PACIFIC ISLANDS FORUM SECRETARIAT



PIFS(04)FEDMA.07

EDUCATION MINISTERS MEETING

Apia, Samoa
28-29 January 2004




AGENDA ITEM 7





LANGUAGE AND CULTURE IN THE PACIFIC REGION: ISSUES,
PRACTICES, AND ALTERNATIVES




















This paper was prepared for the Forum Secretariat by Dr ‘Ana Taufeulungaki, Director of
the Institute of Education of the University of the South Pacific.

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PACIFIC ISLANDS FORUM SECRETARIAT



PIFS(04)FEDMA.07

EDUCATION MINISTERS MEETING

Apia, Samoa
28-29 January 2004

Summary brief

LANGUAGE AND CULTURE IN THE PACIFIC REGION: ISSUES,
PRACTICES, AND ALTERNATIVES

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore some of the pertinent issues relating to
language choices and offer some suggested pathways that could be considered by policy
makers and education systems.

Background

2 The issue of what language to use by whom and at what level of the education system
is a continuing challenge that Pacific countries address in different ways. The choice of a
language is not easy, particularly in the multicultural, multiethnic and multilingual
contexts of many Pacific countries. Decisions are based on a multitude of inter-related
factors, which include political, economic, socio-cultural and educational factors.

3 However, educationally, it is clear, from studies around the world, that the mother
tongue is the best medium for teaching a child. A World Bank commissioned study of
1994 found that a mother tongue medium is not only best educationally for the child but
it is also critically related to the child's cognitive development and the effective learning
of a second language.

4 Although Pacific countries recognise the importance of using a mother tongue as the
medium of instruction in schools, in reality, a variety of policies and practices are found,
and in almost all cases, the mother tongue is used only as a medium of instruction in the
first six years of primary education, if that. Pacific students are, therefore, required to
learn a second language as the medium of instruction in schools. There are several
difficulties that could arise in this situation. If the mother tongue is not strong, students
will have difficulty in acquiring the second language, which will have negative impacts
on their learning and educational achievement. A language also is not learned in
isolation. It comes with the cultural values, beliefs, rules and conventions of its home

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culture. The student is required not only to be literate in the language but in the culture of
that language also. In addition, the schools are often modelled on western-forms of
education, which originate from different value systems and have different rules of
communications, and promote different teaching and learning strategies, which are
different from the socio-cultural home contexts of most Pacific students. The results are
weakened Pacific languages and communities that could suffer extinction and high
failure rates in education for Pacific students.

5 If the twin goals of achieving national unity and modernity are to be realised, Pacific
nations must seriously consider their most practical language options.

6 The most immediate is the training of teachers to be at least bilingually and
biculturally competent in their own languages and cultures and those of their students.

7 Other options, however, could include teaching the two cultural domains (Pacific and
western) separately within the school system. The other is to recognise the differences but
to build bridges between the two by adapting the school contents, administrative
procedures, teaching and learning styles, values, knowledge-systems, etc. to incorporate
those of the home cultures. Another option is to keep separate the functions, with clear
domains for usage, of the vernacular languages and those of wider communication. It has
been found for example that mother tongues survive better in situations where the
functions of the languages are kept separate than in situations where the languages are
used indiscriminately in a number of overlapping functions.

8 Another option is for multilingual and multicultural nations to identify the basic
values, beliefs, knowledge-systems and characteristics of their various communities and
develop their education systems based on the common features shared by those
communities whilst at the same time providing opportunities for the further development
and strengthening of individual socio-cultural and language communities.

9 The language issue is, indeed, complex and the language choices that nations make
depend on their visions and developmental goals, and the resources and commitment,
they to have achieving them.

Recommendations

10 It is recommended that Ministers:

(a)
Note the contents of this paper;

(b)
Consider adopting national language policies as part of the education planning
process; and

(c)
Request PRIDE to hold a follow-up regional meeting on language policy and
practice for senior education officials.

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PACIFIC ISLANDS FORUM SECRETARIAT



PIFS(04)FEDMA.07

EDUCATION MINISTERS MEETING

Apia, Samoa
28-29 January 2004


LANGUAGE AND CULTURE IN THE PACIFIC REGION: ISSUES,
PRACTICES, AND ALTERNATIVES

Introduction

1 The issue of what language to be used by whom for what purposes at what level of
the education system continues to challenge Pacific member states. The purpose of this
paper, then, is to explore some of the pertinent issues relating to language choices and
offer some suggested pathways that could be considered by policy makers and education
systems. Part I describes the Pacific language context, and some of the common reasons
used by nations to justify language choices. The second part looks at the current language
policies and practices in the formal education systems in the region, and in particular, in
the context of the relationships between language and culture and teaching and learning.
Part III offers some policy options for future educational developments.

PART I:
The Language Context in the Pacific Region1 and Nature of Language

Background

2 The Pacific2 is often spoken of as the most linguistically complex region in the
world3, with over a thousand distinct vernacular4 languages spoken by its inhabitants of
less than 10m5. According to Mugler and Lynch, this represents one fifth of the world's
languages and the linguistic situation is complex not only because of the number of
languages spoken, but the 'number of different unrelated language families represented,

1 See Annex 1 for basic language data on the countries of the region.
2 Used here to refer only to the Pacific states of the Pacific Forum countries, but excluding Australia and New Zealand: Cook Islands,
Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Samoa,
Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.
3 Mugler, F. and Lynch, John (eds.). 1996. Pacific Languages in Education. Institute of Pacific Studies, Suva. Department of Literature
and Language, Suva. Pacific Languages Unit, Vanuatu.
4 A vernacular language is defined by Mugler and Lynch as 'the language of a community, which is rarely used outside the
community' (op cit:9).
5 7.49m including Tokelau but 8.22m if Northern Mariana, Pitcairn Is, Wallis and Futuna, French Polynesia, Guam and New
Caledonia are included. Compiled from http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/wf.html#top

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the high degree of multilingualism, and the development of pidgins, creoles6 and similar
contact languages' (1996:9). Most of these languages are found in the Melanesian
countries: 800+ in Papua New Guinea, 65 or so in the Solomon Islands7, and an estimated
105 in Vanuatu. Because of the geographical nature of the region, the number of speakers
of each language is small, averaging around 5,000-6,000. The vernacular languages with
the largest numbers of speakers are Fijian, with 300,000+ speakers, Samoan, with
250,000+ speakers, and Enga (PNG) with around 200,000+ speakers.8 About 170
languages, on the other hand, almost all of which are found in Melanesia, have less than
200 speakers. In Vanuatu, there are 2 languages, which have but two speakers left. The
point that is laboured here is that multilingualism is the norm in almost all Pacific
countries, although, if a continuum were drawn, Melanesian countries, which are more
multilingual, would be found at one end and Polynesian countries, which have far fewer
languages and dialects9, would be found at one end, with the Micronesian countries
plotted in-between.

3 In addition, however, to the vernacular languages, indigenous to the region, the
missionaries, traders, and colonisers who settled the Pacific region after European contact
also brought their languages with them. They include English, French, Spanish, Japanese,
Chinese, Hindustani, Filipino, Korean, and German, some of which have become the
lingua franca10 in some Pacific island states. English is by far the most important of the
imported languages, followed by French, and both have become the official languages11
of most Pacific islands nations as well as of regional organisations.

4 The early contacts between the Pacific vernaculars and the metropolitan languages
have resulted in the development of pidgin languages, some of which have become the
lingua franca in and between Melanesian countries, and some have developed into
creoles, which are the first and only languages of some Pacific Islanders. In fact, the
language with the largest numbers of speakers in the region is Melanesian Pidgin, with an
estimated half a million speaking it as their first language and another two million who
use it as a second language. With these many languages in the region, it is to be expected
that the Pacific region is one of the most multilingual places of the world, with almost all
of its inhabitants speaking two or more languages. Bilingualism and multilingualism are
the norms and although the language of the school is often different from that of the
home, it is just 'another language to learn' (Mugler and Lynch, 1996:5).

