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| Credit: Tubín, Verdugo, & Jiménez (2010, 39). |
To this end, the work and advocacy of bilingual
educators in the indigenous community sectors of the country have created a
campaign to improve the bilingual educational programs and implement new
programs, particularly in schools where the native language is threatened. Schools have become an important venue to not
only teach children in both Spanish and their native languages, but to promote bilingualism,
and to ensure the intergenerational transmission of the native language among
families. But, are these efforts enough to accomplish the difficult task of
linguistic sustainability?
In the Case of
Santa María, presented in the following paragraphs, the voices of bilingual
teachers, parents, and administrators speak to the issues in their efforts to
implement a successful bilingual intercultural education program. Unraveling
the problems and framing the issues reveal a profile of a struggling program,
despite the impressive, enormous work behind their efforts.
The Proyecto Linguístico de Santa María (PLSM)
The
Video
The Proyecto Lingüístico de Santa María (PLSM) is a non-profit social and educational organization and
amongst its main funders is the Canadian agency, Horizontes de Amistad
(Horizons of Friendship). Their purpose is to advocate for change and improvement in the social and
economic inequalities among the indigenous communities. They fund projects that
educate teachers and parents about the advantages of bilingual intercultural
education. In PLSM’s brief video, Situación Legal de Educación Bilingüe en Guatemala. the project's coordinator, Obispo Rosales Yax, leads a discussion on the legal basis
for bilingual intercultural education, followed by promotional and testimonial interviews
with parents and teachers from a K’iche – Spanish language school, Escuela
Official Rural Mixta de Chuisuc (EORM), in the area of Santa María,
Quetzaltenango in the western highlands of Guatemala. The thematic thread emphasized throughout the
video, i.e., Guatemala has a legal basis for the implementation of a bilingual
education program in all their schools, is substantiated with supportive documentation. Amongst the Legal Documents
or Acuerdos y Leyes are the
following, which I included in my discussion in a previous blog on University of San Carlos student protests.
Guatemala’s constitution, Constitution of the Republic of Guatemala in Sección Tercera, Comunidades Indigenas, the Constitution recognizes, respects
and promotes the communities’ “forma de vida…..idiomas y dialectos.” The
subsequent section on Education alludes to the country’s responsibility to educate
the youth since education is a right.
The Acuerdo sobre identidad y derechos de los pueblos
indígenas, was the fifth of twelve peace treaties promulgated by
the Guatemalan government in 1997 after the 36-year armed conflict that left
200,000 people dead and destroyed thousands of families and their properties.
The overall content of the treaty is specific to eradicating discriminatory
practices against the indigenous population, especially women. However, the
protection of rights also includes the linguistic right of the people to learn
to speak, read, and write their non-Spanish language in all public institutions
of learning. The inclusion provision is paramount in the treaty’s
statements of recognition and acceptance of the pueblos’ identities, cultures,
and languages. About half of Guatemala’s population belongs to an indigenous
community.
The
document, United Nations Declarations on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples outlines the major rights to their
culture, languages, and dignity thereof, but specifically states in Articles 15
and 19 respectively that educational programs reflect the diverse cultures and
languages, and that decision-making related to content and curriculum be
inclusive and representative of the indigenous groups.
The Convenio or Convention number 169 of the
International Labor Organization, an off-shoot of the United Nations, passed in
1991 a revision of the 1957 declaration of the rights of pueblos indígenas y tribales
that included in Part Six, Articles 26 – 31, the rights of the people to have a
direct input into the educational programs in public education and that they
are judicially represented in all matters of education.
The
Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions that underscores that linguistic diversity is an essential part of cultural
diversity and that education plays a key role in the protection and promotion
of cultural expressions. A recurring
theme in this document is that cultural diversity is a defining characteristic
of humanity.
Although the legal basis for
bilingual education is well documented, and the voices of the school community
express their unflinching support for the program, the missing piece, i.e., the
implementation component is perhaps the most essential part of the integral
plan. Parents, teachers, and administrators’ comments in the video emphatically
express the concern over the lack of leadership in administering the bilingual
intercultural program at every level, from the administration to the classroom,
and in the school community.
The
Study
The Proyecto Lingüístico surveyed
and analyzed the bilingual intercultural education programs in 50 schools in Quetzaltenango
and Totonícapan. Their report, Principales
indicadores de la educación bilingüe intercultural (located in their
website), outlines the
positive areas of the schools as well as their shortcomings. The results are
familiar to bilingual educators in Texas and elsewhere in United States, affirming
the fact that bilingual education programs have commonalities across
international boundaries. About three-fourths of the teachers surveyed agree on
the importance of bilingual education and its positive impact on the cognitive
and self-esteem of the students. There is similar agreement on the benefits of
the program for the school community and at-large. The teachers’ responses
strongly indicated that there is a need for bilingual education for the purpose
of maintaining the native language, with the concern that increasingly less
parents are speaking or transmitting the native language to their children. The
interruption in intergenerational transmission of the native language is one of
the “red flags” in determining the high-threatening level of a native language.
