Consolidating Commonalities in Language and Literacy to Inform Policy

Abstract

This chapter demonstrates how literacy and language planning and policy (LPP) research may be consolidated to inform recommendations for local language policy development and pedagogical literacy instruction in the English-speaking Caribbean region. To achieve this goal, we first identify patterns in literacy research across countries and contexts in the English-speaking Caribbean region, noting assumptions underlying the literature. We then discuss the ways in which language use evolved in one of these English-speaking Caribbean countries, noting the impact of historical and global forces. In presenting St. Lucia as a critical case where Language Planning and Policy (LPP) research, and particularly, the ways in which the historical epochs in which this research has been undertaken influenced the evolution of language use in the country, we identify strategic, epistemological and macro sociopolitical insights emanating from our discussions of language use in this Majority World nation.