Talking to learn in Timorese classrooms

Abstract

In both multilingual and monolingual school settings, the manner in which teachers mediate classroom talk has a direct impact on the way that students are given access to curriculum content and the links established between thinking and learning. Classroom talk includes the ways in which teachers present content as well as the ways in which students interact with the subject matter that they are learning. However, in multilingual settings, the focus for educational language policy is commonly on which language rather than how to use the linguistic resources available in the classroom. This paper explores the case of Timor-Leste, a nation struggling to improve the poor learning outcomes for students within a multilingual setting, within a school system of poorly trained teachers and poorly resourced classrooms. It looks at oral language behaviours that teachers typically use in classrooms in order to suggest how teacher professional development priorities might be re-oriented around repertoires of classroom talk as a means of enhancing both curriculum content learning and language learning.

Keywords:

• Timor-Leste
• primary school
• Tetun
• Portuguese
• teaching methods
• multilingualism

Notes

Since independence, the name of the government ministry charged with the responsibility for formal school education has changed a number of times: Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport (MECYS), Ministry for Education and Culture (MEC) and Ministry of Education (ME). This last and current name is retained throughout the discussion to represent the Ministry since independence, with the names attributed to documents correct at the time of their publication.

The spellings of Tetum and Tetun (English translation) are often used interchangeably both inside and outside Timor-Leste. Here, Tetun is used for discussion and Tetum is used in transcripts of classroom talk.

Pseudonyms are used throughout the study.

Supplied by the staff of the ME from current Educational Management Information System (EMIS) surveys.