Hampshire Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service (EMTAS)

Sylheti Bengali - Bangladeshi children in Hampshire schools

Languages

According to the data we received from Hampshire schools in 2000 there were, within the LEA, at least 200 pupils at Key Stages 1-4 whose families originated from the Sylhet region in north-eastern Bangladesh. Over 90% of the 220,000 Bangladeshi people in Britain can trace their roots back to this one district.

Most of the families speak Sylheti, which is usually defined as a dialect of Bengali, the sixth most widely spoken language in the world. Sylheti has never been recognised as a language in its own right, even though it is quite different from standard Bengali, in its sound system, the way in which its words are formed and in its vocabulary. This is at least partly because its script, Sylheti Nagari, was never officially recognised, despite having been widely used by ordinary people for about 600 years until its decline in the twentieth century.

Nowadays, children living in Bangladesh would learn standard Bengali, the national language and official medium of education. However, in Britain, Bangladeshi children will probably enter the school with a degree of fluency in Sylheti, but with a very limited knowledge of Bengali and often, with little exposure to the written word.

This presents an enormous dilemma for teachers of Bangladeshi children. Bengali is so different from Sylheti that, when dual language texts are read, it is quite possible that they will barely be understood by young children. However, this difficulty will be overcome if the story-teller is given time to prepare, so that the stories are told in Sylheti, (possibly alongside the reading).

If children have not begun to acquire literacy skills in their heritage language by the time they start school, they may soon believe that their home language does not have equal status with English. It is very important, therefore, for schools to find ways of valuing the heritage languages of EAL pupils through their use in the classroom and around the school. A few suggestion of how this can be achieved are through:-

  • displaying dual language topic glossaries and labels around the school
  • holding dual language story sessions
  • ensuring that the library contains books in languages other than English

It is also important to persuade bilingual parents of the efficacy of developing their children’s literacy skills in their heritage language, both to promote self-esteem and to provide the child with transferable literacy skills.

If literacy must be developed through English alone, it should never be through a programme of phonics. Emphasis on phonics before the child has acquired fluency in, and understanding of, spoken English will be detrimental to progress. However, progress may also be delayed if teachers postpone exposure to literacy until the child is able to use English effectively. Account should be taken of the English the child needs in order to understand the curriculum. Scaffolding, DARTS and other collaborative activities can be designed both to promote understanding and to provide the framework the child needs to express that understanding.

In Hampshire, Bangladeshi parents are increasingly expressing a desire for their children to learn Bengali. Where pupils are learning to write, it is likely that they will spend several years learning to form the characters of the Bengali alphabet and copying, before being able to write freely. There are 52 basic letters, 10 shortened vowel forms and many conjoined letters whose calligraphy represents none of the original forms.' (p16, Bangladeshi Children in Our Schools- A Guide for Teachers, Humanities Education Centre, Tower Hamlets, 1995).

It is useful to be aware that:-

  • Bengali hangs from the lines, rather than sitting on them. in Bangladesh, children are taught the names of letters rather than the sounds.
  • Bangladeshi children learn to read by spelling out the name and not the sound of each letter.

In addition to studying Bengali, pupils may be learning to recite from the Qu'ran, or preparatory booklets, in Arabic.

Implications for Schools

It is important, therefore:-

  • to reassure parents that encouraging their children to develop literacy in Bengali (e.g. through teaching them to write their own names, to help with shopping lists and through reading simple story books or from letters to the family), will help them to develop transferable literacy skills and enhance their self-esteem.
  • to acknowledge the differences in approach and to ensure that parents are aware of the teaching methods use by the school.

Differences between Sylheti and English which may cause difficulties for Bangladeshi pupils.

Sound systems

Most English vowel sounds are quite different from their closest Sylheti equivalents. Long English vowel sounds may be made too short. In Sylheti, there are two types of 't' and 'd', 'retroflex' pronounced with the tip of the tongue turned back and striking the palate and 'dental' with the tip of the tongue at the back of the teeth as in the French word 'tout'. It is common, therefore for Sylheti speaking children to have difficulty in spelling words with 't' and 'd'.

Initial consonant clusters in English may cause difficulty to Sylheti speakers and a vowel sound may be added, e.g. eschool or sacool (school).

Implications for Schools

It is fruitless and discouraging to focus too much attention on confusing vowel sounds until a child has reached a good level of fluency in spoken English and can hear the differences clearly.

Differences in grammar

Children learning English often make errors through applying some of the syntactical rules of their heritage language. Correct English structures need to be taught, but will be more effectively learned if this is done in meaningful contexts, eg through scaffolding unfamiliar genres in every curricular area.

Word order

The basic word-order in a sentence subject-object-verb, unlike the basic English structure subject-verb-object.

Typical errors :-

  • 'I many friends have.' ('I have many friends.')
  • 'I book am reading.' ('I am reading the book')

Questions

The word-order of a question is exactly the same as for a statement. As in English, the rising intonation indicates that it is a question, although the interrogative particle 'ni' is generally added at the end of the question, e.g:

tumi musulman (You are a Muslim.)

tumi musulman ni? (Are you a Muslim?)

Articles

Sylheti does not have articles such as the 'a' or 'an' (e.g. Gor (house) can mean house or the house). Quite often, Sylheti speakers use ekta (one), where English would use the indefinite article.

Typical errors :- 'He give me book' or 'He give me one book' ('He gave me a book.')

Zero verb

Present tense in Sylheti subject-complement statements do not use an equivalent to the verb 'to be'.

Typical errors :- 'Mrs Brown English' ('Mrs Brown is English') or

'The cup dirty' ('The cup is dirty')

Auxiliary verb- omission

Typical errors :- 'She not going.' (She isn't going') or

'We going Bangladesh.' (We are going to Bangladesh.')

Gender

The third person pronoun is the same for masculine and feminine gender. However, gender is used for neutral/natural nouns e.g. sun (masculine), moon/river (feminine).

Typical errors :- Incorrect use of third person pronouns, especially overuse of 'he' and 'him'.

'Polite' pronouns

'Polite' pronouns are used with elders/strangers and 'familiar' pronouns for friends or young people. Sylheti has three levels of politeness and also distinguishes between familiar and polite in the third person.

Plurals

Typical errors :- all the 'childrens' are playing or

'bigs girls'

Adverbs

Adverbs are usually placed in front of the verb they qualify.

Typical errors :- 'They quickly finishing' ('They are finishing quickly')

Prepositions

Post positions are used instead of prepositions like to, from and on, that is they go after the noun e.g.

room in (in the room),

shop from (from the shop)

Implications for Schools

Correct English structures should be taught, through scaffolding, wherever they are needed to communicate ideas, knowledge or understanding.

Grammar should not normally be taught in isolation, as the purpose of new constructions will be far more readily grasped where the context is clear and meaningful.

Decontextualised exercises should generally be avoided, as they are unlikely to equip students to apply new structures appropriately. Writing frames and collaborative activities, where the meaning and the structure of the language conveying them is discussed, as in DARTs (Directed Activities Relating to Texts) will both teach correct grammar and enable the child to understand the curriculum.

Collaborative learning, where planned peer discussion provides exposure to good models of English, will enable pupils to use and to extend English structures in all curricular areas.

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