On a recent visit to American Samoa I was told by several persons that there was resistance to the dual language program that is being planned in which more use will be made of the Samoan language.

The resistance is due to the belief that the young of Samoa must be fluent in English in order to compete in the modern world. That is true and the evidence is overwhelming: AS high school graduates who are the most proficient in English get scholarships, get the best jobs and, in general do better economically.

Does it not follow then that the more time spent on the English language in school, the better use one will be able to make of English? No, that is not entirely correct. The truth is that the better the Samoan children use their native language, the better they will be able to use their second language, English.

That seems confusing: to improve the use of English, the use of Samoan must be improved first. I can explain it.

First, the basis of every language is the same.

Language occurs in the brain and all of our brains are hardwired for it in the same manner.  What we call language — English, Tagalog, Samoan, German, etc., would be better called language-code. We create a code for what is going on in our brains (language) and we transmit that language using an agreed upon code. When I said we were hardwired for language, I did not mean that language was there at birth.

Think of it as being hardwired for the development of language. Some children develop great skills in the use of language. Others develop very little skill in the use of language. And there are many, many children in between. 

Language development in children has been studied a great deal. Also, second language development in children has been studied. We have a pretty good idea of what results in the best language development and also the best second language development.

In the case of first language development, the most important thing is use of language at an early age at the highest level possible. It is important for children to learn as many words as possible and to use advanced rules for making sentences and speeches. Many children by age three have more than a thousand words in their speaking vocabularies and are using compound sentences, even complex sentences.  It is no accident that these children do these things. In every case there will be a parent who focuses on language development.

Perhaps an analogy would help clarify this. 

Consider the sport of basketball. We are all hardwired for throwing a basketball through a hoop, i.e. we have eye-hand coordination. True, some have better wiring than others but we all have the wiring. Now, without practice, we cannot do a very good job of making baskets. With practice, we do a better job. With practice and instruction, we develop our best skill of throwing a ball through a hoop. It is the same with language development.

We need practice and instruction to develop our basic language skills. It doesn’t matter if the code we use for practice and instruction is English or Samoan or whatever. It matters that we understand the code and are comfortable in its use.

Second language learning has been studied a lot also. For example, in the United States, many people have emigrated from Spanish speaking countries and entered the public schools. One of the first things discovered about second language learning was that the children who spoke Spanish well — had large vocabularies and used complex sentences — learned to speak English well. 

In 1966-68, it was my job to find out how well the schools were working in American Samoa.  I did my job and the results weren’t good, i.e. the system was failing.

Basically, an English language immersion program was in place with token attention being given to Samoan. It has not changed much since that time. Anyway, since I am a developmental psychologist, I set about trying to find out why the system was failing. 

One of the things we did was to devise some tests of language usage. For example, we would show a child a rock and a cloth, then place the rock under the cloth and ask the child to tell us where the rock was. We did this in Samoan and English. We went to remote villages that had no TV and to schools that were part of the TV instructional system. What we learned was startling.

First, the children in the remote villages and the children in the TV schools used Samoan about the same. Second, the children in the TV schools used English as well as they used Samoan. What we discovered was the TV schools were getting the job done if the job was defined as teaching the children to use English as well as they used Samoan. But that was not the goal. The goal was to enable the children to use English as the language of commerce and technology and to use Samoan as the everyday language of village life.

We found that the problem was that the children of Samoa did not use the Samoan language very well and the usage of Samoan seemed to cap the usage of English.

We recommended changing to a Samoan curriculum and phasing in the use of English. (‘We’ refers to the late Talusa Tuitele and me. The testing was done by Talusa who had great linguistic talent.)  We said, “Anything that can be taught in English can be taught in Samoan.” But the basic idea behind the English language immersion TV program was that the language code used actually influenced thought processes. In other words, in order to work efficiently in modern commerce and technology, it was necessary for Samoans to use English.

The palagis in charge thought our work was nothing more than a misguided attempt to save the Samoan language and culture so it was discarded. That was sad because the information was before them and was supported by solid research on language development all of which was in the literature.

And you, my Samoan friends, have been using English immersion ever since because some palagis thought it would make you think differently. There is even an AS statute that requires that instruction be in English.

What are the results?

Well, about 90 percent of the students entering ASCC in 2011 had to be placed in remedial English and math courses. What percentage of the young adults who recently took the test for the Police Academy passed? It was about two percent. Also, consider only about twenty-seven percent of the Samoan students taking the test for entrance into the armed forces (ASVAB) pass, but seventy-seven percent pass in the States. That is an amazing difference.

Of course all of the tests mentioned are in English. Would the result be any different if the tests mentioned above were in Samoan? I doubt it, but that is a question that can never be answered because the tests are going to be in English. 

Samoan children have been taking tests in English for many years and their average scores have not improved in spite of the fact they are taught in English from K through high school graduation. Can anyone say that English immersion has worked?Doesn’t that statute need to be changed?

Please consider these key points and principles:

•            Language development begins at birth. The die has been cast by age five or so.

•            Language is the primary educational tool. Without good language skills failure in school is almost assured.

•            The language development of your children is crucial to the future of American Samoa. I suggest it is so important that every agency of government, every faifeau in every parish, every parent and grandparent, and every matai take an active interest in achieving the highest level of language usage possible in the young. 

•            Your goal for high school graduates should be for them to speak fluently and easily in both Samoan and English.

•            In order to make better use of English, Samoan children must make better use of Samoan.

•            The Dual Language program is the first step by the schools to improve the usage of language by focusing on the first language, Samoan, first.  To continue putting children into school using a language they do not understand and expect language development is a losing proposition — and always has been.

 Samoa mo Samoa.  B. Thomas Harwood, Ph.D.   

(B. Thomas Harwood  holds a Ph.D. degree in developmental psychology from Ohio State and the Juris Doctor from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He holds a license to practice psychology in NY and is a member of the FL Bar.  He is also a certified school psychologist. He is currently  an educational consultant.

He lived in AS and worked for DOE from 1966 to1968 and later was a school psychologist here for 18 months. He has been a professor of psychology, a forensic psychologist and has trained social workers and attorneys in the prosecution of child abuse and neglect cases.)