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To cite this article: Danielle Boon & Jeanne Kurvers (2015) Adult literacy education in Timor-
Leste: multilayered multilingualism, International Journal of Multilingualism, 12:2, 225-240, DOI:
10.1080/14790718.2015.1009376
Introduction
Language-in-education policy is important in any multilingual nation that has won
independence after years. This paper analyses the interrelationships between language-in-
education policy as an ideal, and the reality of adult literacy education in the young,
multilingual nation of Timor-Leste.
not (yet) comfortable with, and learners have to learn to read and write using a language
in which they are not (yet) proficient.
Research on multilingual talk in classrooms where a former colonial language was
employed as the medium of schooling reveals how teachers and learners had to navigate
the constraints of particular language policies (Arthur, 2001; Hornberger, 1988; Lin,
1996). In her study on code switching in primary schools in Botswana, Arthur (2001)
used the terms ‘onstage’ and ‘backstage’ language to capture the dynamics involved in
the teachers’ use of English and Setswana. Onstage refers to the prestigious language that
students are required to use in class, backstage to the language(s) the students are familiar
with, but officially are not allowed to use at school. In more recent empirical work in
multilingual settings, the focus is shifting away from code switching in classroom talk to
‘polylanguaging’ (Jørgensen, Karrebæk, Madsen, & Møller, 2011), to foreground the
fluid and dynamic ways in which linguistic resources are employed in multilingual
settings. Following Martin-Jones and Jones (2000), we use the term ‘multilingual’ here to
signal the multiplicity of repertoires and communicative purposes represented among the
participants in the studies we discuss in this paper.
The studies were part of a larger research project: ‘Becoming a nation of readers in
Timor-Leste: Language policy and adult literacy development in a multilingual context’
(De Araujo e Corte-Real & Kroon, 2012).7
International Journal of Multilingualism 229
Methods
Two studies, one broad and one in-depth, were conducted in the three adult literacy
programmes mentioned above. The broad study investigated the first and second research
questions through visits to 73 adult literacy groups in eight districts. Here the focus was
initial literacy skills of the adult learners and the learner and educational variables that
might be influential in this multilingual context. The in-depth study investigated the third
research question through visits to 12 literacy groups in seven districts, observing 20
classes and interviewing teachers, learners and coordinators.
Broad study
Participants in the broad study were 100 teachers and 756 learners in the 73 literacy
groups.8 Of the 100 teachers, 54% were women. The teachers’ mean age was 33.80 years
(SD 10.74), ranging from 19 to 66 years, and they averaged 10.65 years (SD 2.33) of
education. Most lacked teaching experience; only 25% had more than 1 year experience
as an adult literacy teacher. Of the 756 learners, 68% were women. The learners’ mean
age was 37.83 years (SD 15.33), ranging from 15 to 78 years. The majority (69.4%) never
had gone to school as children and most (85%) had never attended an adult literacy
course before.
Instruments used in the broad study included a teacher questionnaire and four reading
and writing tasks for learners, all in Tetum. The written questionnaire for the teachers
comprised 34 questions to elicit the following information9:
. their education and language background,
. their language use in the classroom and in other domains,
. their work experience and training,
. the teaching circumstances in adult literacy education (e.g. availability of a
classroom, electricity, chairs, tables, blackboard, enough notebooks, pencils), and
. the languages they preferred for literacy education.
The reading and writing tasks for the learners were developed to mirror instructional and
learning practices in all three programmes. They focused on crucial elements in the
process of gaining access to the written code, namely, grapheme recognition, word
reading, word writing and filling out a basic form. For the grapheme recognition task,
each learner was given a page with 30 graphemes and was asked to name the graphemes
he/she could recognise. The grapheme score was the number of graphemes the learner
identified correctly. For the word reading task, each learner was given a list of 80 Tetum
words and was asked to read aloud the words over 3 minutes, which was audio recorded.
The reading score was the number of words the learner correctly decoded in 3 minutes.
For the form completion task, each learner was asked to write down some personal data,
e.g. their name and date of birth, name of their district and their signature. The form
completion score was the number of correctly filled in blanks (ranging from 0 to 10). For
the word writing task, the learners were asked to write down 10 words that were read
aloud, one by one. The writing score was the number of words the learner wrote correctly.
All data were entered in an SPSS data file. Descriptive statistics were used to present
the background data of teachers and learners. To investigate the impact of learner and
educational variables, a multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was conducted.
