THINKING ABOUT IT
TWO ARTICLES
1. ON LANGUAGE LEARNING
The human brain is equipped with a language acquisition device (LAD). This explains why, naturally and normally, children learn to speak the language of their environment if there has not been any brain damage. If a baby, born in a remote village of Mauritius, is immediately taken to an English-speaking family in Liverpool, that baby will soon become a native speaker of Liverpudlian English. A newborn baby from a housing estate (cité) in urban Mauritius who is taken to a French-speaking family of Marseille will become a native speaker of Marseillais. 90% of babies born in Mauritius become native speakers of Mauritian Creole (MC). It is to be noted that while the babies exported to England and France suffer a small trauma caused by the language change from what was heard in the womb and that of post-delivery, the Mauritian children continue to hear the same language. It is sad that most people do not know that the ear is the first organ to develop and the foetus starts to hear the mother’s voice at a very early stage. This is why the first language is called mother tongue.
If the acquisition of speech – speaking and understanding the mother tongue – is a natural process for the LAD is equipped with what is known as UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR, the story is completely different when it comes to learn to read and write. LAD is found in the Broca’s area but there is no area responsible for reading and writing. How do we then learn to read and write? Professor Stanislas Dehaene explains: https://blog.learnfasthq.com/how-the-brain-learns-to-read-professor-stanislaus-dehaene
From the brain’s point of view, learning to read consists of:
First, recognising the letters and how they combine into written words
Second, connecting them to the brain systems for coding of speech sounds and for meaning.
Reading starts in your brain like any other visual stimulation, in the general visual areas of the occipital pole of the brain, but then very quickly moves into an area which concerns the recognition of the written word.
Professor Dehaene calls this area the brain’s “letter box” because it is where we store our knowledge of letters.
From there it’s an explosion of activity into at least two brain networks; one that concerns the meaning of the words, and another that concerns the pronunciation and the articulation of the words.
When first you went to school to learn to read, your brain already had a very sophisticated spoken language system. It also had a very sophisticated visual system, but it needed to create an interface with the visual word form area, the brain’s letter box.
Reading consists essentially of creating an interface between your vision system in your brain and your language system, your spoken language system…
Everyone’s brain anatomy is changed by learning to read, and Professor Dehaene and his colleagues have managed to make a complete map of the brain areas that have been changed by reading.
The first major change is making the “letter box area” active. It is not active in people who haven’t learnt to read…
FROM L1 TO L2
If learning to read and write your own mother tongue (L1) is very difficult, as shown by Professor Dehaene, although you are already very fluent in it by the time you go to school, imagine the stress and trauma of children who are compelled to ignore their mother tongue and forced to develop reading and writing skills in not ONE but TWO languages they do not speak (L2) i.e. English and French. How can we do this to our own flesh and blood who need our love, affection and understanding? This is tantamount to cruelty and refusal to help children in danger.
Our cruelty and indifference go deeper due to our refusal to accept the truth and build our system of education on sound principles.
First of all, we do not know what a creole language is. It is a language based on the universal grammar mentioned in paragraph 2 of this article. There are over 100 creole languages in the world. In other words, creole is not a language but a family of languages which have specific characteristics. They are analytic languages as opposed to synthetic languages such as French, Greek, Latin, German, Italian, Russian etc. An analytic language is a language that organizes words and grammar by a strict word order instead of inflections, or word endings that show grammar. English is not only an analytic language. It is also a creole language.
Look at these examples to see the difference between synthetic and analytic languages:
FRENCH: un bel arbre; un beau sport; des beaux tableaux; une belle fleur; des belles filles (5 forms for the same word ‘beau’). ENGLISH: a beautiful tree; a beautiful sport; beautiful paintings; a beautiful flower; beautiful girls (only 1 form for ‘beautiful’). MAURITIAN CREOLE (MORISIEN): enn zoli pie; enn zoli spor; bann zoli tablo; enn zoli fler; bann zoli tifi (as in English, only 1 form for ‘zoli’).
BILINGUAL LITERACY
A rational, coherent and sound education language policy should be based on our national language, Mauritian Creole, and our official language, English. Universal bilingual literacy in MC and English is within our reach. Let us not forget that English is already a quasi-universal language, vital for our development and international relations. More and more countries use it now. It is the most important tool for international communication. Recently President Macron of France did recognise that English is the language most used in Europe and French cannot compete with it. Why? Is it not mainly because synthetic languages (French) are harder to learn than analytic ones (English)? Now look at a simple contrastive analysis and try to do the same with MC and French. Then you will understand why it would be wise to stagger the introduction of French and other L2 languages (Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, etc.).
