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Integrating Creole into Caribbean classrooms

a
Peter A. Roberts
a
Department of Language & Linguistics , University of West Indies , Cave Hill Campus, PO
Box 64, Bridgetown, Barbados
Published online: 14 Sep 2010.

To cite this article: Peter A. Roberts (1994) Integrating Creole into Caribbean classrooms, Journal of Multilingual and
Multicultural Development, 15:1, 47-62, DOI: 10.1080/01434632.1994.9994556

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 INTEGRATING CREOLE INTO CARIBBEAN
CLASSROOMS
Peter A. Roberts
Department of Language & Linguistics, University of West Indies,
Cave Hill Campus, PO Box 64, Bridgetown, Barbados

Abstract Education through the medium of creole languages fits admir-

ably into literacy projects and minimal education for agrarian communi-
ties or communities with little realistic hope of moving on to an inter-
national stage, but education from the secondary level onward bestows
greatest economic benefits in today's 'global village' when conducted in
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an international language. This is as much so in countries with creole

languages as it is in Europe.
The most appropriate approach to language use in Caribbean
classrooms which minimizes discrimination against individuals and
groups is an integrative one. This approach respects the varying func-
tions of language in Caribbean societies, it recognises the outward-
looking nature of these societies, and it promotes creative work in the
vernacular as a base for the development of more positive attitudes
towards it. Moreover, it proposes that in addition to their teaching
duties, teachers should be constantly involved in self-development as
teachers and in the development of language models for their pupils.
The integrative approach envisages a gradual change in attitudes to
native varieties of language and consequently a reduction of language
difficulties in formal education.

At the UNESCO meeting of specialists who assembled in Paris in 1951 to

discuss the topic The use of vernacular languages in education', some of
the main decisions were:
(2) Every pupil should begin his formal education in his mother tongue.
(7) . . . the mother tongue should be used as far as the supply of books
and materials permits.
(11) Educational authorities should aim at persuading an unwilling public
to accept education through the mother tongue, and should not force
it.
(8) If each class in a school contains children from several language groups,
and it is impossible to regroup the children, the teacher's first task

0143-4632/94/01/0047-16$01.80/0 © 1994 P. A. Roberts

JOURNAL OF MULTILINGUAL AND MULTICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT Vol. 15, No. 1, 1994

47
 48 MULTILINGUAL AND MULTICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT

must be to teach all pupils enough of one language to make it possible

to use that language as the medium of instruction.

These decisions, which seem laudable at face value, hide fundamental

problems which cannot be addressed by any international resolution. It is
really a matter of the ideal being confronted by the actual and the practicable.
Resolution 2 above is based on the belief that it is easier to acquire
literacy alone than to acquire literacy and a foreign language at the same
time. It is also based on a sense of fairness, which suggests that every child
should be given equal access to education and follow a path of equal ease
or difficulty. These ideas are based on the fundamental rights of the individ-
ual and presumably on the equal rights of countries. However, education
in the post-Industrial Revolution era has been a mass participation activity,
as a result of which it is characterised by a high degree of uniformity in
methods, content, assessment, and, most importantly, the language(s) of
instruction. Languages used in mass education, because they have a national
unifying intent, have been standardised, because mass production in edu-
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cation is not financially or politically compatible with diversity in language

of instruction. This is even more so when the countries are poor and
dependent on wealthier ones which have a single, standardised language of
instruction. In most countries education is seen as a crucial developmental
tool and a significant portion of the national budget is spent on it. Policies
normally have to be justified as cost-effective and in any type of democratic
system of government a change to a new policy has to be shown to be so.
In view of this, and dealing specifically with certain areas of the Caribbean,
the implementation of resolution 8 above is not easy. The problem of
children effectively monolingual in French creóle in parts of St. Lucia and
Dominica, and having to attend primary schools where the official language
of instruction is English, has to be solved in an ad hoc manner, depending
on the number of children involved in each case, their attendance record,
and the abilities of teachers concerned. In such situations, where children
have varying degrees of competence in different languages and where the
ratio of French-creole-speaking to English-creole-speaking children varies,
decisions are made, not according to the language of the majority of children,
but according to economic realities related to choice of language of instruc-
tion. This is where the availability of teaching materials and the competence
of teachers prove to be the determining factors. This is intimately related
to the policy of uniformity in the language of instruction and the husbanding
of scarce resources. This is exactly the way in which Resolution 7 above
works.
It is interesting to note that the specialists' proposal for a solution to the
problems of providing an adequate supply of schoolbooks and other educational
materials in order to facilitate the use of the mother tongue was that they
should be specially studied by Unesco. This is a typical response from an
international body which recognises an intractable, economic problem for
 CREOLE IN CARIBBEAN CLASSROOMS 49