5 However, because of the complexity of the linguistic situation in the region, the issue
of what language to use by whom for what purpose at what level of the education system

6 'Pidgin' and 'creoles' are defined by the Collins Dictionary, 1986 Education, respectively as 'a language made up of two or more other
languages and used for contacts between speakers of other languages' and ' a language that has its origin in extended contact between
language communities, one of which is generally European. It incorporates features from each and constitutes the mother tongue of a
community.'
7 Other sources out it as many as 120 indigenous languages.
8 Mugler and Lynch, ibid.
9 'Dialect' is defined as a 'form of a language spoken in a particular geograohical area or by members of particular social class or
occupational group, distinguished by its vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation' (Collins Dictionary, 1986 Edition).
10 'Lingua franca' is defined by Mugler and Lynch as 'the language of one community, which is used by speakers of other vernaculars,
to communicate across language boundaries' (op cit; 9).
11 It is usually a language that has been designated by law or by Government to be used for all official or government purposes. More
than one language could be designated as 'official' languages.

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is an on-going concern that all Pacific member states are attempting to address in
different ways. The choice of a language for a specific purpose is a decision that involves
a variety of factors, which include not only considerations of political, social, cultural,
economic, and educational factors, but an understanding also of the nature of language
itself, its socio-cultural roles, particularly its roles in the socialisation process, and the
development of cognitive systems.

a.
Political Factors

6 The language choices that countries make, whether for national or educational
purposes, are justified on a number of levels. At the political level the two main purposes
relate to national unity, with its implications of identity and authenticity, and
modernisation. In multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multilingual nations, which often did
not have a common, nationwide, ethnic and cultural identity, they had to create such an
identity through national symbols that can lead to common mobilisation and involvement
beyond pre-existing ethnic-cultural particularities. A national language12 is often invoked
as a unifying symbol and serves both the function of political integration and the strive
for a unique and authentic identity. In the meantime, the continuing and efficient
operations of government call for a different language policy, with 'efficiency' being the
key word. The main purpose here is the establishment of cohesive and administrative
efficiency within a divided social, linguistic, ethnic and cultural nation. The main concern
is the maintenance of operations of government and ensuring strong links between the
governed and the governing, and through those ties to promote the modern
developmental goals of the nation. The first reason is basically socio-cultural while the
second is political and the two rarely coincide.

b.
Socio-cultural Factors

7 At the socio-cultural level, language is recognised as a social tool and that it performs
a variety of critical functions, one of which is individual and group identification.
Language is the means through which an individual is socialised into membership of a
particular group. In this sense, the mother tongue is considered more important than any
other symbol or expression of nationality. The language is, therefore, used as the most
visible form of group identity and without it there is neither identity nor nationality. In
such cases, the main concerns of countries are with language revival and maintenance,
with matters of code selection and codification, standardisation and elaboration and with
efforts to develop the language for both sentimental and instrumental functions. They
often have a concern too with language 'purity' to preserve the authenticity of the national
identity and its uniqueness but at the same time, language must also be the means of
modernising a nation. Since language carry both 'communicative' and 'symbolic'
functions, the complex interactions between the two in a way defines the limitation of the
group, and only those who grow up within the community can fully translate the
historical and cultural associations embedded in the 'communication' (Steiner, 1975).


12 Defined as 'a language that is considered representative of a nation or nationality' [http://ponce.inter.edu/vl/tesis/Sharon/chap1.html]


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The other important variables in socio-cultural factors are attitudes and motivations,
which determine in many ways individual language choices.

c.
Economic Factors

8 The modernisation of a country is usually equated with economic development and
Edwards (1985:85) argues that language decisions are more often made “on economic (at
least pragmatic motives) than is commonly supposed' and that decisions to adopt a
language of wider communication (LWC), such as English or French, were made in the
name of ‘linguistic practicality, communicative efficiency, social mobility and economic
advancement'. Such choices relate to the view that language is a resource and a ‘product’,
which can be manipulated to achieve behavioural change. Thus, the language behaviour
of groups of people is seen as a national resource in the same way as technical skills or
numbers of workers and therefore, it is an important instrument to achieve certain results.
Individuals and communities make language choices based on what Jernudd (1971) calls
the 'concept of opportunity'. Thus, language, as a type of human capital, is useful in
consumption or production activity and therefore, language choice in made in many
instances in relation to the socio-economic power of the group and people use a
particular language not because it is theirs or that it defines their ethnicity but because
they profit from it. The issue of costs of languages choices have to be balanced against
the gains and benefits to be made both in the short and long-terms.

d.
Education Factors

9 Education and language are the two most common vehicles used by nations in their
attempts to achieve internal cohesion and modernization. The answer to the question of
what language to use at what level of the education system is usually a mixture of
political, socio-cultural, and economic factors. Rarely is the answer based on purely
educational considerations. Governments and politicians, or those who decide language
policies are often biased towards national concerns but education systems, on the other
hand, are focused, however, on the business of creating opportunities whereby
individuals learn to develop their fullest potential. The language policies that, thus,
interest national language planners are those that would best serve national interests;
education favours those that would allow the individual some measure of control over
his/her own destiny. The national planners are concerned with po1icies - the education
system with implementation and with the factors that would guarantee to some degree a
successful language programme, such as whether there is evidence of standardizations in
the form of orthographies, dictionaries and grammars; whether there are language
materials appropriate to the pupils and their particular conditions; whether there are
trained language teachers; and whether there are support services and resources available.
It is possible, of course, that the language aims of the nation, are congruent with those of
the individual members of the society, and in meeting the interests of the nation, the
needs of the individual are being served too. But it is possible that the two could conflict,
and where this occurs, it is the individual needs that are more likely to be sacrificed.

10 However, the education services of nations are expected to serve too the needs of
individuals but they pose conundrums for nations with limited resources. The costs of

7

language development, and indeed education as a whole, have to be measured against
other forms of development within the nation. Within education itself, it is not just a
simple matter of mother tongue education versus a LWC, but of language development
versus other national goals such as capital investments (more classrooms, libraries,
laboratories), teacher training, curriculum development, or primary education, or non—
formal adult education versus the formal education system. The competing variables that
have to be considered are so often complex that many nations have no choice but to base
their educational language policies on expediency.

11 But individuals adopt a language for their own personal reasons, and at the national
and school levels, these reasons can determine whether the individual participates
positively to its successful acquisition or negatively to its failure. This is, in the final
analysis, the least accountable variable in education and also one of the most commonly
neglected features in language development.

Part II:
Pacific Language Policies and Practices in the Context of the Nature
of Language and its Relationship to Culture, Teaching and Learning

a.
The Rationale for Mother Tongue Education

12 The use of vernacular languages or mother-tongues as the preferred medium of
instruction in schools has come to be more or less universally accepted ever since the
UNESCO Meeting of Specialists (1951) supported it with an official statement to the
effect that the best medium, psychologically, sociologically, and educationally for
teaching a child is his mother tongue. Since, then, research has strongly supported and
advocated the use of the mother tongue as the medium of education for the whole of
primary education or at the least, in the early years of primary education, and to teach it
both as a subject in its own right and as the foundation for successful second language
acquisition.

13 More recent developments in the recognition of the rights of minorities and
indigenous peoples have strengthened the political will of emerging nations to use their
own vernacular languages as tools for education and transformation. For instance, Item 3
of Article 4 of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic,
Religious and Linguistic Minorities urged that “states should take appropriate measures
so that, wherever possible, persons belonging to minorities may have adequate
opportunities to learn their mother tongue or to have instruction in their mother tongue.”
Similarly, Article 15 of the Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples affirms
that “indigenous children have the right to all levels and forms of education of the State.
All indigenous peoples also have this right and the right to establish and control the
educational systems and institutions providing education in their own languages, in a
manner appropriate to their cultural methods of teaching and learning. Indigenous
children living outside their communities have the right to be provided access to
education in their own culture and language. States shall take effective measures to
provide appropriate resources for the purposes.”