230 D. Boon and J. Kurvers
In-depth study
To investigate the third research question, namely ‘How is multilingualism reflected in
literacy teaching and classroom interaction?’, an in-depth study was carried out in 12
literacy groups in seven districts. Twenty lessons were observed and learners, teachers
and (sub)district coordinators were interviewed. During the class observations, instruc-
tional practices and classroom interaction were audio recorded, field notes were taken and
still photography was used to capture literacy events like texts written on the blackboard
and the layout of the class. An observation checklist was used to make sure all aspects of
the classes visited would be described, such as teaching practices, languages used in
classroom interaction, time allocated to different subjects, available resources and number
of learners attending. After observing classes, 25 interviews were conducted: 9 with
learner groups, 10 with teachers and 6 with (sub)district coordinators. The interviews with
learner groups were conducted in Tetum and the regional languages, with help from local
interpreters (often the teachers and coordinators present). The interviews with teachers
and coordinators were conducted in Tetum and Portuguese. They were semi-structured
oral interviews, guided by interview guidelines that varied according to the interviewees’
specific activities and roles. Topics relevant to each group included the following: (1) for
the learner groups, their reasons for participating in literacy education and their further
learning needs; (2) for the teachers, their ideas on teaching literacy and on language use
in class; and (3) for the coordinators, their responsibilities and challenges in coordinating
literacy programmes in their (sub)districts. Language uses and preferences were discussed
in all interviews.
Results
This section presents and discusses study results relating to the three research questions.
First we describe multilingualism of teachers and learners in adult literacy education in
Timor-Leste (question 1). Second we investigate the impact of proficiency in Tetum on
adult learners’ development of literacy skills (question 2). Third we show how
multilingualism is reflected in literacy teaching and classroom interaction (question 3).
Table 2. Teachers’ answers about their language use in daily life (percentages; N = 110)
Tetum and
Regional regional Other
language Tetum language Portuguese Indonesian combinations Total
language and about a quarter even said they had a fifth language. A large majority (80%)
claimed a regional language as their first language, and a smaller majority (70%) claimed
Tetum as their second language. Over half (55.5%) said they learned Indonesian as a third
language, and slightly fewer (53.6%) claimed Portuguese as a fourth language. Of the
26.4% who said they had a fifth language, for nearly all it was English. Table 2 shows
which languages the literacy teachers said they used in various domains in their daily
lives.
Table 2 shows high percentages of Tetum use across most domains (social and more
institutional). It also shows high percentages of regional language use at home with
parents and partners, while with offspring, regional languages are used less and Tetum is
used more. In communication with family and neighbours, high percentages said they
used a combination of Tetum and regional languages. Notable here is the absence of both
Portuguese and Indonesian as the only language used in any domain, suggesting both
these languages are used mostly in combination with other languages. Some teachers said
they used Portuguese and/or Indonesian in combination with Tetum and/or regional
languages, for example when communicating with government workers (combinations
including Portuguese) or with friends (mainly combinations including Indonesian, and
only occasionally including Portuguese).
When the teachers were asked what languages they preferred for literacy education,
73% said Tetum only, 13% said Tetum and Portuguese and 9% said Tetum and their
regional language. When they were asked what language they thought their students
preferred for literacy education, the answers were almost identical (74% said Tetum only,
13% said Tetum and Portuguese, and 9% said Tetum and their regional language). On
what languages the teachers used during the literacy classes, 56% said Tetum in
combination with the regional language, 26% said Tetum only, 14% mentioned
combinations of three or four languages (besides Tetum also the regional language,
Indonesian and/or Portuguese) and only 3% said Tetum and Portuguese.
The language background of the learners reveals a slightly different picture, as shown
in Table 3 presenting the outcomes on learners’ self-reported language proficiency and
order in which they learned the languages.
Of the 756 adult learners who participated in the broad study, the majority (77.8%)
said they knew more than one language; the 22.2% who said they knew only one
232 D. Boon and J. Kurvers
language were mainly from the enclave Oecusse and remote areas of Baucau district. Of
all learners, 12.3% said Tetum was their first language; the remaining 87.7% said a
regional language was their first language. Of the 77.8% of learners who knew more than
one language, a large majority (90.4%) reported Tetum as their second language. Of all
756 learners, 27.2% reported a third language, mainly Indonesian. Very few claimed
knowledge of Portuguese.
