Literacy in Melanesian and Australian Pidgins and Creoles

Abstract

Recent descriptions of literacy in the English-lexified pidgins and Creoles of Melanesia and Australia have described it as being imposed by outsiders, irrelevant to speakers of these languages and unsuitable for use in formal education. This article presents an opposing point of view. First it outlines recent developments in the region, showing that while literacy may have been introduced from the outside, it has been embraced by many pidgin and creole speakers and used for their own purposes, including education. Second, it describes research findings refuting claims that using a pidgin or creole as a language of education will cause confusion among students and interfere with their acquisition of English.

Literacy in Pidgin and Creole Languages

“…Speakers often have positive attitudes towards their language as a marker of solidarity and local social identity, as reported for Hawai'i Creole (Sato, 1991;Watson-Gegeo, 1994); Australian Kriol (Siegel, 1998) and Dominica Creole French (Fontaine & Leather, 1992). However, unlike other languages, P/Cs are rarely valued in public formal domains, and, as a result, they generally suffer from overall negative attitudes and low prestige (see e.g.…”

Literacy in Pidgin and Creole Languages

“…Like other languages, P/Cs are valued by their speakers in the private domains of family and friendship. Speakers often have positive attitudes towards their language as a marker of solidarity and local social identity, as reported for Hawai'i Creole (Sato, 1991;Watson-Gegeo, 1994); Australian Kriol (Siegel, 1998) and Dominica Creole French (Fontaine & Leather, 1992). However, unlike other languages, P/Cs are rarely valued in public formal domains, and, as a result, they generally suffer from overall negative attitudes and low prestige (see e.g.…”

Instantiating justice, fairness and inclusiveness in English as an Additional Language/Dialect assessment frameworks: Unpacking the evidence base for the Bandscales State Schools (Queensland)

“…They also drew more generally on research on pidgins and creoles and the use of creoles in education (e.g. Siegel, 1992Siegel, , 1998Siegel, , 1999. While this research emphasised the legitimacy of these rulegoverned varieties and the pitfalls caused by semantic transparency in classrooms, the later Qld Bandscales responded to ongoing linguistic research being conducted through the Understanding Children's Language Acquisition Project in Queensland schools with Indigenous students (Angelo, 2009) and the increasing awareness of the diversity of Indigenous contact languages in Queensland (see Hudson & Angelo, 2014 for details).…”