which it has no solution, because the solution depends on a wide range of

decisions in every individual country.
One of the goals of education, subsumed under the better-known notion
of 'equal opportunity', is to make the goods of the world accessible to those
who, because of the circumstances of their birth, would normally be denied
them. As a result of this, it has inevitably become a class-changing activity
with a middle-class bias. In other words, one of the results of success
in education is that it causes an individual born in lower working-class
circumstances to acquire middle-class habits and values. Of course, edu-
cational success is not dependent solely on education itself, but is facilitated
by absence of social and economic barriers. In any case, standards and
norms in education are set by the educated, who, as a result of their success,
will have acquired middle-class values. These values, in a world where
education is facilitated by technology which reaches across countries, reflect
a bias which is no longer national but international.
Creole languages are normally associated with lower-working-class individ-
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uals and with societies that are economically powerless. They are also
associated with a history of slavery or subordination, which sometimes
appears to be an indelible part of the consciousness of the community—
native speakers and others. Consequently, there is a historical contrast
between the positive attitude toward a language of instruction in general
education, which is sustained by middle-class values, and the negative
attitude toward a creóle, which is rooted in social history and class discrimi-
nation. Resolution 11 above attempts to address this contradiction, but is
lukewarm and imprecise when it proposes persuasion and not force. The
problem is that implementation of a decision of this type is usually legal
and binding, which means that it has to have the force of the law behind
it and be complied with. Such decisions are political and politicians in
democratic countries view force as counterproductive to their own interests.
Another 'silent' but deep-seated problem is the matter of 'specialists',
especially when these are non-native. This is a worldwide problem and the
current moves in many parts of the world towards separateness and self-
sufficiency, highlighting ethnic interests and views, cuts sharply across the
imposition of decisions by outsiders, who are regarded as not being sensitive
to the culture and values of natives. With specific reference to creóle
situations, when the actual language competence of 'specialists' differs from
what they propose for other people, no matter who they are, it immediately
calls into question the intentions of the specialists. This is a problem of
confidence and trust, which can only be resolved by the interaction of
'specialists' and the actual people involved in a concerted way over a long
period of time.
In a world where ethnicity is being proclaimed widely and loudly, a
project for the use of a créole as an educational tool must be locally based
and directed, if it is to have national commitment and enthusiasm. In the
small societies of the Caribbean, as a result of years of exploitation, people
 50 MULTILINGUAL AND MULTICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT

very easily suspect the motives and sensitivity of 'foreign experts'. In

addition, in the real and practical world, if the prime movers are non-
national, it will take only the removal of one or two of them to deflate
whatever project they are involved in. In any case, an educational system
cannot rely for its sustenance on foreign expertise, whether teachers or
advisors. For example, St Lucia may hear the proposals of Carrington and
Alleyne, but because neither of them lives in St Lucia and neither is St
Lucian, their advice will wax and wane according to their presence and
absence.
Insensitivity to the preferences of people in small communities whose
views are not well articulated often prevents 'experts' from fully appreciating
the limitations of their aspirations. For example, probably very much to
the consternation of linguists who see the development of Haitian créole as
incontestable in the education system in Haiti, it is English and, to a lesser
extent, Spanish which some Haitians would like to acquire, because these
languages are useful and practical—these are the languages of Miami, Nassau
and Santo Domingo. Since the attraction of migration has increased as the
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political situation has worsened in Haiti, this desire to operate in the