A first conclusion is that the majority of both learners and teachers have a regional
language as their first and Tetum as their second language. In general, teachers and
learners shared knowledge of the same regional languages, since most teachers are from
the same region as their learners. But the linguistic repertoires, measured by the number
of languages known, differ for the two groups: nearly all teachers knew at least three
languages (and many four), while the majority of the learners were bilingual and 22%
monolingual. A second conclusion is that besides Tetum, the regional languages play a
much more important role than Portuguese in the language knowledge and use of both
teachers and learners. In the next sections, we explore how this relates to the building of
reading and writing skills and classroom interaction in adult literacy education.
Literacy skills
The 756 adult learners who participated in the reading and writing tasks of the broad
study included people with prior education in primary school or in previous literacy
courses. In this section, we focus on the group of learners with no elementary school
education and who have never attended adult literacy courses (N = 436). These are the
learners for whom the literacy programmes Los Hau Bele, Hakat ba Oin and YEP were
intended. These learners ranged in age from 15 to 76 years, with an average age of
41 years. Their length of attendance in the course ranged from less than 1 month to
15 months or from a few hours to more than 700 hours, and averaged about 3.5 months.
The proportion of non-Tetum speakers in this group (25%) is higher than in the larger
group (17%). The proportion of Tetum speakers did not differ significantly for the various
literacy programmes attended (χ2 = 5.55, p = .06), but the groups did differ in learners’
average age and the average number of hours they had attended the course (p < .05). In
the statistical comparison of Tetum- and non-Tetum speakers, we therefore control for
these variables. Table 4 presents the results of the reading and writing tasks, by
proficiency in Tetum.
Of the 30 graphemes in the grapheme task, the learners on average (see column
‘Total’) recognised 13 graphemes, ranging from 0 (14% of the learners) to all graphemes
(2%). Of the 80 words in the word reading task, the learners on average read correctly
11 words within 3 minutes, ranging from no words (59% of the learners) to all words
(1%). On the basic form, learners on average filled in correctly around three items
(mostly including their name and signature), ranging from 0 (17% of the learners) to the
International Journal of Multilingualism 233
Table 4. Average scores on beginning literacy skills (N = 436), by proficiency in the language of
instruction and literacy, Tetum.
maximum of 10 (3%). The average number of words written correctly in the writing task
for the whole group was around three, ranging from no word written correctly at all (38%
of the learners) to 10 (4%). The differences in the average scores of Tetum and non-
Tetum speakers on beginning literacy skills were small. Proficiency in Tetum did not
seem to provide an advantage at this basic literacy level of word reading and word
writing.
To investigate the impact of learner and educational variables, a multivariate analysis
of covariance in SPSS (MANCOVA) was conducted with grapheme recognition, word
reading, form filling and word writing as dependent variables. Literacy programme and
Tetum proficiency were independent factors and learner’s age, number of hours they had
been taught and years of experience of the teacher were covariates. This analysis revealed
a significant main effect of learners’ age on all literacy skills (p < .001), a significant
main effect of number of hours learners had been taught for all except word reading (p <
.01 for graphemes and form filling and p < .05 for word writing) and a main effect of
teacher experience on word reading (p < .05). Younger learners learned faster, the number
of hours learners had received instruction mattered and more experienced teachers were
better than less experienced teachers at teaching their learners the alphabetic principle.
Controlled for these variables, a significant main effect of programme was found for all
literacy skills (p < .01 for word reading and p < .001 for the other three skills); learners
who attended the YEP programme scored significantly higher on all tasks than learners in
the Los Hau Bele programme, and Hakat ba Oin learners scored in between, their scores
for all four tasks not being significantly different from Los Hau Bele, and differing from
YEP only for the two writing tasks. Being a Tetum speaker or not revealed a significant
main effect only for grapheme recognition (p < .05), not for the three other tasks (see
Boon, 2014b for further details).
The first conclusion here is that while the average scores on literacy skills were low in
general (on average 11 words read in 3 minutes), proficiency in Tetum turned out to be
less important in building initial (word) reading and writing ability than expected. In the
next section, we explore how this might be related to classroom interaction in adult
literacy education.
