By Robert Berrouët-Oriol
Linguist-terminologist
Montreal, May 20, 2024
« (…) there is no robust and reliable production of knowledge outside the collective of scientists who are interested in the same objects, facts and questions. Scientific knowledge must be tested and verified by competent colleagues or peers, namely those who are concerned with the same questions or are at least familiar with the scientific approach concerning the specific subject (…). » (« Sciences and their problems: scientific fraud, a means of diversion? », by Serge Gutwirth and JennekeChristiaens, Interdisciplinary Review of Legal Studies 2015/1 (volume 74).
Published in Haiti in Le Nouvelliste dated May 16, 2024, the article “Teaching math skills has become easier thanks to the MIT-Haiti Initiative », signed by the Biwokominikasyon MIT-Ayiti, has amazed a number of teachers concerned with the teaching of Creole as well as Creole teachers keen to integrate the contributions of Creole lexicography into their teaching. This article also perplexed editors of Creole school textbooks and professional lexicographers mainly due to the proven lexicographic errors characterizing the “flagship product” of the Inisyativ MIT-Ayiti, the « GlossaryofSTEM termsfrom theMIT–Haiti Initiative ». Given that the teaching-learning of mathematics in Creole as promoted by the Inisyativ MIT-Ayiti is linked–on the register of teaching in Creole knowledge and knowledge transmitted by the School-, with his unique lexicographic tool, the« GlossaryofSTEM termsfrom theMIT–Haiti Initiative “, it is necessary to update the analytical assessment of this “Glossary” falsely called “glossary” when in reality it is a lexicon of approximately 800 English terms accompanied by “Creole” equivalents.
In this article we offer analytical insight into the “model” recommended by theInisyativ MIT-Ayiti, namely “interactive pedagogy” based on the use of Creole mother tongue. In view of this “interactive pedagogy”, we also demonstrate that – contrary to the adventurous allegations of the Bureaucommunication MIT-Haiti “on the foundation of interactive pedagogymother tongue as a powerful tool for teaching and learning »–,the only lexicographical tool of the MIT Haiti Initiative was (1) developed outside the methodology of professional lexicography and that (2) for this reason and for other reasons it has never been able to establish itself in Haiti in learning, in Creole, science and mathematics. It will also be a question of analyzing the political reasons explaining the failure of the implementation in Haiti, from 2010 to 2024, of “interactive pedagogy” based on the use of the Creole mother tongue despite the proven links ofl’Inisyativ MIT-Ayiti with the politico-mafia cartel of the neo-Duvalierist PHTK.
“Interactive pedagogy” and mother tongue, “interactive pedagogy” and didactization of Creole
Generally, researchers date the appearance of the notion of “interactive pedagogy” in the educational field to the 1970s. Canadian researcher Gabriel Racle defines “interactive pedagogy” as follows: “The potential of every human being, child as well as adult, is prodigious, variable according to genetic data certainly, but prodigious. Prisoners of routine, conformism, structures in place, fear of change, we tend to forget this. However, it is the starting point for an educational renewal which, from now on, is no longer a utopia and which not only can but must find its place in our modern societies. There interactive teaching is at the heart of this renewal, since it synthesizes the results, the data, the principles coming from work and research in educational psychology and neuropedagogy and of which we have given some examples. From such an educational perspective, learning is seen as the result of an interaction or a sum of interactions, between the learner and his or her environment.. (…) Interactive pedagogy, by integrating into teaching external interrelations (physical, psychological, social and learning environment), and internal interrelations (right hemisphere and left hemisphere, limbic brain and tertiary areas of the cortex, circadian rhythms and rhythms ultradiens) creates a new educational psychocommunication with beneficial effects in the short and long term” (Gabriel Racle: “ Why interactive teaching? », journal Communication & languages, no 54, 1982, p. 26-32; the bold underline is from RBO). For his part, in a text dated July 17, 2017, Alexis Roche, lecturer in management – business intervention research, “ Interactive pedagogy, a source of efficiency for learning organizations and fulfillment for individuals ”, sets out a rather broad definition of “interactive pedagogy”. He specifies in fact that “Theinteractive pedagogy is a reversal of the classic pedagogical perspective: we start from what the “other knows” and not from “the good practice to transmit”. It follows the reflections of different currents such as the ideas ofMaria Montessoriwhich focuses more on individual learning [et] Above all [sur la] pedagogical dynamic of collective learning ofCélestin Freinet ».
Marianne Hardy (Paris 13 University) is the author of several scientific articles relating to “interactive pedagogy”, notably “ Birth of an interactive pedagogy » (Paris, INRP – National Institute of Educational Research, 1991), and “ Towards an interactive pedagogy: we do not learn alone » (Paris, INRP, 1992). She also published, with F. Platone, “ Interactive teaching of written language in nursery school », published in “Reading and writing in primary school” (Paris, INRP, 1994). She is the author, with C. Royon and M. Bréauté, of “ Interactive teaching and first learning », published in Rayna S., Laevers F., Deleau M. (eds), “Preschool education: what educational objectives? »(Paris, Nathan/INRP, 1996). In the Revue française de pédagogie (no. 129, October 1999), Marianne Hardy published the article “ Practicing interactive teaching at school “. She explains that “The previous article presents our psycho-pedagogical approach called “interactive pedagogy” which, by adjusting the contexts and practices to the interests and approaches of the children, makes it possible to encourage the involvement of all in the learning processes”. Generally speaking, there is a common view between different theorists and practitioners of “interactive pedagogy”: this is a construct in the context of school learning, it is knowledge centered not on the normative and prescriptive discourse of the teacher but rather on the learner who co-constructs knowledge and knowledge.
L’article «Teaching math skills has become easier thanks to the MIT-Haiti Initiative » explains that there would be a “model” recommended by theThe MIT-Haiti initiative, à savoir la « interactive teaching » /« interactive pedagogy » based on the use of the native Creole language. This assertion can be read from the first sentence of the article: “DepilèInisyativ MIT-Ayitikòmanseferaye nan lane 2010, objektif li se koremouvman pou amelyorekaliteedikasyonannAyiti sou fondasyoninteractive pedagogyandmother tongue as a powerful tool for teaching and learning »…This introductory hook is specified as follows: “Se kon sa MIT-Ayititoujouankourajeitilizasyonteknoloji nan sal klasepi bay gwobourad nan production and dissemination of digital materials in Creole in all subjects and at all levels. The goal is to provide teachers with high-quality resources to help students participate in learning more easily and happily. [Le souligné en italiques et gras est de RBO]
Before examining more closely what “interactive pedagogy” consists of based on the use of the Creole mother tongue as recommended byl’Initiating MIT-Ayiti, it is useful to specify in what “infrastructural” context, in Haiti, its promoters intend to develop the “(…) pwodiksyonakdifizyonmateryèlnimerik an kreyòl nan tout matyè e nan tout nivo”. In other words, is the objective of “production and dissemination of digital material in Creole in all subjects and at all levels” a real educational objective to which the Haitian State should subscribe? Is it an objective that can be implemented on a national scale or is it a UFO, an attractive chimera, a speech-argument in support of requests for grants from wealthy American institutions? Is the achievement of this objective guaranteed upstream and at all its stages by the existence in Haiti, on a national scale, of adequate communications infrastructure (electricity, coverage and generalized access to the Internet on a technical level, costs actual Internet subscription, accessibility and possession of computer equipment, mastery of Internet search protocols)?
