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In this report, I discuss the re-contextualization of a working-class Jamaican speaker’s discourse in the media and the new meanings his speech acquires in the process. The series of re-contextualizations starts out with an interview on Jamaican television, which is in turn remixed into an electronic dance song and accompanying music video. The song entextualizes individual stretches of the speaker’s original dis­course into readily identifiable quotes that turn into Jamaican slang items. In the process, linguistic disorderliness is foregrounded in the utterances in question while their propositional content is virtually erased. In a further instance of re-contextualization, the speaker encounters his by now entextualized utterances in an interview on Jamaican breakfast television and struggles to re-establish his originally intended framing of it. His success in the specific interaction is very limited, but viewers’ comments reveal that the interview does effect a change in the meta-linguistic discourse surrounding the incident. I analyze the data as a case in point of ‘speaky spoky,’ a Jamaican label for un­successful attempts to emulate foreign prestige accents, resulting in linguistic dis­orderliness. By considering aspects of performance, entextualization and the keying of different frames, I demonstrate the interactional work that goes into the construc­tion of speaky spoky as a label, as well as the ideological work that label is put to in turn and its political effects. Based on these observations, I argue that speaky spoky is best understood as a multivalent construct resource for sustaining and influencing lan­guage ideologies. Its interactional versatility renders its relationship to authenticity in the Jamaican speech community complicated and potentially ambiguous. / text

In this dissertation, I trace academics' attitudes to writing and its instruction through the six-decade history of The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, in Jamaica. I establish that while the institution's general writing courses facilitate students' initiation into the academy, these courses reflect assumptions about writing and learning that need to be reassessed to yield versatile writers and disassociate the courses and writing from the alarmist rhetoric that often emerges in the media and in academe. In Jamaica, critics of university students' writing often promote what Mike Rose calls the "myth of transience" and perpetuate the "the rhetoric of transparent disciplinarity." According to the myth of transience, if writing is taught correctly at pre-university levels, students will not need writing instruction in the academy. The concept that I call "the rhetoric of transparent disciplinarity" is defined in the work of David Russell, who examines the view that writing is a single, mechanical, generalizable skill that is learned once and for all. Advocates of this view consider writing as a transparent recording of reality or completed thought that can be taught separate from disciplinary knowledge. Based on my analysis of archival materials and data gathered from questionnaires and interviews with past and current writing specialists, this view has been evident at the UWI, Mona, since the institution's earliest years. Academics there have perpetuated a certain tacit assumption that writing is a natural process. By recalling the country's history of education, I demonstrate how this assumption parallels colonial administrators' determination that Jamaican Creole speakers should naturally learn English to advance in society. I argue that if the university wants to widen participation while maintaining excellence, then academics should foster knowledge production (rather than only reproduction) by acknowledging the extent to which disciplines are rhetorically constructed through writing. If writing specialists and other content faculty draw on rhetoric's attention to audience, situation, and purpose, they can foster learning by helping students see how writing contributes to knowledge-making inside the academy and beyond. This study contributes to international discussions about how students learn to write and use writing in higher education.

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Racial tensions in UK escalating to violent conflicts from early 50ʼs on, led to series of changes in British legislation. Migration was systematically restricted, and regulations of entry were becoming much more severe. Discrimination of Caribbean and Asian immigrants in labor market, housing and education was extensive. Every attempt to address racial discrimination on the level of legislation was inefficient and hardly enforceable. Case study presented is situated in this social-political context. It is focused on second generation of afro-Caribbean minority in 70ʼs and its reaction to expulsion from British society, denying British identity and its fight against oppression through music and especially through language used itself. Jamaican Creole and in British, most notably in London surroundings, on Creole based system of adaptations called London Jamaican became significant feature of ethnic identification of afro-Caribbean (black) adolescents. This feature was used in conversations almost always through phenomenon of code-switching, where Creole features used were linked to attempt to define the speaker against dominant white society and oppressive system. Using of the features was often purposeful, because second generation of migrants was fully competent in using standard British English....

This case study explored students’ perception about their performance in CSEC English A at three evening schools in Savanna La Mar. While conducting the research I used ethnographic methods, including interviews, observations and document analysis to better understand students’ perceptions of their performance in CSEC English A. The central questions which guided the research are “how do students at three evening schools in Savanna La Mar perceive their performance in CSEC English A and what factors affect those perceptions, and what strategies do students think can improve their performance in English?” Creswell’s (2008) steps for analyzing qualitative data were used to explore the central research questions. The discussion sought to highlight how students perceived their academic performance in CSEC English A and what attributed for these perceptions. These views were examined using four themes: student factors that influence student learning outcome, influence of Jamaican Creole (JC) on learning Standard Jamaican English (SJE), teacher traits that influence learning and structure and operations of the evening schools. The Attribution and Expectancy Value Theories were used to make meaning of the data. The findings revealed that most of the students exhibited high self-concept and expressed that they would be successful in the upcoming CSEC English A Examination despite previous challenges they experienced with SJE. They attributed this success to the strategies they were using and the encouragement and positive feedback they got from their teachers. However, some students cited several factors which have negatively affected their performance such as the predominant use of JC in the home, school and community. Although the research was a multiple site study, it was limited to one geographical location which delimited the generalizability of the study. However, the insights gained can contribute to and fill gaps in the literature and also enlighten educators and other stakeholders of students’ perception about their performance in CSEC English A. / Educational Leadership