8

14 These recommendations are based on the understanding that language is a
manifestation of the underlying knowledge, beliefs, values, etc. of its cultural context.
The choice of using the mother tongue as a medium of instruction is, therefore, based
only partly on its educational efficacy. A major purpose is the desire to maintain and
revitalise both the language and the culture associated with it. At the same time, as
previously discussed in Part I, it is acknowledged that no society today can exist any
more in isolation. All societies, irrespective of geographical location or political
persuasion, have become part of the global community, particularly of a market-driven
economic system. The recent enormous strides forward in information and
communications technologies have shrunk the world even further, making it mandatory
for any community wishing to participate as equals in the world community to master the
tools of wider communication (language, as well as computer literacy) in order to
develop the new relationships, networks and linkages necessary for survival and progress
in the world of today and the future.

15 Educationally, the language of the school is chosen to assist in the improvement of
access to and equity in basic education, the quality of teaching and student learning, the
efficiency of the system by eliminating or reducing failure, and by preserving and
revitalising the mother tongue.

b.
Language Policies in the Region

16 In countries where there is relative language homogeneity, as is found in many of the
Polynesian countries of the Pacific, such as Samoa and Tonga where there is one
dominant vernacular language spoken by almost the entire population, the mother tongue
is accorded high status, is recognised as the national language and the official language
co-jointly with English, and further, is officially designated as the medium of instruction
for all or a part of primary education. It is taught as a subject not only at primary but also
at secondary level and beyond and is often used unofficially alongside English as the
language of instruction, as teachers code-switch between the two in attempts to clarify
new or complex concepts and ideas. However, in countries where there is not one or two
but hundreds of vernacular languages, as is the case in Melanesian countries, the issue of
what language to use in the school is highly complex and the decisions, therefore, as to
what language to use by whom for what purpose at what level of the education system are
often made on grounds other than educational.

17 To assist Pacific countries develop appropriate language policies which are likely to
promote increased access to and equity in basic education and to improve the quality of
teaching and learning and hence, educational achievement, the World Bank
commissioned a draft paper in 1994 (Dutcher et al) as part of a development strategy on
language in education. This paper reviewed the international experience in “The Use of
the First and Second Languages in Education” and found the following to be true
according to current research:
•
Children require at least 12 years to learn their first language.
•
Children do not learn second languages more quickly and easily than adults.
•
Older children and adolescents are more skilled than younger children in

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learning a second language.
•
The development of the child’s first language with its related cognitive
development is more important than more exposure to a second language.
•
Children in school settings need to learn academic language skills, as well as
social communication skills.
•
Children learn a second language in different ways, depending on their culture,
their group, and their individual personality.

17 From the review of the literature, the paper concluded that:
•
Development of the mother tongue is critical for cognitive development and as a
basis for learning the second language.
•
Teachers must be able to understand, speak, and use the language of instruction,
whether it is their first or second language.
•
Parental and community support and involvement are essential to all successful
programs.

18 From this review, the mother tongue is confirmed as, indeed, the best medium for
teaching a child, particularly in the early years of education since it is also clear that
children do not master their first language until they are at least 12 years of age and that it
is critical for both cognitive development and successful second language acquisition.
There is an even more compelling social and cultural reason for its use in schools: to
avert language and cultural loss and to assist in the process of maintaining and promoting
cultural identity, particularly for small, vulnerable languages and their cultures, which are
in grave danger of being lost. It has been estimated that by the middle of the twenty-first
century, more than three quarters of the world’s small minority languages would have
disappeared. It is already seen that 2 of the languages in Vanuatu have only 2 speakers
left. It is also clear that unless parents and communities are actively engaged in the
education process, which means giving recognition and respect to the cultures and
languages of those communities, where these differ from that of the school, and
according them appropriate status within the formal school system, students will continue
to underachieve in schools in the absence of such partnerships.13

19 In the region, Pacific member states have adopted a variety of language policies.
These language policies vary from country to country depending on each country’s
linguistic heritage, its political goals and visions for itself and its people, its educational
philosophy and ethos, socio-cultural context, colonial history, and economic capabilities.
The use of the mother tongue as a medium of education can be plotted along a continuum
with Tokelau and the Polynesian countries, such as Samoa and Tonga, at one end and the
Solomon Islands, where no vernacular is used at all at any level of the education system,
at the other end. The Melanesian, Micronesian and the remaining Polynesian countries
are found in-between these two extremes as demonstrated in the Table in Annex 2.


13 Taufe'ulungaki (1987) found, for instance, that language attitudes to the Tongan language was progressively less positive according
to age, with the youngest age groups demonstrating the least positive attitudes but conversely the highest positive attitudes towards
English, which is increasingly related to performance, where secondary students do better in English than in Tongan in the Tonga
School Certificate Examination. The 1996 Census of NZ also found that only 20% or so of Niueans and Cook Islanders born in NZ
could still speak their vernacular languages.

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20 The table shows that apart from two countries, namely, Vanuatu and the Solomon
Islands, the official language policies of Pacific countries recognise the importance of
using vernacular languages as a medium of instruction particularly in the early years of
primary education. This is nowhere more strongly evident than in Papua New Guinea,
where the Government has made the courageous decision to use mother tongue as the
medium of instruction for the first six years of basic education and where community
support has been very strong. For instance, the PNG Trust Inc, formed in 1989 by
community organisations, “has conducted training with the support of communities so
they could design their workbooks and story-books in more than 300 of the 869 plus
languages of PNG” (Abare and Manukayasi, 1996: 144). As the authors stated “people
thought, and many still think, that 100 per cent literacy is impossible in PNG because of
the hundreds of languages... We, PNG Trust, have proven that the number of languages is
inconsequential in the literacy equation.” (op cit:145-146).

21 The table also demonstrates the clear differences in the official language policies of
countries and actual classroom practices, in which teachers and students throughout the
region have been regularly found to code-switch between the official medium of
instruction and a language of mutual understanding in attempts to ensure that classrooms
interactions are meaningful and lead to quality learning and achievement.

c.
Culture and Its Relationship to Language Use

22 ‘Culture’ has been defined in a number of ways. In its most restricted sense, it was
traditionally defined as the ‘creative activities of cultural elites, the highest intellectual
achievements of human beings, music, literature, art and architecture.’ Thaman (1998),
from a Pacific’s perspective, defines ‘culture’ as a ‘shared way of living of a group of
people, which includes their accumulated knowledge and understandings, skills and
values, as expressed and constructed in their language, which is perceived by them to be
unique and meaningful.’ Bisch (1996: 121), from a western perspective, uses ‘culture’ to
apply to the ‘values, beliefs, languages, arts and sciences, traditions, institutions and ways
of life by means of which individuals or groups express the meanings they give to their
life and development.’ ‘Cultural identity’ applies to all cultural references through which
individuals or groups define and express themselves and by which they wish to be
recognised; cultural identity embraces the liberties inherent to human dignity and brings
together, in a permanent process, cultural diversity, the particular and universal, memory
and aspiration.’ ‘Cultural community’, then, ‘is a group of persons who share those
cultural references that comprise a common cultural identity, and which they wish to
preserve and develop, as essential to their human dignity, in the respect of human rights.'
In this universal sense of ‘culture’, both Pacific and western perspectives acknowledge
that language is embedded in culture.

23 Thus, all communicative acts, both verbal and non-verbal, take place within a socio-
cultural context. The socio-cultural context determines, to a large extent, not only the
communicative conventions adopted but the meanings and interpretations of the
interactions. Differences in the ways groups think and act are more than a matter of using
different words or performing different actions for the same purposes. The behaviour of

11

people varies, and the beliefs, values and assumptions that underlie behaviour, which are
culturally determined, differ as well. Culture influences both behaviour and the
psychological processes on which it rests. Culture determines the value systems of a
group, its world view, the nature and structure of knowledge, and how it creates shared
meanings, transmits knowledge, skills and values, and these are articulated and
manifested through the group’s language. Language is, indeed, the universal instrument
for transmission, promotion and transformation of culture. In other words, language
cannot be used in isolation as merely a tool of education divorced from its underlying
foundation, the culture of its speech community.

