Read the sentence below.
Me na know if them gan ova there.
You will also gather research to back up your thoughts based on the questions below.
Do students from the Caribbean spell the way they talk? What are some of the language barriers they may face as well as the teachers in the classroom? Does speed of their dialect affect learning and processing? How would you interpret the sentence above?
You will write a 1 page single spaced reflection on how this is a Social Justice issue and how it directly affects you and the ELLs in today’s classrooms.
Background notes from Wikipedia,
"Caribbean English is influenced by the English-based Creole varieties spoken in the region, but they are not the same. In the Caribbean, there is a great deal of variation in the way English is spoken. Scholars generally agree that although the dialects themselves vary significantly in each of these countries, they primarily have roots in British English and West African languages" (2019)
Samples of their different dialects,
An interesting thing about trying to translate the sentence, "Me na know if them gan ova there." is that standard translators won't recognize or even have the proper dialect titles available to choose from. This tells me that the sentence is most certainly an English Creole (if it is really a sentence at all). If I made a guess, it means, "I don't know if they've gone over there".
"Caribbean English is influenced by the English-based Creole varieties spoken in the region, but they are not the same. In the Caribbean, there is a great deal of variation in the way English is spoken. Scholars generally agree that although the dialects themselves vary significantly in each of these countries, they primarily have roots in British English and West African languages" (2019)
Samples of their different dialects,
Standard English: Where is that boy? /hwɛər
- Barbados: 'Wherr dah boi?' ([hwer ɪz dæt bɔɪ]) (Spoken very quickly rhotic, and contains glottal stops)
- San Andrés and Providencia: 'Weh dah boi deh?' ([hwe dæt bɔɪ deh])
- Jamaica: 'Weh dah bwoy deh?' ([weh da buoy de]) (sporadic rhoticity; Irish and Scottish influence); or 'Wey iz dat boi?' [weɪ ɪz dæt bɔɪ] (non-rhotic; similar to the accents of south western England and Wales)
- Belize: 'Weh iz dat bwoy deh?' ( [weh ɪz dɑt bɔɪ deɪ]) (British and North American influence, deeper in tone)
- Trinidad: 'Wey dat boy deh?'
- Bahamas: 'Wey dat boy iz?' [Some would more likely say bey instead of boy]
- Guyana and Tobago: 'Weyr iz daht boy/bai?' (urban) or 'Wey dat boy dey?' (rural) ([weɪɹ ɪz dɑt baɪ]) (Many variations dependent on urban/rural location, Afro or Indo descent or area, and competency in standard English; Sporadic rhoticity )
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines: 'Wey dah boy deh deh?' ([weɪ dɑ bɔɪ deɪ deɪ]) (Non-rhotic)
- Belize, Nicaragua, the Bay Islands, Limón, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands: 'Wehr iz daht booy?' ([weɹ ɪz dɑt buɪ]) (Distinct, sporadic rhoticity, pronunciation becomes quite different from "Creole" pronunciation.)
- Dominica: 'Weh dat boy nuh?'/'Weh dat boy be nuh?' (Spoken harshly and with a deep tone)
The written form of the English language in the former and current British controlled Caribbean countries conforms to the spelling and grammar styles of Britain.
Furthermore to quantify what Creole are for my research, wikipedia states, "An English-based creole language (often shortened to English creole) is a creole language derived from the English language, for which English is the lexifier. Most English creoles were formed in British colonies, following the great expansion of British naval military power and trade in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. The main categories of English-based creoles are Atlantic (the Americas and Africa) and Pacific (Asia and Oceania)." (2019)
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According to Richard Nordquist (freelance writer of Thoughtco,
"The term Caribbean English is problematic because in a narrow sense it can refer to a dialect of English alone, but in a broader sense it covers English and the many English-based creoles . . . spoken in this region. Traditionally, Caribbean creoles have been (incorrectly) classified as dialects of English, but more and more varieties are being recognized as unique languages. . . . And although English is the official language of the area that is sometimes called the Commonwealth Caribbean, only a small number of the people in each country speak what we might consider regionally accented standard English as a native language. In many Caribbean countries, however, some standard version of (mostly) British English is the official language and taught in schools.
"One syntactic feature shared by many West Atlantic Englishes is the use of would and could where British or American English uses will and can: I could swim for I can swim; I would do it tomorrow for I will do it tomorrow. Another is the formation of yes/no questions with no inversion of auxiliary and subject: You are coming? instead of Are you coming?" (Kristin Denham and Anne Lobeck, Linguistics for Everyone: An Introduction. Wadsworth, 2009)
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From what I have read so far I feel that to begin this discussion the key part to understanding what is being discussed is the fact that the colonialism still lingers, if not through the depleted amount of resource and infrastructure available for local people but the extravagance of tourism, then through their language.
Above the figures (maps), clearly show a trail of lingering colonization (because it is known which country is responsible for the spread or beginning of globalization throughout history). Even in the 21st Century, IELTS is a socially acceptable form of globalization (yes, speaking English is important when traveling to a place that uses English predominately, but this spreads back into the earlier part of this assignment regarding teachers with thick accents). Conspiracies of globalization through "certification" aside, the reality is, English was spread throughout the earth through the assimilation of cultures and after all that, cultures are left with what they have now. Some are highly successful and doing extremely well in regards to over all happiness, while others are still picking up the pieces and figuring out a balance.
The language is influenced heavily by the wandering European cultures that colonized and made the exotic lands (the local's home) feel like that of Europe. I reflect heavily on a reading I had completed by Jamaica Kincaid, 'A Small Place". Kincaid is one who hails from Antigua and speaks of her life as a spokesperson of those who are struggling to get what they deserve in life. Kincaid in "A Small Place" describes the tourist as an ugly person, for every observation that could be made about beautiful Antigua, there is an alarming reality to why things are the way they are (1988). The colonization of these places in the Caribbean had lasting effects on the culture that were housed there. Much like to that of what happened in Canada in regards to the First Peoples of Canada, a culture is struggling to re-identify itself as an independent culture, unfortunately they only have the guidance of those are brought to these places by visiting cultures. A cultural mosaic is an excellent way to describe the cultural history of the Caribbean, but from generation to generation it is characterized as a shifting melting pot.
Language is apart of culture and the lingual attitudes of English speakers (variants or standard) are what makes them who they are. When a teacher from Newfoundland or Quebec decides to walk into their class and teach their content with their natural speaking attitudes, this is apart of their right as humans in a multicultural country such as that of Canada. It is not right to say that a person does not need to have English Language Communication abilities to be an educator, but there needs to be benchmark in place that distinguishes acceptable communication skills from those that are still developing. It would not be a terrible thing if a needed to change who they are as people to teach students how to be themselves.
As an ELL, students can be speaking English Creole and still be placed accordingly for the fact that their English hinders their abilities to complete tasks. As a student who needs to be accommodated and have modifications because of their variations of the English language will not receive assistance because psychological needs, therefore there is no other way to offer assistance to the extent that they may need without categorizing their abilities as ones that need development in "Standard English". Students with thick accents receive more scrutiny and judgement than teachers with thick accents in my opinion because of the fact that students are constantly being taught to respect all cultures and nationalities. For students on the other hand, there is a level of respect for culture and ethnicity that should resonate within learning communities, however at times there are incidents of bullying that occur, not to mention the difficulties students face within themselves, being able to maybe understand the standard English, but unable to reciprocate it in writing, students will appear as ones who have a learning exceptionalism rather than just English Creole as their first language.
Ultimately, the social justice issue as I see it, comes from the identification of English Creole as ELL .
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