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NIUUZ hAARKAIV
NEWS ARCHIVE |
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Miss Lou accorded official funeral -
Jamaica Gleaner, 2006/08/01 |
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Jamaica's Cultural Ambassador Louise Bennett-Coverley is to
be accorded an official funeral at the Coke Methodist Church in Kingston at 2 o'clock next week
Wednesday.
Information Minister, Senator Colin Campbell, made the disclosure at the post-Cabinet press
briefing at Jamaica House, yesterday.
Meanwhile, Transport and Works Minister, Robert Pickersgill, will lead a Government delegation
to Toronto, Canada, to attend a memorial service on Thursday.
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Jamaica loses patois pioneer -
Jamaica Gleaner, 2006/07/27 |
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A woman of great stature, pride, creativity, intelligence and ingenuity; Louise Simone Bennett was
an undisputed cultural icon to Jamaica. Unfortunately, the monument of Jamaican pride and culture
that was Louise Bennett, fondly known as 'Miss Lou', died yesterday at age 88.
Anne-Marie Bonner, the Consul General in Canada, states "Miss Lou passed away at approximately
12:30 a.m. at the Scarborough Grace Hospital (Toronto, Ontario, Canada). My understanding is that
she felt ill and was taken to the hospital."
Miss Lou was a theatrical genius, who was well known for her Anancy stories. She is much grieved
by the close friends she has left behind.
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Jafaican - Multi-cultural patois rising in use - Daily Mail,
2006/4/11 |
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It's called Jafaican and, slowly but surely, it is infiltrating the English language. The
multicultural hybrid, based on Jamaican but with undertones of West African and Indian, is not a
totally new concept but linguistic experts say it is becoming so common in the inner cities that
it is beginning to eclipse traditional accents.
In some London boroughs, for instance, it has taken over from Cockney, the prevailing accent
for generations, as inner-city white youths pick up the speech patterns of their black and Asian
classmates. More than 40% of London residents are now from ethnic minority backgrounds.
The Jafaican name, conveying the idea of 'fake Jamaican', was coined on the streets rather
than in the research rooms. The academics prefer 'multicultural English'. But the message is
constant. Sue Fox, of London University's Queen Mary College, who is studying the phenomenon said:
"People are beginning to sound the same regardless of their colour or ethnic background." She ruled
out suggestions that the language is simply the result of white youngsters trying to be cool,
continuing: "It seems more likely that young people have been growing up in London exposed to a
mixture of second-language English and local London English and that this new variety has emerged
from that mix."
What has emerged is a distinctive inner-London patois which borrows heavily from Jamaican
creole, lifting some words unchanged. But it has been influenced by other speech patterns, mainly
Bangladeshi and West African, with a little South American and Arab thrown in.
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Observer Editorial supports boost for patois -
Jamaica Observer Editorial, "Ignoring the supercilious," 2006/01/13 |
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Last week's gift of $1.75 million by the Carreras Group to the Department of Linguistics
at the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) to help finance its research
in Jamaican patois, is, to us, of more than passing significance.
As it should be to all persons who have an interest in Jamaica's development and
believe - rather than just mouthing the notion as a slogan - that its people are the most
important resource in this process. By so openly associating with such a project, Carreras
has edged away from most of what is conventional wisdom in corporate Jamaica and among our
country's intellectual elite: that there is little value to be gained by engaging in the
language of the majority of the people, except as a source of theatre and comedy. And comedy
as grotesque caricature.
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J$1.75-m for UWI 'patois' projects -
Jamaica Observer, 2006/01/08 |
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The University of the West Indies' Department of Language, Linguistics and Philosophy got
a much needed boost last Thursday with a $1.75-million donation from Carreras Group Limited,
to fund two of four projects to be undertaken by the department's language unit this year.
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Observer Editorial favors TESOL
- Jamaica Observer Editorial, "Let's be pragmatic about teaching in Patois,"
2005/11/26 |
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... it is our view that there has to be an acceptance that English is not the natural,
primary language of Jamaica and that it should be taught as a separate language. Don't
assume that the children who enter school already have a decent foundation in spoken or
written English. So we have to get back to basics, teaching English as a foreign language,
very much as a teacher may do with French or Spanish.
