Language Attitudes in Multilingual Primary Schools in Fiji

Abstract

Fiji is a multilingual country in the South Pacific with English, Fijian and Hindi being the official languages. As is inevitable in multilingual societies, language use is functional with Fiji Hindi and Fijian being the mother tongues of the two main ethnic groups in the country, the Indo-Fijians and the Fijians. English, because of Fiji's colonial history, is a powerful language of choice as language of instruction in Fiji schools and as the language of public systems, bureaucracy, law courts and parliament. It is also the preferred language of literacy for Indo-Fijians, who form nearly half of Fiji's population. Most Indo-Fijians do not read or write Standard Hindi well. Fiji Hindi is a pre-literate language of low status within the Indo-Fijian community and is used only for informal, communicative purposes. Language attitudes in the nation's education system influence the ways in which language is taught and used in Fiji's classrooms. This article reports on attitudes towards languages in Indo-Fijian education by reporting on research conducted in eight primary schools in Fiji. It looks specifically at the language attitudes of the school policy makers: the headteachers and class teachers, and of 48 Indo-Fijian primary school children. Language attitudes shape language behaviour and this inevitably affects language proficiency and use in subsequent generations, particularly when attitudes to language are shaped by political and social events, and driven by economic need in a diglossic nation like Fiji.

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