Black people's languages in Britain ‐ A Historical and Contemporary Perspective

Abstract

The history of the presence of black1 people in Britain is being salvaged. It is now known that the presence of black people in Britain dates back centuries. This paper traces the history of the presence of black people's languages in Britain and also gives a contemporary perspective. In academic establishments the study of black people's languages dates from the middle of the seventeenth century and reached its heyday towards the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries. It is at this time that examination standards and departments of these languages were set up in establishments of learning in Britain. However, the academic study of these languages and their use in the homes and streets of Britain were distinct and separate. It was after World War II that larger groups of speech communities of black people appeared in Britain. Initially, the British education system disregarded the presence of these languages. In the teaching of English in schools, the Afro‐Caribbean and Asian children were separated from one another. Academic development of both these groups suffered. In the last two decades, more than £1.5 million has been spent on the study of the languages of black people in Britain but it has been of little benefit to the speakers of these languages, and the picture today remains muddled and unclear. The weaknesses in pedagogic strategies, teaching materials and language use information still persist. Many reports have been written on the language and academic performance of Black British school children but consideration given to the implications of major studies from around the world has been perfunctory. The need now is for black people in Britain to define and articulate their own language needs, to contribute towards the theory and development of language teaching, teacher training and production of teaching material.

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