Introduction The author, Lisa Delpit, grew up in a segregated Southern community and in the 1960’s enrolled in a new integrated high school. She and her fellow African-American classmates had to cope with overt racism as well as subtle racism which she described as infinitely more insidious. Aspects of her culture (language, interactional style, belief systems) became targets for remediation or evidence for their inability to learn. These experiences of racism left her with the desire to understand how the world could look so different through the eyes of others. The chapter started with a story about a young man who goes before a group of elders who had asked him, “Who are you?” The young man gave his name expecting the elders would recognize it from his political reputation. They responded, “Yes, but who are you?” Again he said his name, and now gave his position title. They responded, “But who are you?” Finally he understood, and gave an account of his ancestry, his family, his tribe, his clan, and the elders were satisfied. This account shows us that heritage is vital to identity. According to Delpit, “to be disconnected from that identity means not only losing the ability to explain one’s essence to others but also any potential for self-knowledge as well.” She encourages us to seek to find our own essence and critically examine the essence of concepts we have been taught to accept without question, such as “education” and “literacy.” We should question Education and Literacy For whom? For what purpose? Toward what end? She found that these are the questions that people of Papua New Guinea had asked and answered in the year that she spent there. Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea is the Eastern half of largest island in the world. Its mainland and smaller surrounding islands make up a total land mass of 300,000 square miles. The country is most known for its multilingualism because of its 3 million people and over 700 different indigenous languages. Even though the official language is English, only 25-30% of population has truly functional knowledge of the language. Instead, most people use the lingua franca which is Tok Pisin. Dictionary.com defines as “lingua franca” is any language that is widely used as a means of communication among speakers of other languages. With over 700 different languages, it is useful to have a common language among the people. Tok Pisin is widely spoken, but it has been rejected as the main language for schooling and literacy instruction because of limited grammatical structure and vocabulary. Interest in Literacy Leads to Schooling Before schools were built, missionaries were surprised at the people’s widespread interest in literacy. In the 1940’s, local interest in acquiring literacy was so high that some competing missions began staging competitive spelling bees with those already converted. The mission whose converts won the spelling bee, also won the allegiance of the previously pagan onlookers. However, the goal of converts was usually literacy, not necessarily religious salvation. Early Schooling Due to local interest in literacy and for more efficient preaching, schooling was first introduced by the missionaries in the village’s local language. Goal of the missionaries was to teach literacy skills so that the converts could read the Bible in their village, or be trained for the role of pastor-teacher to spread the gospel to new places. Language in schools The choice of language in schools has been debated: Should it serve the needs of a developing nation-state with a modern exchange economy (Pro-English), or serve the community: through its welfare, development, and cohesion of the local, predominately rural village communities (Pro-local language). A Change in the Language of the Schools When the colonial government took over the role of providing education, it was more concerned with the survival of the colony and the plantation economy that supported it. Thus the government changed the language of instruction to mainly English in the 1950’s. Concerns about Schooling Government officials were concerned that literacy and mathematics standards were dropping. Instead of Australian and American teachers, local Papua New Guinean teachers were forced to teach in English, a language they barely spoke and their students did not understand. Also, most of the country’s children were educated in village settings where they were unlikely to ever hear English spoken outside of the classroom. Residents of the village were concerned about the disruption of social relations between young and old in rural communities. Traditional customs, beliefs, values, and practices were being devalued. North Solomon Islands Although the language policy did not change at the national level, it did change in one of the country’s decentralized provinces in the North Solomon Islands. Bougainville and Buka were regions in the North Solomon Islands. The province was one of the richest in the country because of revenues from the large Bougainville Copper Mine. The indigenous people were culturally and linguistically diverse. There were 21 different languages in the province, which was further divided into about 46 sublanguages and dialects. English and Tok Pisin were the only languages in daily use that were not indigenous to the province. The common language versus the local language People of these regions believed it was important children knew their tok ples (the Tok Pisin word for indigenous language) including how to read and write it because it would allow children to become better thinkers. Some children completed school without gaining literacy in English, so the Buka residents believed that if the children learned to read and write tok ples, they would be literate in at least some language. People in general did not want Tok Pisin to be taught in schools because they believed Tok Pisin was not a real language, and it was less precise than English or tok ples. There was a widely held belief that the prevalence of Tok Pisin was destroying the local tok ples. Study Results of a study conducted in 1979 found that people of North Solomon Islands wanted education for their children that would prepare them to live within two cultural worlds and for their children have a strong cultural base that would allow them to enter the changing world of towns and technology Vilis Tokples Pri-Skul As a result of the above study, the new and innovative Vilis Tokples Pri-Skul program was established in the Buka and Buin area