This Jamaican School has “Patois Free Zone” for English Only #patois #patwah #jamaica

[Xavier]

I think this approach is wrong. Patois need to recognized as an official language.





Could Jamaican schools start to establish “patois free zones” for Standard English only? It’s unverified but a tweet and photo being circulated on Twitter shows a “Patois Free” zone sign at Rio Bueno Primary Trelawny, Jamaica.

- See more at: http://blogs.jamaicans.com/soapbox/#....dPar2hxx.dpuf

[evanovitch]

I think this approach is wrong. Patois need to recognized as an official language.





Could Jamaican schools start to establish “patois free zones” for Standard English only? It’s unverified but a tweet and photo being circulated on Twitter shows a “Patois Free” zone sign at Rio Bueno Primary Trelawny, Jamaica.

- See more at: http://blogs.jamaicans.com/soapbox/#....dPar2hxx.dpuf

wen i was in school, we could speak it on the playground but once in class, it was standard english…said way in the house at mealtime..that was wen our parents corrected our speech n language used….out teachers use to encourage us to have an exercise book in which we would write big words we came upon in our reading that we had to look up the meaning…that was how we expanded our vocabulary…and they use to encourage us to use different words with similar meanings, also to expand our vocabulary…i have to admit that wen i went back on the campus of SAHS my HS n heard a teacher speaking in the broadest tone n using patois, i was shocked…it was so unlike what i had met in my seven years there back in my time…call me a snob but that was my reaction…very unsettling…but then i am perturbed by our seeming to have left our old mantra of our girls being leaders of industry n playing up to our being beauty contestant winners etc…time passes on indeed

[Peasie]

I think this approach is wrong. Patois need to recognized as an official language.

Xavier, I think you and the blogger are over-thinking this incident.

For one, the school may not be frowning on or dissing patois as a language. Maybe in setting up the "no patois" policy the school is encouraging higher test scores in English language arts. This is a primary school is in Rio Bueno, Trelawny .. surely they want their students achieving higher scores on standardized (non-patois based) tests so the children can go on to secondary school?

Secondly, the primary school can establish a "no patois" policy in the school. AND patois can be recognized as an official language. These are not necessarily mutually exclusive events. Maybe the intent is to have everyone in the school - teachers, students, staff - to put aside patois so that English grammar can be normal and everyday and not limited to a test that they have to study for.

[Xavier]

Xavier, I think you and the blogger are over-thinking this incident.

For one, the school may not be frowning on or dissing patois as a language. Maybe in setting up the "no patois" policy the school is encouraging higher test scores in English language arts. This is a primary school is in Rio Bueno, Trelawny .. surely they want their students achieving higher scores on standardized (non-patois based) tests so the children can go on to secondary school?

Secondly, the primary school can establish a "no patois" policy in the school. AND patois can be recognized as an official language. These are not necessarily mutually exclusive events. Maybe the intent is to have everyone in the school - teachers, students, staff - to put aside patois so that English grammar can be normal and everyday and not limited to a test that they have to study for.

A great point. After some thought I also see this as a step in the right direction to a language. I understand that schools trying to teach other language's set up zones in the classrooms for "No English. Spanish Only" or "French Only".

[Wahalla]

Look at the CSEC English results and that explains the reason...

[evanovitch]

Look at the CSEC English results and that explains the reason...

even UWI grads not passing their English proficiency exams…..do they still have GP in Alevels….u had to pass that along with ur Alevel subjects even though the GP was marked at OLevel grade

[Wahalla]

https://www.cxc.org/SiteAssets/Timetables/Timetable%20CAPE%20May-June%202015%20finalRevOct2014.pdf

Dont seem to Evan..

I thought GP was A/O like additional mathematics!

[seemiyah]

I think more and more schools are doing this, my mother told me she met a student of a school in portmore and the child said they were only allowed to speak standard English at school.

Thwaites: English needs greater improvement
ALTHOUGH THERE was a marginal two per cent increase in passes in English A in this year's Caribbean Secondary (CSEC) examinations, Education Minister Ronald said significant work needs to be done to improve students' performance in the subject. With 26,527 students sitting the subject (64 per cent of the full cohort), 66 per cent passed, compared to 64 per cent last year. However, whereas most students received an 'A' for understanding, most also received an 'E' for expression.

