ELSTA Conference Nomenclature

1
ELSTA ConferenceNomenclatureThe Importance
of Recognising First Languages

• Rory Mc Daid,
• Special Education Department,
• Coláiste Phádraig,
• Droim Conrach, BAC 9
• rory.mcdaid_at_spd.dcu.ie

2
Minority Language Children in Ireland
Assimilation?

• Barbarus hic ego sum quia non intelligor ulli! .
  . .
• Schools should be established which First
  Nations children should be required to attend,
  and where their barbarous dialects should be
  blotted out and the English language substituted
• (J.D.C. Atkins, Federal Commissioner of Indian
  Affairs, 1887, reprinted in Crawford, 1992,
  quoted in May, 2001, p. 209)

3
Multilingualism

• Number of languages in the world?
• 6000
• Number of languages spoken on a daily basis in
  Europe?
• 500

4
Linguistic Context

• Historical multilingualism
• Gaeilge
• English
• Shelta/Cant
• Ulster-Scots
• Yola
• French
• Latin
• Yiddish
• Multilingual influence on Gaeilge
• maidin (morning) from the Latin matutina
• séipéal (church) from the French chapelle
• cnaipe (button) from the Norse knappr.
• Latin Mass
• En Attendent Godot

5

• The Valeur Report identified 158 languages
  placing Ireland third behind the United Kingdom
  (288) and Spain (198) in the number of additional
  language spoken in their survey of 21 European
  states
• (Mc Pake and Tinsley, 2007)
• From Acholi to Zulu, Ireland a land of over 167
  languages
• (Irish Times, Saturday March 25th 2006).

6
English as a Dominat Global Language

• The international language of the modern world
  (Crystal, 1997).
• Dominance of English in prestigious domains, most
  especially in academia, electronic transfer of
  information and popular culture (May, 2008).
• Baker (2003, p. 105) accurately describes English
  as the language of power, prestige and purse.

7
English and Inequality

• In many countries, English, and in particular a
  specific view of standardised English, has been
  the preserve of the elite who use it as a
  gatekeeper to positions of prestige in society
• (Pennycook, 1995 as cited in Holborow, 1999, p.
  80).
• It is a major means by which social, political
  and economic inequalities are maintained within
  many countries, thus maintaining dominant power
  structures.

8
Multilingualism in Public Discourse

• Blackledge (2005) concludes that policy makers
  and politicians linked the use of languages other
  than English with civil disorder in the form of
  the race riots in England in 2001.
• Subsequent introduction of proficiency tests
  linked to citizenship

9

• Now potentially linked to citizenship in Ireland
• The requirements for citizenship are set out in
  legislation. Currently there is no requirement
  for an applicant to show any knowledge of the
  Irish or English languages, despite having spent
  a number of years living in the country. A
  language requirement is proposed in the
  Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill for
  those applying for a long-term residence permit.
  It would seem logical that a similar provision
  should apply to those seeking citizenship.
• (Migration Nation, 2008, p. 52)
• Avoid parallel societies . . . and urban
  ghettoes

10

• Fine Gael Senator, Fidelma Healy-Eames, who
  argued that all immigrants wanting to work in
  Ireland should have to pass an English language
  proficiency test. She proposed a preliminary
  English language proficiency test at points of
  entry to the country, with a subsequent more
  detailed test six months following.

11

• there is good reason to outlaw foreign
  languages being spoken in the playground because
  the playground is the primary vector for children
  to learn about the culture of the school and the
  society they are in (Meyers, 2007).

12

• You may not speak Gujerati in this classroom.
• You may not speak Greek in this classroom.
• You may not speak Urdu in this classroom.
• You may not speak Chinese in this classroom.
• You may not speak Punjabi in this classroom.
• You may only speak English in this classroom.

13

• Contemporary articulation of this is to be found
  in Herbert-Hoover secondary school in Berlin
  where it is forbidden to speak any language other
  than German. The students, almost 90 of whom
  come from immigrant backgrounds, must sign up to
  these rules before enrolment and the rules are
  enforced within class, at break times and during
  all school excursions.
• Skutnabb-Kangas (2000) as linguicism or
  linguistic racism.

14

• This line of discourse serves to render
  illegitimate the linguistic identity of minority
  language children and their families and
  communities.

15
Avoid parallel societies . . . and urban
ghettoes????

• We understand from pronouncements by African
  migrants themselves that their ethnic background
  is their biggest obstacle when trying to secure
  employment, not their linguistic proficiency
• (Dunbar, 2008, p. 58).
• According to the CSO (2008, p. 38) the
  percentage of Nigerians aged 15 and over at work
  in 2006 was the lowest of all groups featured . .
  . In comparison with the other nationalities
  profiled, a relatively high number were
  unemployed or looking for their first job (31).
  
• This figure can be contrasted with the experience
  of Polish and Lithuanian migrants, for instance,
  with employment rates of 84 and 82
  respectively.
• A gendered analysis of the figures reveals a
  labour force participation rate of 50 among male
  Nigerians as opposed to 97 among male Latvians.
• Data from the United States, for instance,
  illustrates that Cuban-Americans have attained
  significant economic success without concomitant
  linguistic assimilation
• (Garcia, 1995).