The study pointed out some of the
similar needs for improvement found in bilingual education programs in the
United States. For example, the training of bilingual teachers is a priority as
is the accessibility to quality instructional materials in the native language.
The teachers voiced their disapproval for the lack of support, supervision, and
training from the administrative levels. The lack of adequate funding for the
program was perceived as a major concern.
Assessing
the Vitality of the Languages To Analyze Their Intergenerational Transmission
The lack of leadership is only one
of many roadblocks that complicate the process for successfully implementing the
bilingual education program. Many factors consider the extent to which a
language will thrive or fall under the threat of extinction. A methodology for
assessing language vitality and endangerment from UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, Cultural Organization) include
the following criteria:
- The extent to which the language(s) is used for governmental and institutional purposes;
- The availability of quality materials for use in schools and community literacy education;
- The proportion of speakers within the total population; and
- How the language(s) respond to new domains in a changing world and flexibility in terms of use in different contexts for different purposes.
Ethnologue Languages of the World focuses on the uses and functions of the
language in question to determine an index of endangerment. Two important
indicators mentioned by Ethnologue
are the official recognition of languages
within the nation, and the non-linguistic factors such as economic opportunity
that promote language use and its further development.
Educating children in a quality
bilingual intercultural educational program is by far one of the most important
actions in the process of language sustainability. But in addition to these
efforts is the fundamental promotion and use of the language in various domains,
including institutional functions. Assessing language vitality as well as
language planning and language-in-education implementation is an important
endeavor but require time and responsibility (see my language policy paper on
South Texas schools.
Analysis
According to UNESCO, if we don’t
take appropriate measures to ensure the survival of indigenous languages, in just
two generations half of the existing 6000 languages in our planet will die. And,
of course, the most vulnerable are the indigenous languages. Language loss or
language death is a serious matter when considering the consequences and its impact
on humanity. In Guatemala, two languages are endangered, Itzá and Xinca. In
fact Ethnologue lists the Xinca
language as extinct (see complete list of Guatemala's languages and their statuses). However, Xinca, a non-Maya language, is in
the process of revitalization due to the efforts of the pueblo or community as
I reported in a previous blog post.
A language holds the key to specific knowledge and
understanding; it is a voice of many in our universe that makes us who we are
as people. Our diversity, in all its dimensions, is essential just like our
environment requires biodiversity (see UNESCO’s statement on how maintaining
indigenous languages is conserving biodiversity).
Guatemala’s language challenge is
our challenge as well. A vision of a polyglot nation for Guatemala is our
vision and the future of our world. Learning language begins at home, but the
responsibility for second language learning and beyond is a shared endeavor. In
an ever changing digitized world, citizens must learn at least three languages
– the native language, the dominant language, and English or another comparable
“power” language. But first, we start with a deep and broad understanding of
the issues; simultaneously, we value our own and others’ language(s) and
culture(s), preserving the diversity within; making sure that children become
the knowledgeable and caring individuals needed for our changing polyglot world.
In
closing, I include the poem, Cuando muere una lengua that brings into focus perhaps, the most important aspect of language - its human qualities. (Note: grammatical errors
are features due to translation.)
Cuando
muere una lengua
Cuando
muere una lengua
las
cosas divinas, estrellas, sol y luna,
las
cosas humanas, pensar y sentir,
no
se reflejan en ese espejo.
Cuando
muere una lengua
todo
lo que hay en el mundo,
mares
y ríos, animales y plantas,
ni
se piensen, ni se pronuncian
con
atisbos, con sonidos,
que
no existen ya.
Cuando
muere una lengua
se
cierre a todos los pueblos del mundo,
una
puerta, una ventana,
un
asomarse,
de
modo distinto a las cosas divinas y humanas
en
cuanto es ser y vida en la tierra.
Cuando
muere una lengua,
sus
palabras de amor,
entonación
de dolor y querencias,
tal
vez viejos cantos,
relatos,
discursos, plegarias,
nadie,
cual fueran,
jamás
alcanzará a repetir.
Cuando
muere una lengua,
ya
mucho han muerto,
y
mucho mas pueden morir,
espejos
para siempre quebrados,
sombras
de voces
siempre
acalladas,
la
humanidad se empobreze,
Cuando
muere una lengua.
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