IN an effort to encourage Jamaican children of primary school age to write creatively in the language most of them know best-patois-several departments in the University of the West Indies have come together to create the Jamaican Language Schools’ Literary Competition.

The competition was launched Wednesday, in recognition of the life and work of Dr Louise Bennett-Coverley, who is the patron for the competition.

It has its genesis in the Jamaican Language Unit (JLANG), which is a part of the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at the University of the West Indies (UWI). JLANG is working in collaboration with UWI’s department of Literature in English.

Dr Hubert Devonish from the Department of Language, Linguistics, and Philosophy designed the literary contest for children between the ages of five and six. Poems and short stories must be written in Creole (patois) using the Cassidy Orthography, a dictionary consisting of Jamaican English.

JLANG will be working with teachers in schools across the island to familiarise them with the Cassidy Orthography so that the students’ entries may be submitted in the appropriate manner. The competition will be an annual event starting in the academic year 2003-4. The deadline for all entries will be in February 2004.

“While we celebrate Miss Lou’s creativity we also need to appreciate how far Miss Lou’s language advocacy has led us away from the days when there were certain myths about this first language of ours,” Dr Kathryn Brodber, head of the department of Language, Linguistics and Philosophy said at the launch.

“A… myth that we grew up with is patois is not a language, it has no rules,” Dr Brodber said, in an attempt to dispel some common misconceptions. “The fact that Jamaican has always been a language should never be in any doubt. After all, for centuries our ancestors and ourselves have used it successfully to converse with other users of the language on any topic of our choosing.”

Another myth, she added, is that educating children in Creole will hinder their literacy skills development.

“What research has highlighted is that positive transfer will occur to any other languages learned, when students have respect for and appreciate their first language and develop literary skills in it,” she said. “A fundamental tenet in teaching is to start with what your learners know, so as to give them an anchor and create a bridge to what you want them to know.”

Professor Carolyn Cooper, from the department of English, said the competition was timely.

“It’s high time we have a national programme that nurtures creative writing in the mother tongue of most Jamaicans,” she said.

Miss Lou, she added, had played an important role in the history of patois.

“I am sure you will all agree that our guest of honour… is the most celebrated advocate of the reclamation of the Jamaican mother tongue, from conditional barbarism contentionally assigned to the language and its habitual speakers,” Cooper said.

Senator Noel Montieth, State Minister in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture spoke of the vibrancy of the Jamaican dialect.

“There is no doubt that our language — call it what you will, patois, dialect or broken English — our language is alive and well,” he said.

“(Miss Lou) gave us the language to sing the songs in our own words; to recite the poems and tell stories in our native tongue and to express ourselves through our own creativity,” he added, quoting Prime Minster PJ Patterson.

Montieth added that one of the challenges that the nation faces is ensuring that adequate expression is given to the Jamaican language, while recognising that Jamaicans live in a world where English is the language of business and other activities.

“We must prepare our children to function at the highest level,” he said.