24 There are several cultural elements which have direct bearing on language and
communicative behaviour and which have implications for formal education and
classroom interactions: the value and belief systems of a group, and the informal learning
strategies usually employed by the group in traditional education contexts. The value and
belief systems of any cultural group determine not only the speech rules governing use of
language and its purposes, but also the learning strategies commonly used by the group
for purposes of cultural transfer and transformation. For example, in western societies,
the individual and his rights, his competence, skills, and products are highly valued. But,
in addition to cultural values, each culture has its own beliefs about knowledge, which are
linked to the key values of the culture and these, in turn, influence the way knowledge is
created, validated, transmitted and used.

i.
Western Systems

25 Thus, in western culture, in correspondence with the value of individualism,
knowledge is believed to be an open system, with distinct forms that are hierarchically
structured, through which human experience is articulated and made intelligible.
Education is a process whereby knowledge is transmitted but through the acquisition of
knowledge the mind itself is transformed and this is considered too an end in itself.

26 The central function of education, then, from this perspective is the introduction of
pupils to those forms of thought and knowledge which society values. Language is seen
as a key player in the development of thinking and understanding and in the transmission
of these to succeeding generations. How schools transmit knowledge is based on the
previously stated assumption that knowledge has distinct irreducible forms, which
provide the basis for subject divisions, and competence in a subject is gained serially and
learning is seen as an ordered progression through a hierarchy of knowledge and skill,
mediated through language.

27 The point that is stressed here is that it is from their value and belief systems that
cultural groups develop rules governing behaviour, including those for communicative
interactions, teaching and learning strategies, which are, in turn, consistent with their
value and belief systems. In western-style schooling the key value of individualism drives
the emphasis in classrooms on individual performance and achievement. Thus, the
individual and his/her learning needs become the focus of classroom activities and
competition is a strategy that is often used to promote and enhance individual success in

12

verbal and non-verbal interactions, question and answer routines, and the performance of
tasks. Verbal direction and instruction in which explication, elaboration and expansion,
which gradually progress into increasingly abstract and decontextualised use of language,
become the major classroom teaching strategy.

28 This western view of knowledge and education has come to be accepted without
question as universally applicable to all accounts of all possible forms of education,
rationality or thought. However, in more recent years, Keddie (1977: 9-22) among others,
have argued that such an assumption is ethnocentric since both knowledge and education
are ‘no more (but no less) than the socially constructed outcomes of the practices of
members in particular socio-cultural contexts’ (Jenks et al, 1977: 4). In fact, rationality
and knowledge are concrete features of the practices of all societal members and are,
therefore, culturally based.

ii.
Pacific Systems

29 In Pacific cultures, which value respect, generosity, loyalty, cooperation, sharing,
humility, and fulfilment of mutual obligations, among others, the nature, forms and
structure of knowledge are perceived differently, which, in turn, give rise to different
speech rules and communicative behaviour and consequently, teaching and learning
strategies. The thinking of Pacific islanders is said to be right-brain dominated, which
tends to be creative, holistic and spatial; divergent instead of linear logical; interpersonal,
which favours group activities, spoken over written language, and demonstration and
doing rather than verbal direction; and kinesthetic, which lends itself to physical
activities. Such thinking styles are manifested in a number of ways in Pacific cultures14.

30 The Aborigines (the Yolingu) of Milingimbi in Arnhem Land, for example, have
certain beliefs about knowledge: it is a closed system and a commodity and knowing is a
privilege reserved for those with appropriate status within the community. Speech is used
mainly as a means of developing and maintaining social relationships rather than for
organisation of activities and for giving instructions. In this cultural context, the key
learning strategies are: observation and imitation rather than oral or written instruction;
personal trial and error rather than oral instruction and demonstration; performance in
real life rather than practice in contrived settings; mastery of context-specific skills rather
than learning decontextualised and generalisable principles; and learning is person-
oriented which relies more on the nature of the relationship between participants in the
learning process rather than on the nature of the knowledge being learned (Harris, 1980,
as reported in Ninnes, 1991).

31 In Polynesia, knowledge is validated by corroboration and consensus rather than by
the status of the individual bearing the knowledge and skepticism of new knowledge is
the norm (Levin, 1978). Some cultures, such as Tongan, make a clear distinction between
knowledge (‘ilo) which is acquired through learning (ako) and wisdom (poto), which is
the ‘beneficial use of ‘ilo or knowledge’ (Thaman, 1998). Clearly, knowledge is not
expected to be achieved for its own sake but only if it is worthwhile and benefits others.

14 Annex 3 provides an overview of some of the differences found between western and Pacific cultures.

13

Three basic contexts have been identified for informal learning in Polynesia: the desire
for social cohesion through the maintenance of good relationships, which takes the form
of cooperation; closed knowledge systems, which affects the way knowledge is viewed
and linguistic rules for knowledge transfer and use of questions and answers; and, the
significant role of peer group in fostering learning.

iii.
Learning Strategies

32 These contexts give rise to certain learning strategies: observation, participation and
imitation (Ritchie and Ritchie, 1979; Jordon et al, 1981). Lesa (1981), for example, in his
study of the learning styles of Samoan students reported that ‘62% identified with the
participant learning style and another 21% identified with the collaborative learning style.
Both of these styles characterise ‘group’ learning. Thomas (1978, 1979) in a number of
studies of Samoan, Fijian, Cook Islands, Maori and Pakeha children reported parallel
findings as did Levin (1978) in her studies of Tahitian children. Thomas found, for
example, that there is a high degree of sensitivity to social cues and the emotional tone of
the interaction, low intensity of communication between parents and children, as parents
were less involved in looking after children and a high degree of interaction between
family members besides mother and father. Whereas Pakeha children were
predominantly individualistic and competitive, Pacific Island children demonstrated
sharing and cooperative behaviour. Similar findings were found by Ninnes (1991) in the
Western Province of the Solomons. Knowledge systems are closed and new knowledge
arises from and is validated by external sources such as ancestors, and dreams.

33 The common learning strategies that emerge from this specific cultural context are:
observation, imitation, listening, participation, and asking. The questions are information
seeking-type and to seek technical advice. In the Pacific, then, where behaviour is mostly
governed by the need to maintain group harmony, the values of cooperation, good
relationships, consensus, and respect lead naturally to congruent learning strategies, such
as the preference to working in groups, interacting with peers, and learning through
observation, imitation and doing. These are in stark contrast to classrooms where the
stress is on teacher-directed individual achievement, competition, inquisitiveness,
extended verbal interactions and decontextualised pupils participation.

d.
Language and Classroom Interactions

34 One of the major reasons for the attention paid to the vernacular and its role in
classroom interactions is the search for solutions to the continuing high failure of Pacific
Island children not only in mainstream classrooms in developed countries such as New
Zealand, Australia and the United States, but, of more serious concern, in their own
Pacific-controlled schools. Jordon, Au and Joesting (1981), for example, reported that
according to the Stanford Achievement Test of 1978, “45 per cent of Hawaiian students
in grade 4 performed below average in reading, compared to 23 per cent nationally [and]
at grade eight, 69 per cent were performing below average (Thompson and Hannahs,
1979).” In New Zealand, Churchward (1991) wrote, “There have been many attempts to
address the problem of the Maori education crisis. Many of these attempts to initiate

14

change were aimed at changing the Maori individual. This was usually because the
‘problems’ were deemed to arise from the pupils ‘Maoriness.’ Reports from around the
region show that Pacific schools are not doing much better. In Fiji, for example, Mr.
Rogovakalali, the Divisional Education Officer West told participants at a recent
conference that 30 per cent of primary school pupils drop out before they reach Year 8.
He said that in the “ light of findings of the effectiveness of primary education, head
teachers should view with concern the plight of children who have gone astray during
their primary education.” He called for programmes that would cater for the following:
“school code conduct, communicating in other languages, respect for the environment”
and for families to participate in the education of their children (Fiji Times, 1999).

