Celebrating ALL Caribbean Languages
Through Research | Documentation | Analysis | Publications
Through Research | Documentation | Analysis | Publications
Awarded 1990
Dennis R. Craig was an indefatigable researcher in the area of Language Education. His research in the areas of Teaching English to Speakers of Related Vernaculars was pioneering, and instrumental to the development of best practices for teaching English in the Commonwealth Caribbean. Beyond his research, he was a gifted administrator, serving as the first University Dean of the Faculty of Education for The UWI, and later as Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana. He was also a noted poet, whose poem "Flowers" is well-known by children throughout the British West Indies.
Research Profile
Professor Craig’s research was centred on language teaching in the British West Indies at all levels, from primary school to university. His work took seriously the linguistic differences between the target language of education and the home varieties of the students, acknowledging the breadth of variation in societies that not only had Creole languages, but Creole continua as well. He also authored the New World English series of textbooks for the secondary schools of the region, and also co-authored the Language Materials Workshop series.
Positions Held
Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana (1991—95)
University Dean, School of Education, UWI Mona, Jamaica ( )
Education Advisor to the Government of Guyana (1988—91)
President of SCL (1980 to 1982)
First Secretary of SCL (1972–1976)
Recognition/Awards/Distinctions
Guyana Prize for Literature in the Best First Book of Poetry (Near the Seashore, 1998)
Dennis R Craig Award
The Professor Dennis Roy Craig Award for Graduate Studies in Language Education is an award for outstanding research in language Education undertaken at the graduate level in the School of Education, at the University of the West Indies, Mona campus. It is awarded to the graduate with the most outstanding research at the doctoral level in Language Education. Learn more about the Award.
Select Publications
1991. 'The concept of do in English and English-lexicon creole'. In Verb phrase patterns in Black English and Creole, edited by Walter F. Edwards and Donald Winford, 189–208. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.
1994. 'The university in its sociolinguistic context'. In People and the environment: Preserving the balance. The report of the proceedings of the fifteenth congress of the universities of the Commonwealth, Swansea, August 1993. UK, Association of Commonwealth Universities.
1996. 'English language teaching. Problems and prospects in the West Indies'. In Education in the West Indies. Development and perspectives 1948–98, edited by Dennis R. Craig et al. Mona: Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER), University of the West Indies.
1997a. A situation analysis of primary and secondary education in the Caribbean. Georgetown, Guyana: Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat.
1997b. The English of West Indian university students. In Englishes around the world. Studies in honour of Manfred Görlach, Vol. 2, edited by Edgar Schneider, 11–24. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
1999. Teaching language and literacy. Policies and procedures for vernacular situations. Georgetown: Education and Development Services Inc.
2001. 'Language education revisited in the Commonwealth Caribbean'. In Due Respect, edited by Pauline Christie, 61–78. Kingston: UWI Press.
1980a. 'A creole continuum and the theory of grammar'. In Issues in English creoles (Varieties of English around the World, G2), edited by R. Day, 111–31. Heidelberg: Groos.
1980b. 'Models for educational policy in creole-speaking communities'. In Theoretical orientations in creole studies, edited by Albert Valdman and R. Highfield, 245–265. New York/London: Academic Press.
1981. ——— and G. Walker-Gordon. New World English, Books 1–2. London: Longman.
1983a. 'Teaching standard English to non-standard speakers: Some methodological implications'. In The Journal of Negro Education 52(1): 65–74.
1983b. New World English, Books 3 and 4. London: Longman Group.
1984. 'Communication, creole and conceptualization'. In International Journal of the Sociology of Language (IJSL) 45: 21–37.
1985. 'The sociology of language learning and teaching in a creole situation'. In Language and Inequality, edited by Walt Wolfram and J. Manes, 273–84. Berlin/NewYork/Amsterdam: Mouton.
1986. 'Social class and the use of language: a case study of Jamaican children'. In Focus on the Caribbean (Varieties of English around the World G8), edited by Manfred Görlach and John A. Holm, 71–116. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Co.
1988. 'Cognition and situational context. Explanations from English'. In International Journal of the Sociology of Language (IJSL) 71: 11–23.
1966a. 'Some developments in language teaching in the West Indies'. In Caribbean Quarterly 12(1).
1966b. 'Teaching English to Jamaican Creole speakers: A model of a multi-dialectal situation'. In Language Learning 16 (1/2): 49–61.
1967. 'Some early results of learning a second dialect'. In Language Learning 17(3/4): 133–45.
1969. An experiment in teaching English. London: Ginn.
1971. 'Education and Creole English in the West Indies: Some sociolinguistic factors'. In Pidginization and Creolization of Languages, edited by Dell Hymes, 371–92. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
1974. 'Developmental and social class differences in language'. In Caribbean Journal of Education 4(3): 5–23
1976a. 'Bidialectal education. Creole and standard in the West Indies'. In International Journal of the Sociology of Language (IJSL) 8: 93–134. Reprinted in J.B. Pride (ed.), Sociolinguistic aspects of language learning and teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
1976b. ——— and Carter, S. 'The language learning aptitudes of Jamaican children at secondary level'. In Caribbean Journal of Education. Vol.3 (1): 1–21.
1977. 'Creole languages and primary education'. In Pidgin and Creole Linguistics, edited by Albert Valdman, 313–332. Bloomington/London: Indiana University Press.
1978a. 'Creole and standard English. Partial learning, base grammar and the mesolect'. In International Dimensions of Bilingual Education (Monograph Series on Language and Linguistics 22). edited by J.E. Alatis, 602–20. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press.
1978b. 'Language education in a post-creole society'. In Case studies in bilingual education, edited by B. Spolsky and R. L. Cooper, 407–26. Rowley, Mass: Newbury House.
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