languages of dreamed-of places has grown. Yet, it could be seen more than
a decade ago when Joseph (1980) undertook his pilot study of linguistic
environment of the Haitian child, for he mentions in passing:
. . . nous observons que les enfants du Nord-Ouest ont une tendance
nettement marquée à identifier les languages autres que le français et le
créole . . . Nous avons tenté d'expliquer ce phénomène par la proximité
de Nassau, de Miami et par le va et vient continuel d'un pourcentage
considerable de la population du Nord-Ouest dans ces zones, (p. 80)
A policy of national education in French creóle, no matter how well con-
ceived, may founder in the face of the normal aspirations and goals of the
mass of Haitians; it will certainly founder in the face of the powerful Haitian
elite, for whom it is irrelevant.
Discussion of possible models of language education for creóle communi-
ties is to be found in Carrington (1976) and Craig (1980). The models
presented and their appropriateness to different situations are essentially a
refinement of the kind of discussion which was started earnestly at the
UNESCO meeting of specialists in 1951 in Paris. The focus of attention in
this paper is not to provide further refinement of that discussion, but to
look more closely at affective factors in choice and implementation.
The difficulties of implementing a new language education policy are
economic, linguistic, instructional and psychological, all of which are of
course intricately intertwined. Leaving aside the economic problems, sol-
utions for which are not the normal business of the school itself, the other
difficulties relate more directly to what happens in the classroom. First, for
a creóle language to be used as a formal language of instruction it requires
some measure of standardisation. The first steps in this process (developing
 CREOLE IN CARIBBEAN CLASSROOMS 51

a writing system) have proved to be very difficult even in Haiti, for example,
where the creóle has no real rival demographically. In such a situation, a
proposed orthography may be disregarded by those writers who prefer their
own, idiosyncratic (eye-dialect) method of representing the creóle. It may
be strongly embraced or rejected, depending on its details, by those who
believe that for the creóle to have its own identity and independence its
orthography should be distinct from that of the lexically related language.
Again depending on its details, it may be welcomed or attacked by those
who believe that, by accommodating those in the society who are already
literate and by limiting unnecessary newness, an orthography stands the
best chance of success. One of the main contradictions in the implementation
of a writing system, therefore, is that it has to be made acceptable to those
for whom it is not intended, that is, those who are already literate.
Beyond the standardisation exercise, the task is even greater. It is essen-
tially to convert:
- a language without a considerable written literature;
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- a language with little reach beyond the immediate circle;

- a language promoted by non-nationals for formal education;
- a language in the shadow of one or more other desirable ones;
- a language without teachers;
- a language being standardised by linguists;
in a society with little means and no power into:
- a respected, fully developed, classroom language
in a situation in which parents and children are aware of the limitations of
the proposed standardised creóle, and in which the first generations would
serve as guinea pigs in the standardisation process. This is the reality of
the problem which has to be overcome and there is no way that this can
be easily and quickly done. Neither radical surgery nor glossy campaigns
can reverse three hundred years of acculturation and remove the stigma
attached to a creóle language in the minds of the middle classes in Caribbean
societies.
In fact, however, the choice of language of instruction is seen as a problem
in only a few countries in the Caribbean. In the countries where English
is the official language, including those where French creóle is the language
of the major part of the population, there is virtually no likelihood of any
creóle being used officially as the language of instruction in the general
educational system in place of English. The same is probably true in those
Caribbean territories which are a part of France and where French is the
language of instruction in the educational system. Even in the early 1980's
when there was great enthusiasm for French creóle and things national in
St Lucia, the boldest position espoused by an official committee, on which
there were influential linguists, was that:
. . . the committee envisaged the use of Antillean in certain geographical
 52 MULTILINGUAL AND MULTICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT

