The Fiji Minister of Education announced today: "Next year we intend to introduce linguistics in high school language classes and cut down on literature to improve students' literacy skills.”
This is certainly not the first time that literacy levels have hit the headlines, but it is also not the first time that four words beginning with the letter ‘L’ have been muddled together. ‘Language’ is used here in a general sense to refer to the subject called ‘English’ in the region’s high schools. This is a combined subject that covers a range of elements that includes everything from the mechanics of the language (grammar, spelling and punctuation), to a range of types of writing (creative, formal letters, expository essays), to the analysis of texts (literary, informational, persuasive, and so on). ‘Linguistics’ is generally used to refer to the university-level study of language. Linguists in the Pacific have typically focused on the description and documentation of the region’s languages, as well as applied topics such as translation, language policymaking, and language acquisition. English teachers study Linguistics as part of their training so that they become aware of the structural differences between their pupils’ first and subsequent languages, understand how languages are learnt and taught, and appreciate the way English fits into the multilingual fabric of the Pacific. ‘Literature’ is used here to refer to the formal study and appreciation of texts. In high school, students learn to analyse poems, novels, short stories and plays. Trainee English teachers therefore take this study to a more advanced level, so that they are better able to guide their own students’ understanding of texts. ‘Literacy’ can mean many things. Traditional definitions such as ‘the ability to read and write’ are generally considered too narrow, but the use of ‘literacy’ to refer to a general ability to use a language (or a specific ability to use English) is too vague to be helpful. In the above quotation by the Minister of Education, it is not clear what exactly is meant by ‘literacy skills’, and how these will be improved by something referred to loosely as ‘linguistics’ being added to the high school curriculum. The conflation of ‘literature and language’ or ‘linguistics and literature’ clouds our understanding of what it means to learn English as a second language. Literature is an important curriculum subject that should be retained alongside other core subjects such as Maths, Science and Social Science. However, we need to recognise that English also needs to be taught explicitly as a second language, rather than simply used as the medium of instruction through which these other curriculum subjects are taught. Given the consternation in the region with levels of English proficiency, it would help to treat ‘English language’ and ‘literature’ as separate school subjects, training teachers to teach each of them effectively.
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March 2019
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