Draft Presentation November 2008. Parent Lift up Jamaica. Please send feedback to speak@liftupjamaica.com Introduction, our ambivalence toward Patois.
Brand Jamaica is Patois. Patois is reggae and dancehall lyrics
which are prized worldwide. It is a very colorful and expressive
language and native Jamaicans grow up speaking it. The majority of students
speak it to their friends, parents, teachers and neighbours. Jamaican Patois also called Jamaican, is
the spoken language of Jamaica. However, Jamaican Patois is not taught in schools. Government and commercial papers are all in English. Newspapers are mostly in English with a few Patois articles and Patois quotations in English articles. TV and Radio are mixed with English and Patois. Popular culture such as songs, DJ lyrics and roots plays are mostly in Patois. Most people in Jamaica speak Patois fluently and a little English, often just enough to be able to pretend they understand more than they do. Many Patois speakers are unable to read or write either in Patois or in English and avoid situations in which they might need to. The one fundamental and most important root change that we need to make is in
how we look at and value Jamaican Patois
and how we treat it in our schools and other learning institutions.
Jamaican education is only in English which has led us into crisis ...
There are at least two kinds of households in Jamaica, those who
speak English at
home and those who speak Patois at home. Households who speak English are the minority and their members are mostly literate.
Households who speak Patois
are in the majority, but their members are often illiterate.
For Patois speakers this means that the written words are different from the way they talk leading to confusion. This is a terrible disadvantage for Patois speaking students and it has lead to generations of high school leavers unable to read or write in any language and being disaffected by education. Because
girls of school age are more verbally gifted than boys,
the present policy while discriminating against and disadvantaging all
Patois speaking students, has enabled girls to fare better than boys
resulting in 82% university admissions to girls in Jamaica. ... while Jamaican Patois is our living language.
Meanwhile, Patois as a spoken language is alive and well and past and present Jamaican
artists who perform in Patois are internationally loved and acclaimed. It therefore makes sense for Jamaica
to adopt Patois as our National Language alongside and parallel to
English, and to be proud of it.
Many people around the world would love translations of Jamaican Patois lyrics into
their own language and to be able to understand the original Patois as well. Many people buy records in Jamaican Patois
who do not buy records in any other language which is not their own. By adopting Patois alongside English in all our institutions we will create written forms and translations between Patois and English that would be of great interest around the world as well as leveling the playing field for our children in our schools. Trying
to force Patois speaking children to learn
basic skills in English has resulted in generations of literacy
dropouts who now need to be retaught. This could be done as a National
Project to uplift Jamaican Patois and could attract a lot of support as a worthy
cause. Patois language material thereby developed for schools can have
a much wider application in tackling the literacy problem in school
leavers and adults Proposals to "Fix the System".
1. We lift up Patois to Jamaican our National Languge.
Alongside English our International Language, we Jamaicans need to adopt Patois as our Jamaican National Language, love it, be proud of it, sell it, teach it, read it, write
it and continue to sing it. Schools need to teach reading and
writing in Patois to the many students who speak it. Once the basic skills
are learned it is easier to branch out into other languages such as
English. If reading and writing were taught in Patois,
children who have little contact with English in
their background could still learn the skills of reading and writing in
the language they speak every day. Once they are literate, their
skills can be applied to English as a second language. The English
speakers can in turn learn Patois as a second language,
To lead the way, Government documents should have Jamaican Patois and
English side by side as is common in other bi-lingual countries. To
achieve all that is needed, a National Project with Government, Schools and Universities,
Business and Voluntary sectors all involved is called for to educate
and empower our Patois speaking Jamaicans to contribute fully to our
country and its economy by achieving the following. 2. We adopt parallel Jamaican and English literacy in schools. To correct the educational disadvantage from speaking Patois at home and give all our children an equal chance in life we need parallel streams to literacy and numeracy for English and Patois speaking children.
Thus if you select English as your first language, you may take Patois as a second
language and there will be translations of non-violent popular culture translated
into English to assist you.
If you select Patois as your first language, you may choose English as a second
language and there will be translations of popular existing English textbooks
translated into Patois to assist you.
Once students have achieved literacy in the language they speak, they would be
better positioned to learn English as a second language. Students
might also choose as a second or third language Spanish, Portuguese,
French, German, Chinese Japanese, Russian etc wherever we have
teachers
for them who speak that language in their home background. 3. We work out practical considerations among the implementors. I put forward the following considerations for discussion, I imagine there may be many more. I should think everyone in school would learn at least two languages, typically Jamaican and English. A language other than Patois may be a prerequisite for advanced study in many subjects, In many schools, but not necessarily all, that language will most naturally be English. Patois teachers would be likely to speak Patois at home. English teachers should be drawn from those who speak English at home. There should be no differentiation in pay between Patois and English teachers greater than any existing difference between an English teacher and a French or Spanish teacher now if there is one.
I would hope that many Patois-at-home teachers will find they are able to be
more effective teaching the basic skills of reading, writing and numeracy in their own language, and
English-at-home teachers will enjoy the opportunities in teaching English as a
second language to Patois speakers. Perhaps some basic subjects such as Math and History can also be taught in Patois with Patois textbooks, and in due course, Patois versions of other subjects for which there was a need, could be added. Alternatively, once literate in their own language, Patois speaking students may convert to English more easily for advanced studies. 4. We create a literacy course for all ages, and deliver it both in classrooms and by cell phone. In addition to the parallel language
approach in schools to help new students, we have the enormous problem
of catching up those who are already out of school and still
illiterate. We need a special catch up program for which we might
appeal for international support as a humanitarian educational crisis.
A Patois based literacy course could be created and made available for all ages
to catch up on their basic skills. This could have learning material
drawn from the popular culture such as the excellent Patois songs and
lyrics and the equally excellent Patois plays and novels. The basic
literacy and numeracy course could be followed with the ability to
branch out into English and then to other subjects written in English.
I assume all the new (and I would hope, vibrant) Patois activity developed for and in schools would also be offered in such a catch up program alongside a parallel stream of subjects in English which would be optional for those able to take advantage of them. However the availability of those would naturally be limited to the number of teachers available who in practice are able to conduct a class while speaking only in full English. Other
media such as computer aided learning could help and we need Patois
literacy courses available and Patois to English conversions and vice
versa. Perhaps our higher education institutes could assist in
creating these. I also have hope for the anticipated combination of
cell phones and Internet. I hope to see subtitles karaoke style for popular songs in Patois as a reading assist available on all cell phones and music players. English translations alongside the Patois renditions of popular songs and DJ lyrics would also be very useful educationally as well as being fascinating for those like me who struggle with Patois and yearn for the full enjoyment apparent in my Patois speaking friends. Summary
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