In the article that we published in Haiti in the newspaper Le National dated April 28, 2020, “ ”PRATIC”, the official digital platform for distance learning in Haiti during Covid 19: signaling a planned failure “, we presented a set of field data relating to the problem of Internet access in Haiti – but those responsible for l’Inisyativ MIT-Ayiti are in fact ignoring such a problem even though they advocate… “interactive pedagogy” linked to “the production and distribution of digital material in Creole”. Recalling this field data is essential to fully understand and put into perspective any “production and production” project. [de] dissemination of digital material in Creole in all subjects and at all levels”. Thus, the user in Haiti is subject to drastic restrictions on electricity supply: 70% of the country is not covered by EdH (the national Electricity of Haiti company), and the rationing that it imposes in the capital and in provincial urban areas constitutes a major obstacle to access to the media and the Internet. Clearly, the majority of students theoretically targeted by the PRATIC system do not have access to the electrical current supplied erratically by the EdH and only families with an alternative source of electrical power (generators, batteries, “Inverter », solar panels) could take advantage of it. But these alternative systems remain very expensive and we do not have survey data quantifying the number of families having installed these alternative sources of electricity supply. It should be remembered here that the majority of Haitian families are classified as “low-income”, the average monthly income per capita in Haiti amounting to 6 $5, or $780 per capita per year according to different sources linked to World Bank data for 2016. But in reality, most observers estimate that more than half of Haitian families live below the poverty line… A file of Radio Canada (recent but undated) notes that “Haiti is characterized by its mass poverty, especially in the north of the country. In total, 80% of the population lives below the poverty line. In 2000, Haiti was ranked 150e rank out of 174, according to the Human Development Index (HDI) of the United Nations Development Program. (…) In Port-au-Prince, two out of three inhabitants live on less than $56 per month.”
When it comes to Internet access, Haiti is not better off. Today, (…) “the majority of students, schoolchildren, not only do not have access to the Internet, but also and above all to electricity, on the national territory, in Haiti. » (see the article « Technology / Covid-19: poor Internet connection, an obstacle to distance learning in Haiti, according to university professor Samuel Pierre », Alterpresse, April 7, 2020.) The cost of the monthly Internet subscription remains very high since it is between US$50 and US$150. For a family, the average cost of a laptop is US$500 and residential internet access costs around US$1,800 per year, even though in 2018 the internet penetration rate was 12 % in the country according to haititechnews.com citing an evaluation dated 2016. In the same vein, “We can consider that Internet penetration in Haiti is around 13%, that is to say approximately 1,500,000 users” (Jean Marie Guillaume, general director of Conatel: “ More than one in two Haitians has a cell phone », Le Nouvelliste, November 22, 2013). In the document ” Synoptic presentation on the ICT situation in Haiti » prepared for the Global Workshop on Community Access Indicators to ICT (Mexico City, November 16 – 19, 2004), it is specified that “The survey on interconnection, conducted by the RDDH [Réseau de développement durable en Haïti], revealed the following facts: –academic clientele 23%, –industrial 22%, –commercial (cybercafeś) 19%, –commercial (small ISP) 13%. Nearly 85% located in Port-au-Prince (…) there are 187 cybercafés across the country, including 156 in the metropolitan area (…), 18 in the southern region of the country and 13 in the northern region. . The penetration of provincial towns by cybercafés is therefore low. Cap-Haïtien (second city) and Jacmel (fifth city) are the two cities where there are the most Internet cafes, nine and eight respectively. »
It emerges from these data and observations that – deprived of electricity and Internet connection – the overwhelming majority of the three million students enrolled in the public and private education sectors in Haiti do not have access to PRATIC , the official digital platform for distance education in Haiti. The signing, on May 6, 2020, between NATCOM and the Ministry of Education, of a contract to reduce the costs of SMS aimed at students will not change anything since the majority of schoolchildren’s families do not have any power. of purchase allowing the acquisition of a laptop computer or the benefit of electric current and an Internet subscription. These data and observations are known to the political and administrative officials of the Ministry of Education, but against all evidence , they chose to launch PRATIC without really worrying about its accessibility among the country’s three million students.
In the hypothesis where “interactive pedagogy” based on the use of Creole mother tongue as recommended byl’Inisyativ MIT-Ayiti should rely mainly on part of the 100,000 teachers in the national education system (private and public schools combined), there is reason to wonder if these teachers – in addition to the difficulties of access to the Internet that we have just described –, have sufficient financial resources to acquire computer equipment, pay for a very expensive Internet subscription and install an alternative electrical current device enabling them to be partners in “interactive pedagogy” based on the use of the Creole language kindergarten as recommended byl’Initiation of MIT-Ayiti. The answer to this question is certainly “no” and we can already glimpse the unrealistic, if not fanciful, nature of the perspective defended by l’Initiation of MIT-Ayiti. This dimension of the effectiveness of “interactive pedagogy” in Haiti is heavily ignored by those responsible for l’Inisyativ MIT-Ayiti which, in the article in Le Nouvelliste dated May 16, 2024, “Teaching math skills has become easier thanks to the MIT-Haiti Initiative ”, didn’t even bother to approach him. The article by Samuel Céliné published on the Ayibopost site and dated September 19, 2020, “ How much do public school teachers in Haiti actually earn? “, provides illuminating data on the average salary of teachers and mentions the grim reality of the large salary disparities existing in the public education sector. Thus, “The salary [mensuel] gross of Saint Juste Noelzil, a teacher who works from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., is 17,200 gourdes [129 $ US]. After taxes are collected, [il lui reste]13,958 gourds [105 $ US] ”.(…) Kensone Délice is also a teacher, at 3e basic cycle of the Louis Joseph Janvier high school in Carrefour. His status as a full-time professor requires him to provide between 18 and 24 hours of work per week. He receives a gross monthly salary of 35,000 gourdes [263 $ US]which become 28,000 gourdes [210 $ US] after taxes are collected » [taux de 133,33 Gdes=1 $ US].For the record, the salary of Jean Ronald Joseph, the current director of the National Education Fund, amounts to 650,000 gourdes per month (US$4,875 monthly)… According to data recently provided by the Hebdo24 site which consulted internal documents of the National Education Fund“(…) salary expenses within Mr. Joseph’s office total 24 million gourdes per year for seven peoplewhile his cabinet, composed of seventeen members, represents an annual expenditure of 49 million gourdes » (see the article « At the National Education Fund, money is wasted by “millions of gourdes” », Hebdo24, 1is April 2024); see also our article published in Martinique, “ Corruption in the National Education Fund in Haiti: what the absence of financial statements and the non-existence of accounting audits teach us between 2017 and 2024 », Madinin’ Art, 3 May 2024).
