[lg policy] Re: lgpolicy-list Digest, Vol 35, Issue 37: TIMOR-LESTE: When do mother tongues divide?

Mon Mar 26 23:24:21 UTC 2012

TIMOR-LESTE: When do mother tongues divide? IRIN Humanitarian news and Analysis

The standard of journalism in this article is simply appalling. There
are some serious, not to say alarming inaccuracies in this report.
First, the policy was NOT spearheaded by UNESCO but is being led by a
national, 100% East Timorese working group at the request of and in
close consultation with the Ministry of Education.
Second, the "mother tongue program" is not a program. As a result of
two consultative missions, a policy document was released in 2010
containing research-based arguments and comprehensive policy
recommendations on implementing a policy that would include the use of
children's first languages in the curriculum. A pilot study is about
to begin as a result of these consultations and intensive discussion
both in the working group and in the Ministry. A number of
organisations, which have been in the country for years, are assisting
this project. It is not solely a UNESCO initiative.
Third, Ms Kirsty Sword-Gusmão is NOT the head of the country's UNESCO
office. Nor is Ms Gusmão acting in the role of "Australian social
activist" She is in fact the country's current first lady. Ms Gusmão
played a long and distinguished role in assisting the East Timorese
resistance and liberation movement. Being married to the current prime
Minister who is East Timorese, she is rightfully able to claim East
Timorese identity). She also happens to be the UNESCO Goodwill
Ambassador for Education. In this role she is taking a lead in
co-ordinating the language-in-education working group and is involved
in co-ordinating the mother tongue pilot project in 12 schools in
three districts.
Fourth, if Barbara Thornton's statement that current language policies
carry the risk of "entrenching class differences" is reported
accurately, it is both politically insensitive and seriously
inaccurate on a number of levels. I would be most surprised if a
representative of the World Bank, who knows the country well, would
say anything so inflammatory. If the accuracy rest of the article is
anything to go by, I would very much doubt that this is what Ms
Thornton actually said.
Fifth, Jose Ramos Horta has in fact lent his strong support to the
mother tongue policy (as has the Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão) on
several occasions, most recently urging the public to get behind the
pilot project. See Lian Materna Hanesan Esperensia Pilotu, PR Horta :
Labele Taka Odamatan Ba Lian Materna (Mother tongue pilot project, PR
Horta:  Do not close the door on the mother tongues).
www.suara-timor-lorosae.com.
Lastly, it should be remembered that the reactions of certain
individuals and one or two groups (which the article does not
identify) with political affiliations to the policy proposals does not
constitute "division among members of government, civil society and
educators". Nor does it equal "conflict".
This piece does nothing to clarify the situation and fails to
recognise the hard work, transparency, commitment and careful research
of the language-in-education working group and those working to
implement the pilot project.

