TESOL 2009 Teacher Training for Caribbean Creole English Speakers: Navigating Uncharted Territory

1. TESOL 2009Teacher Training for Caribbean Creole English Speakers: Navigating Uncharted Territory Dr. Shondel Nero Associate Professor New York University shondel.nero@nyu.edu March 27, 2009

2. The facts • Rapidly increasing number of speakers of Caribbean Creole English (CCE) in New York City public schools. • Many of these students are recent immigrants from the Caribbean. • A large percentage are reading and writing far below grade level.

3. The issues • The spoken and written language of CCE speakers seem at variance with standardized academic language. • CCE speakers, being categorized as native speakers of English, are not eligible for ESL services. • Uncharted territory: Many teachers are unsure how to respond to the language and literacy needs of students who are classified as native speakers of English but whose spoken and written language appear nonnative or unfamiliar.

4. Pilot project with middle/high school teachers • Objectives: • To analyze the language use and literacy practices of CCE speakers in middle and high schools. • To raise teacher awareness of the unique linguistic practices and needs of CCE speakers through ongoing professional development and training in sociolinguistics.

5. Guiding questions • What are the typical patterns of language use as well as literacy practices of CCE speakers in NYC middle and high schools? • To what extent does raising language diversity awareness through teacher training in sociolinguistics and professional development impact the academic performance of CCE speakers in middle/high school English language arts classes?

6. School profiles: School #1 • Combined middle/high school • Located in Brooklyn in very Caribbean neighborhood • Grades 6-12 • Recently created specialized school • Approximately 550 students • About 85% Caribbean background • Many students reading below grade level • Working with 4 English Language Arts (ELA) teachers: 3 white females; 1 Hispanic female. • 8 Students: 3 Jamaicans, 2 Trinidadians, 1 Guyanese, 1 Grenadian, 1 St. Lucian.

7. School #2 • Located in Queens • Middle school - approx 1300 students • Grades 6-8 • Approximately 35% of students of Caribbean background • Some students at grade level, but many reading below grade level • Working with 1 African American ELA teacher; 2 literacy teachers - 1 white female, 1 white male. • 4 students: 2 Guyanese and 2 Jamaicans.

8. Training and data collection • Professional development workshops • Classroom observation • Questionnaires completed by participating teachers and students • Taperecorded interviews with teachers and students • Samples of reading/writing assignments • Teacher reflective journals • Samples of students’ written work, tests • New York State ELA curriculum grades 6-12.

10. The relevant literature: • On Creole English history & features: • Peter Roberts (1988) • Dennis Craig (2006) • Hubert Devonish (2007) • On differences between CCE and ESL writing: • Arlene Clachar (2004a; 2004b)

11. Literature cont’d • On academic language/discourse: • Michael Halliday (1994) • Mary Schleppegrell (2004) • On literacies: • David Olson (1994) • Brian Street (1984; 1995) • On language in the content areas: • Ana Uhl Chamot & J. Michael O’Malley (1994)

12. Literature cont’d • On language socialization and classroom discourse: • Courtney Cazden (1990) • Lisa Delpit (1996) • James Gee (1990) • On reflective teacher practice: • Jack Richards & Charles Lockhart (1994)

13. Literature cont’d • On Caribbean immigration: • Foner (1984) • On working with Caribbean students in North American schools: • Elizabeth Coelho (1991) • Shondel Nero (2000; 2006) • Yvonne Pratt-Johnson (2006) • Lise Winer (1991; 2006) • On language attitudes and dialects: • Adger, Wolfram & Christian (2007)

14. Language Attitudes: Debunking dialect and language myths • Training begins with language attitudes survey • What is a dialect? • A dialect is a social, regional, or ethnic variety of a language characterized by a distinct grammar, pronunciation, and lexicon.

15. Myths about dialect • They are deformed versions of the standard language. • They have no grammar. • They are the same as slang. • They are only spoken by less educated or poor people.

16. Myths about the standard language variety • There is only one standard variety. • It is inherently superior. • It has no accent. • It is fixed and doesn’t change.

17. Why is dialect use controversial in education? • Schools are the historical custodians of standard language. • Dialect use seen as interfering with the acquisition of the standard. • Dialect use also appears to undermine the integrity of the standard. • Dialect use by students marks them as lesser (linguistically, educationally, and socio-economically). • Fear that dialect use might further ghettoize historically marginalized groups. • Several of these reasons were cited in the Ebonics controversy (1996).

18. Language of the student/community • Caribbean Creole English (CCE) - the mass vernacular in the countries of the Caribbean, Central America, and mainland South America, formerly colonized by the British. • Started as a Pidgin, then evolved into a Creole with vocabulary words from the colonizer language (English) as well as those from the indigenous and transplanted groups.

19. The Creole Continuum <<---------------------------------------------------------->> Basilect Mesolect Acrolect Creole (Patois) Creole English Standard English

20. CCE typical features • Grammar: • Sentence structure is flexible. Subject and object can switch positions, e.g, “Me tell she fuh come” • Zero inflections for: (1) plurals if plurality already indicated e,g. five dollar • (2) possession - e.g. my friend house • (3) subject verb agreement - e.g, She live in Manhattan. • (4) tense - e.g., They call me yesterday.

21. CCE features cont’d • Words (vocabulary, lexicon): • Creole words., eg. “nyam” means “eat” • Standard English words with Creole meanings, eg. “hand” means everything from the shoulders to the fingers • “foot” means everything from the thighs to the toes. • “waiter” means a “tray”. • “tea” can mean any hot beverage.