"This points out the need for far more reading and speaking in English, and it underscores the imperative for teachers to provide adequate opportunities for practice and feedback on students writing," Thwaites stated on Monday at a press conference at the ministry's office to outline the 2014 CSEC and Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) results.

"In light of this, in two years there will be an oral testing in English for all students." Additionally, he said, for the new school year, 120 literacy coaches will be assigned to assist schools, particularly the weaker ones, to improve the outcomes.

"For many of our students the English language is not their first language, and although our Jamaican language is to be respected and cherished, it is not the English language, it is something different," said the minister. "What is absolutely essential is that, by whatever means, students by grade four should have reasonable competence in the English language."

Rest of article: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/2...ews/news1.html

[RichD]

even UWI grads not passing their English proficiency exams…..do they still have GP in Alevels….u had to pass that along with ur Alevel subjects even though the GP was marked at OLevel grade

they don't do a-levels anymore

[Yuriatin]

No - ur not a snob.

It's RIDICULOUS that so many young people can barely string a sentence together, communicate effectively.

It's fine if patois is an official language - but we need to prepare ourselves for an increasingly competitive world.

Pains me to hear some of our people (young AND OLDER) speak these days.

wen i was in school, we could speak it on the playground but once in class, it was standard english…said way in the house at mealtime..that was wen our parents corrected our speech n language used….out teachers use to encourage us to have an exercise book in which we would write big words we came upon in our reading that we had to look up the meaning…that was how we expanded our vocabulary…and they use to encourage us to use different words with similar meanings, also to expand our vocabulary…i have to admit that wen i went back on the campus of SAHS my HS n heard a teacher speaking in the broadest tone n using patois, i was shocked…it was so unlike what i had met in my seven years there back in my time…call me a snob but that was my reaction…very unsettling…but then i am perturbed by our seeming to have left our old mantra of our girls being leaders of industry n playing up to our being beauty contestant winners etc…time passes on indeed

[MrsBlue]

To me, this sounds very much like the debate that took place some time back about Ebonics and whether it was a language. I've had someone express to me that Ebonics is related to the language of the Geechee/Gullah people and that it is a dialect of English.

It also brings to mind the recent post here about being articulate, and while that post was related to technology, at about the same time I'd heard a radio piece that I liked on the subject of being articulate.

http://www.npr.org/2014/11/14/362372...-be-articulate

[Wahalla]

Mrs Blue... this is not the ebonics debate IMHO. this is not about the legitimasy of the patwa... it is accepted in Jamaica... it is about when or where to use... Should it be used in the class room i dont think it should be... in the play ground among peers it should be left alone...

I think we have to acknowledge like Thawaites that there is an issue of the use of English... it was his party that made the school envirometn that Evan spoke eloquently about seem elitist.... and used the excuse of the sufferas... it is the one that we should have encouraged and we did not. And so i agree with the Evaneque aproach.... (love call ar name u si)

Personally I acknowledge that my basic english spelling is poor, and i am astonished that i have both CXC B and Cambridge C pass in English as well as a B in General paper. I was never taught the basic rules of grammar or spelling... as i read alot i speak english instintively..

An interesting aside that acknowledges the Evanesque attitude among Jamaicans my age of middle class afectation.... i was in Jamaica in my beloved ST E hills last year... i had just left Bethlehem Teachers College (The home of the most sexually vibrant females on the planet) and we saw a young man dressed smartly in a shirt and tie. He stood by the saide of the road and shouted loudly in Patwa.. My Companion in the car, a well known Jamaican of our age made the assumption that the man in question was a teacher....he made the comment that he despaired at this behaviour as in our day a teacher held themselves above a) shouting b) the use of patwa..

Me the ever contrarian commented that context is every thing i see nothing wrong with the young mans action except that if he was a teacher he was late! And if he was late he was stealing from me!.. I made teh point had the teachers been more like him in our day mayber i would not have seen them as so alien! I never had any teacher who ever mentored me in a non negative manner so i tend to see teacher as cruel sadist.... (my friend made the comment that is because i was always self sufficent without any apprent weakness)

Last year there was a question of the use of patwa in Parliment...normally they dont stop its use if english is the main thrust but a patwa expression is used.