of the North Solomons. The goals of the program were: to teach children to read, write, and count in their native language before teaching English literacy, educate children on the customs, culture, and acceptable behavior of their community, and teach children the basic preschool skills needed for success, and the overall goal of the program was to use an education system that is bilingual and bicultural in order to prepare children who could value and function in both a traditional world and a newer technological world. In this Vilis Tokples Pri-Skul program, children began at 7 years old with two years of preschool education. At 9 years old, they enter 1st grade in English medium primary school, and complete the six-year program around 15 years old. Children in the program learned to read and write in their mother tongue and at the same time receive basic cultural education in the customs, values, and acceptable behavior of their community. It also prepared in the Western sense of preschooling for their primary education. In 1981, there were 30 Vilis Tokples Pri-Skul schools serving about 1000 children in the Buka and Buin regions Benefits of Vilis Tokples Pri-Skul Parents and other residents were delighted with both the program and the children’s academic development and they were learning English more quickly than in the past. The social benefits were that parents reported children “got along” in the village, and while Children might go on to learn English and outside knowledge, parents felt that by learning their own language and cultural values first, they would always “know how to live at home.” One Buin parent says, “It is important to teach our children to read and write, but it is more important to teach them to be proud of themselves, and of us.” Parents saw Vilis Tokples Pri-Skul as providing the kind of education that trains children to become good people, who care about, participate in, and are proud of their communities. Vilis Tokples Pri-Skul “proved that a Third World people, a black people need not give up on their culture and language to succeed in the Western world.” How does this pertain to us as school psychologists? Many students lose sight of their heritage and cultural values, especially English Language Learners, in an attempt to assimilate with their peers at school. We should empower them to be who they are, or encourage them to do some research on their ethnic background. One EL student I had three years ago, gradually changed the way he dressed. In September, he was a sweet kid, dressed in t-shirts and jeans that fit. A few months later he started wearing baggier clothes, and started wearing hats. Then few months later, his hat gradually tilted more and more. By the end of the year, he was wearing gaudy silver chain necklaces, chain wallet, baggy clothes, and tilted hats in an attempt to assimilate to the American culture.
2-3 Pgs. ix-9- Editors Notes/Acknowledgements/Introduction to the 2006 Edition/Introduction/ Part I Controversies Revisited- Laraotherpeopleschildren.doc Pgs. 11-20-Skills and Other Dilemmas of a Progressive Black Educator- VenusPPS6010 OPC.doc
This chapter explains the difference between language use and form. Language form is the standardized way in which language is structured (Grammar, inflections, written symbols, etc.). Language use is the socially and cognitively based determination of how someone chooses communicate the language (Slang, idioms, etc.). There are two ways to learn a language, conscious learning, and unconscious acquisition. Conscious learning involves ruled-based instruction, such as in a classroom setting. Students are taught the language and corrected if they are wrong. Unconscious acquisition occurs when the learner is immersed into an environment where everyone is speaking the language. The learner then “picks things up” as they go along. Whether taking the conscious learning or unconscious acquisition approach, the learner is always subject to an affective filter. The affective filter is when conditions are not optimal for language acquisition (e.g., lack of motivation, inability to identify with instructor, anxiety about performance). The affective filter is raised when a student is continuously corrected because they become less confident and start questioning themselves (T-iz_each-iz-er example). Over correction also results in less uninterrupted reading time, hindering the student’s ability to become proficient. Teachers often confuse linguistic competence with linguistic performance. Linguistic competence is what a student is actually capable of doing with language. Linguistic performance is what a student chooses to do with language. The Pima Indian Study found that students who were progressing towards speaking standard English through the third grade, dramatically switched back to the local dialect upon entering the fourth grade. The students realized the importance of social groups and they chose to identify with their local community rather than the school. Teachers need to understand the intimate connection between students and their communities. If a teacher insults a student about their dialect, they are basically insulting the student's family and community. Instead of correcting students, teachers are encouraged to have their students role-play. They can "pretend" to speak standard English like the news anchors they see on TV, giving them valuable practice without making them feel uncomfortable. Teachers should also explain the parallel between speaking standard English and success and wealth. Teacher education programs should include parents and community members with diverse backgrounds. Is high Math achievement correlated with proper knowledge of English grammar and syntax? According to the author, no. If it were, people who speak other languages would be poor at solving math problems.
2-17 Pgs. 70-90- Part 2: Lessons from Home and Abroad-The Vilis Tokples School of Papua New Guinea- MarlaOPC abstract.doc
The author, Lisa Delpit, grew up in a segregated Southern community and in the 1960’s enrolled in a new integrated high school. She and her fellow African-American classmates had to cope with overt racism as well as subtle racism which she described as infinitely more insidious. Aspects of her culture (language, interactional style, belief systems) became targets for remediation or evidence for their inability to learn. These experiences of racism left her with the desire to understand how the world could look so different through the eyes of others.