In connection with the field data relating to the low rate of Internet access in Haiti, it is highly significant not to find in the article l’MIT-Haiti initiative, «Teaching math skills has become easier thanks to the MIT-Haiti Initiative » (Nouvelliste, May 16, 2024),no exploration of the links between “interactive pedagogy” and the teaching of Creole. We will return to this crucial point later by examining very briefly, at the didactic level, the programmatic claims of l’Initiation of MIT-Ayiti. It is necessary, at this stage of our analysis, to specify that the central dimension of the didactization of Creole is completely absent from the vision and “pedagogical” concerns of l’MIT-Haiti initiative (on the problem of teaching Creole, see the collective reference book “ The teaching of Creole at the heart of linguistic planning in Haiti », by Robert Berrouët-Oriol et alii, Éditions Zémès, Port-au-Prince, and Éditions du Cidihca, Montréal, 382 pages, 2021). The article “Teaching math skills has become easier thanks to the MIT-Haiti Initiative », far from any approach to the teaching of Creolelists a set of purely “technical” initiatives dealing in particular with the translation into Creole of the material of a firm specializing in the production of distance training tools of the type “ Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)” inaccessible to the vast majority of Haitian teachers. Furthermore, the article “Teaching math skills has become easier thanks to the MIT-Haiti Initiative » reveals that in 2017 those responsible for l’The MIT-Haiti Initiative met with the director of the MITx Online firm, who addressed a specific request: “Mr. Chang asked MIT-Haiti how the Initiative could contribute to the translation into Creole already available on the MITx Online platform. The director showed a lot of interest for all these materials to be available in other languages, such as Creole. Since then, MIT-Haiti has collaborated in the translation of MITx materials for teaching mathematics in Creole. » (the emphasis in italics and bold is from RBO). Far from being anecdotal, this statement is highly revealing and significant of the vision which governed the development of the “pedagogical” project of l’Inisyativ MIT-Ayiti to set up an “interactive pedagogy” based on the use of Creole as a mother tongue: a project of such magnitude was not developed in response to the needs expressed by Haitian teachers or by the Ministry of National Education: it responds to the technical – and undoubtedly financial – concerns of a large American firmthe “MITx Online [ki] is a broad online platform for distance learning ».
On a related note, the article “Teaching math skills has become easier thanks to the MIT-Haiti Initiative » is particularly instructive to the archaic and pre-scientific vision of Creole translation conveyed byl’MIT-Haiti initiative : translation into Creole is not instituted as a scientific and professional activity subject to its methodology and the Creole scientific and technical writing protocol and even less in its complementary links with Creole lexicography. Thus, “Inisyativla te chwaziyonkou sou kalkilkirele 18.01x Calculus. The director of MITx Online shared with MIT-Haitiyonkirele platform Transifex which facilitates translation in various languages. MIT-Haiti was looking for a monk to translate the materialthese maths in CreoleaksipòfinansyeMITxOnline [NOTE:[NOTE:the amount of this financial support is not revealed…]Engineer Charlot de Gracia is one of those who participated in the translation of these resources. Paul Belony, professor of physics at Kean University, supervising the translation. Translations are made in a way that the Creole texts are accessible to all mathematics learners — equal: in a simple and interesting language level. In the original English version, the teacher gave his explanations in an easy-to-understand language students understand This linguistic challenge is an important difference compared to traditional pedagogy in French, where the level of the language is more formal than the level of the English language in teaching. Therefore, we decided to make this effort for the language level of the Creole translation to facilitate the understanding of the Creole text, which appears to be more informal than the mathematics manual in the Francophone tradition. l’The MIT-Haiti initiative Creole translation is established as an activity unrelated to the methodology of scientific and technical translationin the hollow ofuninhibited amateurism which tends to give itself a “scientific” appearance with the complacent blessing and under the “prestigious” label of the Department of Linguistics of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Indeed, it is not enough to “declare” all the time that we are promoting a “ interactive teaching » – concept also designated by the term “ active learning » in the promotional vocabulary of the MIT Haiti Initiative – based on the use of Creole as the mother tongue so that this “unprecedented” declarative posture, even coated with a veneer of scientificity, translates into a real identifiable, measurable and well-founded scientific activity. both methodologically and in terms of its objectives. We must take all measures that l’Inisyativ MIT-Ayiti is devoid of the slightest proven competence in scientific and technical Creole translation as well as in Creole lexicography. This essentially explains the fanciful and pre-scientific character of the vision of translational activity conveyed byl’Inisyativ MIT-Ayiti: far from the methodology of Creole scientific and technical translation, it ingenuously exposes and asserts a pseudo “methodological framework” which boils down to this extraordinary doxa unknown to professional translation: “Tradiksyon sa yo fèt nan yonfason pou ranntèkskreyòl yo aksesib pou tout moun k apaprannmatematik — equal: nan yon nivo langkisenp e enteresan »… How are Creole translations – carried out by people with no proven qualification in scientific and technical Creole translation –, are they « aksesib pou tout moun k apaprannmatematik »? What are the linguistic, translational and didactic criteria which define and make it possible to measure the presumed “accessibility” of Creole texts translated by non-professionals in Creole translation? Also, what are the linguistic, translational and didactic criteria that define and make it possible to measure the presumed “nivo langkisenp e enteresan”? So what is this supposed “language level” and how is it “senp e enteresan”? This fanciful and pre-scientific vision of Creole scientific and technical translation is adventurously labeled “chwalengwistik” by l’Inisyativ MIT-Ayiti without the scientific criteria for these alleged “linguistic choices” being explained. We are here in the presence of a deception if not a conceptual manipulation all the more obvious as l’The MIT-Haiti initiative asserts that “this linguistics is an important difference compared to traditional pedagogy in French where the level of English is more formal than the level of English in teaching”…Nulle part sur le official website of the MIT Haiti Initiative we have found no trace of a methodological statement attesting to and clarifying this alleged “chwalengwistik” which would have been established “in relation to traditional pedagogy in French”.
