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Competing Literacies: Qur'anic Arabic and Classroom French in Maroua, Cameroon

Leslie C. Moore
School of Teaching & Learning

Introduction

Today I present a language socialization perspective on literacy, drawing on my own research in northern Cameroon. Very briefly, I compare how and why Fulbe children in Maroua, Cameroon are apprenticed into two different literacies: Arabic literacy in Qur'anic school and French literacy in public school. I have two goals today:

• To provide examples of how literacy varies across communities and contexts
• To present a perspective on literacy that may help us consider critically what it is we mean and what it is we want when we designate and advocate particular kinds of literacies.

Language Socialization Research & Literacy

Language socialization research investigates how and why novices are apprenticed through language into particular activities and identities. Language socialization studies are longitudinal, ethnographic, and demonstrate the acquisition (or not) of particular linguistics and cultural practices.

In order to understand how the transition to linguistic and cultural competence is organized, researchers study interactions between more and less knowledgeable community members. Working community members, researchers examine video recorded natural discourse. This microanalysis is contextualized in holistic study of the community and its broader repertoire of communicative practices.

Language socialization scholars particularly interested in literacy seek to understand how competence in reading and writing is defined, performed, and acquired (or not) in different communities. Three assumptions are key to a language socialization perspective on literacy:

• People develop literacy as participants in cultural activities
• Literacy development can be seen in changing participation in activities involving texts
• Literacy and its development are linked to values, beliefs, and identities

In large and growing numbers, Fulbe children in Maroua, Cameroon are apprenticed into two different literacies in two different educational institutions. In Qur'anic school they are taught to recite, read, and write the Qur'an in Arabic. In public school they are taught to recite, speak, read, and write French.

Competence is defined differently in the 2 contexts

For the Fulbe, basic Qur'anic textual competence means being able to recite part of the Qur'an from memory and without comprehension, handle the Qur'an respectfully, and respond to its spoken and written forms appropriately. Nearly all Fulbe become competent in these practices. The ability to decode the Arabic script of Qur'anic texts is highly valued, as is the ability to transcribe them. However, neither skill is required to be a good (i.e. competent) Muslim. Comprehension, explanation, and discussion of the meaning of Qur'anic texts are largely restricted to a small group of religious scholars.

In public school, basic French competence is defined as being able to reproduce and understand French texts (spoken and written) that have been constructed or selected by education authorities; to generate simple, grammatically correct utterances in French; to read and understand simple texts in French; and to generate simple, grammatically correct texts in French. The majority of Fulbe children do not develop much comprehension or generative competence in French even after years of schooling. Far more than basic competence in French orality and literacy are required to be able to participate competently in the state economy; i.e., to obtain a government job and/or to fend for oneself within the various bureaucracies.

The pathways to competence are different in the 2 contexts

'Rote' learning dominates in both types of schooling. That is, most teaching and learning is done by means of modeling, imitation, repetition, and memorization.

Quranic school is the primary site for teaching and learning Qur'anic textual knowledge and skills. Fulbe children learn to memorize, recite, read, and write Qur'anic texts through individualized and usually one-to-one instruction by the teacher. Close attention is paid to correct reproduction, and no attention is given to propositional content.

The Quranic school curriculum has several distinct stages, which can take 3 years to a lifetime to complete. Children learn first to memorize and recite Qur'anic texts (the first 12 chapters, sometimes the first hizb). Then they are taught to name the consonants as they appear in the texts they have memorized. Then they learn to name the consonants with the vowel markings. Once they complete this stage, they are said to be able to read independently. Writing instruction typically begins at this point. First the child copies over the Qur'anic text scratched into the clay on his tablet by the teacher. Later, the teacher scratches only lines to guide the child, who is allowed to transcribe from pages of a loose-leaf Qur'an. Finally, the child transcribes without any scaffolding from the teacher. The child has finished Qur'anic school once he has read/recited and transcribed the whole Qur'an. Most Fulbe never do.

In public school, instruction is collective, and the different modes of engagement with texts are introduced in quicker succession than in Qur'anic school. Children are first taught to memorize and perform French dialogues, as well as songs and poems. Dialogues are texts that have been constructed to teach specific speech sounds, words, syntactic structures, and speech acts. Teachers use pictures, realia, pantomime, and translation into Fulfulde to communicate the meaning of dialogues to the children.

Within a few weeks of starting school, children begin receiving instruction in reading. Teachers use French texts that are slightly different from but aligned with the dialogues with respect to target forms. Children learn to name and to sound out the letters of the French alphabet both in isolation and in the context of the texts. Writing instruction typically begins in the second trimester, and students learn to write letters in isolation and as they appear in short words. As they progress through primary school, children continue to reproduce oral and written texts presented by the teacher. But more and more they are required to generate their own utterances and texts based on these models.

As noted above, most Fulbe children do not develop more than basic competence in Qur'anic literacy or French literacy. It has been argued that most children participate in schooling only long enough to learn to recognize the power and authority of these literacies and the people who master them.

The meanings of literacy and its development are different

Qur'anic literacy and French literacy are associated by community members with different values, beliefs, identities, and opportunities. In both activity settings, the development of competence in text-centered activities was seen as a progressively transformative process that was fundamental to the creation of a culturally specific subjectivity – Fulbe Muslim in one case, Cameroonian citizen in the other.

Fulbe families send their children to Qur'anic school to 'learn to pray/learn to be Muslim' (ekkitaago juulgo). They believe that in learning to recite, read, and write the Qur'an children develop self-discipline and respect for The Text and those learned therein. Qur'anic literacy skills were believed to be signs of and means for the development of commitment to the Word of God, as well as core values of the community.

Teachers, education officials, and official documents (textbooks, curricula, ministry reports) explicitly associated the development of French orality and literacy with the development of a national identity (as opposed to a tribal one) and a modern worldview (as opposed to a traditional or superstitious one). School texts provided models of not only linguistic forms, but also state-preferred ways of acting, perceiving, knowing, and feeling.

Fulbe families sent their children to public school to learn to speak and read and write French and other nasaraaji (which means something like 'things of people from elsewhere'). Many families hoped that a child might go far in school and get a government job, or at least learn enough French to avoid being taken advantage of. But parents were ambivalent about their children developing French orality and literacy, because along with the language came values and practices that conflicted with those of the Fulbe and Islam. Many Fulbe families sent only one or two children to school, while many more sent none at all.

Qur'anic and French literacies were described by parents and teachers in my study as being in competition for Fulbe children's time and for their hearts and minds.

Language socialization questions about our literacies

Many of the questions asked by language socialization researchers can help us understand what it is we mean and what it is we want when we designate and advocate a particular literacy.

• How do we define competence in X literacy?
• What are the activities in which competence is developed? How is participation in those activities organized?
• What are the trajectories for X literacy development, and how do they vary?
• What values, beliefs, identities, and opportunities do we associate with X literacy?
• What transformations – of the individual and/or society – do we believe is effected by the development of X literacy?
• Which literacies are in competition with X literacy?