35 Similarly, the Pacific Islands Literacy Levels Study (Withers, 1991) found that
although overall 71.9 per cent of the selected sample of primary pupils were considered
to have achieved literacy in two languages (vernacular and English/French), there were
relatively high percentages of primary pupils in some countries who have not achieved
basic literacy in their own vernacular languages, which give rise to speculations about the
quality of learning in the schools and the language policies adopted by those countries,
despite the assurance from the literature that for many Pacific Islands children the
language of the school was ‘just one more language to learn’ (Mugler and Lynch, 1996).

i.
Classroom Communicative Conventions

36 The classroom represents a special socio-cultural context with its own communication
conventions, which are teacher controlled and directed. Classroom discourse presents
children with the challenge of learning new rules for communication. The use of formal
language, teacher control of verbal exchanges, question-and-answer formats, and
references to increasingly abstract ideas characterise the classroom environment. To the
extent that these new rules overlap with those that children have already learned,
classroom communication is made easier. But children whose past experience with
language is not congruent with the new rules will have to learn ways to make meaning
before they can use language to learn in the classroom. However, it should be noted that
the culture of the school has unique features, which make it quite distinct and different
from that operating in the larger society, even in western societies. Children from such
cultures still have to learn to adapt too to the culture of the school, although the degree of
difference is less, of course, than that between the cultures of non-western societies and
western-style schools.

37 Pacific children will bring to the school the values and belief systems of his/her home
culture, including beliefs about knowledge, his/her own language, including the speech
rules of his/her culture, his/her own learning system and his/her own style of thinking.
The traditional culture of non-western students will have profound effects on their
learning performance in western-style classrooms. These effects are seen in
communication patterns between teachers and students, in the way students respond to
classroom management practices, in the way students interact with each other and in the
way students approach learning tasks.15 Where these differ from the expectations and

15 Ninnes, 1991.

15

practices of western-style classrooms, breakdowns in communication occur, with
subsequent failure of learning. These are, in addition, to the difficulties that arise from
teaching the children in a language other than their mother tongue.

38 Jordon et al (1981) have basically argued that the difficulties encountered by Pacific
Island children in western-type classrooms, to which their failure in the school system
could be largely attributed, is not so much the language which they bring to the school,
which, in the case of the Hawaiian children, is, in fact, fairly congruent with that of the
school, (as was the case with the Maori children in the Cazden (1988) report), but to the
“existence of differences in communicative conventions” which are culturally
determined. Thus, the many instances found of miscommunications between classroom
teachers and Hawaiian students are due to the fact that the “classroom is an interface
between two different sets of values, those of the Hawaiian subculture and those
manifested in the state-run school system.” To be successful in the classroom, the child
must know not only the content of the correct answer, which is transmitted through
language, but to present that answer in a way that will be socially acceptable to the
teacher. Children who enter school from a different cultural background and speaking a
different language from that of the school must learn not only the academic content and
the ability to express himself/herself in the language of the school but a new set of
communicative conventions at the same time.

ii.
Appropriate Teaching and Learning Strategies

39 Studies of teaching-learning interactions in the Pacific suggest that Pacific children
learn and respond more effectively to teaching strategies, which employ interactions
congruent with those in the children’s cultures. The KEEP programme in Hawaii was
successful because it incorporated a number of features of communication, teaching and
learning common in Hawaiian culture:
• it allowed children to teach and learn from peers.
• it emphasised the importance of mutual participation in learning situations.
• learning involves actually engaging in the task or skill to be learned, rather than
talking about how to perform the task, with the main primary teaching technique used
being personal demonstration and learning is primarily through participation,
observation and imitation.

40 Verbal competence is considered differently from culture to culture as well as how
children acquire verbal competence. Children in Polynesia develop competence through
elicited imitation whereas western children usually do so through expansion (Jordon et al,
1981).

41 In summary, most Pacific Island children learn best in teaching strategies using strong
peer orientation, and affiliation, cooperation and mutual task performance, where the
operations learned are clearly related to the final goal. The studies discussed previously
have highlighted the differences in the norms of their cultures and those of mainstream
societies or those practised in western-style schools. Obviously Pacific children learn to
communicate and participate, teach and learn, in patterns and conventions which are quite

16

distinct and different from those of western-style schools and these differences are in turn
the manifestations of the distinct values, beliefs and patterns of behaviour integral to
those cultures. These have obvious implications for structuring the teaching and learning
in Pacific classrooms but particularly for teacher training, both pre- and in-service
training, of Pacific teachers for Pacific classrooms.

e.
Implications for Teacher Education and Training

42 Meaningful classroom interactions in Pacific classrooms and, hence, effective
learning, occur where teachers capitalise on the wealth of experience, knowledge and
skills the children bring with them from their home cultures to the learning process and
deliberately use those values, beliefs, world views, knowledge, speech rules and learning
systems to organise their classrooms, communicate with and teach their students. Thomas
(1978) found in his studies that the students showed dramatic gains in classrooms where
teachers were using cooperative and interdependent learning groups. They improved their
school achievement and attitudes to school, the teacher and other children. Commenting
on the brain drain, which Thomas (1978) believes is partly attributable to the competitive
and individualistic learning styles taught in western-style schools, he said that one
possible answer to the problem is removing the extreme emphasis on individualistic and
competitive orientation from “imported” education systems, and retaining instead the
knowledge necessary for any Pacific country to remain viable and internally controlled
and developing the “Pacific way” as an effective technique for the transmission of
knowledge. It is worth reiterating that one of the main aims of adopting a vernacular or
mother tongue medium of instruction is to contribute to the maintenance and promotion
of community languages and cultures, which define individual and group identities.

Part III:
Some Policy Options and Actions for Future Language Developments

43 While the adaptation and adoption of culturally congruent communicative behaviour
and learning styles have been effective in improving educational achievement and
learning in Pacific classrooms, it should not be forgotten that the purpose is not merely
educational but it pertains to the larger picture of cultural survival. Such adoptions should
not lead to the destruction or demise of Pacific cultures in the quest for successful
western-type schooling. To avoid this undesirable outcome, several alternatives have
been proposed in the literature.

a. 'Both-ways Schooling and Two-ways Approach'

44 Harris (1980), for instance, suggests the ‘two-way’ and ‘both-ways’ schooling. In the
former, he recommends a complete separation of the two cultural domains, Aboriginal
and Western, which means teaching the two separately in the schools without any
reference to the other.

45 In the ‘both-ways’ alternative, recognition is given to the significant differences
between the two cultures but the emphasis will be on developing bridges between them.
Ninnes (1991) proposes how the ‘both-ways’ model could be further modified as an

17

adaptive model whereby the home culture is adapted to the school system, such as the
content to suit local culture; the administrative procedures to suit local decision-making
processes, for instance, of consultation and consensus in the Solomons; the time-
orientation to suit indigenous values and needs, that is, the school accommodates itself to
local, seasonal, and culturally important events and behaviours through a process of
consultation, cooperation, and flexibility, which is enhanced by local control of the
schooling process.

46 In this process of adaptation, classroom learning can be viewed as a role play and
certain learning behaviours are overtly taught within particular contexts, such as the
analytical, abstract, probing and deductive thinking required in science classes in contrast
to the unquestioning concrete contexts in which indigenous learning occurs. Students
need to clearly understand the value of their own culturally-defined ways of learning and
thinking and to be taught the contexts in which the contrasting western method is
appropriate and useful.

b. Diglossic Bilingual Approaches

47 Such strategies seem fairly similar to what has proven effective in maintaining small
vulnerable languages at risk. The ‘two-way’ approach is comparable to diglossic
bilingual situations in which the uses to which the two contending languages are put are
quite separate with very little or no overlaps in language function (Ferguson, 1972; Giles,
1977). Where the functions of the two languages have been kept separate with clear
domains of usage for both, vernacular languages have been found to fare better than in
bilingual situations where both languages are used indiscriminately in a number of
overlapping functions. Inevitably the LWC, over time, gradually encroaches on the
functions previously dominated by the first language, thereby threatening its survival and
could in the long-term spell its demise. It would also appear from the studies discussed
that children are quite flexible and versatile in acquiring and adapting to new learning
strategies and can also keep the contexts of such learning separate.

