ORGANIZACIÓN Y ANÁLISIS DE LA INFORMACIÓN

Under increasing pressure from dominant societies and globalization, it has become a struggle to maintain and consolidate the use of indigenous languages within multilingual countries. Many scholars agree that attitude towards language is a key variable in language learning.68 A definition of “attitude” provided by Anita Wenden (1991:52) is that it is

“learned motivations, valued beliefs, evaluations, or what one believes is acceptable.”

and it impacts language learning. Another definition worth considering is presented by K.

Sjöholm (2004:687): attitude is

“evaluative self-descriptions or self-perceptions of the activity of learning languages.”

We may, therefore, reasonably pay attention to the factor of ‘language attitude’ when reviewing the development process of indigenous education, especially on the matter of indigenous language learning at school. From the point of W.R. Jones’ (1950) observation on a study of the Welsh language, there is a relationship between attitude towards learning Welsh language and attained proficiency. Almost half a century later, R.C. Gardner’s (1985) research findings also agree with Jones’ (1950); and A.M. Masgoret et al. (2001:281) confirmed attitude as a key factor that

“influence[s] the rate and success of second language learning in the classroom.”

In light of the findings of the Masgoret et al. study and the commentaries of numerous scholars regarding attitude, one can be certain that the attitude maintained by language users towards a specific language has a considerable degree of influence on the survival of the language. Most indigenous languages are not spoken by the dominant populations, and thus, to most indigenous peoples, using the indigenous languages in public areas where they are surrounded by a non-indigenous cultural atmosphere and population might make them feel uncomfortable and even present them with the negative feeling of language discrimination. The effort to reduce or avoid facing such problems can lead to indigenous peoples having misgivings about using or even refusing to use their own language in public areas; such a phenomenon is especially evident in young generations. According to a 2006 survey69 of students at Yongan Elementary School in Taipei (Hoklo70, Hakka and indigenous students) on attitudes towards language use (Table 1 and Table 2), indigenous students had a comparatively low willingness to use their indigenous language at home; and their level of dislike for mother-tongue education was stronger even that that of students made up of other minority peoples.

68

T. H. Mueller and R. I.Miller (1970), Morris Jacobson and Maurice Imhof (1974), Gardner (1985), and A. S. Canagarajah (1999) assert that attitude towards a second language and its culture influences the motivation of learning that specific language.

69

This survey was based on my official teaching engagement at the school in 2006, students from 12 classrooms (353 students) spread over 4 grades (3 to 6 grade) participated in answering the questionnaire. 70

Table 1:「Do your parents encourage you speak indigenous language at home?」

extremely

encourage encourage average discourage

strongly discourage Holo 25.7 20.3 45.9 6.3 1.8 Haka 29.0 19.1 41.3 8.5 2.1 Indigenous languages 26.2 19.0 39.3 8.3 7.1 Average Amount 26.8 19.8 43.9 7.2 2.4

Table2:「Do you like mother-tongue education?」

Language use, whether situated locally, institutionally, or historically, is constituted in relations of power. (Donna Patrick 2003:20)

Looking at the current use figures for the majority of the world’s indigenous languages, an apparent truth is that indigenous people are increasingly tending to use the dominant language. This is because, in most cases, the status of indigenous languages is inferior within nations, and such languages are used by only a small number of speakers. In light of the above facts, the greater share of indigenous education has been unable to make constructive progress. According to some researchers, language speakers with positive language attitude will help language revitalization. Yet, among the numerous factors having a negative effect on indigenous language education, I argue that not just only language speakers’ language attitude but also the language attitudes of dominant governments and dominant populations towards such languages are important factors affecting the outcomes of school’s implementation of language education. Moreover, these three factors also affect each other.

From the rankings given by dominant governments to indigenous languages, it is easy to see the attitude held by the dominant government towards such indigenous languages.

The most common of these decisions involves the national language(s), the official language(s), and/or the languages to be used in administration, education and judicial areas, etc. (Sherida Altehenger-Smith 1990:29)

In the above survey, the willingness of indigenous parents to encourage their children to use indigenous languages at home is cross-compared with the degree to which indigenous students like receiving indigenous language education. It was found that there was a positive correlation; it is important that, if indigenous parents maintain a positive attitude towards the use of indigenous language in the home, their children tend to have a corresponding interest in learning the indigenous language. As to what factors affect parents not to support the use of indigenous language in the home, we can gain insight from the following two interviews:

extremely like like average dislike strongly dislike

Holo 26.1 22.6 35.6 9.2 6.0

Haka 25.7 29.2 34.2 6.3 4.6

Indigenous

languages 33.3 31.0 15.5 14.3 6.0

Of course, studying my ancestral language is useless. Out in the working world, who cares if you can speak it? Also, speaking our own language in a public place is weird: other people look at you and say that you’re speaking barbarian talk.– the view of an Amis mother.

