National Development and the Language Planning Challenge in St Lucia, West Indies

Abstract

During the colonial period, the British transformed St Lucia into an economic dependency, established British-modelled social institutions and sought to anglicise the island population. In the postcolonial world, language plays a role in the economic, social and cultural transformation of societies embarking on policies of national development. Upon independence, St Lucian cultural nationalists strove for a different model of development – one that incorporated the island's French-lexicon Kweyol and made provisions for Kweyol-dominant speakers. The nationalist movement largely failed to realise goals to integrate Kweyol into national plans to economically and socially transform the island, but succeeded in sensitising St Lucians ' including many of the elite ' to the value of the language as a component of St Lucian culture and a symbol of St Lucian national identity. Although there are indications that the vitality of Kweyol as a family and community language is waning, most St Lucians still speak the vernacular, express the importance of children learning it and perceive positive attitudinal changes toward the language since the advent of St Lucian cultural nationalism ' signs which bode well for future pro-Kweyol language planning efforts.

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