48 For instance, in the Thomas (1979) study Fijian students could be quite individualistic
and competitive in the classroom but revert easily to cooperative performance of tasks in
informal education contexts outside of school. He also found in his other studies that the
more urbanised (and presumably more westernised) Pacific families are, the more readily
do the children adapt to western-style learning strategies, such as competition, but it
should be noted that this achievement is made at the cost of their own cultural identities.

c. Building on Commonalities

49 On the other hand, where Pacific cultures exhibit traits that are similar to western-
style behaviours and values, students tend to cope better in schools. Howard (1970), for
instance, in his study of Rotuman children found that one of the possible reasons that
could account for their ability to adjust better and do well in western-style schools in
comparison with other Fijian students is the fact that children orient more strongly toward
adults than their peers as sibling care-taking is not used as much in Rotuman society as in

18

other Pacific cultures. In the Ninnes (1991) study, he found that while asking questions is
a normal learning tool in informal educational contexts in the Solomons, students refrain
from using it in the classroom where knowledge is considered sacred.

50 What is clear from the literature is that schools should base their teaching approach to
the multicultural classroom on the already proven pedagogical base of building on the
students’ repertoire of existing knowledge, skills and experience to add on new skills and
knowledge. Such a strategy would be very much along the lines that Cummins (1979)
and Swain and Lapkin (1991) use the term ‘additive’ education. This is a bilingual
language learning strategy in which the acquisition of a second language is a process of
building on the existing competencies of the child in his/her first language, which
minimises detrimental or negative effects on the first language. Instead, second language
acquisition becomes a mutually enhancing process for both languages. Similarly, when
formal education is contextualised and acculturated, school attainment is significantly
raised while failure is minimised.16

d. The Critical Role of the Teacher

50 The role of the teacher, then, and the school, in promoting and adopting culturally
appropriate teaching-learning strategies that could enhance learning and by implication,
his/her education and training, is absolutely critical. The teachers that are needed to teach
in Pacific schools must, at worst, be proficient in the language of instruction and, at best,
also competent in the mother tongues of the children, and have understanding of and
familiarity and empathy with the cultures of those languages. In other words, it is not an
unrealistic expectation for Pacific teachers to be literate in the cultures of the children in
her/his class, if the school goals are to ensure those children succeed in school and the
survival of their cultures and languages. Troike & Saville-Troike (1982) writing on the
subject said:
Being a teacher has never been simple. Being a bilingual teacher is at least twice as
complex. Preparing a bilingual teacher must certainly take account of this complexity
if it is to adequately fulfill its purpose.

If the teacher is the principal figure in the educational process, mediating between
the learner and the curriculum, his/her role becomes even more central in a bilingual
program. For here the teacher must serve not only to represent the adult world and
interpret the world to neophyte learners from the same or closely similar linguistic
and cultural backgrounds, but must represent and interpret a different cultural world
through the means of the learner’s language at the same time attempting to teach the
language which is the medium of that other cultural world. Training should
minimally serve to prepare the teacher to handle these complexities” (1982:199).

51 Troike & Saville-Troike argue that the teacher training programme is directed to a
certain extent by the ethos of each society and, therefore, of necessity different in each
case in order to conform to the particular requirements of each society, but they maintain

16 Thaman, 1998. This is what Thaman calls the 'culturally inclusive curriculum', which would include the most important elements
from all contributing cultures in a particular nation that each cultural group wishes others to know or understand about their culture.

19

that the training of all bilingual teachers will require training in all these four skills in
both languages:
1. language proficiency,
2. linguistic knowledge,
3. cultural knowledge, and
4. pedagogical competencies.

52 They also identified three basic requirements:
1. They must be able to communicate with students in a language they understand.
2. They must themselves know the content of instruction.
3. They must be able to transmit their knowledge to students (op cit.:217).

53 The training of teachers is, therefore, critical for what teachers practise in their
classrooms is influenced not only by their education and training but also by their
personal beliefs in particular practices which are in turn partly inculcated by their
education and training and partly by the kind of educational ethos held by their societies.
Franklin (1984) in a naturalistic study of literacy in bilingual classrooms demonstrated
that literacy instruction varied in accordance with the literacy instruction beliefs held by
teachers. From the results of her study, she argued that the literacy failure of children in
schools is largely attributable to the literacy practices of teachers which are in turn the
manifestation of their beliefs which are derived from those of the larger society; beliefs
and practices which fail to build and expand on the children’s extensive existing
knowledge but which instead impose too many constraints on the children’s learning in
order to force them to conform to the literacy strategies which accord with the beliefs and
practices dictated by the teacher and the school.

54 The argument can be extended to include all pedagogical activities in the classroom.
The implication is that how teachers create a learning environment, how they interact and
communicate with their students, the language they use, the questions they ask and the
responses they expect, their methods and classroom organisation, the pacing of the
lessons, the activities designed, the time allocated to tasks and how those tasks are
executed and evaluated, etc. are all derived from the teacher’s personal repertoire of
pedagogical attitudes and beliefs.

55. One of the oft held beliefs is the notion that the language the child brings to school is
deficient and is, therefore, partly responsible for his/her lack of success in school. This
has been disputed by many studies. Barnes et al (1971) demonstrated that children from
working class backgrounds were not handicapped by the fact they did not speak the
standard dialect required by the schools but by the ways in which the teachers use
language in the classroom, their methods of teaching, their failure to capitalise on the
children’s language experiences and cultural mores. Edwards (1979) believes that any
“speech related difficulties encountered by disadvantaged speakers are of a social or
sociolinguistic nature” (1979:137). He further argues that:
The attitudes, values and lifestyles of certain social groups may cause them to
perform relatively poorly in situations governed by the standards and conventions
of other groups. The disadvantaged thus suffer real difficulties, but these are not

20

caused by intellectual deficiency or by cultural deprivation; rather, the problems
are the result of the low-prestige group, with little social power, having to
accommodate to the mainstream society. Disadvantage is therefore only possible
where groups of different status interact, and where comparisons are drawn from
the perspective of the higher-status group” (ibid: 138).

56 One of the most regrettable aspects of such attitudes is that teachers and the school
systems have succeeded in transferring such attitudes to the speakers themselves so that
they too believe in their inferiority and handicaps. One of the strategies that has worked
well is for schools to enable children with such disadvantages to add on to their linguistic
repertoire a socially acceptable dialect or language. Nor must his/her other activities be
made to suffer in the process of acquiring this dialect or language. The training of
teachers capable of such understanding is again a crucial factor. Teachers should be
trained to be flexible and open in their approach, sensitive to the needs of students from
other languages and cultures, to observe and note how children from such cultures
interact and learn, and draw from the vast array of valid teaching-learning strategies,
approaches and techniques that would suit the needs of particular pupils in his/her class.

57 In many Pacific classrooms, teachers are forced to teach in a language s/he is not
competent in to students who are forced to learn in a language s/he is unfamiliar with in a
classroom and school context which are alien to his/her society and culture. In such
situations the educational attainment of the children is limited not only by the teacher’s
competence in the language of instruction but also by his/her understanding of the
children’s cultures and willingness and ability to use appropriate cultural behaviour for
teaching and learning purposes. However, it should be stressed that each child is unique
with different learning needs, even in classrooms where there is congruence between the
language and culture of the home and that of the school. There is an immense body of
teaching methodologies, resources, and techniques that the effective and caring teacher
could choose from to ensure that students’ needs within the classrooms are met,
irrespective of their linguistic, social, economic or cultural background.

e. Framework

58 Given, then, the complex relationship between culture and language and culture and
teaching-learning strategies, the following principles are offered to provide a conceptual
framework for the education and training of teachers to try to bridge the gaps between the
children’s cultural backgrounds and school objectives. Institutions responsible for the
education and training of Pacific teachers should include the following values, beliefs,
knowledge, skills and attitudes among the array of those with which teachers must be
equipped to be effective in the classroom:
•
To establish a basis for communication with the children teachers must negotiate
and develop shared meanings with the children within the classroom. To achieve
this goal successfully, teachers need to be proficient in the first language of the
children or a language common to both. If this is not possible, the teacher could
still promote mutual understanding and effective learning through the
development of interactive styles and contents that are familiar to the children

21

and by using culturally appropriate styles of classroom organisation,
communicative conventions and patterns, teaching and learning. These entail
understanding of the children’s cultures and their relationships with language
development and acquisition and how language is used for teaching and learning
purposes.

