The Issue in Brief

Throughout its history, the United States has given refugee status to people from nations whose internal problems drive their citizens to seek asylum elsewhere. As a result, there is a history of linguistic diversity in America. While this diversity has often been coupled with tolerance of other languages and cultures, the issue of how and when to teach second language literacy has been a difficult one. In many programs, literacy is still taught as a set of skills. However, innovative programs are putting into practice the recent shifts in thinking about second language acquisition: greater emphasis on "meaning-making," consideration of the social context of language, and greater use of learners' native language in teaching initial literacy. It is well known that under some conditions, providing literacy instruction in the native language first can be an important bridge to literacy in the new language, and that literacy learning in a second language is facilitated by literacy skills in the mother tongue. Lack of literacy skills in the native language can often be an obstacle to achieving literacy in a second language. For Haitian speakers of Creole, or Kreyol, as the word is written and pronounced by native speakers, the lack of literacy in the native language, as well as its status in Haiti as a "less favored language" were very real barriers to achieving literacy in English.

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The Context in Haiti

Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere and among the 25 poorest in the world. Per capita income is on the decline; currently reported as $330, down from $377 in 1985. As of 1995, country indicators show that only 6% of Haitians have access to electricity and 5% to the telephone. Life expectancy is 55 years and 85% of the population live below the poverty level. The unemployment rate is 70%. The illiteracy rate is 85%. Epidemics of measles, meningitis, rabies, and anthrax are common; tuberculosis is widespread and malnutrition is a major cause of illness.

The mainstay of Haitian economy is agriculture in spite of the extreme state of deforestation. Once a lush, green, tree-covered land, today only about 2% of the country is tree covered. The situation is worsening because wood fuels account for 75% of the country's energy consumption. Soil erosion, the most direct effect of the destruction of trees, has made most of the land unsuitable for farming. Haitians are presently in a near-famine state, with close to a million people being fed by private aid agencies.

Haitians are one of the largest groups to have sought asylum in the United States in recent times. Haitian immigration to the United States over the past 40 years has been coincident with repression within their country. The first wave of Haitians arrived in 1957 following Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier's rise to power. These early emigres were mostly the well educated and economically elite. They spoke French, which is the language of schooling and status in Haiti. While they planned to return to Haiti after Duvalier's fall from power, most never did due to the continuing decline of the country. From then on, coincident with each new wave of repression, massive numbers of Haitians have fled their country, many settling in the Boston, Massachusetts and New York City areas and in southern Florida.

Conditions in Haiti have become so difficult that large numbers of Haitians who are not schooled, and therefore lacked the opportunity to become literate in any language (including their first language, Kreyol) are continuing to flee the poverty, repression, and unemployment in Haiti for the United States. From 1981 to 1996, almost one million people left Haiti. Currently about 60,000 Haitians live in Boston.

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