It appears from the illumination of the different sections that we have just presented that the article “Teaching and learning mathematics is made easier thanks to the MIT-Haiti Initiative » does not provide any credible approach capable of winning the support of teachers who have to teach mathematics in Creole. More broadly, Creole teachers and Creole didacticians cannot in any way find in the approach of l’Inisyativ MIT-Ayiti a credible and useful methodological reference framework for the transmission of knowledge and knowledge in Creole in the Haitian School. The notion of “ interactive teaching » – also referred to as “ active learning » in the promotional vocabulary of the MIT Haiti Initiative –, based on the use of the Creole mother tongue, was not elaborated in the article «Teaching and learning mathematics is made easier thanks to the MIT-Haiti Initiative » (Le Nouvelliste, May 16, 2024). Instead of the presentation of the theoretical foundations of the bipolar couple “ interactive teaching »/« active learning “and without demonstrating its possible “operability”, the MIT Haiti Initiative was content to indicate that “From 2012 to 2016, the MIT-Haiti Initiative organized several workshops for teachers in Haiti, and in October 2015, we invited some of the teachers who participated in these workshops travel the United States to learn more about how to create tools for teaching mathematics in Creole. Much of the material produced in these catalogs is available on this site: http://haiti.mit.edu “. When we click on this address, we arrive at the official website of the MIT Haiti Initiative which includes several sections, notably the “Resources” section. MAINLY WRITTEN IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE – the MIT Haiti Initiative does not mention, in the general presentation recorded in the “Mission” section, articles 5, 32 and 40 of the Haitian Constitution of 1987–, the site does however include written information in Creole. Example 1 : section «Search for resources » or even the announcement of a “ Optical LessonsProfessor Abd Augustin on the MIT-Haiti Platform”. Dated April 20, 2020, this “ lesonoptic » extends over 7 pages and is written in Creole. Example 2 : « Fwiaklegim – Plan lesonakegzèsis », an 11-page document written in Creole. However, in the depths of a long research on the official website of the MIT Haiti Initiativewe did not find a methodical presentation of the bipolar couple ” interactive teaching »/« active learning »: these notions, which nevertheless seem to occupy a central place in the educational approach of the MIT Haiti Initiative« in the creation of the high school ”, are nowhere defined or put into perspective. The non-existence of a presentation explaining the theoretical foundations of the bipolar couple “ interactive teaching »/« active learning » in the vision of the MIT Haiti Initiative accredits the idea that this is an advertising slogan rather than a conceptual device intended to enlighten and guide its interventions… Thus, on the official website of the MIT Haiti Initiativewe found no trace of the “operability” of the bipolar couple “ interactive teaching »/« active learning », which leads to the observation of its de facto non-existence in the educational interventions mentioned on this site. This aspect is of the utmost importance: even though the MIT Haiti Initiative maintains that “Soti 2012 rive 2016, Inisyativ MIT-Ayitiòganizeplizyèatelye pou anseyanannAyitiepi”, at no time does it present on its official website the slightest analytical assessment attesting that it would have (1) carried out a field survey with a representative sample of teachers targeting (2) the problem of “ interactive teaching »/« active learning » et (3) attesting to the possible adhesion of these teachers to its approach which would be based on the use of Creole as their mother tongue. This observation is very revealing of the scientific errors of the Inisyativ MIT-Ayiti which claims a scientific discourse and practices but which pays little attention to it on several registers, particularly in the field of Creole lexicography. And as we will see in the course of this article in the chapter of the evaluation of its “Glossary”, the criteria of scientificity of the MIT Haiti Initiative seem to be of variable geometry depending on whether it is addressed in Creole, through the voice of his “grenadye/grenadyèz”, to Haitian interlocutors or in English to American institutions with a view to obtaining various financing…
A heavy tribute to pre-scientific amateurismin the “Creole Scientific Documents” of the MIT Haiti Initiative
In the article ” The development and didactics of Creole in the “Creole Scientific Documents” of the MIT Haiti Initiative »(Le National, Port-au-Prince, April 18, 2023), we carried out a first exploration of the didactic and translational approach of the “Creole scientific documents” of the MIT Haiti Initiative. Indeed in this text we specified that the management of the MIT – Haiti Initiative, in a document dated 1is December 2021 kept in our archives, claims that “ We have a solid foundation in the production of scientific documents in Creole “. Such a “profession of faith” does not stand up to the reality of observable facts: we have just exposed the institutional characteristics of the “Creole” translation in l’Inisyativ MIT-Ayiti and recalled that this institution is devoid of the slightest proven competence in scientific and technical Creole translation as well as in Creole lexicography. Under the “Resources” section, the MIT Haiti Initiative website lists 4 guide documents, “dokimansyantifik an kreyòl” also presented as “worksheets”: “ GeoGebra in Creole », « Mathlets in Kreyol », « PhETs in Creole »et « Star in Creole ». The general presentation of these “dokimansyantifik an kreyòl” does not allow us to confirm beyond any doubt that they were produced and/or supervised by Creole didacticians or by scientific translators into Creole having previously developed educational or didactic material. in Creole. The general presentation of these “dokimansyantifik an kreyòl” also does not allow us to know whether they have been validated, at all stages of their production, by Creole-speaking teachers and, in particular, by Creole didacticians. We must take every measure that the “profession of faith” according to which “ We have a solid foundation in the production of scientific documents in Creole ” in no way constitutes a methodological criterion of credibility and quality of documents labeled “scientific”, and this is certainly not their name ” GeoGebra in Creole », « Mathlets in Kreyol », « PhETs in Creole »et « Star in Creole » which make them credible reference documents, on a scientific level, in these different disciplines. And in the hypothesis that these alleged “scientific documents in Creole ” would have been developed in a context similar to that mentioned above – that of the “platfòm MITx Online”, that of its financial contribution (“ Since then, MIT-Haiti has collaborated in the translation of MITx materials for teaching mathematics in Creole. “) –, we are in the presence of a device where heavy ethical questions collide…We are once again in the presence of an activity which was not requested by Creole teachers and Creole didacticians and which was neither conceptualized nor implemented in response to needs expressed by Creole teachers and Creole didacticians. This observation largely sheds light on the murky political links established between l’Inisyativ MIT-Ayiti and the politico-mafia cartel of the neo-Duvalierist PHTK (we will return to this point later).
Brief overview of « Mathlets in Kreyol » on the MIT Haiti Initiative website
On the MIT Haiti Initiative website, when you click on the “Resources” section, you end up with, among other things, “ Mathlets in Kreyol » thus presented:
«Enhance selected university level STEM classes.
Here you will find a suite of dynamic Javascript “Mathlets” in Kreyòl, for use in learning about differential equations and other mathematical subjects, along with examples of how to use them in homework, group work, or lecture demonstration, and some of the underlying theory. There are alsovoice-over animated demos.»
[Traduction de RBO] / « Mathlets in Creole — Enhance some college-level STEM courses.Here you’ll find a series of dynamic Javascript “Mathlets” in Kreyòl, for use in learning differential equations and other math topics, as well as examples of how to use them within the framework homework, group work or class demonstrations, and some of the underlying theory. There are also animated voice-over demonstrations.
