Tessanne, standard English and int'l success

Joshua Spencer, Contributor

In his Monday, December 30 article, 'Jamaica, you are the Father', columnist and medical doctor Garth Rattray gave commendations to Tessanne Chin. He stated that in addition to having a wonderful talent, Tessanne's ease and comfort with standard English helped to boost her prospect in 'The Voice'. I completely agree.

The question of standard English versus Jamaican Patois comes to the fore quite sporadically. Sometimes the conversation involves mention of the English language being foreign, imposed on a conquered people under the old 'backra massa' era. Other times, the discussion of English centres on the poor performance of so many of our Jamaican students.

Other times, the talk is juxtaposed with the idea that students are not doing well because of poor teachers and a deficiency in the mastery of the English language and/or the idea that English gets in the way of high academic achievements as students have no mastery of the language, as it is not spoken at home.

ENGLISH VS PATOIS

My view on the matter of English versus Patois and the impact on the learning of our Jamaican students is that there are several nations which have several spoken languages, including English, and the multiple languages all work together without any significant retardation in the ability to speak any of them well.

Since Jamaica is a country of sports enthusiasts, let me cite an example from the Toronto National Basketball Association, whose members, up to 2008, were of international origin - Argentina, Spain, Italy, United States, and so on.

The point can be made that if one looks, for example, at the then Toronto Raptors basketball team, and even though I am cognisant that this is a mere minute sample, it is clear that all the international players spoke English without much trouble and projected themselves as if they had done well academically as students in Europe, South America, and so on.

José Calderón, the then Raptors point guard, for example, who is from Spain, spoke English very well, though with a Spanish accent. Similarly, Andrea Bargnani, another player at the time, who hails from Italy, spoke English perfectly well, with an Italian accent.

My research has revealed that English is now, and was in the past, being taught in these countries - Spain, Italy, China, India, Argentina, Mexico and even Russia - as a 'mainstream' language not so much as a 'foreign' language. It has been mandatory to learn English in most of these countries from the preschool days, as my friends from these countries advise.

IMMERSION APPROACH

In addition, the trend is now to offer an English-immersion approach to teaching. That is, other subjects are also taught in English. That English language is necessary to compete globally seems to be the mindset.

The problem is that while Jamaica must push for universal acceptance of Jamaican Patois as a language in and of itself, worthy of study and mastery in the written and oral form, we cannot afford to do this to the detriment of the English language.

We cannot falsely conclude that students are failing because of English. Their failure comes from a more serious dilemma seemingly embedded in the current Jamaican culture. A culture of violence. A culture with a get-rich-quick mentality. A culture of dependency. It is a more complex problem than the talk of English versus Patois.

It's fine to speak Patois and English side by side. One can easily notice that many so-called illiterate Jamaicans understand English. They are not ignorant of what is being said, even when they don't know how to write it. There is a similar challenge with Patois. Many people are quite fluent in speaking it, but could they express themselves well enough to write an intriguing essay?

I am quite skilled in speaking Patois, but I am poor in writing it. I sent my friends a couple of letters in Patois and they asked me to stick to English, as I was not good at writing it. It must be noted that I am from a grass-roots, working-class Jamaican family. This challenge is not peculiar to me.

So, if our move is to treat English as a second language, as some would want it to be, it should be for the right reasons and it should not be because our students are doing poorly through a curriculum based and presented in English. As I said, that argument is not valid.

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