•
School learning is most likely to occur when values reinforce school expectations.
Parents and other community members must view school achievement as a
desirable and attainable goal if children are to build this into their sense of self.
Interpreting the school’s agenda for parents is one of the most important tasks for
teachers. But to be successful in this role, it is assumed that teachers are literate in
the children’s cultures and can employ appropriate strategies for building bridges
of understanding between the two.

•
When differences exist between the cultural patterns of the home and community
and those of the school, teachers must deal with these discrepancies directly.
Teachers and children must create shared understandings and new contexts that
give meaning to the knowledge and skills being taught. At the same time, the
teachers must ensure that in the classroom the children’s cultural values, beliefs,
knowledge, speech rules and learning systems are recognised, valued and built
upon. Learning mediated by teachers who are culturally sensitive and literate,
affectionate, interested, and responsive is likely to be more effective than learning
mediated by an adult who is perceived as uncaring and ignorant of the values of
the communities from which the children come.

•
For children from different racial and ethnic groups, meanings of words, gestures,
and actions may differ. Assessment of learning outcomes presents a formidable
problem when children misunderstand the teacher’s requests for information or
demonstrations of knowledge and skills. Formal assessment should be delayed
until teachers and children have built a set of new meanings and later such
assessments must be sensitive to cultural differences and the values such cultures
bestow on various matters, which could be completely different from school
expectations and goals.
(Adapted from: Bowman, 1990)

59 Teaching and learning obviously can never be standardised in a bi-or multi-cultural
community. But caring and competent teachers can use their linguistic and cultural
knowledge and skills to make the new context of the school meaningful to students
whose cultures hold different values and practices from those of the school to safeguard
the self-confidence of children and their pride and security in their own languages and
cultures which are integral to their development of a positive sense of self and individual
and group identities.

60 Institutions in the region responsible for the training of teachers must provide their
teacher trainees with the following minimal skills and knowledge:
•
high competence in the language of instruction.

22

•
where this differs from the mother tongues of the children, competence in the
language of the children or at least in a language common to both.
•
knowledge of the values, and belief systems of the children’s home languages;
how knowledge is derived, created, validated, transmitted and used in those
cultures; management and decision-making procedures specific to those cultures;
the speech rules of those communities; the teaching and learning strategies of
those cultures and the learning systems the children bring with them.
•
understanding of the differences that could exist between these cultures and that
of the school.
•
competence in selecting appropriate teaching and learning strategies and styles
that the children could add on to their existing repertoire which would enhance
their concept of self, and maintain local cultures and languages and improve their
scholastic attainment.
•
ability to create the contexts in which the new knowledge and teaching and
learning strategies could occur in the classroom and developing the bridges
between the different cultures.
•
sympathetic and positive attitudes toward the different cultures.
•
competence in appropriate assessment and evaluation procedures that take into
account cultural differences.

Conclusion

61 The language choices and decisions that Pacific countries make, which, in turn,
would determine educational language policies and practices, depend on their own
visions and developmental goals, which would include internal cohesiveness and unity
and external participation in the modern global community. What is becoming
increasingly clear is that the two are not diametrically in opposition. Language can be
both the tool to strengthen individual and group identity leading to high self-esteem and
self-confidence, the prerequisites to effective learning, and the acquisition of additive
education. By promoting and developing mother tongue education, cognitive
development will be enhanced and a sound basis will be provided for the acquisition of a
second language, the vehicle of modern development and participation in the world
community.

Recommendations

62 It is recommended that Ministers:

(a)
Note the contents of this paper;

(b)
Consider adopting national language policies as part of the education planning
process; and

(c)
Request PRIDE to hold a follow-up regional meeting on language policy and
practice for senior education officials.


23

Annex 1: Language Fact Sheet of the Pacific Region17


Member States
Article I.
La
Est. July 2003
Literacy Rate
Languages
Ethnic Group
nd Area
Population
Sq. Km.
Cook Islands
240
21,008
95%
English, Maori
81.3% Polynesian
7.7% Part European
7.7% Polynesian/
Melanesian
Federated States of Micronesia
702
108,143
99 % (91%/88%)
English, Truk,
9 Micronesian/ Polynesian
Pohnpeian, Yapese,
Groups
Kosrean, Ulithian,
Woleaian, Nukuoro,
Kapingamarangi
Guam
549
163,941
99%
Chamorro, English,
Chamorro 37%; Filipino
Japanese
26%, White 10%, Chinese,
Japanese and Korean,
27%
French Polynesia
4,167
262,125
98%
French andTahitian
78% Tahitian, 12%
Chinese, French, 10%
Fiji
18,270
868,531
93.7% (95.5%/91.9%)
English, Fijian,
51% Fijian, 44% Indians,

Hindustani
Other, 5%
Kiribati
811
98,549
92%
English, I-Kiribati
Micronesia/ Polynesia
Nauru
21
12,570
NA
Nauruan/English
58%, Other 26,

Chinese 8, European 8

New Caledonia
19,060
210,798
91% (92%/90%) 1976
French, 33 Other
42.5% Melanesian,
Melanesian languages
European 37%, Walis
8.4%, Polynesian 3.8%,
3.6 Indonesian,
Vietnamese 1.6, Other 3%
Niue
260
2,145
95%
Niuean and English
Polynesian and about 200

Europeans.
Northern Mariana
477
80,006
97% (97%/96%) 1980)
English, Chamorro,
Chamorro, Carolian,
Carolian
Others, Micronesian,
Japanese, Filipino, Korean
Palau
458
19,717
92% (93%/90%) 1980
English, Palauan,
70% Palauan, Asian 28%;
except in Sonsoral (it is
Other 2%
Sonsoralese and

17 Compiled from http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/wf.html#top]; ADB.2003. Poverty: Is it an Issue in the Pacific? Office of Pacific Operations and Pacific Islands Forum 2004 Diary.

24

English), Tobi (English
and Tobi) and Angaur
(Angaur, Japanese and
English)
Pitcairn
475
47
NA
English, Pitcairnese
English, Polynesian mix
Papua New Guinea
462,840
5,295, 816
66% (72.3%/59.3%)
English, Pidgin
Melanesian, Papuan,

2003
widespread and Motu
Negrito, Micronesian,

in Papua
Polynesian

Republic of the Marshall Islands
181.3
56,429
93.7% (93.6%/93.7%)
English, Marshallese,
Micronesian
Japanese, 2 RMI
dialects
Samoa
2,944
178,173
99.7% (99.6%/99.7%)
Samoan, English
Samoan – 92.6%
2003
Part – 7%
European – 0.4
Solomon Islands
28,450
509,190
30%?
Pidgin, English, 120
Melanesian – 93%
languages
Polynesian 4%
Micronesian – 1.5%
European - .8%
Others - .7%
Tonga
748
108,141
98.5 (98.4%/98.7%)
Tongan, English
Polynesian
1996
Tokelau
10
1,418
NA
Tokelauan, English
Polynesian
Tuvalu
26
11,305

Tuvaluan, English,
96 Polynesian
Samoan, Kiribati
4 Micronesian
Vanuatu
12,200
199,414
53% (57%/48%) 1979
English, French,
98% Melanesian
Pidgin, 105 local
2% Others
languages
Wallis and Futuna
274
15,734
50% (50%/50%) (1969)
French, Wallisian,
Polynesian
Futuna


25

Annex 2:
Language Policies in the Pacific Region

Table 1:
Summary Table of the Use of Pacific Vernacular Languages in Education



Country
Vernacular Languages




Vernacular
Primary Education
Secondary Education
Post-
Language
Secondary
Education






Years 1-3
Years 4-6
Years 1-2
Years 3-5
Years 6-7
Years 1-3








Tokelau
Tokelauan
Medium/
Medium/
Medium/
Medium/


Subject
Subject
Subject
Subject








NZMaori*
Maori
Medium/
Medium/
Medium/
Medium/
Medium/
Subject
Subject
Subject
Subject
Subject
Subject








Samoa
Samoan
Medium/
Medium/
Subject
Subject
Subject
Subject
Subject
Subject
Medium+
Medium
Medium
Medium








Tonga
Tongan
Medium/
Medium/
Subject
Subject
Pending
Subject
Subject
Subject
Medium
Medium
Medium
Medium








French
Multiple
Medium/
Medium/
Subject
Subject
Subject
Subject
Polynesia
Subject
Subject








Micronesia
Multiple
Medium/
Medium/
Subject
Subject
Subject
Subject
n
Subject
Subject








Fiji
Multiple
Medium/
Subject
Subject
Subject
Subject
Subject
Subject
Medium
Medium
Medium
Medium
Medium








PNG*
Multiple
Medium/
Medium/




Subject
Subject








Cook
Maori
Medium/
Subject
Subject
Subject


Islands
Subject








Tuvalu
Tuvaluan
Medium/
Subject
Subject
Subject (F4)

Subject
Medium
Medium
Medium








Vanuatu
Multiple
Medium
Medium












Solomon
Multiple
Medium
Medium





Note:
NZMaori*:
This refers only to the kura kaupapa Maori schools.
Medium+:
This denotes the difference between official language policy and actual practice in the classrooms.
Teachers of the region continue to use or code-switch between the officially designated language of
instruction and the language that the students and the teacher mutually understand.

