Studies of particular languages

1969 Language Teaching  
ENGLISH 69-10 Cammack, Floyd M. Virgin Islands English. English Teachers' Magazine (Kanda), 16, n (1968), 24-30. Although the English-language-teaching problems described in the article may appear specialized, there is a common factor which is basic to all language-teaching situations, namely the reluctance of the unsophisticated learner to switch codes in the presence of his peers. Virgin Islands English (VIE) is difficult for mainland teachers to understand and many will only stay for a short
more » ... time as they find adjustment very difficult. [There follows a description of VIE phonological and morphological characteristics taken from field notes made in the summer of 1965.] VIE is not a direct dialect of Standard American English, it is a subdialect of the variety of British English common to the West Indies. Teacher recruits for the Virgin Islands need to be made aware of this and VIE should be presented to them in the form of an audio-lingual course. High-school or first-year college students should make excellent drill instructors and be a good source of information on current VIE vocabulary and idiomatic expressions. Although no single orientation programme could solve all the problems produced by the confrontation of students from one background and teachers from another, it could neutralize some obvious misunderstandings that generate a personal sense of injury and animosity.
doi:10.1017/s0261444800001336 fatcat:62cn5ee7efcrhn2zdacf47aenu