The chapter started with a story about a young man who goes before a group of elders who had asked him, “Who are you?” The young man gave his name expecting the elders would recognize it from his political reputation. They responded, “Yes, but who are you?” Again he said his name, and now gave his position title. They responded, “But who are you?” Finally he understood, and gave an account of his ancestry, his family, his tribe, his clan, and the elders were satisfied. This account shows us that heritage is vital to identity. According to Delpit, “to be disconnected from that identity means not only losing the ability to explain one’s essence to others but also any potential for self-knowledge as well.” She encourages us to seek to find our own essence and critically examine the essence of concepts we have been taught to accept without question, such as “education” and “literacy.” We should question Education and Literacy For whom? For what purpose? Toward what end? She found that these are the questions that people of Papua New Guinea had asked and answered in the year that she spent there.
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea is the Eastern half of largest island in the world. Its mainland and smaller surrounding islands make up a total land mass of 300,000 square miles. The country is most known for its multilingualism because of its 3 million people and over 700 different indigenous languages. Even though the official language is English, only 25-30% of population has truly functional knowledge of the language. Instead, most people use the lingua franca which is Tok Pisin. Dictionary.com defines as “lingua franca” is any language that is widely used as a means of communication among speakers of other languages. With over 700 different languages, it is useful to have a common language among the people. Tok Pisin is widely spoken, but it has been rejected as the main language for schooling and literacy instruction because of limited grammatical structure and vocabulary.
Interest in Literacy Leads to Schooling
Before schools were built, missionaries were surprised at the people’s widespread interest in literacy. In the 1940’s, local interest in acquiring literacy was so high that some competing missions began staging competitive spelling bees with those already converted. The mission whose converts won the spelling bee, also won the allegiance of the previously pagan onlookers. However, the goal of converts was usually literacy, not necessarily religious salvation.
Early Schooling
Due to local interest in literacy and for more efficient preaching, schooling was first introduced by the missionaries in the village’s local language. Goal of the missionaries was to teach literacy skills so that the converts could read the Bible in their village, or be trained for the role of pastor-teacher to spread the gospel to new places.
Language in schools
The choice of language in schools has been debated: Should it serve the needs of a developing nation-state with a modern exchange economy (Pro-English), or serve the community: through its welfare, development, and cohesion of the local, predominately rural village communities (Pro-local language).
A Change in the Language of the Schools
When the colonial government took over the role of providing education, it was more concerned with the survival of the colony and the plantation economy that supported it. Thus the government changed the language of instruction to mainly English in the 1950’s.
Concerns about Schooling
Government officials were concerned that literacy and mathematics standards were dropping. Instead of Australian and American teachers, local Papua New Guinean teachers were forced to teach in English, a language they barely spoke and their students did not understand. Also, most of the country’s children were educated in village settings where they were unlikely to ever hear English spoken outside of the classroom.
Residents of the village were concerned about the disruption of social relations between young and old in rural communities. Traditional customs, beliefs, values, and practices were being devalued.
North Solomon Islands
Although the language policy did not change at the national level, it did change in one of the country’s decentralized provinces in the North Solomon Islands. Bougainville and Buka were regions in the North Solomon Islands. The province was one of the richest in the country because of revenues from the large Bougainville Copper Mine. The indigenous people were culturally and linguistically diverse. There were 21 different languages in the province, which was further divided into about 46 sublanguages and dialects. English and Tok Pisin were the only languages in daily use that were not indigenous to the province.
The common language versus the local language
People of these regions believed it was important children knew their tok ples (the Tok Pisin word for indigenous language) including how to read and write it because it would allow children to become better thinkers. Some children completed school without gaining literacy in English, so the Buka residents believed that if the children learned to read and write tok ples, they would be literate in at least some language. People in general did not want Tok Pisin to be taught in schools because they believed Tok Pisin was not a real language, and it was less precise than English or tok ples. There was a widely held belief that the prevalence of Tok Pisin was destroying the local tok ples.
Study
Results of a study conducted in 1979 found that people of North Solomon Islands wanted education for their children that would prepare them to live within two cultural worlds and for their children have a strong cultural base that would allow them to enter the changing world of towns and technology
Vilis Tokples Pri-Skul
As a result of the above study, the new and innovative Vilis Tokples Pri-Skul program was established in the Buka and Buin area of the North Solomons. The goals of the program were: to teach children to read, write, and count in their native language before teaching English literacy, educate children on the customs, culture, and acceptable behavior of their community, and teach children the basic preschool skills needed for success, and the overall goal of the program was to use an education system that is bilingual and bicultural in order to prepare children who could value and function in both a traditional world and a newer technological world. In this Vilis Tokples Pri-Skul program, children began at 7 years old with two years of preschool education. At 9 years old, they enter 1st grade in English medium primary school, and complete the six-year program around 15 years old.