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Majority favour patois as an official language of Ja
- Jamaica Gleaner
, 2005/11/2 |
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A Majority of Jamaicans think parliamentarians should deliver their speeches in Gordon
House in the local dialect, patois, in order to communicate better with the public.
This is according to an islandwide survey, which was conducted recently by the Jamaica
Language Unit at The University of the West Indies, Mona.
According to the findings of the survey, "people who understand English will understand
patwa (patois) but not vice versa",
"Piipl no tuu ondastan di spiiki spoki ... Most Jamaicans speak patwa," said a respondent
from an eastern parish.
One thousand men and women between the ages of 18 and 80 plus years, from rural and urban
centres across Jamaica were surveyed.
When asked whether or not Jamaican (patois) was a language 80 per cent of respondents agreed.
A further, 69 per cent felt it should be made an official language of Jamaica alongside English
and 71 per cent of the population would like to have bilingual schools.
According to the Language Unit, "79 per cent of Jamaicans polled declared themselves speakers
of both Jamaican and English, thereby recognising the bilingual nature of the language situation
in the country". There was little variation in responses across all age groups.
Only 10.9 per cent and 10.5 per cent respectively of the entire population polled declared
themselves to be speakers of English only or Jamaican only. Slightly more women (11.8 per cent)
than men (10.0 per cent) declared themselves to be speakers of English only.
- The Gleaner
, 2005/11/2
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The patois experiment... Mek we trai di patwa
Devonish tries to prove Jamaicans bilingual in primary school project -
Jamaica Observer, 2005/11/20
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Professor Hubert Devonish and his team of about 10 associate researchers are hoping to prove,
through a four-year Bilingual Education Project (BEP), that instructing in the native tongue
can lead to improved "performance and competence" in the content subject areas - that is,
mathematics, science and social studies - and "fluency in language use of Patois and English."
Devonish is with the Department of Language Linguistics and Philosophy at the University of
the West Indies, but his team is drawn from across faculties of the university.The project
involves using Patois and English to teach students of grades one to four in the participating
schools. Each English lesson is reinforced by the same lesson in Patois.
The language specialists have begun their experiment with the assumption that Jamaicans
are bilingual.The team is guided by a survey conducted by the department, which found that
the majority of Jamaicans recognise Patois as a language, have declared themselves bilingual,
and felt that ministers of government should deliver speeches in Patois to allow for better
understanding of national issues.
Link to original article
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The evolution of the Bilingual Education Project
Jamaica Observer, 2005/11/20
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"The children are more comfortable in expressing their opinions and the language (Jamaican) has
led to better performance," Fender said. "The majority will definitely benefit from the
programme and I have also seen where they are performing better," added Boothe. The project
is wholly endorsed by Bridgeport's principal, Pearl Morgan. "The project has my full support
because we need to recognise that we are a bilingual country," she told the Sunday Observer.
"The spontaneous language is our mother tongue, but because we are ashamed of our language
we cannot acknowledge its power," she added. "We need to use it to help as a language of
instruction in schools because children can't learn what they don't understand."
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| Award winning research
- Jamaica Gleaner, date unknown
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Professor Maureen Warner-Lewis and the University of the West Indies Press scooped the
prestigious Gordon K. & Sybil Lewis award at the 29th Annual Caribbean Studies Association
Conference (CSAC) in St. Kitts-Nevis recently. The winning work, Central Africa in the
Caribbean: Transcending Time, Transforming Cultures was published by UWI Press in 2003.
The professor's research locates the origin of common Caribbean words, sayings,
place-names and traditions in West Central Africa, from countries such as the two Congos,
and Angola. The derogatory term 'butto' which means a vulgar person or one who lacks finesse
is derived from the Congo word 'butu' which means rabble or crowd. Common reference to albinos
as 'dundus' has roots in the Congo word 'ndundu'. 'Combolo' which is used in reference to a
large group of associates or friends derives from Congo and Angolan word 'kombula' which means
to group or assemble.
