Multilingual classroom talk in adult literacy education in Timor-Leste: teachers and learners doing literacy and numeracy tasks

Abstract

This paper draws on one part of a wider study on adult literacy education in Timor-Leste. The focus here is on classroom talk in two literacy classes in different regions. I present a close analysis of excerpts of multilingual interaction. My analysis draws on classroom observations, audio recordings, field notes, photographs and interviews. I show how teachers and learners made use of different languages – Tetun, Portuguese, Bahasa Indonesia or a regional language – in the ebb and flow of classroom talk. I take account of interactions around particular kinds of literacy and numeracy tasks and I illustrate how teachers and learners were getting things done multilingually, sometimes using different languages to distinguish different kinds of talk, sometimes not. I link my analysis to Timor-Leste's national language and language-in-education policy. My research shows that, although Tetun is the language of instruction and the target language for literacy, other languages are also used in literacy classes, with different functions. Portuguese is often used for metalanguage, Bahasa Indonesia to refer to numbers and regional languages for explanations and small talk. Teachers and learners are clearly identifying local, pragmatic solutions for the challenges they face in this multilingual country with its relatively new language-in-education policy.

Keywords:

• adult literacy
• literacy and numeracy
• multilingual education
• multilingual classroom talk
• language policy
• Timor-Leste

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the adult literacy learners, teachers and coordinators in Timor-Leste who participated in this study, especially those in Viqueque and Suai. I would also like to thank Marilyn Martin-Jones and Mukul Saxena for inviting me to present this paper at their panel at the International Symposium on Bilingualism (ISB8) in Oslo in June 2011. In addition, I would like to thank Estêvão Cabral for helping me with translations of some parts of the audio recordings; and Marilyn Martin-Jones, Jeanne Kurvers and Sjaak Kroon for their comments on earlier versions of this text.

Notes

1. The other 13 languages are: Habun, Galoli, Atauran, Kawaimina, Welaun, Idalaka, Mambai, Kemak, Tokodede, Baikenu, Makuva, Makalero, Fataluku (Hull 2003).

2. This research project is supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research NWO/WOTRO Science for Global Development, file number 01.65.315.00.

3. Transcription conventions:

•The excerpts are presented in Tetun, with numbers underlined and metalanguage highlighted in gray. Teachers’ utterances start with ‘Tr’. Learners’ utterances start with ‘Lr:’ (one learner) or ‘Lrs:’ (several learners at the same time).

•Languages are designated as follows:

– Tetun (italics);

– Portuguese (bold);

loanword from Portuguese (bold and italics) ;

Bahasa Indonesia (font: Times New Roman);

– Makasae (font: Arial).

•Codeswitching is marked as follows:

– <T> marks a switch to Tetun;

– <P> marks a switch to Portuguese;

– <P/T> designates a mixed utterance or a loanword of Portuguese origin used in Tetun;

– <BI> indicates a word in Bahasa Indonesia;

– <M> indicates a word in Makasae.

– •After every letter that was practiced in Excerpts 5–8, a representation of the letter name that they used is given between slashes, with the symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet.

4. The (US) dollar is the currency now in use in Timor-Leste; here it is spelled as a Tetun word (dolar).

5 The teacher was clearly focusing on talk about orthography, making use of multiple linguistic resources available to him, and not using code contrast as communicative resource. The transcription merely tries to capture the diversity of language resources drawn upon, not the teachers orientation to particular ‘languages’.