TENSE&ASPECT IN MC AND ENGLISH
Mo marse/I walk;
Mo pe marse/I am walking;
Mo finn marse/I have walked;
Mo ti marse/I walked;
Mo ti pe marse/I was walking;
Mo ti finn marse/I had walked;
Mo pou marse/I will walk.
These examples show the syntactic similarity between MC and English. Is it not possible to help children acquire basic literacy in these two languages simultaneously? I think it is. I have tried it with children who had failed in literacy and numeracy after 6 years at school (Grade 6). After three years of bilingual literacy and numeracy, they passed the Grade 9 examinations now known as NCE.
TO CONCLUDE
Solutions exist but either we lack the will to change or we do not want change to protect the privileges of a few.
Or the truth may be that we do not really love our children. To know is to love. When we know our children better and know how to make them happy at home and at school, then we can claim that we love them.
Don’t look for scapegoats. We are all to blame if our children are not happy.
The associations of parents and teachers (PTA) should and could lead the way to bring the necessary reform. Teachers should be aware that the change proposed here means that they will have to acquire new knowledge and new teaching methods and that the success of this project means the end of the great business known as MASS PRIVATE TUITIONS as practised today. A school is not a supermarket.
Parents and teachers should know that they cannot have their cake and eat it too. (avoir le beurre et l’argent du buerre/manz banann dan 2 bout).
If we love our children, we should be prepared to make some sacrifice now to ensure a brighter future for them and our country at the same time.
2. DO WE REALLY WANT TO KNOW?
Some of you may not know part of the contents of this letter; many may think that I am repeating myself ad nauseam. But please, bear with me!
In 1967, l’Express was the only newspaper to believe that independent Mauritius would need to develop a supra-ethnic national language and Mauritian Creole (MC) was fit for the job. Prejudices against the language were very strong. All media outlets and the intelligentsia of the time were hostile to any attempt to even consider MC as a language let alone the national language of the-about-to-become an independent country. Malcolm de Chazal called it ‘pete bourik’ (donkey’s fart).
After more than 50 years of uphill fight, the situation is much better now but much more hard work awaits us all. As my sun is now close to the western horizon, TWO issues fill my heart with sadness.
- Radio and television presenters seem to think that our national language can be used without any regard or respect for its phonology (right pronunciation), syntax (grammar rules) and lexis (appropriate vocabulary). A radio presenter even told me that he was against the standardisation of our language for he believed in his absolute freedom. A simple question: Can we speak French, Hindi or English any way we want and ignore rules of pronunciation, grammar and right choice of words? Can we say ‘I am sinking’ when we mean ‘I am thinking’?
Most radio and television presenters are guilty of dereliction of duty by ignoring their responsibility to use our language appropriately. Instead, they prefer to ‘Frenchify’ MC and by so doing, they perpetuate prejudices against the mother tongue of 90% of the population and the second language of the remaining 10%. Heads of stations should look into this and insist on the right use of MC by their presenters. They are duty bound to do this.
- Most people believe in the official figures regarding the literacy rate of the Republic. In fact, the official figures are misleading because they deliberately confuse literacy with schooling. Children do go to school which is free BUT do they become literate? Literacy is best defined as the ability to write a few grammatically and lexically correct sentences, in any language of your choice, which are well connected and which use appropriate spelling and punctuation to say ‘who you are’. Perhaps only one-third of the population can do this and I think I am optimistic. Roughly speaking, if we start with, say, 25,000 children taking the end of primary school examinations, 5-6 years later about 12,000 will pass S.C and 2-3 years later about 6,000 will have their H.S.C. Success rate? About 25%.
Why is that so? WRONG LANGUAGE POLICY! The human brain is equipped and programmed to learn speech (Broca’s area) and this is why 99.9% of babies develop speech skills round about the age of 1-2. But there is no ‘area’ responsible for the acquisition of reading and writing. Learners have to build a bridge between their Broca’s area and their visual faculty and this is not an easy task. Learning to read and write one’s mother tongue is quite difficult. Now imagine the difficulties of 90% of our children whose mother tongue is ignored and who are forced to acquire reading-writing skills in not ONE, not TWO, but THREE foreign languages. A RECIPE FOR DISASTER!
Literacy is perceived as the privilege of a few when it should be a fundamental right which enables citizens to benefit fully from the benefits of modern living.
I shall never forget the reaction of a senior lecturer in a prestigious institution who objected to a ‘universal literacy project’ in these terms: “Si tou dimoun konn lir-ekrir, kisannla pou koup kann?” (If everybody becomes literate, who will work in the fields.)
DEV VIRAHSAWMY
21.01.23