234 D. Boon and J. Kurvers
Classroom interaction
During the in-depth study, we observed and audio-recorded 20 literacy classes of 12
groups in seven districts in Timor-Leste. The classes were part of the Los Hau Bele, the
Hakat ba Oin or the Iha Dalan programme, all targeting literacy in Tetum. The first
author has described and analysed in detail two of the literacy classes observed, one in the
district Viqueque in the southeast and one in the district Covalima in the southwest
(Boon, 2013). In both these classes four languages were used: Tetum, the regional
language, Portuguese and Indonesian. Tetum was the target language for literacy learning
and the main language of classroom interaction. The regional languages, Makasae in
Viqueque and Bunak in Covalima, were used for extra explanations, repetitions of
teaching points, translations and small talk. This applied to small talk before, after and
during the lesson, and between teacher and learners as well as among the learners
themselves. For meta-talk on literacy and numeracy, the teachers used Tetum, Portuguese
and occasionally Indonesian words such as kalkula (‘calculate’, Portuguese word spelled
according to Tetum orthography), fahe (‘divide’, Tetum) and kali (‘multiply’, Indone-
sian). To practice the letters and the spelling of syllables and Tetum words, teachers and
learners often used originally Portuguese letter names.
The two class observations revealed that in the Viqueque class, reference to numbers
was mostly in Indonesian, but also in Tetum and Portuguese, and occasionally in
Makasae; in the Covalima class, this was mainly in Portuguese and occasionally in
Indonesian but not in Tetum (although Tetum was the main language of instruction). The
teachers’ use of Indonesian and Portuguese when referring to numbers might have to do
with their own formative years during the Indonesian occupation or the Portuguese
colonial period. At local markets and in shops in Timor-Leste, it was common for decades
(and still is) to refer to numbers and prices in Indonesian, which might explain the
learners’ use of Indonesian for numbers.
Analysis of the recorded classroom talk of the two classes revealed that in some cases
switches in language distinguished different kinds of talk: from small talk in the regional
language to lesson content in Tetum, from explanation in Tetum to extra explanation in
the regional language. On other occasions, people simply drew on the multilingual
communicative resources available to them; they were getting things done multilingually,
blending different languages without distinguishing different kinds of talk.
The multilingual classroom talk in these two adult literacy classes nuanced the
national language-in-education policy: the two official languages were indeed used, but
not equally and not as the only languages. Next to Tetum as main language, some
Portuguese and Indonesian was used in metalanguage and numeracy, while regional
languages were used frequently for certain communicative functions; Indonesian and the
regional languages were not ‘banned’ from the classroom or explicitly rejected. In fact,
the extensive use of regional languages (next to Tetum) and the limited use of Portuguese
in adult literacy classes actually deviate from the national language-in-education policies
for formal education. In the adult literacy classes such as those in this study, regional
languages appeared to serve as useful communicative resources, alongside other
languages. This might be specific to adult education, but it is not surprising, given that
regional languages are widely used in local communication outside the classroom.
Following Arthur’s (2001) approach, Tetum could be described as the ‘onstage’ language
in the two adult literacy classes, and the regional languages as the ‘backstage’ languages,
since the latter were accepted for small talk and extra explanations and repetitions, but not
as languages to be used in ‘staged’ question-and-answer performances.
International Journal of Multilingualism 235
The multilingual interactional practices observed in these two classes in the districts
of Viqueque and Covalima resembled the practices investigated in the other 18 adult
literacy classes observed in the districts of Aileu, Dili, Ermera, Manufahi and Manatuto
(Boon, 2014b). Nearly all literacy teachers used several languages in teaching, and
teachers and learners drew on the various linguistic resources available to them as they
tried to find ‘local pragmatic solutions’ (Lin, 2001) to the challenges involved in taking
on a – for most – new language of teaching and learning.
teachers also used several other languages, including the regional languages, for
additional explanation, clarification and translation/interpretation. Here we see how adult
literacy education adapts to the situation ‘on the ground’, where proficiency in Portuguese
is much less evident than proficiency in Tetum, and where regional languages are used
frequently and widely. Two particular sources shape the linguistic situations that learners
and teachers in adult literacy education in Timor-Leste deal with every day. One is
national government choices that determine the national language and language-in-
education policies and the other is the country’s multilingual setting and people’s regular
use of their multilingual repertoire in their daily lives. Compared to the seemingly
somewhat ‘stricter’ interpretation of language policy in formal education, it seems that in
non-formal (e.g. adult literacy) education there is more space for pragmatic solutions in
which use of regional languages alongside Tetum is common, evident and broadly
accepted.
