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An introduction to the great variety of language used throughout the Caribbean region, aimed at secondary school and university students of English and Use of English and Communication in the Caribbean, as well as teachers and lecturers within multicultural societies.
The book concentrates on the following topics: The different varieties of language to be found in everyday West Indian society Differences in outstanding features of individual West Indian territories Information about the historical sources of West Indian English The difficulties of representing a predominantly oral culture in writing The orthography used to represent spoken language Various features of technology adopted by West Indians in methods of communication Language and the supernatural - an additional, new section The development of language education policy Some aspects of practice in teaching and learning in West Indian schools
First published in 1979. The performance of West Indian children in British schools has been the subject of enquiries by both a parliamentary select committee and the Department of Education. It is widely believed that an important factor in the relative failure of West Indian children is the language they use, West Indian Creole, and while teachers and others who work with them are aware that their language is often very different from British English, they seldom understand the nature of the differences, or their implications. The aim of this book is to provide the non-specialist with an account of the language of West Indian children and to examine how linguistic ‘interference’ can affect their level of reading, writing and understanding, even when they have been born in Britain. It also considers the worrying possibility that negative attitudes towards them and their language may have an adverse effect on their motivation to learn standard English. Viv Edwards places great stress on the fact that, although Creole is different from British English, it is in no way deficient as a language. She emphasizes the importance of familiarity with the structure of Creole, since it is only in this way that the teachers can discriminate between real mistakes and Creole ‘interference’. Attention is drawn to the relationship between language attitudes and social stereotypes and the danger that these might be translated into reality. Different strategies available to the teacher are examined, drawing on American experience in this field, and various initiatives taken by British teachers are described, thus making the study a work of practical value to teachers and others.
Glenn A. Chambers examines the West Indian immigrant community in Honduras through the development of the country's fruit industry, revealing that West Indians fought to maintain their identities as workers, Protestants, blacks, and English speakers in the midst of popular Latin American nationalistic notions of mestizaje, or mixed-race identity.
The British Isles are home to a vast range of different spoken and signed languages and dialects. Language continues to evolve rapidly, in its diversity, in the number and the backgrounds of its speakers, and in the repercussions it has had for political and educational affairs. This book provides a comprehensive survey of the dominant languages and dialects used in the British Isles. Topics covered include the history of English; the relationship between Standard and Non-Standard Englishes; the major non-standard varieties spoken on the islands; and the history of multilingualism; and the educational and planning implications of linguistic diversity in the British Isles. Among the many dialects and languages surveyed by the volume are British Black English, Celtic languages, Chinese, Indian, European migrant languages, British Sign Language, and Anglo-Romani. Clear and accessible in its approach, it will be welcomed by students in sociolinguistics, English language, and dialectology, as well as anyone interested more generally in language within British society.
The story of West Indian immigrants to the United States is generally considered to be a great success. Mary Waters, however, tells a very different story. She finds that the values that gain first-generation immigrants initial success--a willingness to work hard, a lack of attention to racism, a desire for education, an incentive to save--are undermined by the realities of life and race relations in the United States. Contrary to long-held beliefs, Waters finds, those who resist Americanization are most likely to succeed economically, especially in the second generation.
This introduction to West Indian poetry is written for readers making their first approach to the poetry of the Caribbean written in English. It offers a comprehensive literary history from the 1920s to the 1980s, with particular attention to the relationship of West Indian poetry to European, African and American literature. Close readings of individual poems give detailed analysis of social and cultural issues at work in the writing. Laurence Breiner's exposition speaks powerfully about the defining forces in Caribbean culture from colonialism to resistance and decolonization.
Caribbean migration to Britain brought many new things--new music, new foods, new styles. It brought new ways of thinking too. This lively, innovative book explores the intellectual ideas which the West Indians brought with them to Britain. It shows that for more than a century West Indians living in Britain developed a dazzling intellectual critique of the codes of Imperial Britain. This is the first comprehensive discussion of the major Caribbean thinkers who came to live in twentieth-century Britain. Chapters discuss the influence of, amongst others, C.L.R. James, Una Marson, George Lamming, Jean Rhys, Claude McKay and V.S. Naipaul.
This study presents the movement from an oral to a literate culture in the West Indies with the English language as central to this movement. The period examined, from the start of the first English settlement in the islands up to the time of Emancipation, was the period which established the foundations of West Indian society. The study relates the movement towards a literate culture to the development of methods of communication in the plantation slave society, to general literary and intellectual development, and to the expansion of formal education. Literacy in English is regarded as a barometer of social development because the English language was sustained internally and externally as the language of those who ruled and, contrary to fundamental notions associated with the power of literacy, it maintained privilege within certain sectors of the society. There is no other study which provides the interdisciplinary approach of this work in accounting for the development of literate culture in the West Indies.