Teachers’ language attitudes and production patterns in St. Kitts

Abstract

This study looks at language attitudes and production patterns of teachers in St. Kitts in the Eastern Caribbean, based on metalinguistic interviews conducted with nine teachers and one principal, as well as field notes from classroom observations. The analysis of these data shows generally positive attitudes towards Kittitian Creole (KC) amongst the teachers, who value KC for its cultural significance. However, KC was rather seen as ancillary in the education setting, with English taking centre stage. The classroom observations exhibit a majority use of standardised English by the teachers, with instances of KC in certain situations, such as for direct questions, scolding, or motivating, indicating ‘functional mixing’ (Youssef, 2014, p. 201) by teachers. This article provides first insights into de facto language policies in Kittitian classrooms, adding data from a lesser studied variety to the academic discourse on the role of English and Creole in Caribbean education.