As a schoolchild in Haiti in the 1970s, I was forbidden to speak my mother tongue, Haitian Creole, which we Haitians call Kreyòl. If I disobeyed, a teacher would remind me with the sharp smack of a ruler across my hand. Kreyòl, which emerged from the contact among French and African languages on colonial plantations, is the only language spoken by all Haitians. But the nation’s education system discriminates against it in favor of French, which is spoken by at most a tenth of the population. Kreyòl-speaking children are subjected to myriad classroom humiliations, including in at least one school a sign that says, “I have to always express myself in French.… Seguir leyendo »
In December, Rwanda’s government announced that all Rwandan primary schools should teach in English, a language that many teachers in the country cannot understand or speak. This is the third time in 11 years that the government has introduced a major language shift. Education officials, donors and others are now scrambling to respond.
What’s behind these shifts in the language of instruction? And what are the wider implications? Here’s what you need to know.
1. Here’s what just changed
This new plan requires schools to teach in English starting in the first grade. Yet many primary schoolteachers in Rwanda don’t speak English — a 2018 study found that just 38 percent of those teachers likely to be affected by the new change have a working knowledge of English.… Seguir leyendo »
De la larga lista de preposiciones que aprendíamos en el colegio dos me resultaban intrigantes: cabe y so. No recuerdo si alguna maestra se apiadó de nosotros y nos explicó que esas preposiciones ya no se usaban (como sí antiguamente: cabe el monte, so pena), pero igualmente ahí quedaron ambas en la lista, año tras año. Las preposiciones —en la gramática, básicamente palabras que vinculan elementos entre sí: lápiz con goma, libro sobre arte— se convirtieron para el alumnado de mi generación en una cadena de unidades que funcionaban solo en esa lista. Sabérsela era un fin en sí mismo.
Enseñar la lengua es, claro, enseñar un lenguaje especializado (que llamamos técnicamente metalenguaje, en tanto que usamos las palabras para hablar de las palabras); tecnicismos de la lingüística son etiquetas como sujeto, oración coordinada o la propia de preposición.… Seguir leyendo »
Una recomendación de lectura puede cambiarle la vida a una persona, o modificarle sustancialmente. Una de las que influyó poderosamente en mí, cuando tenía quince años, y que sigo agradeciendo, fue El camino hacia Roma (1902), del prolífico escritor británico (con padre francés) Hilaire Belloc. No se trataba del camino de la fe en el sentido metafórico sino de un viaje a pie a la Ciudad Santa emprendido por su autor, férvido creyente, eso sí, desde el este de Francia. Si no me equivoco, en Belfort. Lo que recuerdo sobre todo de aquel libro, más que la descripción del peregrinaje en sí, con sus múltiples encuentros, peripecias y anécdotas, es el acendrado elogio que allí hace Belloc de la liturgia latina.… Seguir leyendo »
By E. J. Dionne Jr. (THE WASHINGTON POST, 23/05/06):
Yes, let's talk about the English language and how important it is that immigrants and their children learn it.
And please permit me to be personal about an issue that is equally personal to the tens of millions of Americans who remember their immigrant roots.
My late father was born in the United States, and grew up in French Canadian neighborhoods in and around New Bedford, Mass. When he started school, he spoke English with a heavy accent. A first-grade teacher mercilessly made fun of his command of the language.
My dad would have none of this and proceeded to relearn English, with some help from a generous friend named James Radcliffe who, in turn, asked my dad to teach him French.… Seguir leyendo »
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