Swimming against the tide
-
Karen Carpenter
Abstract
In implementing its Bilingual Education Project (BEP), involving the use of Jamaican Creole and English, the Jamaican Language Unit (JLU) has sought to meet the criteria set out by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture in Jamaica for teaching in the home language (MOEYC 2001). The Ministry and the general public needed to be convinced that the pilot BEP did not (i) do academic harm to the children involved, (ii) has produced an improvement in the children’s competence in English, and (iii) has produced improved results in the bilingually taught content subjects. This paper is a midstream evaluation of the success indicators, focusing on the children’s performance in standardised tests in both Jamaican and English, and other content subjects. Keywords: bilingual education; creole; English; models; language research; research in education
Abstract
In implementing its Bilingual Education Project (BEP), involving the use of Jamaican Creole and English, the Jamaican Language Unit (JLU) has sought to meet the criteria set out by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture in Jamaica for teaching in the home language (MOEYC 2001). The Ministry and the general public needed to be convinced that the pilot BEP did not (i) do academic harm to the children involved, (ii) has produced an improvement in the children’s competence in English, and (iii) has produced improved results in the bilingually taught content subjects. This paper is a midstream evaluation of the success indicators, focusing on the children’s performance in standardised tests in both Jamaican and English, and other content subjects. Keywords: bilingual education; creole; English; models; language research; research in education
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Creoles in education 1
- Raising critical language awareness in Hawai‘i at Da Pidgin Coup 31
- Chabacano for everyone? 55
- The Teaching of Creole in Guadeloupe 81
- Integrating local languages and cultures into the education system of French Guiana 107
- Kriol in Caribbean Nicaragua schools 133
- Swimming against the tide 167
- Introducing French Creole as a language of instruction in education in St. Lucia 183
- Bilingual education among the Karipúna and Galibi-Marwono 211
- Language and education in Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao 237
- Cape Verdean in education 273
- Trilingual education 297
- Bibliography 323
- Biographical sketches of contributors 351
- Index 355
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Creoles in education 1
- Raising critical language awareness in Hawai‘i at Da Pidgin Coup 31
- Chabacano for everyone? 55
- The Teaching of Creole in Guadeloupe 81
- Integrating local languages and cultures into the education system of French Guiana 107
- Kriol in Caribbean Nicaragua schools 133
- Swimming against the tide 167
- Introducing French Creole as a language of instruction in education in St. Lucia 183
- Bilingual education among the Karipúna and Galibi-Marwono 211
- Language and education in Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao 237
- Cape Verdean in education 273
- Trilingual education 297
- Bibliography 323
- Biographical sketches of contributors 351
- Index 355
