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This section gives an overview about Aruban Language Policy, referring especially to the education system and Media. It will start with a historical contextualization, followed by an insight into the present situation that is also emphasized through a video which summarizes the view points of several Arubans who were interviewed. The section will be completed with some brief information about the use of Papiamento in mass media which is also stressed through a video showing comments from Arubans.

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Historical Context

Language Policy in Aruba is strongly influenced by its colonial past (historical context). When it became obvious for the Dutch colonizers that Papiamento was used by the majority of society for communication, it was decided in 1819 that Dutch should become the language of instruction in Aruban schools (Wiel, 2010, p.74). At the time when missionaries from Venezuela came to Aruba, they were educating the enslaved population in Papiamento and also invented an overview of grammar and vocabulary for new missionaries who were coming to the island. That led, unlike in other colonized societies, to a conservation of the creole language. The fact that Dutch children and the children of the enslaved population visited the same schools led to a wider use of Papiamento. Most of the Dutch children learned the creole language from their nannies (Wiel 2010, p.73). Due to their interaction with the Papiamento speaking nannies, also the women of Dutch men started to speak Papiamento on a daily basis (Wiel, 2010, p.74). Another reason for Papiamento's conservation is the unique composition of the elites as a non-homogenous group made up of the Dutch, of course, but also affluential freed slaves and sephardic Jews. Because of that, Papiamento was a fairly good meeting place for all of the languages and influences, which led to the hybridization of the culture and language despite social class (Papiamento).

 

During the 1900’s, the use of Dutch continued to decline due to the economic power of the refineries in Aruba where the English language was dominating (History). As a consequence, Dutch became the only allowed language at schools, even in their breaks children were not allowed to speak in Papiamento (Rodriguez, 2014, p.142). These kind of practices constructed what (Pfaff-Czarnecka, 2011, 2013) calls, regimes of belonging (belonging). As a consequence, by the 1920s, there was a number of people who were claiming to implement Papiamento into the education curriculum (Herrera, 2003, p.18). The Dutch colonial power reacted with the funding of educators who did use Dutch as the language of instruction and the prohibition of teaching in Papiamento or Spanish (Rodriguez, 2014, p.142). When the Dutch government started to give scholarships to Aruban students who successfully graduated from school in the 1950s (Herrera, 2003, p.18), the Dutch rule had to face resistance regarding this policy from the Papiamento speaking majority in Aruba, also including teachers and school directors. As a reaction, the Dutch government started offering subsidies to Aruban schools to ensure they were using Dutch as the language of instruction. Teachers from the Netherlands were also sent to Aruba to ensure the use of Dutch (Rodriguez, 2014, p.143). Around the same time, in 1954, the Netherlands Antilles were allowed to decide independently about internal affairs but still remained part of the Dutch Kingdom (Herrera, 2003, p.18f.) (History). Following these legal changes, the discussion about the role of Papiamento in the education system came up again and shaped the public discussion of language policy. Within this process, one important event was the Primary Education Act in 1979 which claimed in Article 9 that the official language in education shall be Papiamento. Nevertheless, article 89 of the same Education Act states‚ that Article 9 will not be immediately enacted (Rodriguez, 2014, p.144) (Eckkrammer from 10m.41). The final step to independently enact educational programs was made in 1986 when the public voted for a ‘status aparte’ of Aruba from the Netherlands Antilles (Herrera, 2003, p.19) (Historical part). Due to problems with drug trafficking in Aruba, the Acuerdo di 1995 gave the Dutch government again the right to intervene in the internal affairs of Aruba (Herrera, 2003, p.71). This led among other things to the Protocol of Willemstad in 1998 which made permanent the use of Dutch language and the Dutch curriculum design in the education system (Rodriguez, 2014, p.144).

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Present

Papiamento was recognized as an official language besides Dutch in 2003, the use of the langauge in education was and is still limited (Rodriguez, 2014, p.144).  In general, pupils in Aruba are still educated in Dutch (Herrera, 2003, p.17). Only in Kindergarten and in Special Education is Papiamento the dominating language (Herrera, 2003, p.84). In primary school Papiamento is implemented through a Language Art Class where the students learn the standard orthography of Papiamento which is also used in Curacao but not the specific etymological orthography (origin and historical development of words and their meanings) which is exclusively used in Aruba (Herrera, 2003, p.126; Wiel, 2010, p.77). After Primary School there is no more use of Papiamento in the education system which actually means that most pupils in Aruba are educated in a foreign language which is not their mother tongue (Eckkrammer from 10.02). Success in the education system depends on how capable students are in learning Dutch. In this context, another difficulty is that various teachers are also not completely fluent in Dutch and therefore teaching straight from the textbook (Rodriguez, 2014, p.144). Besides the teaching material is mostly based on a Dutch cultural context (Rodriguez, 2014, p.144). After Primary School, tests are taken in Dutch that dictate the career path of each student (Herrera, 2003, p.17).  In general, the Aruban education system is still very similar to the Dutch one, not only referring to the language of instruction but also regarding the higher education structure. What seems interesting is that in the Netherlands a “weight system” exists which add points to exams of linguistically different children, in Aruba this option is not available (Herrera, 2003, p.83f.). The above mention reflects the tense relationship between the colonial past and present of Aruba history.