16
Review of Literature (I)

• Decisions about language policies in education
  often have as much to do with politics as
  pedagogy (Auerbach, 1993)
• Opposition to first language recognition can be
  extensive and vitriolic (Herriman and Burnaby,
  1996, writing in the Canadian context).

17
Review of Literature (II)

• Role of first language in education
• (Positive)
• Theory
• Cummins Interdependence Principle
• Research Data
• The Ramírez Report (1992)
• Thomas and Collier (1997)
• Stanford Working Group (1993)

18
Interdependence Principle

• To the extent that instruction in Lx is
  effective in promoting proficiency in Lx,
  transfer of this proficiency to Ly will occur
  provided there is adequate exposure to Ly (either
  in school or environment) and adequate motivation
  to learn Ly. (Cummins, 1981, p. 29).

19
(No Transcript)
20
(No Transcript)
21
(No Transcript)
22
(No Transcript)
23
Educational Implications

• Thomas and Collier (1997) and the Stanford
  Working Group (1993) both argue that first
  language use is one of the most important
  indicators of educational success for minority
  language children
• these school predictors have the power to
  overcome factors such as poverty at home, or a
  schools location in an economically depressed
  region or neighborhood, or a regional context
  where an ethnolinguistic group has traditionally
  been underserved by U.S. schools . . . The first
  predictor of long-term school success is
  cognitively complex on-grade-level academic
  instruction through students first language for
  as long as possible Thomas and Collier (1997,
  p.15).

24
Review of Literature (III)

• Role of first language in education
• (Negative)
• Snow (1990)
• 1) the history argument,
• 2)the ghettoization argument,
• 3)the time-on-task argument and
• 4) the hopeless cause argument.
• OECD (2003)
• Greene (1997)
• Limbird and Stanat (2006)
• Rossell and Baker (1996)
• Slavin and Cheung (2003)
• Willig (1985)

25
Theory V Common Sense

• Time-on-task The more English the better
• In virtually every bilingual program that has
  ever been evaluated, whether intended for
  linguistic majority or minority students,
  spending instructional time teaching through the
  minority language entails no academic costs for
  the students academic development in the
  majority language (Baker, 1996 Cummins and
  Carson, 1997).

26
Review of Literature (IV)

• Family relationships
• Wong-Filmore (1991)
• Parents feel unable to socialise children.
• Family disunity
• Family violence
• Oh my Grandmother would kill me! A. (Lithuanian
  child in St. Gabriels N.S. Cowper Street, D. 7).

27

• What is lost is no less than the means by which
  parents socialize their children when parents
  are unable to talk to their children, they cannot
  easily convey to them their values, beliefs,
  understandings, or wisdom about how to cope with
  their experiences. They cannot teach them about
  the meaning of work, or about personal
  responsibility, or what it means to be a moral or
  ethical person in a world with too many choices
  and too few guideposts to follow Talk is a
  crucial link between parents and children it is
  how parents impart their cultures to their
  children and enable them to become the kind of
  men and women they want them to be. When parents
  lose the means for socializing and influencing
  their children, rifts develop and families lose
  the intimacy that comes from shared beliefs and
  understandings.
• (Wong-Fillmore, 1991, p. 343 as cited in
  Kouritzin, 1999, p. 16).

28
Review of Literature (V)

• Self-image (identity)
• To stray sadly home
• And find
• the turf-cured width
• of your parents hearth
• growing slowly alien
• . . . To grow
• a second tongue, as
• harsh a humiliation
• as twice to be born.
• (A Grafted Tongue by John Montague)

29
Review of Literature (VI)

• Antti Jalava
• when others wrote in Swedish, I wrote in
  Finnish. But that was something that just
  couldnt be done. The teacher grabbed my pencil
  and angrily shook his finger at me. In spite of
  everything, I continued to fall back on my mother
  tongue. From the time I had learned to spell, it
  had given me pleasure to put together sentences
  on paper.

30
Review of Literature (VII)

• when the idea had eaten itself deeply into my
  soul that it was despicable to be a Finn, I began
  to feel ashamed of my origins. Since going back
  was out of the question and the thought of
  going back was what had sustained me there was
  nothing else for me but to surrender. To
  survive, I had to change my stripes. Thus to
  hell with Finland and the Finns! All of a sudden
  I was overwhelmed by a desire to shed my skin and
  smash my face. That which could not be accepted
  had to be denied, hidden, crushed and thrown away
  . . . so down with the Finnish language! I spat
  on myself, gradually committed internal suicide.
  (Jalava, 1988, p. 164).

31
Problematising Multlingualism

• Not just an educational but a wider social
  project
• Image of the society we hope our students will
  help to form? (Cummins)
• there is good reason to outlaw foreign
  languages being spoken in the playground because
  the playground is the primary vector for children
  to learn about the culture of the school and the
  society they are in (Meyers, 2007).
• What is this society is it monolingual?

32
Approaches to First Languages

• Monolingual Minority Language School.
• Bilingual education.
• First language classes during the school day.
• First language classes before / after the school
  day.
• Community based maintenance schools
• Teacher-led recognition.