districts as a transitional tool to English which would be taught 'as a

second language' in schools. Carrington (1982: 5)
In Dominica, which has a similar language situation to that of St Lucia,
the Folk Research Institute and Konmité Pou Etid Kwéydl have not made
any proposal for the replacement of English by French creóle in primary
schools. The boldest statement, by Philbert Aaron, writing in the Kwéydl
Journal of 1989, is that:
Aspects of creóle may even precede or accompany English lessons in
certain areas, (p. 17)
The proposal made by Devonish (1983) for 'the implementation of a pro-
gramme for creóle language standardisation and development' in Guyana
and Jamaica has little chance of being discussed seriously in an open forum
in either of these countries. What is even more ironic is that the department
of the University of the West Indies to which Devonish belongs, and of
which he has been head for the last few years, is responsible for the
maintenance of standards of English in the University, and, by extension,
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in Jamaica. This is not to question the wisdom and sincerity of Devonish's

proposal, but rather to indicate the remoteness of the possibility of its
implementation.
One of the major cognitive problems in the selection and use of a separate
code in the context of Caribbeen countries is for individuals to disentangle
the code selected from others in use in the society. Whether one uses a
diglossic model, or a continuum model (suggested even for a country like
Dominica by Christie (1983)) or a multidimensional model (as proposed by
Le Page 1987)), the cognitive and affective problems caused by variation
remain the same. What the diglossic and multidimensional models indicate
is that one variant does not perform the function of others in this kind of
society—it does not relate to the same domain and it is not activated by
the same trigger. Formal school language, in the case of creóles, is not
simply an expansion of the lexicon and other areas to deal with terms and
concepts outside their normal domain, it is also the homogenising of the
creóle, the bleaching of it, the reducing of its connotative power in favour
of its denotative power. It becomes less personal and less within the control
of the individual or group.
One of the most important elements of a creóle in the Caribbean is the
feeling of solidarity which it causes its speakers to experience, especially in
the presence of the use of another language. School language is devoid of
that kind of solidarity and requires a more explicit code which depends less
on shared knowledge for the correct interpretation of utterances. To promote
the use of creóle in school as if it is the same creóle of the home and
social group is equivalent to suggesting that British and American children
automatically pass their English language exams and easily understand the
content of other subjects since the lessons are given in English. The move
to an explicit mass language will require the same efforts to achieve its
 CREOLE IN CARIBBEAN CLASSROOMS 53

mastery as is the case with all formal languages of instruction. The standard-
ised creóle, except in the most basic sense, will not be within the productive
competence of 'native' speakers. Reading and writing will remain the same
taxing and unwelcome exercises for many children in today's world no
matter what language is the medium of instruction.
In a certain sense, the creóle language is like the calypso and the steelband,
features which are expressive of a certain culture and part of a historical
experience, and which have evolved to a status of respectability in Caribbean
territories because they have been integrated into the musical scene. They
are now parts of annual, rigorous and demanding competitions. What this
has meant, however, is that the impromptu and the carefree have largely
disappeared—to be replaced by the tutored, the disciplined and the
researched. The creóle language used in the classroom would undergo the
same change; it would require the same discipline and study as any other
such feature that comes under the control of the middle classes. Unfortu-
nately, since it would not be part of a generally pleasurable activity, as
calypso and steelband are, its climb towards respectability would be much
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harder.
In the Caribbean, it is only in Haiti and countries where Dutch is the
official language that choice of a créole as the language of instruction seems
possible. This does not mean, however, that creóles have not featured and
do not feature in the general education system of the anglophone Caribbean.
In fact, the use of creóle has been a reality in this context from its beginnings
in the 19th century until today. The very structure of the school system
(as distinct from uncoordinated teaching by missionaries and tutors) was
determined by economic factors, which meant that the language used in
the classroom was not some form of standardised English, as was intended,
but creóle English. This fact is evident in the name and structure of the
system.
The mutual or monitorial system, as it was called, was imported from
India, through England, into the British West Indies a few years before
the emancipation of the slaves. The 'beauty' of the system was its minimal
cost in terms of time and money—it required only one salaried teacher per
school, and teaching lasted for only a couple of hours a day, for only a few
months overall, for each pupil. The head of the school was the Schoolmaster,
who was the only teacher who received a salary; all the other teachers were
actually pupils. The workings of the pupil-teacher system are explained by
Porteus (1808:39) as follows:

