Academic presentation on the language policies of Papua and Zambia

2.  L1 = first language or mother tongue or vernacular
 L2 = additional language or second language
 MoI = Medium of instruction
 Lingua Franca: between people not sharing a mother tongue
(bridge or working language)
 Pidgin: a simplified language that develops as a means of
communication between two or more groups that do not have
a language in common
 Creole: a stable language that has originated from
a pidgin language that has become L1 for some speakers

3.  “Culturally invalidating”
 Under performance
 High levels of grade repetition
 High drop out rate
 Limited employment opportunities
 Negative attitudes to formal education
“Central to … student’s acquisition of language are all of the surrounding
social and cultural processes occurring through everyday life within the
student’s past, present, and future, in all contexts--home, school, community,
and the broader society.”
Thomas and Collier 1997:42

4.  Increased Access
 Economic
 Girls
 Cost effective
 Conflict

6.  Pedagogy: chalk and talk
 Negative attitudes towards L1
 Publishing and materials production
Class Issue: the language of business, the
media, tertiary instruction, secondary exams and
government communication is the colonial language

7. Expected average achievement scores for the second language (as a subject) in well-resourced
schools
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
1a 1b 2a 2b 2c 3a 3b 4a 4b

9.  Diversity: 820 Indigenous languages + English and 2
lingua fancas: Tok Pisin (creole) and Hiri Motu
 Colonial influence: Matane Report
 Education system elitist: 2% completing secondary
 Inequality: widening rural and urban + gender disparities
 Illiteracy: 57.3% of the population of Papua New Guinea
over 15 years of age are literate

10.  Grassroots 1990’s: Viles Tok Ples Skul (VTPS): 2 yrs of
L1 education before grade 1
 NGO: Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL)
Self reliance: Community elects yr 10 educated
person to teach, and community bears all the costs.
 1994: 2,300 schools and 80,000 students in over 200
languages

11. School Grade levels Language of Description of teachers and teaching
instruction
Elementary Preparatory Grade Vernacular Located in small communities. Teachers
1 (E1) Grade 2 selected by the communities. Must
TPPS schools (E2) be Grade 10 graduates, have knowledge
of local language and community
culture.
Primary Grade 3 Vernacular and Grade 3 teachers known as
schools Grade 4 English ‘bridging’ teachers who must use both
Lower languages in their classrooms
Grade 5
primary
Primary Grades 6 English While use of vernacular is still
schools Grade 7 encouraged, the emphasis is on English
Upper as the language of instruction
Grade 8
Primary

16. Teacher training: cluster groups & modular self-
paced course.
 Expansion: whole system of secondary to yr 11 & 12
Communities and experts: 135 alphabets for
unscripted languages
 Increased access and retention
 Cost effective

17.  Learner-centered pedagogy: children's own
language productions as a bridge from oral to written
language
 Literacy: delinked literacy from language learning
 Balanced: Phonics, Look-and-Say and Whole
Language = skill-based and whole language based
Constructivist: groupwork in learning corners / big
books

18.  The Molteno Project: Breakthrough to Literacy
 Primary reading Program: Rainbow readers, ladder
progression.
 7 Local languages: materials / stories adapted
 System wide training: zone / cluster groups
Supply side and demand side: sensitisation,
materials and training.

20. Evaluation in 2002 compared with the baseline tests in
1999 in grades 1 and 2:
 780% increase in Zambian languages
 575% increase in English
In grade 3-5 and increase in reading levels of between
165% and 484%. (Sampa, 2005)

21.  Importance of mother tongue instruction for girls?
 Real problems for teachers in Zambia with this?
 For success, what could be the most important
factor?
 Reactions to the change in policy by parents and
people?
 Personal experience as a parent?