MAJOR METHODOLOGICAL OBSERVATION / When writing the article “ The development and didactics of Creole in the “Creole Scientific Documents” of the MIT Haiti Initiative »(Le National, Port-au-Prince, April 18, 2023), we have not traced on the MIT Haiti Initiative website no presentation IN CREOLE of “ Mathlets in Kreyol “. When you click on the mention “ download all Mathlets in Kreyol », l’on enduit à l’énoncé “Mathletskreyòl zip” qui enumère ceci: A graphic window will display, in navy blue, the graph of the function f(x) we have chosen from the drop-down menu below. A slider will allow us to control the value of x, and the point (x, f(x)) will appear on the graph as a red diamond related to the x slider by a pale red vertical line. SECANT APPROXIMATION+ help,You can choose a value for x, then use the coordinate display to calculate the slope of the secant line using a graph, or you can adjust the value of Δx while the computer calculates and displays the secant. Notice: as Δx goes down, the secant line gets closer to the tangent line. BATMAN + help, BETA DISTRIBUTION + help, TARGET SOLUTIONS + help, T DISTRIBUTION + help, MATRIX VECTOR + help, CREATE THE DERIVATIVE + help, FOURIER COEFFICIENTS + help, TAYLOR POLYNOMIALS + help, COMPLEX EXPONENTIAL + help, VECTOR FIELDS + help , ISOCLINES + help, LINEAR PHASE PORTRAITS: CLICKERS ENTRY + help, CHARACTERISTICS OF GRAPHS + help, LINEAR PROGRAMMING + help, RATIONAL FUNCTION GRAPHS + help, BALLISTIC TRAJECTORY + help ». The mention “+ help” that appears after these statements does not lead to a rubric of the type “Help” or “Explanation of the concept”. These statements lead to two magnificent illustrations on a blue background and at this level, the notions, identified only in English, are all defined in English : we have not found any notional definitions in Creole. However, and as evidenced in the “Resous” section or even in the announcement of a “ Optical LessonsProfessor Abd Augustin on the MIT-Haiti Platform”, the user arrives at documents written in Creole – but the consultation of these documents does not shed any light on the alleged implementation of the bipolar couple ” interactive teaching »/« active learning » in what the MIT Haiti Initiative considers to be field activities attesting to the alleged “fondasyonpedagojientèraktifak mother tongue as a powerful tool for teaching and learning »…
Here are two examples of concepts defined only in English:
Damped Vibrations
The decay from initial condition to equilibrium of an unforced second order system can be understood using the roots of the characteristic polynomial and the phase diagram.
Amplitude and Phase Second Order I
A spring drives sinusoidally a spring/dashpot/mass system. The predictable amplitude and phase lag of the sinusoidal system response can be understood using Bode and Nyquist plots.
Careful observation of the “Resources” section on the MIT Haiti Initiative website is very instructive. It exemplifies the reality that there is no methodological guide, no statement of didactic and pedagogical orientation, no documentary reference WRITTEN IN CREOLE in the “ Mathlets in Kreyol “. The statement that “Mathlets enkreyòl” is also a tool for creating interactive worksheets for teachers” is therefore highly doubtful. Furthermore, in the “ Mathlets in Kreyol » presented as a “dokimansyantifik AN KREYÒL”, we have not traced any of the “Creole” equivalent pseudos cobbled together in the “ GlossaryofSTEM termsfrom theMIT–Haiti Initiative » and by which the MIT Haiti Initiative nevertheless claims “ [enrichir] the language of a new scientific vocabulary which can serve as an indispensable resource for teachers and students” while contributing to the “ lexical development of the language “Creole”.
What lessons can we draw from the observation that our interlocutors – teachers of different subjects, Creole teachers and Creole didacticians working in Haiti and to whom we submitted the “dokimansyantifik an kreyòl” of the MIT Haiti Initiative – have not once retraced these documents in Haitian schools…? Before answering this leading question by revisiting the “lexicographic” production of the MIT Haiti Initiative–very precisely its « GlossaryofSTEM termsfrom theMIT–Haiti Initiative »–, it is worth mentioning that to our knowledge no professional association of Haitian teachers has recommended the use of « GlossaryofSTEM termsfrom theMIT–Haiti Initiative » in the classroom even though the Bureaucommunication MIT-Haiti adventurously supports that « The MIT-Haiti initiative started in 2010, its goal is the movement to improve the quality of education in Haiti on the basis of interactive pedagogy andmother tongue as a powerful tool for teaching and learning » (the underlining in italics and bold is from RBO).
Before writing this article, we once again interviewed teachers working in Haiti, both in Port-au-Prince and in the provinces. They are unanimous: none of them, from 2015 to 2024, recommended or used the « GlossaryofSTEM termsfrom theMIT–Haiti Initiative » in the classroom. This “flagship product” of the Inisyativ MIT-Ayiti is completely unknown to them… According to the teachers with whom we have been interacting for several years, no professional association of Haitian teachers, from 2015 to 2024, has published a guidance document recommending the use of « GlossaryofSTEM termsfrom theMIT–Haiti Initiative » as a credible tool to aid academic learning in the classroom… To the question of whether the writers of Creole school textbooks in Haiti usethe « GlossaryofSTEM termsfrom theMIT–Haiti Initiative “, our interlocutors all answered “no”…There is therefore reason, in terms of the use of Creole in the teaching of mathematics, to question the “publicity” ofMIT-Ayiti Biwokominikasyon in The Newspaper at the heart of the article “Teaching math skills has become easier thanks to the MIT-Haiti Initiative In terms of observable data, it is significant to note that in the article “Teaching math skills has become easier thanks to the MIT-Haiti Initiative » of Biwokominikasyon MIT-Ayiti, there is no verifiable statistical data attesting: (1) that the educational approach it promotes has been adopted and implemented in Haitian schools; (2) that the only lexicographical tool du MIT Haiti Initiative, le « GlossaryofSTEM termsfrom theMIT–Haiti Initiative », would have been used in classrooms in Haitian schools for learning science and mathematics in Creole from 2015 to 2024; (3) that the Ministry of National Education, from 2015 to 2024, would have published an official document in which it would have recommended the use of the educational approach and that of « GlossaryofSTEM termsfrom theMIT–Haiti Initiative » in schools across the country; (4) that the Ministry of National Education would have published an official document in which it would have recommended to the writers and publishers of Creole school textbooks to use the educational approach of the MIT Haiti Initiative and that of the « GlossaryofSTEM termsfrom theMIT–Haiti Initiative » in the development of LIV INIK AN KREYÒL. The LIV INIK AN KREYÒL has been described as « real revolution on the path to equity and inclusion in Haiti »par The Minister in factof National Education Nesmy Manigat and he was publicly supported – for reasons of political connection with the politico-mafia cartel of the neo-Duvalierist PHTK –, by the management of the Inisyativ MIT-Ayiti without the slightest evaluation didactic and lexicographical. The saga of LIV INIK AN KREYÒL is available in seven different versions developed by seven different textbook publishers (see among others our article “ The LIV INIK AN KREYÒL and the problem of didactic tools in the Creole language in the Haitian School » (magazine and website Éducation en marche, Port-au-Prince, 1is November 2023). It has been noted that despite the political links existing between the Inisyativ MIT-Ayiti and the PHTK neo-macoute through its public support for the PSUGO of Martelly/Lamothe, the Ministry of National Education has not calls upon the alleged didactic and lexicographic “expertise” of the Inisyativ MIT-Ayiti in the development of the UNIQUE BOOK IN CREOLE.