Each class is paired off into tutors and pupils. The Tutor sits by the
side of his Pupil, and assists him in getting their common lesson. To
each class is attached an Assistant Teacher, whose sole business it is to
attend his class, to prevent idleness, to instruct and help the Tutors in
learning their lesson, and teaching their Pupils, and to hear the class, as
soon as prepared, say their lesson under The Teacher, who has charge
 54 MULTILINGUAL AND MULTICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT

of the class, directs and guides his Assistant, intends him in hearing the
class, or himself hears both the Assistant and the Scholars say their
lesson . . .
In this pupil-teacher system not even the Schoolmaster was necessarily
proficient in English and the highest variety which could have been possible
was one a little beyond that used in normal, everyday intercourse—not only
because of the limitations of the 'teacher' but also because of the limited
ability of the pupils to understand any higher variety of English. This initial
system gradually and unevenly evolved into the system of today, which in
some cases still has persons with limited competence in English language
performing the role of English teacher.
In the classroom today, the vernacular is very much a part of the
teaching-learning exercise. In his short statement at the beginning of the
1989 Dominican Kwéyol Journal, titled The role of creóle in Education',
the then Minister of Education in Dominica, Henry George, noted that;
Today, certain teachers explain certain problems in creóle so that the
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pupils can better understand.

This remark states out loud not only what everybody knows but also the
fact that this practice is understood and accepted officially. Another example
of the current situation is from De Camp (1972) and is based on his
observations in Jamaica:
Thus the setting for speech-level along the creóle continuum is self-
adjusting in classrooms—unless, of course, the teacher just gives up
trying to communicate with her students. It varies according to the
location of the school, the age of the children, and their socio-economic
background. Even within the classroom it varies. One frequently sees a
particularly sensitive teacher addressing one child in a relatively broad
creóle, then switching to a more standard variety when she speaks to
another. In the first year of secondary school, where poor children from
overcrowded government elementary schools are mixed in with graduates
of expensive prep schools, this frequent style-shifting is especially appar-
ent and is especially necessary, (p. 4)
What is clear from historical and current practice is that creóle has always
been used in the classroom, but what is contradictory is that, while the
teacher could use it, the pupils were not supposed to. The accepted role
of the creóle was to facilitate the learning process, but paradoxically it was
seen as facilitating its own demise. It was a matter of using the native
language to teach a foreign language, with the intention that, as competence
increased in the latter, the learner would begin to think in it and the
native language would be needed no more. This was decreolisation and
acculturation in action, and this is still the thinking of a considerable
proportion of school teachers in the Caribbean.
The practice of using the creóle in the classroom has been a matter of
 CREOLE IN CARIBBEAN CLASSROOMS 55

expediency, a practice which fell within a more general British colonial

language policy enunciated much earlier by Coleridge (1826: 127):
The chief thing that I would aim at, If I were governor, would be the
encouragement of the English tongue; for no society will ever be one
and entire in its affections so long as nine tenths of the population speak
a different language from the remaining handful of their masters. The
changes either in religion or language which may be wrought in adults
are trifling and imperceptible; the only effectual mode of operating on
the mass of a society is by teaching the children.
This policy has been 'succeeding' in most Caribbean territories where
English is the official language of instruction. In those islands (e.g. St Lucia
and Dominica) which had a significant portion of the population monolingual
in French creóle at the beginning of this century, not one of them is any
longer in this position. Furthermore, an increasing number of urban St.
Lucians under the age of twenty-one have very little competence in French
creóle. Trinidad and Grenada, which had French creole-speaking communi-
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ties at the beginning of the century, no longer do. It seems then only a
matter of time before St. Lucia and Dominica follow the example of Trinidad
and Grenada and lose their French creóle under the influence of the media
and formal schooling. However, the point made by Carrington (1988:39)
should be carefully noted:
The rate of attrition is sufficiently gradual that development of the
societies in the interests of their members should not be premised on its
death.
It is clearly a matter of what importance is given to the rights of a significant
but relatively powerless sector of the society.
In the territories which have had almost exclusive British influence (e.g.
Jamaica, Guyana, Antigua) and where an English-based creóle was promi-
nent at the beginning of the century, as Craig (1971) pointed out:
The result is that by early school age some children have become able
to shift their speech into the interaction area, even though their home
is mostly creole-speaking. The speech of most other children is brought
into this area by formal schooling and the influence of the mass media.
At present it would seem that the spontaneous as well as careful speech
of a majority of school-age children lies entirely within the interaction
area. That is, it is neither creóle nor standard West Indian, nor yet again
does it represent a discrete, stable speech norm of its own. (p. 374)
DeCamp (1971) also regarded the language situation in Jamaica as a post-
creole continuum, meaning that, in Jamaica, a clearly distinct creóle no
longer existed at one end of the language spectrum, and that Jamaicans
were now speaking intermediate varieties.
The vision of this possible disappearance of creóle languages in the
anglophone Caribbean provokes the following questions:
 56 MULTILINGUAL AND MULTICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT

(i) How satisfactory is language education today, judging from its conse-
quences in the wider society?
(ii) Is there anything to be gained from the promotion of the active use
of creóle languages in the classroom?
(iii) Is there any possibility of reversing a powerful trend determined by
national and international forces?
(iv) Who determines whether what is happening is good or not, and the
policy which should be implemented?
The last question is the most crucial one because language specialists usually
perceive the people not to be very knowledgeable in these matters, and the
people perceive the language specialists to be idealistic, impractical or
dangerous. It would seem as if consensus in a broadly-based committee is
the only solution to this dilemma, and this will produce at best a modification
of current policy.
A generally canvassed answer to the first question will produce a call for
greater success in English as well as a greater recognition of creóle. The
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answer to the second question is positive and the answer to the third may
be seen to be negative, considering the dominance of English and English
speakers in the world today. These answers, all taken together—as well as
the preceding discussion—clearly point to a paradoxical situation, one that
is not permanently resolved because of contradictory and changing values
and attitudes in the society. This paradoxical situation can be summed up
in the following way:
(a) Creole as mother tongue involves variable competence; a language of
instruction, through standardisation, tends towards uniformity.
(b) The creóle and standard are perceived to be different entities but the
two cannot be separated.
(c) Creole is used as a language of instruction but it is meant to facilitate
its own demise.
(d) Standardizing the creóle will create distance between the standard variety
and its 'native' speakers.
(e) The creóle is loved, but some other language may be desired.
(f ) Instructional materials should precede teaching, but such materials will
actually only follow the decision to teach in creóle.
(g) 'Experts' may know more, but, by being less sensitive to the aspir-
ations of people, may make proposals that are followed up with little
enthusiasm.
The paradoxical situation can only be resolved by an integrative approach
to the use of creóle in the classroom. The integrative approach depends on
the implementation of the following proposals:
• Use of creóle in the classroom to promote confidence and understanding.
• Allowing for the emergence of 'norms' in the creóle through written
literature and public discussions.
 CREOLE IN CARIBBEAN CLASSROOMS 57

• Providing teachers, through training, with knowledge of the creóle and

techniques of teaching in a quasi-bilingual situation.
• Production of folk literature in the 'original' or 'natural' variety in order
to provide a solid foundation for school literature.
• Promotion of creative work in the creóle, inside and outside the school
system, to which meaningful (achievement, status, money) reward is
given (as is the case with the evolution of calpyso and steelband).

