communities in that they perform poorly in high school even though they appear quite intelligent. The study examined the relationship between stage of cognitive development, transfer ability, production ability in Standard English, and school achievement. The results of the study show strong correlations between transfer ability and school achieve-ment in reading and mathematics. Thus, students who do not perform well in school are those who do not have this ability.

Here “transfer” refers to the discovery or recognition by a learner that abstract reasoning processes learned with regard to materials in one context can be applied to different materials in a new context. For this to occur, new materials must be talked about, described and encoded propositionally. The problem is the lack of a language children feel comfortable to use in formal education. They don’t speak the language of the school system, Standard English, and their own nonstandard dialect is conventionally not used in school. Even if Hawaiian Creole English were allowed in classroom, there would still be problems of “children’s own sense of inappropriateness about speaking it in school” (pp.484-5). The article ends with the question of how to encourage children to use their own language in problem solving.

A survey of literacy and language, March - November 1991 (National Literacy Commit-tee and Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development, Honiara, 1992) is the report of a large-scale survey done in the Solomon Islands. The objectives of the survey were to determine usage of languages throughout the country, attitudes to languages, and literacy levels. In addition, the survey was to investigate relationships between literacy and language and to identify a suitable location for a pilot literacy project. The report came up with some interesting findings with regard to the use of Solomon Islands Pijin in education.

With regard to teaching literacy, the report gives the following account (pp.6-7):

The first attempt to use Pijin as a medium for literacy instruction was with the Pijin Literacy Project coordinated by SICA [Solomon Islands Christian Association] beginning in 1978. The project produced a number of readers and a text for converting literacy in English to literacy in Pijin. Although SICA continue to be active in Pijin literacy, by the ongoing translation work, there is currently no specific Pijin literacy project. During the past 10 years or so, Nazareth Apostolic Centre (NAC) have trained students to teach reading and writing skills. These students return to their villages and are encouraged to undertake literacy work there. NAC have also produced a number of Pijin books. USP [University of the South Pacific] have contributed with the publication of Taem bilong faet and The big death; They hope, in 1992, to publish a series of Pijin course books to teach reading and writing to those who have never learned to read in any language.

With regard to formal education, while English is the official language of instruction in the education system, it was found that Pijin is the de facto medium of instruction in most schools (p.28). The report makes the following suggestion (p.43):

78% of schools use a mixture of English and Pijin, with or without a vernacular, as the medium of instruction. A less confused learning environment for students could be created by the adoption of a single language as the medium of instruction. In view of the large numbers of people who understand Pijin, the most effective language in this respect should be Pijin on a national basis…English should be taught as a subject using tried methods of TESL teaching.

The report contains three important recommendations with regard to the use of Pijin in education:

• Recommendation No.3 (p.3): “Pijin should be adopted as the national language of the Solomon Islands.”
• Recommendation No.6 (p.5): “All educational establishments should examine the possibility of offering courses in vernaculars and Pijin. The medium of instruction at all levels should be that language which offers maximum understanding, ie Pijin.”