Of course the government doesn’t think it’s a very important issue! Look, who’d know that our language, Amis, is official? I’m aware of the fact, but what of it? It’s not like we Amis (in Taiwan) suddenly became important. Learning (Amis) is good, but learning Chinese Mandarin is more important: it’s necessary for going to school…. This is really troublesome. Now exams are giving bonus points for (indigenous languages), so…. Some people say this is good: children have to learn their own native language, but with pressure to advance in school as great as it is, once you’ve passed and no longer use it will you remember it? Schools teach mother-tongue education only once a week, and this isn’t enough to deal with exams. – the view of an Amis father

Taiwan’s government elevated indigenous languages to the status of official languages. Taiwan’s official languages comprise Taiwan Mandarin, Hakka, Taiwanese Southern Ming, and 14 indigenous languages, a total of 17. So for any indigenous language to achieve true elevation of its status in Taiwan’s society through this form of political influence is an unattainable dream. If the government’s practical efforts to elevate the status of indigenous languages are unable to inspire in indigenous people an appreciation for the importance of passing on their mother tongue or encourage members of dominant society to attach positive value to indigenous languages, it will produce a negative effect on indigenous students regarding attitude and willingness to learn indigenous languages in school.

I think learning Amis [the indigenous language] is a lot of fun, but it’s hard. I’m actually not an indigenous person: my dad is Han Taiwanese. But my mom wanted me to do this…. Anyway, I don’t want to study Taiwanese Southern Ming, Haka either, so I’ll just take Amis. – Fifth grade student of the Amis people.

The point about the statement of this Amis child is that this student finds learning an indigenous language to be enjoyable, but she has not attained recognition of her own indigenous identity through the enjoyment she derives from studying her ancestral tongue. (This student’s ethnic identity is official identified as “indigenous people” as registered in the governmental document by her parents). Judging from this perspective, a reasonable explanation is that learning a “new” or “unfamiliar” language is fun, especially if the language studied is the student’s heritage language, but because the overall learning environment does not allow indigenous students to feel safe or comfortable to learn their indigenous languages, has hassled to poor results in Taiwan’s indigenous language education as a result.

Table3: Statistics on the number of indigenous junior high school and high school students

Amis Atayal Paiwan Bunun Puyuma Tsou Rukai Saisiyat Yami Thao kavalan Truku Sakizaya/Sediq Junior high school students 9719 4982 4529 2921 651 338 600 307 220 36 63 1395 139 High school student 3123 1496 1663 1014 266 121 198 95 80 14 17 574 54 Total amount 12842 6478 6192 3935 917 459 798 402 300 50 80 1969 193 Source: 2006教育部全球資訊網 (Census and Statistics Department, Ministry of Education)

http://www.edu.tw/EDU_WEB/EDU_MGT/STATISTICS?EDU7220001/ebooks/native/native.htm

Table4: Statistics on the number of indigenous junior high school and high school students who’s willing to learn indigenous language

Amis Atayal Paiwan Bunun Puyuma Tsou Rukai Saisiyat Yami Thao kavalan Truku Sakizaya/Sediq Junior high school students 721 406 225 253 60 23 51 33 8 4 3 79 14 High school student 144 86 162 72 24 14 24 10 2 0 0 30 4 Total amount 865 492 387 325 84 37 75 43 10 4 3 109 18

Source: 2006行政院原住民族委員會全球資訊網 (Council of Indigenous Peoples, Executive Yuan) http://www.edu.tw/EDU_WEB/EDU_MGT/STATISTICS?EDU7220001/ebooks/native/native.htm

Table5: The percentage of the willingness of indigenous students in learning indigenous language (calculated from Tables 3 and 4) Amis Atayal Paiwan Bunun Puyuma Tsou Rukai Saisiyat Yami Thao kavalan Truku Sakizaya/Sediq Junior high school students 7.36 8.15 4.97 8.67 9.21 6.80 8.50 10.75 3.64 11.11 4.76 5.66 10.07 High school student 4.61 5.75 9.74 7.10 9.02 11.57 12.12 10.53 2.50 0 0 5.23 7.40 average 6.67 7.59 6.25 8.34 9.16 8.06 9.34 10.70 3.33 8.00 3.75 5.54 9.33

Table 5 helps to understand that the willingness of Taiwan’s indigenous peoples to learn indigenous languages is very low, with mostly fewer than 10% taking an interest. Most troubling is that despite the Amis and Atayal being Taiwan’s two largest indigenous peoples (2006 Ministry of Education figures on indigenous students show that the total number of indigenous students in Taiwan that year amounted to 110,819, with Amis students accounting for 41,231 and Atayal students numbering 21,279, totalling 62,510, or 56.4% of indigenous students), members of these two groups do not have a relatively stronger positive attitude towards learning indigenous languages. At present, most of the indigenous language courses available at Taiwan’s primary and secondary schools cover the Amis and Atayal languages. According to a 2007 survey by the Indigenous Peoples Commission in primary and secondary school indigenous language curricula, there were a total of 758 indigenous language classes taught that year; of these, Amis language courses accounted for 343 and Atayal for 144, together amounting to 65% of the total number of indigenous language courses. Yet among Amis and Atayal students taking courses in their respective languages, their willingness to learn these languages is

troublingly low, and students who lack a positive or appropriate learning attitude will naturally produce poor academic results.

Another crucial factor that impacts upon indigenous students’ attitude towards their language is while indigenous students have to learn English and traditional Chinese writing skills at school, the additional unfamiliar totally different writing system (Romanization) of indigenous languages are not welcomed by them or the language teachers.