Abstract

This case study outlines the development of a critical thinking course tailored for a ni-Vanuatu audience. The course is designed to equip participants with skills essential for navigating the complexities of daily life—its facts and deceptions—while also fostering critical reading skills, particularly for engaging with Bible texts. To make the course accessible to individuals with varying levels of formal education, the material is both written and delivered in Bislama, Vanuatu’s lexically-English creole national language. This choice necessitated the creation of a new set of terminology to convey concepts that are largely unfamiliar in Vanuatu culture. The study shows how linguistic adaptation can bridge cultural and educational gaps, by demonstrating the process of selecting, testing, and establishing suitable terms and phrases while addressing the language’s current lexical limitations. By tracing the course’s thirteen-year evolution, the study illustrates how knowledge can be effectively conveyed through carefully developed linguistic innovations and offers a model for teaching complex concepts in Bislama.

Te Reo-Volume 68-Issue 3-pp. 61–70