NOTE 1 — On the vast PSUGO scam set up by the great neo-Duvalierist bosses es Martelly/Lamothe, see the very well documented articles « Psugo, a threat to education in Haiti? (parts I, II and III) – A process of weakening of the education system », Ayitikale je (Akj), AlterPresse, July 16, 2014; see also on the same site, « The PSUGO, a planned catastrophe » (parts I to IV), August 4, 2016; see also the extensive study « Psugo, one of the biggest scams in the history of education in Haiti », by Charles Tardieu, Port-au-Prince, June 30, 2016; see also our article “ The Haitian education system tested by multiple embezzlements at PSUGO », Le National, Port-au-Prince, March 24, 2022.
NOTE 2 – The PSUGO of the mafia kingpins Martelly/Lamothe was publicly and blindly supported by the linguist Michel Degraff, director of the Inisyativ MIT-Ayiti, in theTransatlantic Journal of Swiss Studies6/7, 2016/17: « The mother tongue as a foundation of knowledge: the MIT-Haiti initiative: towards effective and inclusive Creole education “. In this article, Michel DeGraff fraudulently claims that “There are already laudable efforts to improve the situation in Haiti, where quality education has traditionally been reserved for the few. A recent example is the Free and Compulsory Universal Education Program (PSUGO) launched by the Haitian government in 2011 with the aim of guaranteeing free and compulsory education to all children. video uploaded to YouTube during the month of June 2014, Michel Degraff maintains, without revealing his sources or providing irrefutable proof, that 88% of children go to school thanks to the PSUGO: “Gras a program Psugo a 88 pousantimoun ale lekòl”… Readers of this article can at any time, using the references that we have just cited, verify the veracity of Michel Degraff’s public support for the neo-macoute PHTK through his propaganda in favor of the PSUGO of Martelly/Lamothe.L we have noted that it is not accidental that the “aura” of the Department of Linguistics at MIT is exploited in the mode of a stooge, that inscribed in the very name of the project set up by Michel Degraff: the mention of the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the titleWITHHaiti Initiative…
On the register of public support for the neo-macoute PHTK, it is worth recalling the government decision stipulating that “Starting from the 2022-2023 academic year, the Haitian State will not finance or support any educational materials [en] French language which must be used in the learning of students in the first four years of Fundamentals” (see the article “ Suspension of funding for teaching materials in French for the first 4 years of the basic cycle in Haiti », AlterPresse, February 22, 2022). Preceding any evaluation of this government measure by teachers, school directors, editors and publishers of school textbooks, Michel DeGraff hastened to salute “a historic day” in the history of the country: “Vremanvre, jounen 22 /2/2022 sa a se te yonjounenistorik nan istwapeyinou e nan istwamouvmankreyòl la” (see email from Michel DeGraff dated February 27, 2022 entitled “Liv kiekrioubyentradwi nan kreyòl”). This eager public support for a government measure, the justification and efficiency of which have still not been demonstrated, obeys the logic of give and take, the logic according to which public support for PHTK policies in the health sector Education would open the door to the establishment of the activities of the Inisyativ MIT-Ayiti on the national territory. This explains the fact that – as for the promotion of the PSUGO – such political support is constant and permanent: the MITHaiti Initiative being deprived since its creation of the slightest proven credibility among teachers and their associations in Haiti, it must have a sort of of strategic “partnership” with the politico-mafia cartel of the neo-Duvalierist PHTK with a view to its establishment in Haiti (see our article ““ Financing of Creole textbooks in Haiti: confusion and demagoguery at the highest level of the State », Creole Foundation, March 15, 2022).
The sinking of Creole lexicography at the MIT Haiti Initiative
Before writing this article, it is useful to remind the reader that in recent years we have published, in Haiti and overseas, around thirty articles dealing with various aspects of Creole lexicography. These texts are all accessible on the Web; Here is an indicative list: (1) « Understand what the lexicographic language is, where it comes from, where it is going, the mission it must fulfill », Fondas kreyòl, Martinique, April 5, 2024; (2) « Prolegomena to the development of the Haitian Creole lexicographic database », Rezonòdwès, United States, April 16, 2024; (3) « Creole lexicography in Haiti: review of its historical origins, its methodology and its contemporary challenges », Rezonòdwès, December 11, 2023; (4) « The “borlette lexicography” of the MIT Haiti Initiative has never been able to establish itself in Haiti in the Creole teaching of sciences and techniques », Rezonòdwès, July 4, 2023;(5) « Plea for a Creole lexicography of high scientific, civic and unifying quality », AlterPresse, Port-au-Prince, July 25, 2023; ( 6)« Essay on typology of Creole lexicography from 1958 to 2022 », Le National, Port-au-Prince, July 21, 2022. In this essay – the only one to have been developed for all of Creole lexicography from 1958 to 2022 – we have listed 64 dictionaries et 11 lexiconstotaling 75 works mostly published in printed book format.
The « GlossaryofSTEM termsfrom theMIT–Haiti Initiative » is it an extension of the tradition and scientific achievements of Creole lexicography inaugurated in 1958 by the eminent Haitian linguist Pradel Pompilus? What characterizes the English lexicon – “Creole” of the Inisyativ MIT-Ayiti, in particular in terms of the methodology of professional lexicography and as to the criterion for the accuracy of lexical equivalence joint with that of notional equivalencea major criterion placed at the center of any rigorous lexicographical and terminological approach ?
In several previous publications and in particular in the articles « Creole dictionaries and lexicons, leading educational tools in education in Haiti » (Le National, August 19, 2020) and “ The “borlette lexicography” of the MIT Haiti Initiative has never been able to establish itself in Haiti in the Creole teaching of sciences and techniques » (Rezonòdwès, July 4, 2023), we carried out a rigorous lexicographic evaluation of the « GlossaryofSTEM termsfrom theMIT–Haiti Initiative » according to the usual criteria of professional lexicography.
These criteria are as follows: (1) presentation of the editorial project, intended target audience, development methodology, “Preface” or “User’s Guide; (2) criteria for establishing the reference corpus and documentary sources; (3) criteria for establishing the nomenclature of terms retained at the stage of analyzing the reference corpus; (4) analysis and processing of lexical units of the nomenclature.
Careful examination of the “Glossary of STEM terms from the MIT – Haiti Initiative” using these lexicographical criteria attests that this production is in reality a pre-lexicographical work rather than a scientific work. Due to its serious conceptual, methodological and lexicological shortcomings, he … not does not meet the standards of professional lexicography and it cannot be recommended by linguists as a tool for learning mathematics, science and technology in Creole. This “Glossary”, for the most part, is a fanciful concoction of numerous equivalents given for “Creole” terms but which upon analysis are words “dressed” with a dubious “Creole sound envelope” and which are devoid of rigor of notional equivalence. Most of the time the “Creole” equivalents are false, inadequate, erratic, hazardous, disabling and non-functional because many of them do not respect the morphosyntactic system of Creole. Such “Creole” equivalents cannot be understood by Creole speakers, students or teachers in a classroom. And in many cases, the “Creole” equivalent nicknames are not lexical units: they are made up of a “definitive phraseology” or a “translational phraseology” instead of the lexical units (example: “analiz pou yonmakonnayregresyon”. This serious conceptual and methodological deficiency irrefutably illustrates the fact that the DIYers of the « GlossaryofSTEM termsfrom theMIT–Haiti Initiative » – devoid of the slightest proven competence in Creole lexicography and in Creole scientific and technical translation –, proved incapable of developing anything other than a fanciful and erratic by-product characteristic of the “ borlette lexicography “. Table 1 is an illuminating illustration of this.