On 3/27/12, lgpolicy-list-request at groups.sas.upenn.edu
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>    1. workshop: Deep Language Policy Research in Education
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>    2. Mojave language recovery - Keeping languages alive
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>    3. call: Recherches sur le Bilinguisme et le Multilinguisme
>       (Harold Schiffman)
>    4. TIMOR-LESTE: When do mother tongues divide? (Harold Schiffman)
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> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2012 12:25:30 -0400
> From: Harold Schiffman <hfsclpp at gmail.com>
> Subject: [lg policy] workshop: Deep Language Policy Research in
> 	Education
> To: lp <lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu>
> Message-ID:
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> Sunday, March 25, 2012 12:23:16 PM
> ÔÚÏßÍ¶¸å
>
> µ±Ç°Î»ÖÃ£ºÉÏÍâÐÂÎÅÍø > ½²×ù±¨¸æ > ¡¾4ÔÂ5ÈÕ¡¿
> Dr. Francois Victor Tochon£ºDeep Language Policy Research in Education
> ¡¾4ÔÂ5ÈÕ¡¿
>
> http://news.shisu.edu.cn/lecture/2012/2012,lecture,018008.shtml
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> ------------------------------
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> Message: 2
> Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2012 10:16:49 -0400
> From: Harold Schiffman <hfsclpp at gmail.com>
> Subject: [lg policy] Mojave language recovery - Keeping languages
> 	alive
> To: lp <lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu>
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> Forwarded From: Teresa McCarty <Teresa.McCarty at asu.edu>
>  Mojave language recovery - Keeping languages alive
>
>
> full story:
> http://researchmatters.asu.edu/stories/cultural-conservation-keeping-languages-alive-2184
> --
> Teresa L. McCarty, Ph.D.
> AW Snell Professor of Education Policy Studies
> Professor of Applied Linguistics
> Arizona State University
> 2011-12 NEH Resident Scholar, School for Advanced Research, Santa Fe, NM
> Permanent Address:
> School of Social Transformation
> PO Box 874902
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> PH: 480.965.6292
> Teresa.McCarty at asu.edu
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> Message: 3
> Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2012 10:19:33 -0400
> From: Harold Schiffman <hfsclpp at gmail.com>
> Subject: [lg policy] call: Recherches sur le Bilinguisme et le
> 	Multilinguisme
> To: lp <lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu>
> Message-ID:
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>
> Recherches sur le Bilinguisme et le Multilinguisme
>
> Date: 08-May-2012 - 08-May-2012
> Location: Montreal, Canada
> Contact: Phaedra Royle
> Contact Email: < click here to access email >
>
> Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics; Language Acquisition;
> Neurolinguistics; Psycholinguistics
>
> Meeting Description:
>
> À l’occasion du 80e Congrès de l’Acfas qui se tiendra au Palais de Congrès
> de Montréal du 7 au 11 mai 2012, nous ouvrons un appel de propositions pour
> un colloque sur les thèmes du bilinguisme, de l’acquisition d’une langue
> seconde et du multilinguisme. Les chercheurs dans les domaines suivants
> sont encouragés à soumettre leurs recherches récentes : linguistique
> théorique, psycholinguistique, neurosciences, orthophonie et linguistique
> appliquée, ainsi que tout autre domaine connexe. Les étudiants gradués sont
> vivement encouragés à soumettre leurs travaux à ce colloque.
>
> Le colloque se tiendra le mardi 8 mai 2012. La session matinale sera
> orientée
> vers la recherche. La session de l’après-midi comprendra trois conférences
> grand public.
>
> On occasion of the 80th ACFAS Conference (Association francophone pour
> le savoir) in May 2012, we are organizing a 1-day symposium on bilingualism,
> second language acquisition, and multilingualism on May 8, 2012, sponsored
> by the CRBLM.
>
> The symposium will have 2 parts:
>
> (1) A morning session with scientific talks and posters for researchers
> (2) An afternoon session with 3 talks for the general public (Fred Genesee,
> Ana Ines Ansaldo, Karsten Steinhauer)
>
> Details of the conference program can be found here
> http://www.acfas.ca/evenements/congres/programme/80/600/609/c
>
> Note that three public lectures on bilingualism will be held in the
> afternoon.
> Our invited speakers are Fred Genesee, Karsten Steinhauer and Ana Inés
> Ansaldo
>
> Information on registration can be found here
> http://www.acfas.ca/evenements/congres/inscription
>
> Note that early registration ends on March 31st, 2012
>
> hotel information can be found here:
> http://www.acfas.ca/evenements/congres/informations-utiles
>
> http://linguistlist.org/issues/23/23-1498.html
>
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> ------------------------------
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> Message: 4
> Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2012 10:24:00 -0400
> From: Harold Schiffman <hfsclpp at gmail.com>
> Subject: [lg policy] TIMOR-LESTE: When do mother tongues divide?
> To: lp <lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu>
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> TIMOR-LESTE: When do mother tongues divide?
>
> When can A-B-C's spell conflict?
>
> DILI, 26 March 2012 (IRIN) - A proposal to sanction the use of
> indigenous languages in primary schools in polyglot Timor-Leste has
> divided members of government, civil society and educators, raising
> questions about how language can spur harmony - or discord - in the
> young nation.
