| Budget Amount *help |
¥2,145,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,650,000、Indirect Cost: ¥495,000)
Fiscal Year 2010: ¥1,131,000 (Direct Cost: ¥870,000、Indirect Cost: ¥261,000)
Fiscal Year 2009: ¥1,014,000 (Direct Cost: ¥780,000、Indirect Cost: ¥234,000)
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| Research Abstract |
The Republic of Mauritius is a postcolonial multilingual nation with 1.2 million inhabitants of Indian, African, French and Chinese descendents. Since its independence in 1968, Mauritius has come to be one of the most economically successful countries in Africa, moving from a sugar cane production economy to a more diversified model with strong services, textile, tourism, BPO and IT industry sectors. This study was carried out through the use of questionnaires distributed to and interviews conducted with 562 students and 45 teachers attending 6 secondary schools of varying statuses.
All participants were multilingual and switched languages depending of the environment they were in. For example, they spoke Creole to friends and family, English and French to school teachers, Hindi, Arabic or French in religious ceremonies, and English and Creole when communicating by email or online chatting. The language of instruction at school was primarily English followed by a less frequent use of Fr
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ench and Creole. Creole was more popular among rural school teachers as compared to urban school teachers. There was a higher ratio of students in rural school who considered that Creole should be used as a language of instruction and that the spelling of Creole should be standardized. In general, English and French were considered as being internationally recognized languages associated with socio-economic success and prestige rather than the languages of former colonists. The ancestral languages were associated with the respect to ethnic and cultural origins but were also widely considered as not having great practical value. Creole was considered as being intrinsic to the Mauritian identity but views differed as to whether it should be made a formal national language. All in all, younger Mauritians were proud of their multicultural heritage and had a tendency to part with their colonial baggage and gave more value to economic success.
Japan differs greatly from Mauritius inasmuch as Japanese education is founded on Japanese social, historical and economic paradigms and is taught almost invariably in the Japanese mother tongue. The ease with which Mauritians can dissociate the language in which education is being proffered and the substance of what is being taught is probably enhanced by their past colony status. However, due to increased globalization, immersion programs where the target language (such as English) is also used as a medium of instruction have increased in importance. As such, we would stand to benefit from taking a similar approach to that currently embraced by the Mauritian education system. We would, however, pay due regards to the fact that the mother tongue is essential for ensuring and/or confirming that the students have grasped the essence of what is being taught in a foreign global language. The example given would be that of Mauritian rural area teachers using Creole to supplement gaps of understanding faced by their students. Less
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