In the interplay between layers of multilingualism in education policy and its
implementation, two developments became visible: (1) the position of Tetum – as a
national language alongside Portuguese – has strengthened; and (2) the importance of the
regional languages and their function in education is being better recognised, although it
can be acknowledged here that for most of the teachers and learners, regional language
was not the preferred target language for literacy. Further investigation of the role of
regional languages in adult literacy education in Timor-Leste could focus on two
questions: (1) whether using regional languages as languages of instruction (alongside
Tetum) is indeed more effective in teaching literacy and (2) whether using regional
languages also as target languages for beginning literacy (alongside Tetum) would be a
useful contribution to adult literacy acquisition. On the one hand, literacy in the first
language facilitates literacy in the second language (Benson, 2005; Bühmann & Trudell,
2008; UNESCO, 2007). On the other hand, building literacy ability in their first language
is not always what learners seek, since they may see their first language as ‘only of
limited modern utility’ or leading to segregation (Coulmas, 1984, p. 15). They may prefer
to learn to read and write in their nation’s official languages, which in their eyes have
higher status and provide better access to continued education and employment (Asfaha,
Kurvers, & Kroon, 2008).
Although the ideal study would have been a more controlled one, following a group
of comparable beginning literacy learners from their first lesson to the end of the
programme, the actual circumstances on the ground did not allow for this. There was
huge variety among learners on nearly all background data (age, previous education,
linguistic repertoire, class attendance and so forth) and in teaching circumstances. This
meant that our investigation of adult literacy education in this developing country
required great care in treatment and analyses of the data. Nevertheless, such heterogeneity
may well be encountered in field research in other developing countries, and further
research is needed, especially on the challenging dilemma of language choices in adult
literacy education in multilingual countries.
To conclude, our investigation has been conducted against the background of the
national language-in-education policy, which has been changed over time since Timor-
Leste achieved independence in 2002. From initially giving predominance to Portuguese,
the policy has given Tetum an increasingly important position in education and Tetum is
now treated equally with Portuguese. In formal education we also observe the increasing
importance given to regional languages, from initially no attention and space in the
national language-in-education policy, to growing recognition of the importance of these
languages for pre- and early primary education. These developments suggest that the
International Journal of Multilingualism 237
Acknowledgements
We would like to express our gratitude to all learners, teachers, coordinators, staff of the Ministry of
Education and nongovernmental organisations, advisers, and others involved in adult literacy
education in Timor-Leste. They have made invaluable contributions to this study through their
enthusiastic participation and support.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. In the constitution, these are called ‘national’ languages; in this article we call them regional
languages, since all are spoken in certain regions of the country but none of them are spoken
nationwide.
2. Frente Revolucionário do Timor-Leste Independente (The Revolutionary Front for an Independ-
ent East Timor).
3. Grupo Feto Foinsa’e Timor Lorosa’e (Young Women’s Group of Timor-Leste)
4. Interview with the coordinator of the Cuban advisors, Dili, 16 June 2009.
5. In 2004–2008, the first author of this article, as adult literacy adviser in Timor-Leste’s Ministry
of Education, was involved in the joint development of the Hakat ba Oin and Iha Dalan
curriculum and manuals (including piloting and revision). Her position in the Ministry was
funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
6. These versions, YEP Livru 1 and 2, were developed with the involvement of the first author of
this article.
7. Financial support was obtained from NWO/WOTRO, the Netherlands Organisation for
Scientific Research, Science for Global Development (file number W 01.65.315.00). This
research project investigated historical and contemporary dimensions of adult literacy in Timor-
Leste (see Boon, 2011, 2014a, 2014b; Boon & Kurvers, 2012; Cabral & Martin-Jones, 2012;
Da Conceição Savio, Kurvers, Van Engelenhoven, & Kroon, 2012).
8. Informed consent was obtained in advance at all levels (including ministerial, directorate and
coordination level), and during each class visit it was secured at an individual level in face-to-
face interactions with the adult learners, with translations in their regional language.
9. Questions asked were, for example: What was the first language you learned (mother tongue)?
What language/languages have you learned later and in what order? Please tick the languages
that you use while teaching and while talking to your students. What language/languages do
you use at home, at the market, in free time with friends, in contact with the district
administration? In which language do you prefer to teach literacy?
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