This table was compiled from information obtained from the Withers PILLS Report (1991) and from
Lynch and Mugler (1996).




26

Annex 3:
Possible Differences Between Pacific Cultures and Western-Style
School Culture





Subject
Formal School Practices and Expectations
Pacific Cultural Practices and Expectations



Key Values
•
Individual rights and freedoms.
•
Cooperation.
•
Independence.
•
Consensus.
•
Justice - Equality and access.
•
•
Privacy.
Respect.
•
•
Competition
Generosity.
•
•
Consumerism.
Loyalty.
•
•
Scientific-rational.
Sharing.
•
Humility.
•
Reconciliation.
•
Fulfilment of mutual obligations.
•
Reciprocity.
•
Maintaining good relationships.



Underlying Purpose
•
To create personal wealth and individual well-being.
•
To maintain good relationships and strong
•
To develop economic capital.
communities.
•
To develop social capital.



Beliefs About
•
Open system with change being a key value.
•
Holistic.
Knowledge
•
Reducible forms, becoming more and more
•
Closed and change incrementally over time.
specialised.
•
Polynesia: validated through consensus,
•
Hierarchically arranged and serially learned.
collaboration and scepticism.
•
Validated through tests.
•
Solomon Islands: validated by external sources
•
Process more important than product.
such as ancestors and dreams.
•
Knowledge therefore personalised and debate
and criticism are taken personally and cause
shame.
•
Schools are regarded as knowledge sources
rather than as sources of intellectual experience,
therefore, passive knowledge is valued over
active knowledge construction.
•
Knowledge objectified with emphasis on
product.
•
Humility and respect culturally valued which
restrict overt demonstration of knowledge or
expertise in front of elders.




Thinking
•
Left brain.
•
Right brain.
•
Linear logical.
•
Divergent.
•
Objective.
•
Random.
•
Rational.
•
Holistic.
•
Sequential.
•
Synthesising.
•
Individualistic.
•
Interpersonal.
•
Problem-solving.
•
Concrete.
•
Abstract.
•
Context-specific.
•
Analytical.
•
Cyclical.
•
Empirical.
•
Intuitive.
•
Deductive.
•
Subjective.
•
De-contextualised.
•
Spatial.
•
Critical.
•
Looks at parts.
•
Temporal.



Sociolinguistic Rules
•
Use verbal directions and explanations a great deal
•
High sensitivity to social cues and emotional
and expect verbal feedback.
tone of interaction, especially in non-verbal
•
Decontextualised increasingly abstract verbal
behaviour.
communication that usually involves language
•
Less verbal interaction.
extension, and challenge through a combination of
•
Explanations at the beginning but non-verbal
restating, modelling, supporting, linking, shaping and
feedback such as looking at teacher, silently

27

additing.
approaching teacher and standing close by,
•
Questions and Answer Routines, with questions being
changes in facial expression, making various
directed at individuals, the answers to which the
noises, looking away from task and scratching
teacher already knows and one students is expected to
head.
respond at any one time.
•
Acceptance of group response to questions.
•
Teachers pay more attention and reward verbal
•
Speech mainly for maintaining good
seeking for help by students.
relationship.
•
Teachers try to draw students into negotiations and
•
Interact and orient more toward peer group
explanations.
rather than adults.
•
Teachers expect students to look to teacher as main
•
Talking back to teacher signals lack of respect.
source of interaction.
•
Calling on individual students to answer
questions is considered in some cultures as
‘putting the child on the spot’ and ‘verbalising
knowledge is a kind of showing off’.
•
Volunteering answers considered showing off
and currying favour with teacher.



Management
•
Leader and teacher directed and controlled.
•
Participatory and level of participation
•
Individualistic and competitive, with individual
determined by needs and desires of individuals.
achievement emphasised.
•
Group work preferred: cooperation, sharing
•
Individual performance closely monitored and
and interdependent learning groups are core
supervised by management/teacher.
behaviours.
•
Discipline applied through negotiation and
•
Shared function and role flexibility with degrees
explanations.
of freedom to arrange work responsibilities and
•
Organisation, etc. managed and administered through
schedules.
rules and principles.
•
Supervision of children by adults is non-
intrusive, giving rise to feelings of competence
and autonomy on part of children.
•
Interaction with older siblings or peers rather
than adults. Strong orientation toward peers.
•
Discipline usually applied through peers or
older siblings. With adults, listen respectfully
and then withdraw from scene.
•
Organisation, etc. managed, etc. through trust
and respect.



Learning Systems
•
Individualistic.
•
Interpersonal and interdependent: cooperation
•
Verbal directions.
and sharing.
•
Competitive.
•
Little verbal direction.
•
Expansions.
•
Observation.
•
Abstract.
•
Demonstration.
•
Reflective.
•
Listening.
•
Memorisation.
•
Participation.
•
Imitation.
•
Repetition.
•
Asking to solicit information.
•
Learn by doing.
•
Concrete and active.
Processes
•
Top down.
•
Lateral.
•
Hiearchical and vertical.
•
Bottom-up.
•
Authoritative.
•
Consensual.
•
Linear.
•
Cyclical.



Assessment and
•
Individualistic.
•
Participation and production.
Evaluation
•
Verbal.
•
Non-verbal feedback.
•
Written.
•
Real-life and context-specific.
•
Abstract.
•
Decontextualised.
•
Rational logical.
Education Systems
•
System de-contextualised and removed from real life.
•
System integral part of communities. Learning
•
Knowledge fragmented into compartments.
and teaching part of real life.
•
Overemphasis on rights and individuals.
•
All knowledge are inter-related and connected.
•
Concentration on economic capital with little
•
Values, duties and responsibilities as members
attention to social capital.
of communities.
•
Prioritising analytic, numeric, linguistic and factual
•
Good relationships are communities 'real'
intelligence.
wealth on which economic and political capitals

28

are dependent.
•
Equally important are athletic, intuitive,
emotional, practical, interpersonal and musical
intelligences.
Curriculum
•
Language of instruction and literacy emphases -
•
Prioritise vernacular languages and children's
English or a metropolitan language
prior knowledge and values.
•
Left-brain emphases - logical thinking, analysis and
•
Right-brain emphases - aesthetics, feeling,
accuracy.
creativity, skills of imagination, and synthesis.
•
Empahses on the 3Rs - pronouncing syllables, writing
•
Systems thinking, which is intuitive.
the alphabet, and counting numbers.
•
Group learning - group IQ higher than that of
•
Individual achievements and competition.
the individual.
•
Graduates who can crunch numbers, analyse facts,
•
Collective vision - sum total of the vision of the
argue logically, find problems, and implement logical
group.
solutions.
•
Graduates who can think intuitively and
•
Translates in business into emphasis on the bottom
creatively, have strong cultural values and
line - through organising, managing, inspecting and
feelings, and use their senses and imagination.
controlling.
•
Increasing the bottom line through creativity,
collective vision, good relationships, and
sensitive service.


29

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