These proposals for an integrative approach contrast with the promotion of

créole as a separate and alternative instrument.
If the creóle is encouraged and allowed to develop its own norms in the
educational system, it will be perceived as a variety with its own functions,
its own place in West Indian literature, its own power, and it will inspire
users beyond an initial enthusiastic stage. It will be seen as part of the
technique of Walcott, Naipaul and others. This is not simply a matter of
using the creóle in the classroom to reach those children who have difficulty
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with the standard language, but also of introducing verse and narrative to
young children in it and, later in school, studying West Indian literature.
The creóle would thus be less the focus of attention and more a means for
making certain genres more palatable. On the scientific side, in the area of
nature study (for example), if the names for the flora and fauna with which
the child is familiar are used, then the beginnings of science will be more
attractive. This will lead later to greater study and understanding of local
features.
Labels and words on teaching materials used by the teacher would emerge
according to experience. In addition, through normal departmental (subject)
meetings dealing with subject matter, national (subject) workshops involving
teachers and experts, and the normally scheduled Caribbean Examinations
Council (CXC) English panel meetings, common terms and procedures
would evolve from the experience of the classroom and from national
perspectives. Discussions in meetings and workshops would have to become
as much a part of the routine of the teachers as classroom teaching is. This
is already being effected, though to a limited extent, by teachers' unions
and national associations for the teaching of English.
In the integrative approach the teacher is the most important element.
It is not unreasonable to expect a teacher to be linguistically competent and
sensitive to the needs and difficulties of the pupils. Although school teachers
in most of the countries are underpaid, a fact which affects their morale,
there is still enough goodwill among them to make the classroom a positive
place. Since there is little possibility of significant raises of pay for teachers,
their remuneration must be in seeing children learn and succeed. This
should be fostered by a healthy competitive spirit in the schools, involving
competitions of all types for the children—as for example the spelling and
general knowledge competitions which are common in most territories. For
the teachers themselves, an increase in summer workshops and seminars,
 58 MULTILINGUAL AND MULTICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT

as well as an increase in 'teachers' day' and 'professional day' activities,

will provide contexts in which they can contribute meaningfully. These
would provide the best means of fostering positive attitudes. In such exer-
cises teachers will go through gradual modifications and additions to their
competence in a non-threatening manner. They will be participating in a
developmental approach which they can believe in, and not being forced
to do what is thrust upon them in the form of a detailed syllabus or work
programme.
The integrative approach is consistent with the philosophy of members
of the Konmité Pou Eúd Kwéydl in Dominica, as stated by Aaron (1989: 17):
Competent creóle and French bilingual teachers should teach systemati-
cally both languages at some stage of the primary level. For a year or
two only creóle would be taught orally with no writing code, which itself
constitutes a problem in all languages. But what would be taught in
creóle? Firstly, the language itself, not as grammar but as the tool for
communication and creation that it is. Contes would be told, tales recited,
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poetry declaimed, songs sung, ring games played . . . School would not
be as traumatising an experience as it is now. There would be a bridge
between real Ufe in the community and school. But most of all students
would be psychologically liberated from the guilt-inferiority complex of
speaking creóle and from the silence that our talkative, pedantic teachers
lock them in.
If flexibility in language can improve communication and creativity, then
every effort must be made to facilitate flexibility. The historical emphasis
on compliance in the classroom may be more of a hold-over from the
authoritarian nature of early West Indian society than is realised. Such an
approach is no longer productive and should be changed to allow for more
creativity. The dominance and absolute position of one language variety,
standard or creóle, stifles creativity. Productive use in any variety must be
fostered, even though varieties will differ in their functions.
The integrative approach is also consistent with the philosophy of the
Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) as expressed in the Introduction
to its syllabus for English A and English B. CXC makes it clear that:
. . . the teaching programme will embody the following characteristics:
(ii) the provision of opportunities to use the full range of practical
language skills required in everyday life and to appreciate the differ-
ences in language registers, codes and styles appropriate to different
social contexts. Particularly, it will provide opportunities for students
to recognise what the place of regional dialects is in social intercourse.
The syllabus itself specifies that one of its objectives is
To develop in the student:
(viii) an appreciation of the place and value of dialects of the
 CREOLE IN CARIBBEAN CLASSROOMS 59

