Multilingual classroom talk in adult literacy education in Timor-Leste: teachers and learners doing literacy and numeracy tasks

Abstract

This paper draws on one part of a wider study on adult literacy education in Timor-Leste. The focus here is on classroom talk in two literacy classes in different regions. I present a close analysis of excerpts of multilingual interaction. My analysis draws on classroom observations, audio recordings, field notes, photographs and interviews. I show how teachers and learners made use of different languages – Tetun, Portuguese, Bahasa Indonesia or a regional language – in the ebb and flow of classroom talk. I take account of interactions around particular kinds of literacy and numeracy tasks and I illustrate how teachers and learners were getting things done multilingually, sometimes using different languages to distinguish different kinds of talk, sometimes not. I link my analysis to Timor-Leste's national language and language-in-education policy. My research shows that, although Tetun is the language of instruction and the target language for literacy, other languages are also used in literacy classes, with different functions. Portuguese is often used for metalanguage, Bahasa Indonesia to refer to numbers and regional languages for explanations and small talk. Teachers and learners are clearly identifying local, pragmatic solutions for the challenges they face in this multilingual country with its relatively new language-in-education policy.

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