Children in the program learned to read and write in their mother tongue and at the same time receive basic cultural education in the customs, values, and acceptable behavior of their community. It also prepared in the Western sense of preschooling for their primary education.
In 1981, there were 30 Vilis Tokples Pri-Skul schools serving about 1000 children in the Buka and Buin regions
Benefits of Vilis Tokples Pri-Skul
Parents and other residents were delighted with both the program and the children’s academic development and they were learning English more quickly than in the past. The social benefits were that parents reported children “got along” in the village, and while Children might go on to learn English and outside knowledge, parents felt that by learning their own language and cultural values first, they would always “know how to live at home.” One Buin parent says, “It is important to teach our children to read and write, but it is more important to teach them to be proud of themselves, and of us.”
Parents saw Vilis Tokples Pri-Skul as providing the kind of education that trains children to become good people, who care about, participate in, and are proud of their communities. Vilis Tokples Pri-Skul “proved that a Third World people, a black people need not give up on their culture and language to succeed in the Western world.”
How does this pertain to us as school psychologists?
Many students lose sight of their heritage and cultural values, especially English Language Learners, in an attempt to assimilate with their peers at school. We should empower them to be who they are, or encourage them to do some research on their ethnic background. One EL student I had three years ago, gradually changed the way he dressed. In September, he was a sweet kid, dressed in t-shirts and jeans that fit. A few months later he started wearing baggier clothes, and started wearing hats. Then few months later, his hat gradually tilted more and more. By the end of the year, he was wearing gaudy silver chain necklaces, chain wallet, baggy clothes, and tilted hats in an attempt to assimilate to the American culture.
2-3
Pgs. ix-9- Editors Notes/Acknowledgements/Introduction to the 2006 Edition/Introduction/ Part I Controversies Revisited- Lara
Pgs. 11-20-Skills and Other Dilemmas of a Progressive Black Educator- Venus
2-10
Pgs. 21-47- The Silenced Dialogue- Kelly
Pgs. 48-69- Language Diversity and Learning- Alex
Language Learning and Diversity
This chapter explains the difference between language use and form. Language form is the standardized way in which language is structured (Grammar, inflections, written symbols, etc.). Language use is the socially and cognitively based determination of how someone chooses communicate the language (Slang, idioms, etc.).
There are two ways to learn a language, conscious learning, and unconscious acquisition. Conscious learning involves ruled-based instruction, such as in a classroom setting. Students are taught the language and corrected if they are wrong. Unconscious acquisition occurs when the learner is immersed into an environment where everyone is speaking the language. The learner then “picks things up” as they go along. Whether taking the conscious learning or unconscious acquisition approach, the learner is always subject to an affective filter. The affective filter is when conditions are not optimal for language acquisition (e.g., lack of motivation, inability to identify with instructor, anxiety about performance). The affective filter is raised when a student is continuously corrected because they become less confident and start questioning themselves (T-iz_each-iz-er example). Over correction also results in less uninterrupted reading time, hindering the student’s ability to become proficient.
Teachers often confuse linguistic competence with linguistic performance. Linguistic competence is what a student is actually capable of doing with language. Linguistic performance is what a student chooses to do with language. The Pima Indian Study found that students who were progressing towards speaking standard English through the third grade, dramatically switched back to the local dialect upon entering the fourth grade. The students realized the importance of social groups and they chose to identify with their local community rather than the school. Teachers need to understand the intimate connection between students and their communities. If a teacher insults a student about their dialect, they are basically insulting the student's family and community. Instead of correcting students, teachers are encouraged to have their students role-play. They can "pretend" to speak standard English like the news anchors they see on TV, giving them valuable practice without making them feel uncomfortable. Teachers should also explain the parallel between speaking standard English and success and wealth. Teacher education programs should include parents and community members with diverse backgrounds.
Is high Math achievement correlated with proper knowledge of English grammar and syntax? According to the author, no. If it were, people who speak other languages would be poor at solving math problems.
2-17
Pgs. 70-90- Part 2: Lessons from Home and Abroad-The Vilis Tokples School of Papua New Guinea- Marla
Pgs. 91-104- “Hello Grandfather”- Sarah
Pgs. 105- 127- Teachers’ Voices- Debbi
2-24
Pgs. 131- 151- Part 3: Looking to the Future/Cross Cultural Confusions in Teacher Assessment- Lana
Pgs. 152-166- The Politics of Teaching Literature Discourse - Lauryn
3-3
Pgs. 167-184- Education in a Multicultural Society - Natalie
Pgs. 185-200- Reflections on Other People’s Children/Teaching the Hard of Head/Other People’s Children: The Lasting Impact- Denise or Mona
MONA:
3-10
Denise: OPC.doc
Scoring Rubric for OPC section: 5 points possible
1 points
0 points