The Construction of Creole-Speaking Students' Linguistic Profile and Contradictions in ESL Literacy Programs

Abstract

0 Globalization of the English language makes new pedagogical demands on teachers as they come to grips with a growing number of varieties of English in their classrooms. In North America, Caribbean Creole English is the next most common variety of English in the public school system after African American Vernacular English, due to the increasing rate of migration from the Anglophone Caribbean (Nero, 2000), which is unlikely to decline soon according to statistics provided by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (1999). CreoleEnglish speakers from the Caribbean are the largest immigrant group of students in the U.S. public school system who are neither native nor nonnative speakers of English; they present a challenge for the ESL curriculum. Because North American teachers are not familiar with the structure of English-based creoles, creole-speaking students are misplaced in ESL classes designed for nonnative speakers of English, and this misplacement is one of the main factors that have contributed to their low academic achievement (Pratt-Johnson, 1993). If alternative pedagogical approaches are ultimately to be developed for creoleEnglish-speaking students, research is needed to better understand the linguistic characteristics of their language acquisition. English as a second dialect (ESD) speakers exhibit speech patterns that are indicative of the constant interaction between creole and