Globalization and its impact on language policy in Timor-Leste

Prepared by : Pedro Ximenes

2104212

Presented at :Post Graduate conference

Flinders University, School of EducationAdelaide, 23 June 2014

Key Questions

What cultural aspects/forces shape the current language policy in Timor-Leste ?

How was the current language policy established, planned and implemented?

What are the cultural and educational issues with the current language policy?

What are alternative solutions to the current language policy issue?

Outline :

I. Introduction

II. How globalization shaped language development in Timor-Leste

III. Language policy and Planning in Timor Leste

IV. The impact of the language policy in Timor-Leste Context

V. Alternative Solutions

VI. Conclusion.

I. IntroductionMultilanguage country

According to constitution :2 Official Languages (Tetum and Portugues)2 Working languages (English and Melayu/Bahasa Indonesia)16 Indigenous languages

New Country

Demographic and Socio economic condition Total Area : 18,874 Sq Km

1.1 Million of population, with 62 % aged below 25 (CIA, 2014)

Adult literacy rate 58,3 %70 % population live in rural area (inadequate social facility Poverty is a big issue

Hello, How are you ?. My name is Pedro

Ola, Como esta ?. Chamo me Pedro (Iberian Portuguese)

Olá, como você está. Eu sou Pedro (Brasilian Portugues)

Hallo, Diak Ka lae ?. Hau nia naran Pedro . (Tetum)

Halo, Apa Kabar ? . Nama saya Pedro . (Indonesian)

II. How globalization shaped language development in Timor-Leste ?

Holton’s (2000) typology of globalization :

1) The homogenization stage with linguistic imperialism.

2) The hybridization can be seen in the adoption of various languages existing in Timor-Leste into State policy.

3) The rise of the Mother tongue based education as the alternative bridging into the teaching of Portuguese and English as the second (L2) and third language (L3) during the primary education as polarization phase.

III. Language policy and Planning in Timor Leste

Kaplan and Baldauf (1997) “deliberate, future-oriented systematic change of language code, use and/or speaking most visibly undertaken by government in some community of speakers.

Language planning is directed by, or leads to, the promulgation of a language policy(ies) – by government or another authoritative body or person.”

Language policy planning (Kaplan & Baldauf, 1997) involves: Status planning (which concerns the uses of language), Corpus planning (which concerns the structure of language), Acquisition planning (which concerns the users of language), Prestige planning (which concerns the image of the language)

Status PlanningLo Bianco (1989, p. 99), one of the characteristic results

of status planning is laws and clauses in constitutions prescribing the official standing of languages and regulations for their use in public administration.

The national constitution sets the basic rules for status planning. Under Article 13, it specifies two official languages, Tetum (vernacular language) and Portuguese, while requiring the state to ‘value and develop Tetum and the other national languages’.

Further in article 159 Indonesian and English are considered as working languages within civil service side by side with official languages as long as deemed necessary’ (p. 63).

Corpus PlanningHaugen’s (1983) corpus planning consisted of the

policy/form-oriented goal of codification and the cultivation/function- oriented goal of elaboration

Codification refers to the selection and standardization of a linguistic norm. “graphisation”, or the development of a system of

writing and orthography, “grammatication”, or the development of a standard

grammar, and “lexication”, or the development of a standard lexicon

and terminology

Corpus Planning in Timor-Leste

Tetum one of the co-official languages was still an endogenous language used more as a verbal language with no set of standardization.

Portuguese was the only official language with standardization. However no variant wasn’t decided.

English and Indonesian.(There are no specific provision as to version and language rules to be used).

Prestige Planning“enhancement of the prestige of a language” through

its use in higher domains (Lo Bianco, 2004, p. 743).

Ager (2001) referred to this process as “image creation”. Image creation plays a central role in identity construction.

In the civil service, the reintroduction of Portuguese and the introduction of Tetum is conducted in accordance to law 8/2004, which came into force on 16 July .Obligation of public servants to use the official languages

as the languages of the public service The National Institute of Languages (NIL) with the mission

of oversee all language-oriented research (including language-in-education projects, interpreting and translating and teaching English as a second language) carried out within the national territory

Acquisition Planning(Kaplan & Baldauf, 1997) define as “ Language in education

Policy”

Inconsistencies in Language in education policy2000-20004; focused exclusively on the rapid reintroduction of

Portuguese in a submersion schooling model with Portuguese as the sole language of instruction from grade 1-6.