22. Pronunciation • Vowels pronounced differently from Standard English, e.g, “mistah” for “mister”. • In Jamaica, “h” is often dropped or added differently at the beginning of words, e.g “ouse” for “house” or “honion” for “onion”. • Voiceless “th” pronounced as “t”, e.g “tree” for “three” • Voiced “th” pronounced as “d”, e.g “dem” for “them”. • Syllable timed pronunciation as opposed to stress timed pronunciation of Standard English. e.g cóndémn vs. condémn

23. Home Peers School Books and other printed material CCE speaker’s language repertoire Wider community Internet TV

24. Sample sentence of a CCE speaker • Im bruk e foot • Im bruk im foot • Him bruk im foot • Him bruk im leg • He broke is leg • He broke his leg

25. Linguistic identity of CCE student • CCE speakers self-identify as native speaker of English regardless of their level of proficiency in standard English • CCE speakers are surprised that they are not always understood by American teachers. • Some have been placed in ESL class, and are shocked and insulted by the placement.

26. Language of the teacher • Likely to be more standardized • Might exhibit “teacher talk” where authority is deflected, e.g, veiled commands. • Often follows the “IRF” (Initiation, Response, Feedback) format. • Exhibits a range (sometimes conflicting) of response to spoken and written errors. • Adjusted to the age of the students

27. Language demands of the curriculum • Most writing to be produced in standardized English • Language more decontextualized • Language is content specific • Requires understanding of complex sentence structures • Requires a wide and sophisticated vocabulary • Requires understanding of academic language functions such as summarizing, analyzing, justifying, evaluating, inferencing, etc. • Writing in essayist form is disproportionately privileged

28. English Language Arts (ELA) Learning Standards for Middle School in New York State • Students will read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding • Students will read, write, listen, and speak for literary response and expression. • Students will read, write, listen, and speak for critical analysis, and evaluation. • Students will read, write, listen, and speak for social interaction.

29. Teacher responsibility • Familiarize yourself with the students’ language and culture through training. • Make language the object of study explicitly contrasting CCE features with SE features where appropriate. • Ensure reading and writing are done everyday in class. • Highlight the linguistic demands of the curriculum. • Practice sensitive, effective response to student writing

30. Comparing language demands of the curriculum with students’ language • Refer to handout.

31. Writing samples • Look at samples of CCE writing. How would you respond? • Look at suggested strategies for teachers. What challenges do you anticipate in implementing them?

32. Sociological/cultural considerations • Socioeconomic status is a strong determinant of access, to and quality of, schooling in the Caribbean. Home language is a factor as well -- a catch 22 situation. • Views of school and the role of the teacher different in the Caribbean. Teacher is more an authority figure with power in the larger community. • Immigration status -- legal or illegal -- affects students’ and their families’ options upon arrival in the US.

33. Sociological/cultural considerations cont’d • Interrupted education can negatively affect student academic performance particularly those with low levels of literacy. • Students might be experiencing migration stress due to disrupted relationships with family members and friends, and reuniting with estranged family members in New York. • Students may have difficulty adjusting to a new culture, new way of speaking, and new ways of doing school. • It may be students’ first encounter with American racism, and being framed as a minority.

34. THANK YOU.

35. References Adger, C.T., Wolfram, W., & Christian, D. (2007). Dialects in schools and communities, 2nd ed. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Cazden, C. (2001). Classroom discourse: The language of teaching and learning, 2nd ed. Boston: Heinemann. Clachar, A. (2004a). The construction of Creole-speaking students’ linguistic profile and contradictions in ESL literacy programs. TESOL Quarterly 38 (1): 153-165. Clachar, A. (2004b). Creole discourse effects on the speech conjunctive system in expository texts. Journal of Pragmatics 36, 1827-1850. Coelho, E. (1991). Caribbean students in Canadian schools. Book II: Ontario: Pippin Publishing. Craig, D. (2006). From vernacular to standard English: Teaching language and literacy to Caribbean students. Miami, FL: Ian Randle Publishers. Delpit, L. (1996). Other people’s children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New York: New Press.

36. References Devonish, H. & Carpenter, K. (2007). Full bilingual education in a creole situation. The Jamaican Bilingual Primary Education Project. Occasional Paper, No. 35. St. Augustine, Trinidad. Society for Caribbean Linguistics. Foner, N. (1987). Introduction: New immigrants and changing patterns in New York City. In N. Foner (Ed.). New immigrants in New York (pp. 1-33). New York: Columbia University Press. Gee, J. (1990). Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in discourses. London: Falmer Press. Halliday, M.A.K. (1994). An introduction to functional grammar, 2nd ed. London: Edward Arnold. Nero, S. (2000). The changing faces of English: A Caribbean perspective. TESOL Quarterly 34 (3), 483-510. Nero, S. (Ed.). (2006). Dialects, Englishes, Creoles and Education. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

37. References Olson, D. (1994). The world on paper: The conceptual and cognitive implications of writing and reading. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pratt-Johnson, Y. (2006). Teaching Jamaican creole-speaking students. In S. Nero (Ed.). Dialects, Englishes, Creoles, and Education (pp. 119-136). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Richards, J. & Lockhart, C. (1994). Reflective teaching in second language classrooms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Roberts, P. (1988). West Inidans and their language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Schlepegrell, M. (2004). The language of schooling: A functional linguistics perspective. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

38. References Street, B. (1984). Literacy in theory and practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Street, B. (1995). Social literacies: Critical approaches to literacy in development, ethnography, and education. London: Longman. Uhl Chamot, A. & O’Malley, J.M. (1994). The CALLA handbook. New York: Addison Wesley. Winer, L. (2006). Teaching English to Caribbean English Creole-speaking students in the Caribbean and North America. In S. Nero (Ed.). Dialects, Englishes, Creoles and Education (pp. 105-118). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.