Status Of Languages In Mauritius English Language Essay

Status Of Languages In Mauritius incline Language assayThe study of this dissertation is based on the utilization of advanced engineering science in the nurtureing and learning work at junior-grade aim education. Being a oral communication teacher ( cut expression), I name pore my study on vocabulary classes world conducted in a engineering science-based environment, as well known as a Language Laboratory. This dissertation will look to to evaluate the use and the effectiveness of a expression interrogation laboratory to teach second vocabularys such(prenominal) as English and French languages in Mauritanian secondary schools.It is a comparative study between the St. Andrews School, situated at Rose-Hill, which is equipped with a language lab and the Vacoas SSS (Girls) which represents the classical classroom method of teaching languages.1.1 BACKGROUND STATUS OF LANGUAGES IN MAURITIUSIn the formalised website of the Government of Mauritius, the status of languag es in Mauritius is described as follows English is the authorized language. French is extensively used and Creole is widely spoken. Asian languages in like manner form part of the linguistic mosaic. (Government portal of Mauritius 2012)However, when unfolding the above-mentioned explanation of the linguistic situation in Mauritius, we will see that it is not that simple, protrude-of-pocket to its complex taradiddle of immigration and colonization.1.1.1 COLONIAL HISTORY OF MAURITIUSThe colonial history of Mauritius is the root cause of our multiethnic and multilingual society. It only started with the Arab and then Portugese sailors who ar believed to have visited our island in the early XVIth century.Between 1590 and 1710, the Dutch colonized the island and their important activity was the exportation of ebony wood. For this purpose, they brought several Malagasy slaves in Mauritius. However they have not made major developments apart from the introduction of pillage cane, domestic help animals and deer.In 1715, Mauritius became a french colony and it has been extensively developped specially when Mah de Labourdonnais governed the ara as from 1735. Many slaves were imported intimatelyly from Africa and Madagascar and a a couple of(prenominal) Indians came from Coromanddel and Malabar Coast. otherwise French governors continued the development of the island until 1810 when the British took over. However, they decided to preserve the laws, customs, language, righteousness and property, that is, the civil and judicial administration of the island as it was during the French reign. During the English colony, sugar production increased to become a major foreign income earner, thusly leading to economic progress which called for the expansion and development of means of parley and appropriate infrastructure. All these development necessitated the importation of more slaves from Africa and Madagascar.However in 1835 the abolition of slavery brough t major changes in the island on the socio-economic and demographic fields. A large proceeds of indentured laborer from various parts in India were coming to Mauritius to work in the sugar cane fields and later(prenominal) a small number of Chinese traders joined them in the island. In 1907 the immigration ceased, however many Indians had already settled permanently in the island and as a matter of fact they formed the majority of the population. The meeting of a mosaic of slew from India, China, Africa and Europe lead to a process of hybridization and intercultural frictions and dialogues. In 1959, voting took place for the first time on the basis of universal adult suffrage and the number of electors rose to 208,684. In 1968 Mauritius gained its independence. (Government protal of Mauritius 2012)1.1.2 ACTUAL LINGUISTIC SITUATION OF MAURITIUSToday the population of Mauritius is more than 1.2 meg people, which consists of 68% Indo-Mauritians (Hindus and Muslims), 27% Creole (A f ro-Mauritians and mixed population), 3% Sino-Mauritians and 2% Franco-Mauritians (CIA, 2008).Rajah-Carrim (2005) has place eleven main languages actually used in Mauritius and she advertize separate them into three categories colonial languages (English and French) and language of everyday communication (Creole), and ancestral languages (Indian and Chinese languages) which be used on limited occasions.Mahadeo (2004) explains the linguistic situation of Mauritius in these terms Given the number of languages (at least 12) used by different ethnic groups in an island with a population which now exceeds 1.2 million people and an area of 720 square miles, Mauritius presents an extreme case of individual multilingualismAccording to Chiba (2006), Mauritius is the most linguistically fashionable place on the planet. Mauritian swap languages depending on the circumstances, in the same way as others change clothes. He further illustrated his point of view with the following example Ov er the course of a day a typical Mauritian might use English to write a school essay, Kreol Morisien to chat with friends, French to read a novel and Bhojpuri to spend a quiet evening with the family.Chiba (2006) then classified the use of the major languages as followsHome Kreol and BhojpuriGovernment and schools English subscriber line French and KreolLiterature, newspapers and television FrenchCasual speech KreolHowever Chiba (2006) pointed out that this table is only an overview