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| A new language education policy for Jamaica
- Excerpts from Journal of English Teaching, 2000-01, page 2
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In recent months, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture has been engaged
in the development of a new language-education policy. This document is expected to
influence the way our teaching and testing institutions approach the task of ensuring
that adequate communication skills are developed in learners at every level, and that
this is done in an appropriate manner.
As our teachers of English know, there are clear differences between the home
language of most Jamaicans and the internationally understood version of Standard
English used formally in official communication, and informally in some conversation
and much written material, and particularly expected in schools. The society has thus
been linguistically categorised as bilingual, despite the efforts of some no doubt
well-meaning people to treat Jamaican speech as a non-language.
Still, there has been an apparent ambivalence in our attitudes to the Jamaican
and English languages that we use. On the one hand, we proudly hail the achievements
of Louise Bennett (at least, some have learnt to do so since Mervyn Morris argued
the case for taking her work seriously, back in the 1960s); many relish the lyrics
of our popular songs; and increasingly, we hear matters academic, political and
commercial, discussed in the home language, on the radio and elsewhere. On the
other, we often give greater respect to the speaker of English - and his views;
we tend to ridicule the person who tries unsuccessfully to speak or write idiomatic
English; and, there are still many who regard the Jamaican language as 'talking bad'.
The mark of the oppressor
For many, the issue has seemed to be 'one language or the other'. In the 1970s, the
use of English was sometimes portrayed as the mark of the oppressor. For the late
Morris Cargill (and now Chester Burgess), the Jamaican language was like the sounds
made by Jonathan Swift's subhuman Yahoos. Traditionally, the school system has given
recognition only to the official language, English, and there have even been schools
which have fined pupils for using anything else on the school premises!
For many teachers of English, however, the reality of having two languages, and
switching from one to the other as the occasion demands, has been recognised as an
admirable thing. Their preoccupation, therefore, has been to guide their pupils into
using each language appropriately, and into using it accurately.
Some will have seen, in The Gleaner of September 15, 2001, a report of Education
Minister Senator Burchell Whiteman, defending his position "that Patois can
legitimately be used in the education system" in responding to "critics of his
support for the Jamaican dialect as a teaching tool". The report continues: "The
dialect can be used to help students better understand formal English, the minister
has said."
What the new policy document coming from Mr Whiteman's ministry will be doing,
therefore, is giving support and encouragement to those teachers who have been heeding
the advice of the linguistics researchers, and making both languages live in the
classroom, while understandably placing a heavy emphasis on the acquisition of
grammatical and idiomatic English.
Policy Options
The five likely options for Jamaica (are) described below.
- Declare the Jamaican language situation bilingual, ascribing equal language
status to SJE and JC. Tailor instruction to accommodate this status, and permit
instruction and assessment in both languages. Produce printed materials in both
languages, and permit teaching in both languages, using appropriate instructional
strategies.
- While retaining SJE as the official language, promote the acquisition of
basic literacy in the early years in the home language and facilitate the
development of English as a second language.
- Maintain SJE as the official language and promote basic communication
through the oral use of the home language in the early years while facilitating
the development of literacy in English.
- Continue in a bidialectal mode, but pay closer attention to the methods of
instruction that will facilitate competence in the official language.
- Engage in immersion in English through exposure to literature and
interactive/communicative strategies, while being tolerant of the use of Creole
by students who experience difficulty communicating in the official language.
Policy Decision
The Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture recognises:
- The Jamaican language situation as bilingual;
- English as the official language;
- Jamaican Creole as the language most widely used in the population;
- Spanish as the preferred foreign language, owing to the geographic location
of the country.
While option two is desirable, to facilitate language learning in Jamaica, like
option one, it is not immediately feasible as there is no agreed orthography for
Jamaican Creole. Besides, issues such as funding for an adequate supply of
literacy materials, as well as political and social attitudes to Creole as a
medium of instruction (Bryan 2000), particularly the latter, could present
obstacles that are difficult to overcome.
The Ministry of Education and Culture, therefore, supports the third option.
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