TABLEAU 1/ Sample of “Creole” pseudo equivalents from of ” GlossaryofSTEM termsfrom theMIT–Haiti Initiative »
English termsCreole terms ** bar graphgraphics of the baton [1,2,3]accumulationantipilling [1,2,3]atomic packingmacroanatomical [1,2,3]airresistanceresistance [1,3,4]airtrackair cleaner // air cleaner [1,2,3,4]andreplica plate onepiplak pou replik sou [1,2,3,4]escapevelocitychicken escape speed [1,3,4]multipleregressionanalysisregression analysiscenter of massholy but me [1,2,3,4]checkboxcheck box [1,2,3,4]fluxmeterflamethrower [1,3,4]lineintegralintegral on line [1,2,3,4]how many more matings would you like to perform ?How many crosses do you want to achieve? [1,4]peer instructionpeer instruction [1,3,4]prior (conjugate)compaial or not [1,2,3,4]seasawprinsiple basic balance principle [1,2,3,4]spin angular moment momentangularpivot [1,2,3,4] ** [[Analytical remarks on “Creole” equivalents »]: 1=false and/or fanciful equivalent and/or which does not constitute a lexical unit; 2=equivalent not conforming to Creole syntax; 3=equivalent presenting total semantic opacity; 4=equivalent whose lexical category is not specified. As stated above, the criterion for the accuracy of lexical equivalence joint with that of notional equivalence » is a central criterion of any rigorous lexicographical approach. He is most of the time absent in the “ GlossaryofSTEM termsfrom theMIT–Haiti Initiative » for an obvious reason: the editors of this lexicon do not have any proven and verifiable academic and professional skills in general lexicography and even less in Creole lexicography, and certainly not in Creole scientific and technical writing. None of the editors of this “Glossary” has published, over the last thirty years, any text related to Creole lexicography, and lexicography as a specific discipline of applied linguistics is not even taught at the Department of linguistics from MIT which nevertheless houses the WITHHaiti Initiative…
TABLEAU 2 /Comparative sample of some English terms followed by “Creole” equivalents from “ GlossaryofSTEM termsfrom theMIT–Haiti Initiative » followed French equivalents noted in the Grand Dictionnaire Terminologique (GDT*) of the Office québécois de la langue française
English term“Creole” equivalentsFrench termsScope of use of the term bar graphgraphics of the batonbar chart [GDT*]chemistry, chromatographyairtrackgunsmith; ventilated areaair cushion rail [GDT*]railwayescapevelocitychicken escape speedrelease speed [GDT*]astronautics; mechanics of space flightmultipleregressionanalysisregression analysismultiple regression analysis [GDT*]statistical Analytical remarks / The French equivalents noted in the Great Terminological Dictionary (*GDT) of the Office québécois de la langue française clearly indicate that the semantic area and the areas of use of the English and French terms do not correspond at all to those of the “Creole” equivalents cobbled together by the editors of the “ GlossaryofSTEM termsfrom theMIT–Haiti Initiative » who, it must again be remembered, do not possess any known skills in Creole lexicography. The amateurism which characterizes this lexicographical production, developed at the “temple of science” that is the prestigious MIT, provides a lexicon that is largely opaque and incomprehensible to the Creole speaker. This is mainly explained by the total ignorance of the basic rules of notional and lexical equivalence (see Annaïch Le Serrec and Janine Pimentel, “ Equivalence in terminology: identification and validation in parallel corpus and in comparable corpus » (Lexterm Sense-Text Linguistics Observatory, University of Montreal, 2010).
This is largely explained by the promotion of an essentially stunted and pre-scientific pseudo lexicographic “model”, of the Wikipedia type, openly assumed within the MIT Haiti Initiative. Indeed, on the MIT-Haiti Initiative website, the “ GlossaryofSTEM termsfrom theMIT–Haiti Initiative » is presented in these terms: “Kreyòl-English glosses for creating and translating materials in Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) fields in the MIT-Haiti Initiative” / “Kreyòl-English glossaries for the creation and translation of material in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) as part of the MIT-Haiti initiative”. Apart from the methodological base of professional lexicography, the MIT-Haiti Initiative adventurously maintains that “(…) one of the positive side effects of MIT-Haiti’s activities (STEM workshops, production of high quality kreyòl material, etc.) is that we enrich the language with new scientific vocabulary which can serve as an indispensable resource for teachers and students. These activities contribute to the “ lexical development of the language “Creole”.[Traduction de RBO]
This is a real “ lexicographic scam » because no Haitian Creole-speaking teacher, no Creole-speaking student can understand the new meaning attributed, in scientific and technical fields, to “Creole” equivalents as opaque, a-semantic and fanciful as “palavire”, “makonnatomik”, “grafik ti baton”, “entèferansfabrikatif”, “an pwotonasyon”, “pis koutlè”, “pis ayere”, “epiplak pou replik sou”, “vitès chape poul”, “analiz pou yonmakonnayregresyon”, “entegral sou liy”… And as we previously specified in another article cited above in reference, the so-called “ new scientific vocabulary » which the MIT Haiti Initiative adventurously claims was tinkered with outside the methodology of developing neologisms in the highly standardized field of scientific and technical neology.(NOTE — On neology, its concepts and its method, see Jean-Claude Boulanger (1989), “ The evolution of the concept of neology from linguistics to language industries », paru dans Caroline De Schaetzen, dir., « Diachronic terminology » (symposium “Diachronic Terminology”, Brussels, March 25-26, 1988), Paris: International Council of the French Language/Ministry of the French Community of Belgium; See as well ” Presentation: neology, new theoretical models and NICT », by Salah Mejri and Jean-François Sablayrolles, Langages review 2011/3, no 183; see in addition “ Problem of a methodology for identifying neologisms in terminology », by Jean-Claude Boulanger, published in “ Neology and lexicology: tribute to Louis Guilbert », coll. “Language and language”, Paris, Librairie Larousse, 1979; finally see the “ Theoretical foundations of practical difficulties in processing neologisms », by Jean-François Sablayrolles, published in the French Review of Applied Linguistics 2002/1 (vol. VII).