Caribbean and other regions in different social and cultural con-

texts.
What this means in actual terms is that Section III on Paper 2 of the
English A examination normally has a question which contains an instruction
such as:
Compose a stanza of a song or calypso, which may be in dialect, to recall
the event in a humorous way
or
Write a brief skit in which two bystanders comment on the incident that
you have described.
(Dialect may be used in this question).
or
You must write in Standard English. However, dialect may be used in
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conversation.
This section tests written expression and, more specifically, the ability to
'organise and sequence ideas to communicate emotional and imaginitive
interpretations of experience in the form of short stories, using registers
appropriate to particular situations' (English Syllabus: 3).
The official CXC reports on performance on this section include the
following comments:
Dialogue was generally poorly handled . . . (1985: 9)
Some candidates apparently see it [dialogue] as important for its own
sake. Others believe that dialogue must be in creóle and in some cases
the result was forced and out of keeping with character. (1987: 16)
Some candidates, too, still appear to think that dialogue necessarily
requires the use of creóle. (1988: 16)
. . . there were fewer pornographic stories than in previous years.
(1990: 11)
As in the past years, there were far too many scripts that contained
obscenities or dwelt—most often inappropriately—on sexual perversion.
(1991: 10)
There are no specific comments on the accuracy or intelligibility of the
creóle produced by students in various territories. There is no indication,
in the case of St Lucia and Dominica specifically, of whether the candidates
produce French creóle or English creóle. This absence of comment suggests
that candidates were given a fair degree of latitude and that idiosyncratic
spellings and structures were accepted as long as they could be deciphered.
It is not possible to come to a conclusion, based on the reports, that the
freedom to use creóle has brought about an improvement in performance
in creative and imaginative writing over the years. In fact, it is clear from
the reports and the comments above that the freedom to use creóle is a
 60 MULTILINGUAL AND MULTICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT

powerful enticement for many to make it the end rather than the means.
In addition, the characteristic use of creóle in 'low' domains also entices
candidates to write obscenities as well as to choose unsuitable topics for
their essays. If the creóle is to be mastered as an instrument for rendering
various experiences, paraxodically it has to lose the salacious appeal that it
has for some and become more neutral, like the standard language. This
will take time, and is therefore best handled in an integrative approach in
which both teachers and pupils become more comfortable with the creóle,
thereby allowing instruction in its details, usage and effectiveness.
The use of creóle in an integrative, appropriate way in the school system
will give confidence to pupils, who, as they get older, will feel secure enough
to use the full range of their linguistic competence to full effect in their
speech and writing. As the volume of West Indian writing increases, and
as norms evolve in the different genres, schoolchildren will have more
precise traditions of spelling, idiom and structure to use as models for their
own development.
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The integrative approach is not inconsistent with the proposals of

Carrington (1988), although it should be pointed out immediately that those
proposals are more aggressive and far-reaching. Carrington (1988) indicates
that in order to change negative attitudes to creóle:
Part of the strategy . . . is that acceptability for the language must be
built in the domains that are currently the preserve of English and
French, (p. 48)
Carrington then goes on to identify specific domains where the creóle should
be used:
The areas which seem to be most appropriate for a project leading to
the instrumentalisation of French lexicon creóle in the countries discussed
are the following:
(1) News and information broadcasting;
(2) Agricultural information;
(3) Health education;
(4) Adult literacy, (p. 49)
What Carrington underlines, and what is consistent with the integrative
approach proposed here, is that affective factors will largely determine the
success of reform:
The goal must be to arrive at the point where the language can be treated
with equanimity rather than with an emotional load that could make it
a focus of contention, (p. 48)
The explosive, negative effect of proposals for use of creóle is probably
what led Carrington to avoid contentious areas.
Carrington does not make a case for the use of créole as a/the language
 CREOLE IN CARIBBEAN CLASSROOMS 61

of instruction in the school system in St Lucia or Dominica. What he

specifically suggests is that:
Where appropriate, the technical material prepared by the project and
discussed above can be used to support educational reform activities that
include the use of vernacular varieties for pedagogical purposes, (p. 53)
Since the focus of Carrington's proposals is essentially the adult population,
rather than the school population, it can be argued that what is being
proposed here for the school system complements his suggestions.
It might seem illogical for an 'integrative' approach to foster a division
into adult population and school population, but such a division is based
on the recognition of the power of affective factors in determining success.
What people accept for themselves, they will not necessarily accept for their
children. In addition, long-term goals have to be based on gradual change,
self-expression and self-dependence; short- and medium-term goals are more
amenable to project implementation and foreign intervention. The integrat-
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ive approach has sustainable development as its major objective and views
affective factors (attitudes and motivation), rather than material and physical
factors, as the key to this development.

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