Martin,
enjoyed your anecdote of the Welsh-language school.
I would hazard a guess that the reason she was writing in 'English'
was part of the punishment - a nice reversal from when my grandmother
was beaten for speaking Welsh at school.
If the child was in a Welsh-language school in South Wales I would suspect
her of very much being in Bart Simpson mode, and writing in
a language of protest: and living in very much a bilingual culture,
probably able to "perform" better with her spelling of all those Saxon- and
French-derived 'English' words. But if she was in North or MidWales, having
to speak/write English might well be an imposition.
Language IS power.
tony scott
>From: mowen@rem.bangor.ac.uk (Martin Owen)
>Reply-To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
>To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
>Subject: RE: lects
>Date: Thu, 06 Apr 2000 15:57:13 +0100
>
>ematusov@UDel.Edu writes:
> >Our mainstream culture is a culture of understanding and fluency.
> >Understanding is considered to be non-problematic, expected, and normal.
> >Non- and mis-understanding is abnormal and dysfunctional. If I understand
> >correctly Jay, he calls for destroying the normalcy of fluent
> >understanding
> >and for expecting non- and mis-understandings (and cultural mastery of
> >dealing with them). If my understanding of Jay is incorrect, feel free to
> >attribute the statement to me :-)
> >
> >What do you think?
> >
> >Eugene
>
>This morning I was in a school where the natural mode of communication is
>Welsh. I I collected a bit of language use from a predominantly Welsh
>speaking child. In Bart Simpson mode she was writing out a punishment
>note, which for a reason I have yet to discover, was in English. As you
>will see her writing may at first appear to be completely odd. However
>Welsh, unlike English, is written phonetically (using the Welsh phonetic
>values for the alphabet).
>
>Her writing (in Welsh phonemes) is completely understandable:
>
>To: " Why I have to behave responsibly in lessons" , she replies:
>
>"so wi can lyrn in lesyns and bihef wen tetys tel ys to lisyn" and " we
>haftw bihef and lisyn o wi get a row ol the taim if we dont lisyn".
>
>I translate:
>"So we can learn in lessons an behave when teachers tell us to listen" and
>"we have to behave and listen or we get a row all the time if we don't
>listen."
>
>As I can read Welsh, I had no problem in reading this non-standard
>English. Her communication to me was competent but to others it could be a
>complete mystery. Where do I draw lines?
>Martin
>
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