2005 Tetum became medium of instruction in the first two years of schooling.

In 2008 the government enacted a new base law for education (Law14/2008) that established The Education system framework. The new law also establishes Tetum and Portuguese as the teaching language of East Timorese education system

The National Education Strategic Plan (NESP) 2011–2015 “.. all children should excel in both national official languages and learn the fundamentals to understand English, their first foreign language… “

IV The impact of the language policy in Timor-Leste ContextPoor educational achievement

Low adult literacy rate in Portuguese

Ethnographic study by Macpherson (2011) “Children commonly described Portuguese as “too hard” and

took every opportunity to practice their English. Teachers conducting Portuguese classes using Tetum as the medium of instruction would quickly make a popular switch into an English lesson when a visitor was discovered to speak English. Parents schooled in Indonesian indicated that Portuguese was far less useful as a trading language than Bahasa, and not as “international” as English given the imminent arrival of the internet and opportunities offered in Australia. School directors and teachers explained in Tetun and Bahasa that they resented attending mandatory professional development workshops in Portuguese after school hours”.

IV The impact of the language policy in Timor-Leste Context

Taylor-Leech (2007,2008)

Early Grade Reading Acquisition (EGRA)

“More than 70% of students at the end of grade 1 could not read a single word of the simple text passage. 40% of children were not able to read a single word at the end of grade 2; and the share of children scoring zero dropped to about 20% at the end of grade 3. The assessment provides clear evidence that many children spend years in primary schools in Timor‐Leste without learning to read” (USAID, 2009)

V. Alternative SolutionsThe Use of Mother tongue in Multilingual

education.

Mother tongues are the home languages of leaners, also known as “first language” or L1 (even where there are two or more home languages).

Moving from the known to the unknown

It seeks to create an educational system that : builds on what learners know, facilitates beginning literacy, supports learners’ identity formation, makes learning relevant and enjoyable, links generations in continued learning, encourages collaboration between teachers and families.

The design is to start the teaching of student in their 0 year (pre-school) and year 1 in their mother tongues (L1) covering beginning literacy (reading and writing) and curricular content (maths, science and history). One or more new languages (L2,L3) in the case of Timor leste Tetum and Portuguese are taught systematically, beginning with oral communication, so that learners can transfer literacy and knowledge from familiar language to the new language

The amendment of the constitutionConstitution is not a “bible”, if the situation dictates then it

should be amended Section 154 (constitutional revision) and 155 (Approval

and promulgation) of the constitution gives way to the revision of constitution

English should be given more weight then Portuguese English is now the most widely used language in the world,

it is the official language of almost 60 sovereign states in the world (Grimes, 1996).

Many developed and developing countries consider English language education as a means to further their economic advantages within the global market (Nunan, 2003).

Countries with higher levels of English-language skills also have stronger economies, and their citizens enjoy higher per capita income (GNI per capita) levels and quality of life (HDI). (2013EF’s English Proficiency Index)

VI. ConclusionThe Language Policy in Timor-Leste is a product of

Globalization in language area, with the influence from political constellation

The language policy in Timor-Leste has been subject to inconsistencies and mismatch between the policy maker and grassroots level of users.

The current language policy has impacted negatively on the educational achievement.

The current language policy needs to be revised or adjusted reflecting current situation

Obrigado Barak !!

Thank you !!

Terima Kasih !!

Obrigado !!

References Ager, D. (2001). Motivation in language planning. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Holton, Robert. (2000). Globalization's Cultural Consequences. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,: p. 140-152.

Central Intelligence Agency. (2014). The World Fackbook : Timor-Leste. Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/tt.html on 20 May 2014.

Haugen, E. (1983). The implementation of corpus planning theory and practice. In J. Cobarrubias & J. Fishman (Eds.), Progress in language planning (pp. 269-290). Berlin: Mouton.

Government of Timor-Leste. (2010 October 22). 2010 Census results: Timor-Leste's population grows slower than projected. Retrieved May 3, 2011, from http://timor-leste.gov.tl/?p=4144&n=1&lang=en

Kaplan, R.B., & Baldauf, R.B., Jr. (1997). Language Planning: From practice to Theory. Clevedon : Multilingual Matters.

Lo Bianco, J. (1989). Multilingualism and the national policy on languages. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 9(1), 25-38.

Lo Bianco, J. (2004). Language planning as applied linguistics. In A. Davies & C Elder (Eds.), The handbook of applied linguistics (pp. 738-762). Massachusetts, Oxford and Carlton, Victoria: Blackwell.

Taylor - Leech, Kerry Jane. (2007). The Ecology of Language Planning in Timor-Leste: A Study of Language Policy, Planning and Practices in Identity Construction: Griffith University.

Taylor-Leech, K. (2008). Language and identity in East Timor. The discourses of nation building. Language Problems & Language Planning, 32 (2), 153-180