Abstract

This article reports on a study that investigated the implementation of Vanuatu’s vernacular education policy in selected schools on West Ambae. A trilingual picture-based language assessment was conducted with all children in Years 1 and 4 at two schools to ascertain their abilities to speak and listen in each of the vernacular (Nduindui), Bislama and English. Classroom observation was then carried out to see how the same three languages were used in the teaching and learning process for these groups of children. Finally, teacher interviews and community hunguhungu were conducted to elicit perspectives about the policy.

The language assessment revealed the strongest ability in Nduindui, and minimal proficiency in English, with Bislama showing a more mixed profile. There was very little difference between the levels attained by the two year groups, suggesting that limited acquisition of new languages had occurred during the first three years of school. This phase of the study demonstrates that Nduindui was the most logical language to use as the principal medium of instruction across the curriculum in Year 1, and that students were no more ready to use English for this purpose by Year 4.

The classroom observation data indicated that Nduindui was the predominant language used for oral interaction but that English was the only language written on the board. While all four classrooms were highly interactive and engaging, it became clear, particularly from the Year 4 classrooms, that the vernacular had become seen as a language to fall back on when English was too challenging, rather than part of the developing plurilingual repertoire. Through both the classroom observation and discussions with teachers and community members, it was clearly shown that there was widespread support for the vernacular policy, although there were indications of some gaps in implementation.

Te Reo-Volume 68-Issue 3-pp. 71–105