since French is also often present in government and English is not completely absent in the media.In his Ethnologue Languages of the world, Lewis (2009) has enumerated the main languages spoken in Mauritius with their respective number of usersEnglish 3,000 speakers (1993), French 37,000 speakers, Morisyen 800,000 speakers (2005), Bhojpuri 336,000 speakers (2001), Urdu 64,000 speakers (1993), Hakka Chinese 35,000 speakers (1990), Tamil 31,000 speakers (2001), Eastern Panjabi speakers (1990), Marathi 11, 800 speakers (1990), Telugu 10,700 speakers (1990) and Gujarati 3,340 speakers (1990).The main colonial languages used in Mauritius are English, which is the official language and French which is considered as the second and semi-official language and which is widely used in the media and for oral communication. However other languages such as Spanish, Italian and German are also used especially in the sector of education and tourism.The lingua franca of Mauritius is the Kreol Morisyen which is considered by the majority of Mauritians, as their mother tongue. Moreover, this language as acts as a language of concord and many works are being presently carried out to appraise its orthographe and its grammar. The Kreol Morisyen is now present in the education system of Mauritius, at principal(a) level where the students are given the choice to opt for this language or an oriental language.A quite large number of ancestral languages are also present in Mauritius such as Bhojpuri, Hind i, Gujerati, Kutchi, Mandarin, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and Arabic, but their use are limited to cultural instances. However the Bhojpuri language can be considered as another lingua franca of Mauritius since quite a large number of Mauritians still use it for oral communication.1.2 AIMThe aim of this study is to get word out whether the language lab can be considered as a solution to the various language issues faced by Mauritian students, by evaluating its touch in the teaching and learning process of languages at secondary level of education.1.3 OBJECTIVESThe set objectives of this study are to evaluate1. The level of improvement, if any, in the language competencies of the students with the language laboratory2. The students level of comfort and ease in a language lab, a sophisticated class setting and with modern learning tools.3. The students level of motivation, interest and response in language laboratory classes.4. The Teachers response, the classroom management and the classroom atmosphere in alanguage lab.5. A comparison between language classes in a language lab and language classes in a traditional language class.1.4 riddle STATEMENTMauritians are considered bilingual we can go on in two English and French languages. Even if Mauritians use the Creole language to communicate orally, English is the official language in Mauritius and French is considered as a semi-official language in Mauritius. Both these languages are taught in primary schools as compulsory subjects alongside the Mauritian Kreol and some oriental languages which are optional subjects. In secondary schools, English and French languages are core compulsory subjects from the Form I till the School certificate classes and they are taught as second languages and not foreign languages.Thus we can say that all Mauritian students study English and French languages since the age of 5 or 6 yrs old, but still at the end of the secondary education, few of us can have a proper convers ation or can write a letter without grammatical errors in these languages. A precise analysis of the statistics, published by Mauritius Examination Syndicate MES on the pass rate of Mauritian students, clearly shows that the level of Mauritian students in English and French is low. Even though the percentage pass is high, quality-wise the results are not good. (MES, 2011)There are various factors which can explain this problem and the main reasons are the neediness of motivation of the students in language classes, the lack of exposure to the languages, contact with other languages, the decline of the reading culture, the language subjects being considered as less important subjects and the exam oriented syllabus among others.This research will thus propose an alternative way of conducting language classes, namely using the language laboratory. It will try to measure its effectiveness, efficiency and relevancy and whether it can be considered as a solution to the above mentioned pr oblem.1.5 explore QUESTIONSAccording to the objectives of the study, the research questions have been formulated as follows1. What are the language issues in the teaching and learning process of second languagesin Mauritius?2. What are the roles of modern technology in language classes and to what extent cantechnology be a remedy to these issues?3. What is a language laboratory and what is its impact in a secondary school?4. What is the students and teachers response in a language laboratory which is amodern class setting with modern teaching and learning tools?5. To what extent can the students compare this modern language class with theirtraditional language classes?6. Have the teachers and the students noticed an improvement in their languagecompetencieswith the language laboratories? If yes, which specific domain(s) of their languagecompetencies have been improved? (E.g. grammar, pronunciation, vocabularies,reading, writing, spelling, volubility)