>
> The “mother-tongue” programme is spearheaded by the United Nations
> Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which has
> promoted similar programmes in other countries. Programme organizers
> say children best develop cognitive skills when taught in the language
> spoken in the home during their first years of school, rather than in
> official national languages - Tetum and Portuguese in the case of
> Timor-Leste - which are less commonly used in community settings.
>
> Instructing children in their household languages prevents poorer
> children, who tend to be less exposed to languages spoken outside
> their homes, from being disadvantaged in school and eventually
> dropping out, said UNESCO. About one in five children in Timor-Leste
> must repeat the first year of schooling, and half of the students who
> enrol in primary school do not complete it, according to the most
> recent UN Human Development Index.
>
> “Portuguese resonates historically, socially and culturally for
> Timorese like no other language, but the reality is that in many homes
> across Timor-Leste, neither [Tetum or Portuguese] is the first
> language of communities, so their use inhibits [children’s] ability to
> acquire new knowledge,” Kirsty Sword-Gusmão, an Australian-born social
> activist who is head of the country’s UNESCO office, told IRIN.
>
> Poor education and the limitations it imposes on job opportunities for
> young people are among the leading potential causes of future
> friction, she added. Youth gang violence has until recently been
> problematic in cities, but is now declining. Barbara Thornton, an
> education specialist and consultant on Timor-Leste’s mother-tongue
> project on behalf of the World Bank, said current language policies
> carry the risk of “entrenching class differences”.
>
> Portugal controlled Timor-Leste as a colony until 1975. Less than two
> weeks into Timor-Leste’s independence, Indonesia invaded and began a
> brutal 24-year occupation. A quarter of the island nation’s population
> perished under Indonesian rule.
> Many of Timor-Leste’s independence leaders were educated in Portuguese
> and have promoted it as the language of resistance to emphasize
> historical and cultural differences between their would-be nation and
> surrounding island territories controlled by Indonesia.
>
> They also deemed Portuguese to be a neutral language among the people
> of Timor-Leste, which has dozens of indigenous languages. When
> Timor-Leste achieved independence, its leaders chose Portuguese and
> Tetum as the country’s official languages and instructed schools to
> teach in these. Tetum had by then emerged as a language spoken by a
> majority of Timorese, while Portuguese was spoken by just a fraction
> of the population. Today, teachers and students alike are still
> struggling to catch up to the policy.
>
> Bonafacio Barros, an 18-year-old high school student in Dili, the
> capital, said he tended to “tune out” when his instructors used
> Portuguese. “We can only understand a little bit.” Julia Gaio, an
> adviser to the Ministry of Education, said many teachers struggled to
> engage primary school students in their lessons unless they used the
> children’s household language. Though most people in Timor-Leste speak
> Tetum by adulthood, many have a tenuous grasp of the language during
> their first years of schooling.
>
> The mother-tongue programme will instruct in students’ household
> languages in their first years at school, after which Tetum and
> Portuguese will be gradually included. A pilot programme is scheduled
> to be introduced in twelve primary schools across the country in
> April. Opponents say the project will be difficult to implement
> because most of the country’s indigenous languages have little or no
> script and limited vocabularies.
>
> More importantly, they argue, mother-tongue instruction could
> jeopardize national unity in a country with less than a decade of
> self-rule and a history of bloody flare-ups derived from regional
> factionalism. “This policy would inculcate a sense of division… it
> would slowly start to destroy national identity and unity,” said a
> statement reflecting the strong opposition to the plan in some parts
> of the country. It was released by a coalition of local NGOs, some of
> which later withdrew their support.
>
> “We are struggling to consolidate unity so that everybody thinks as
> East Timorese instead of thinking, I’m a Mumbai, I’m a Fataluco,
> etc.,” President José Ramos-Horta told IRIN, referring to two of the
> country’s ethnic groups. In 2008, Ramos-Horta barely survived an
> assassination attempt that stemmed, in part, from regional
> factionalism.
>
> He is concerned that a rollout beyond the 12 schools may detract from
> efforts to boost literacy in Tetum, but proponents of the programme
> see the opposite. “It is actually a way to keep the nation together by
> [valuing] different languages and cultures,” said Agustinho Caet, an
> official at the Ministry of Education. “If you don’t, it could create
> conflict. People will say, ‘You are forgetting about our language.’”
>
> http://www.irinnews.org/Report/95153/TIMOR-LESTE-When-do-mother-tongues-divide
>
> --
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-- 
Kerry

Dr Kerry Taylor-Leech |
Lecturer in Applied Linguistics/TESOL |
School of Education and Professional Studies | Griffith University |
176 Messines Ridge Rd, Queensland 4122 | Australia

PH +61 (0)7 3735 5860 |
MOBILE +61 (0) 404 010 006 |
FAX +61 (0)7 3735 5991 |
EMAIL k.taylor-leech at griffith.edu.au

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