ADULT INDIGENOUS LITERACY: A CHALLENGE OF LEARNING

Sara Elena Mendoza OrtegaMxico

MXICO COUNTRY

Extension: 2 millions Km 2 105 MILLIONS OF HABITANTSIndigenous people: 12 millions

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INDIGENOUS PEOPLE12 millions: 11% of total populationMore than 364 language variantsIlliteratte: 27.3% (National 6.9%)

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POLITICAL FRAMEWORK INEA, for more than two decades, has made constant educative efforts, directed to the population young and adult native of the country.

Nowadays INEA develops an institutional policy towards the indigenous population, that takes shape in the Indigenous and Bilingual Educational Model for the Life and Work (MEVyT-IB)

WHAT CHARACTERIZES THE EDUCATIVE MODELIncludes three educative levels: initial, intermedium and advanced Offers two learning routes on initial level, depending on the linguistic condition of the peopleStarting from mother tongue languageEmphasizes the intercultural approach Incorporates bilingual and pedagogical strategies Allows to choose and transit across diverse levels and modulesFavors the educative continuity Orientated to lifelong learning

MIB Lets live better!MIB 2 Numbers and calculations

Initial level Intermedium levelMIBES 1Beginnig to read and write in my languageMIBES 3Read and writeIn my languageMIBES 2Speak SpanishMIBES 4Beginning to readand writeIn SpanishMIB 1Using the writing language(two languages)

Curricular organization MIBES route, Spanish like second language: monolingual people

Initial level Intermedium levelMIBI 1Beginning read and write in my two languagesMIBI 2Write and read inmy two languagesMIB 1Using the writingLanguage(two languages)

MIB Lets live better! MIB 2 Numbers and calculationsMIBI route: bilingual integrated: efficient bilingual peopleMIB 3I write mylanguage+ 2D

LITERACYInitial level=literacyMuch more than only decipher and repeatNotion of functional literacy focuses on how these skills are applied in relevant ways*Literacy as transformative: an active process of learning involving social awareness and critical reflection*Literacy is viewed as a continuum of skills (wide regarding)*

Basic education

Inicial level*UNESCO. Literacy for life. 2006

SECOND LANGUAGEThe teaching of indigenous language contributes so much to the learning of the second language (linguistic transference)

Acquisition of the oral communicative competition of the second language, is previous requisite for the acquisition of reading and writing abilities in this language

The education of one second language in its oral and written aspects depart from a functional and communicative approach

The learning of the second language occurs like a gradual process of communicative competitions development

When the learned write in the mother tongue language and speak in one second language, then it is possible to read and to write this second language

The competitions that allow a person to communicate efficiently: to speak, to understand, to read and to write, are developed in different spaces and moments

The situations in which one or another language as well as one or another code (spoken or written) are used, are determined by the specific context in which the persons lives and works

The learning of one second language is not equivalent to the translation from a language to another one, but that it implies the recognition of the meaning and senses that keep the languages in concrete situations.

THE METHODOLOGICAL WAYTo recognize the spaces of use of the languages (indigenous and spanish) in real communicative situations

To consider the structural characteristics of the spanish and the indigenous language

To identify and to recognize the linguistic elements of the second language, the context in which it is used and possible meaning of the words in the new language in real communicative situations

CRITICAL ISUUESThe bilingualism can be only apparent. Really, many persons only use elementary aspects of the second language in some practical daily situationsThe persons need 4 or 5 years of study of the second language to learn in this second language in efficient way*, but the educational processes of bilingual literacy cannot be so extensive.In the indigenous communities do not exist literate environments

We need simple but very thin instruments of valuationWe need both languages with simultaneous work in an extensive framework of basic education We need develop rich literate environments both mother tongue languages and Spanish

*In the meaning of Cummins, 1994

The discussion of he nature of language proficiency and the lengthof time required to develop peer-appropriate levels of conversationaland academic skills have immediate relevance for two practicalissues. First, support for language and academic development is stillbeneficial (and frequently necessary) even after students haveattained conversational fluency ... [in a second language]. Exitingchildren prematurely from bilingual... programs may jeopardize theiracademic development, particularly if the mainstream classroomdoes not provide an environment that is supportive of language andcontent development.*

CRITICAL ISSUES There is sufficient evidence about the linguistic transference, but the times of literacy in mother tongue language are very smallThere is sufficient evidence about the existence of different ways of thinking and different styles of learning. In cultural contexts specific solutions are needed, but the public politics are orientated to the massive solutions

We need to re-formulate the criteria of curricular development and of literacy evaluation, in order to recognize it as a process along the basic education and to favor formally his continuous developmentDifferent styles of education are needed to deliver to every specific person the possibility of learning and of growing in social and cognitive terms.Bilingual programs must be alert and sensitive to social and individual differences in order to provide the most adequate pedagogical assistance to help persons acquire the second language; they need to function adequately in a multilingual setting as well as to perform efficiently at educative spaces.

As Bialystok and Hakuta (1994: 2) summarized it Second languages... develop underan extremely heterogeneous set of conditions, far more diverse that the conditionsunder which children learn their native language. Cultures may vary in their practices oflanguage socialization of infants and toddlers, but outcome of first-language acquisitionremains universal. This cultural identification and absolute fluency, however, is notguaranteed outcome do second-language learning".*

THANKS!www.conevyt.org.mx/cursos/indigena.htm

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The discussion of he nature of language proficiency and the lengthof time required to develop peer-appropriate levels of conversationaland academic skills have immediate relevance for two practicalissues. First, support for language and academic development is stillbeneficial (and frequently necessary) even after students haveattained conversational fluency ... [in a second language]. Exitingchildren prematurely from bilingual... programs may jeopardize theiracademic development, particularly if the mainstream classroomdoes not provide an environment that is supportive of language andcontent development.*As Bialystok and Hakuta (1994: 2) summarized it Second languages... develop underan extremely heterogeneous set of conditions, far more diverse that the conditionsunder which children learn their native language. Cultures may vary in their practices oflanguage socialization of infants and toddlers, but outcome of first-language acquisitionremains universal. This cultural identification and absolute fluency, however, is notguaranteed outcome do second-language learning".*