From the incomplete and incomplete Bernard reform of 1979 to the “Ten-year Education and Training Plan (PDEF)” of December 2020 to the different and contradictory “directives” of the ex-minister in fact of National Education Nesmy Manigat, the problem of the use of Creole as the language of schooling remains central in the national education system. It is central in all its components – in sociolinguistics, in didactics and didactization, in pedagogy, in lexicography, even though several studies specify that three quarters of teachers are not qualified and that the supply of quality Creole textbooks is still insufficient. The responses to the problem of the use of Creole as the language of schooling are different and often erratic, particularly among the fundamentalist “Creolists” among the Ayatollahs of Creole, promoters of an angry and conflictual “fatwa” against French, one of the two languages of our historical linguistic heritage. The development of Creole as the language of schooling in the Haitian school, alongside French, requires maintaining a clear critical distance from the ideological excesses that imprison Creole in the world of subjectivity, slogans and repetitive rituals. The constant recourse to language sciences rigorously guarantees the necessary distancing from ideological excesses, and the didactization of Creole constitutes one of the major axes of the development of Creole. The linguist Renaud Govain makes an enlightening analysis, in the register of Creole lexicography/terminology, when he addresses the more or less common idea of the “unavailability” of a number of concepts in Creole. There is therefore reason to revisit with the greatest attention his article entitled “ From vernacular expression to scientific elaboration: Haitian Creole put to the test of meta-epilinguistic representations » (Contexts et didactiques journal 17 | 2021). He teaches us this: “Moreover, considering this incomplete availability of concepts in CH [créole haïtien], the borrowing and adaptation of concepts represents an obligatory step for the expression of all forms of scientific realities in language. This gap is due to the fact that the language is not sufficiently invested in the expression of this type of reality. To overcome the problem (if there is a problem) and make the concepts exist, we could resort to three operations, the last two of which refer to what we call here adaptation du concept :
make direct lexical borrowings from a language in which said concepts exist. The latter, let us not forget, could have borrowed them at some point from another language, or probably from Greek or Latin; create or invent a new concept (neological process) in the language in order to express the same reality for which it displays a conceptual gap; use a vernacular term to express reality based in particular on a logic of analogy. By being used in the field of scientific expression, this vernacular term will end up acquiring the status of a scientific concept. Ultimately, the teaching-learning of mathematics in Creole in the light of “interactive pedagogy” or “ active learning »must guard against the didactic and lexicographical cul-de-sac established by the MIT Haiti Initiative. This perspective necessarily involves university and professional training in general lexicography and Creole lexicographyas well as by the professionalization of the profession of translator and that of lexicographer. This is undoubtedly one of the major challenges facing the Faculty of Applied Linguistics of the State University of Haiti in accordance with its statutory mission.
Against the tide of pre-scientific amateurism promoted at the MIT Haiti Initiative by its Wikipedian vision of a lexicographic “model” unknown to professional lexicography, going against the tide of “ borlette lexicography » which he instituted in the development of his “ GlossaryofSTEM termsfrom theMIT–Haiti Initiative “, it is imperative that the most rigorous reflection on the production of Creole lexicographic tools be based on the leading studies of the linguist-lexicographer AlbertValdmannotably (1)« The evolution of the lexicon in Creol es with a French lexical base » appeared in Grammatical information no 85, mars 2000), (2) « Towards the standardization of Haitian Creole » (French Journal of Applied Linguistics, 2005/1 (vol. (3) « Towards a bilingual school dictionary for Haitian Creole? (journal Linguistics, 2005/1 (vol. 41). In one of his major books, “ HaitianCreole. Structure, Variation, Status, Origin » (EquinoxPublishing Ltd, 2015), Albert Valdman provides a detailed description of productive vocabulary development strategies and discusses the origin of the Haitian Creole lexicon (chapters 5 and 6, pages 139 to 188: “ The Structure of the HaitianCreoleLexicon “). The most rigorous reflection on the production of Creole lexicographic tools must also be based on the extensive and very well documented studies of the linguist Marie-Christine Hazaël-Massieux,
notably (1) « Creole corpora », French journal of applied linguistics 1996/2 (vol. I) ; (2) « Prolegomena to a Creole neology », French journal of applied linguistics 2002/1 (vol. VII) ; (3) « French-Based Creoles: An Introduction », published in Interdisciplinary works of the Speech and Language Laboratory, vol. 21, 2002; (4) « From the interest of Marie-Galante’s Creole Dictionary by Maurice Barbotin », published in Créolica, September 2004; (5) « Theories of the genesis or history of the Creoles: the example of the development of the Creoles of the Caribbean “, In Linguistics 2005/1 (vol. 41) ; (6) « Ancient texts in French Creole from the Caribbean. History and analysis » (Paris, Publibook, 2008). (A scholarly work, this book identifies (pages 471 to 480) ancient texts in Creole produced between 1640 and 1822.) Marie-Christine Hazaël-Massieux has (7) published “ Creoles with a French lexical base » (Paris, Ophrys, 2011). She is also the author of an imposing “ Bibliography of Creole Studies. Languages, cultures, societies » (Institute of Creole and Francophone Studies, University of Aix-en-Provence, 1991). Finally, such reflection should profitably integrate the erudite contributions of the linguist Renault Govainin particular in the following studies: (1) « Teaching Creole at school in Haiti: between didactic practices, linguistic contexts and field realities », in FrédéricAnciaux, Thomas Forissier and Lambert-Félix: see Prudent (dir.), Didactic Contextualizations. Theoretical approaches, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2013; (2)« The state of play of Creole in educational establishments in Haiti», Contexts et didactiques review, 4, 2014; (3)« Haitian Creole: description and analysis »(under the direction of Renauld Govain, Paris, Éditions L’Harmattan, 2018; (4) « Formal teaching/learning of Creole at school in Haiti: a path to build », revue Creolistika, March 2021 ; (5) « For teaching of Creole as a mother tongue “, In ” The teaching of Creole at the heart of linguistic planning in Haiti », by Berrouët-Oriol etal., Éditions Zémès and Éditions du Cidihca, 2021.
The teaching-learning of sciences in the Creole mother tongue, according to “participatory pedagogy” or any other pedagogical approach, must be conducted with teachers and take the path of multidisciplinary reflection at the crossroads of didactics, lexicography and cognitive sciences. Such reflection must also take into account the needs expressed by teachers with the essential perspective of quality teaching in the Creole mother tongue. Field observation tells us that teachers are still largely devoid of quality Creole teaching materials in all areas of the Haitian School curriculum, and this observation remains relevant despite the appreciable efforts made in recent years by several publishers of school textbooks (Zémès, Henri Deschamps, Pédagogie nouvelle, Canapé-Vert, Éditions Université caraïbes). The teaching-learning of sciences in the Creole mother tongue must also be able to rely on high-quality Creole didactic tools, namely Creole lexicons and dictionaries developed according to the methodology of professional lexicography. The fact that there does not yet exist a high-quality monolingual Creole dictionary and that a bilingual French-Creole school dictionary, already developed but not yet published, makes it possible to anticipate the long road ahead to achieve the establishment of teaching quality in Creole at all levels of the Haitian School (see our articles “ Creole dictionaries and lexicons, tools
leading pedagogical professionals in education in Haiti » (Potomitan, August 18, 2020), and “ Teaching sciences in Creole mother tongue
and techniques: a multi-faceted challenge » (Potomitan, June 21, 2021).
