Playing School in Mauritius

Abstract

The development in Mauritius's three major languages is essentially sequential for most of the population: Creole, French, English. In schools, English is used alongside French (and some Creole) in Primary Standards 1 (ages five–six) to 3 (ages seven–eight). English is officially the sole medium of instruction from Primary Standard 4 (ages eight–nine), though this is not the case in practice. Two Mauritian cousins (aged six and eight years) in the initial stages of the development of English were filmed playing school. The children are native speakers of Creole and (to a varying extent) French, have some exposure to Bhojpuri (used among older family members), and have attended French-medium nursery schools. Although older family members speak English, it is little used in the home domain, and the children's major exposure to English is in the classroom. The children were told that the rule of the game was that they would use only English while playing schools. However, they sometimes broke the rule. Codeswitching in the enacted English lessons is compared to that of actual teachers and pupils who were observed in classrooms. Both children show realistic knowledge of how different languages have different domains and functions in the classroom.