Trilingual education

On the Colombian-owned Caribbean Islands of San Andres, Providence, & Santa Catalina an English-lexifier Creole is spoken. Recently, Creole-speaking leaders and parents have become apprehensive that Island children and youth are increasingly using Spanish with a concomitant loss of Standard English. Accompanying that concern is the perception that local Creole values, cultural mores, and the Creole language itself, are eroding. Not wanting to lose their Creole identity, an experimental primary school trilingual education project was initiated that begins schooling in Creole, proceeds to Standard English, and then to Spanish. The goal is age appropriate language proficiency in the three languages. The purpose of the following article is to describe this trilingual education project – its initiation, materials development, implementation, and evaluation. Keywords: Trilingual Education; Bilingual Education; San Andres Island; Creole Language Education; Mother Tongue Education