Abstract
Over the past decades, an increasing number of initiatives aimed at the introduction of the use of home languages of the majority of the populations of the territories of the Caribbean part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in education, governance, and the judiciary have been the subject of lively and sometimes acrimonious debate. In this chapter, the authors discuss an inventory of popular beliefs on the adequateness for academic use and status of the different languages in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to understand the processes that underly the resistance to moves toward inclusive education in home languages of the majority of the populations of these islands. This inventory is produced by the three authors of this chapter, who at various levels have investigated attitudes and beliefs related to language in general, and the adoption of the former colonizer's state tradition and language regime in particular, in Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, St. Eustatius, and St. Maarten.
TopBackground
In the Caribbean, the concept of home languages is a container concept for indigenous languages, creole languages, migrant languages and colonial heritage languages. Because of the colonial and neo-colonial histories shared by the peoples of the region, not all home languages have equal status, as in many cases, it is the colonial heritage language that has a dominant position in education, governance and the judiciary, while not being the home language of the majority of the population. Due to financial and technical constraints, but also due to lack of understanding of the importance of language for the socioeconomic well-being of the populations of the region, indigenous languages and creole languages are often relegated to a secondary role in these societies or, in some cases, are even formally excluded from use in certain domains.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Pluri-Identification: Recognizing multiple identities—national, religious, ethnic—as a result of the various cultural groups to which we belong and with which we identify to different degrees.
Lifeways: Customary ways of living; ways of life.
English Lexifier Creole: A Creole which takes the majority of its vocabulary from English.
Translanguaging: The process in which multilingual speakers use their languages as an integrated communication system.
Zero-Sum Game: A situation in in which one person’s gain is equivalent to another’s loss, so the net change in wealth or benefit is zero.
Official Language: The language or one of the languages with special legal status in a country and is used by its government to run its operations conduct business in courts, parliament, administration, and education.
Neocolonial: Characterized by the use of economic, political, cultural, or other pressures to control or influence other countries, especially former dependencies.
Plurilingual: Fluent in a number of languages.
Pluricultural: Identifying with a number of cultural groups; coexisting between different cultures, without entering into distinctions and differences.