Africa-Press – Cape verde. The linguist and deputy, Dora Pires , launches, today, at the Mindelo Cultural Center, in São Vicente , the book “The Cape Verdean, mother tongue of the Republic of Cape Verde and its introduction in the schools of the Country” .
Speaking to Inforpress, this linguist, who is President of the Municipal Assembly of São Vicente and a national deputy for the Cabo Verdean Independent and Democratic Union (UCID), explained that this is a book that resulted from her doctoral thesis and raises the concern about teaching and valuing the Cape Verdean language and teacher training.
“It results from a scientific work through which he showed that the Cape Verdean language is a language like any other, it is more oral than written, it has variants like all languages and that it really needs to be worked more for teaching. So, I present proposals for teacher training and how it should be introduced in teaching”, he explained.
This linguist advanced that the questionnaires made during the research for the elaboration of the thesis, led to the conclusion that the teachers use the Cape Verdean language as support, to clarify doubts and to help students to understand the subject.
Introduction to the mother tongue in Compulsory Basic Education
For this reason, Dora Pires defends the introduction of the mother tongue in Compulsory Basic Education (EBO), because it is at this stage that children go to school and, often, they have “a sudden impact with Portuguese and the child blocks their language”. intellectual development”.
“We could teach in our mother tongue, perhaps, from the 1st year of EBO to the 4th year, then we would introduce Portuguese until the 9th year of secondary education, with bilingual education. And then, we would continue until the 12th grade with Portuguese, students could develop their oral and linguistic skills in the Portuguese language”, he proposed.
For Dora Oriana Pires, if the child has our oral competence in the mother tongue, it is necessary to educate him to know and learn the grammar in the Cape Verdean language. And when she receives tools in her mother tongue and knows her language, it means that she is better prepared to understand all the languages that come her way, he added.
Cape Verdean language versus Portuguese language
Asked if the introduction of the Portuguese language after the 4th year of the EBO will not harm students in the acquisition of skills in that language, which serves as a means of communication with other countries, the linguist said no.
“It doesn’t interfere with anything. We have Human Rights that say that every child must be taught in their mother tongue. And for a long time, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) has been insisting, mainly with the ex-colonial countries, to draw their attention to the teaching of their mother tongue”, he argued. , arguing that “a child has the possibility of learning four languages at the same time”.
According to the linguist, Cape Verdeans are born, raise and develop with their mother tongue and when they go to school they start to speak only Portuguese and no Creole. In her view, this situation “creates a block that does not allow the child to develop intellectually as well as others who develop, in an extraordinary way, because they are taught in their mother tongue”.
Furthermore, he mentioned that Cape Verdeans will study in other countries and not just in Portugal, so our Cape Verdean language should be valued.
“Just as they are able to develop skills in our language, we are also able to develop in another language”, he summarized.
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