JTA bows! English should be taught as a second language!

[Jawge]

Please don't tell me the VW commercial sparked their decision. I know a rudderless ship when I see one.

[Mosiah]

Sigh!

The sooner we address our issues with learning and mastering the English Language, the sooner we can embrace the info age.

You just don't get it!

[Jawge]

So relegating English to second language status will achieve the objective?

[Mosiah]

Ah...YES!

[Islandman]

It is already second language status. The majority of Jamaicans cannot speak it fluently.

[Sir X]

Xactly , so whats is there to teach about patwa ? We have failed at it being our so called 1st langauge but now we expect to be better at it doing what , teaching patwa as our 1st , helloooo its already our 1st ?

Serious disconnect or more an admission of failure ?

[Islandman]

Them not saying there is a need to teach patwa for the sake of teaching it, they are saying there is a need to teach English as if it was a second language of many of the students, recognizing that patwa is the first language.

Its less about patwa and more about how best to teach English to students who do not speak it outside of the classroom setting.

[Sir X]

Ok I get the 1st part patwa is our 1st langauge , but how do you teach english as a 2nd language when english is the official langauge ?

Again its an admission of failure , official means it was being taught and used in our systems of governance from schools , business and government.Its obvious it was not,so how do we go about teaching it as a 2nd language ?

Serious disconnect , is it just to have an official declaration of the task at hand ? If so I support that granted english be retained as the language of governance.

[Islandman]

I totally agree that English should remain the official language, the language of governance, etc.

I see this as an issue of education. We want to get children to master English, so how do we do that? If teaching some of them as if English is not their first language is an approach that might help with that I say lets give it a try.

[Sir X]

Let me clarify myself .

We need to clarify what is termed official langauge? in what capacity , if it is cultural use , then it has to be patwa, if it is governance (schools - commerce) then I would say english.

Teaching it as a 2nd language to me is already being done because Patwa is our cultural language.We are to me failing already , to me its a feel good declaration.This kinda has me baffled , but hey if it helps why not.