There are several arguments why Papiamento should not be used as language of instruction in school, as well as why it should be implemented. For instance, an argument against Papiamento as a primary language of instruction is due to the lack of complete standardization in regards to vocabulary (Papiamento Part).

Besides some people think that the use of Papiamento will hinder children to learn proper Dutch which would influence a child’s success in the education system and also in their later professional life. On the other hand, it is said that the vernacular language is the base for a cognitive social, emotional and moral development. A solid fundamental knowledge in one language supports the learning of a second language. Another argument in favor of the use of Papiamento in school is the strengthening of Aruban culture and national sense of belonging (Herrera, 2003, p.75). While Papiamento is tested in some schools as language of instruction (Rodriguez, 2014, p.148), learning Dutch still means a wider range of opportunities, most notably after finishing school. A lot of students leave Aruba to study in the Netherlands, many stay there because of the various job opportunities which do not exist in Aruba (Wiel, 2010, p.87). Nevertheless, a lot of scholars argue in favor of a bilingual program that would probably lead to a better performance in school and an easier transition to other languages such as Dutch (Wiel, 2010, p.87) which is also supposed to be focused in the future.

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Watch the following video to explore some comments from Aruba on that topic:

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Programs

There are several institutions and organizations that try to support the use of Papiamento in schools through certain plans and programs:

 

Grupo Pa Promove Papiamento (GP3)

To promote Papiamento, this organization is organizing theatre festivals in Papiamento, Papiamento song festivals, publishing poetry and magazines in Papiamento, and translates famous literature in Papiamento, for instance the Diary of Anne Frank (Herrera, 2003, pp.116-117) GP3 also promotes Journalists and TV personalities to use a standard grammar and language structure of Papiamento. Therefore, they are offering linguistic classes and workshops. Nevertheless, GP3 is mainly focusing on a sentimental attachment to Papiamento, an instrumental attachment to the national, such as better jobs or social prestige are lacking (Herrera, 2003, pp.118-119).

 

Aruba Linguistics Institute (ALI)

The ALI is for instance striving for a standardization of the orthography and grammar of Papiamento, in this context it is also developing a Papiamento dictionary, as well as a spelling checker for computer programs (Herrera, 2003, pp.118-119).

 

Instituto Pedagogico Arubano (IPA)

The institute is striving for the training of teachers to give grammatically correct content instruction in Dutch. As well as the education of teachers to communicate and explain educational lessons for preschool children in Papiamento (Herrera, 2003, pp.105-106).

 

PRISMA

The program is designed to assist especially Spanish-speaking children with learning Dutch. PRISMA is supposed to allow these children to spend one hour or more per day on learning Dutch. It is the only program that addresses linguistic needs of children whose mother tongue is not Dutch (Departamento di Enseñansa Aruba, 2018)

 

Media

Papiamento plays a major role in the media (Wiel, 2010, p.88). Nearly every newspaper on the island is published in Papiamento, there are only a few in Dutch and some in English and Spanish, for Tourists as well as the Hispanic community in Aruba. Also when television was implemented in the 1960s, Papiamento was the main language in the program (Wiel, 2010, p.88). Exceptions are the American, Spanish and Dutch channels that can be received in Aruba (Wiel, 2010, p.90). Also, the radio programs are using Papiamento for their broadcasting (Wiel, 2010, p.89). There is also a daily radio program for kids designed to instruct them in basic Papiamento grammar and language usage (Herrera, 2003, p.120).

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Besides, the use of Papiamento in the media also uncovers that the orthography of Papiamento is still not unified, people feel that journalists are making mistakes due to distinctions in the different use of vocabulary. For instance, newspaper articles are often written in Papiamento but use lexical borrowing from Spanish language which can affect lexicon and syntax of Papiamento (Wiel, 2010, p.91), whereas mistakes in radio and television deal with the use of slang (Wiel, 2010, p.95). To avoid mistakes, many journalists are taking classes to improve their knowledge about the standard orthography of Papiamento (Wiel, 2010, p.92). Beside the mission to inform people about the latest news, media also is an instrument of education for the people about local culture. Therefore, in Aruba, media tries to spread information about cultural history or local cuisine for instance (Wiel, 2010, pp. 96-97).