Religious, political and educational factors in the development of biliteracy in the kingdom of tonga

Bernard Spolsky, Guillermina Engelbrecht, Leroy Ortiz

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

20 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Kingdom of Tonga is unusual not only in its high level of literacy but also in the fact that the literacy is in large measure in the vernacular language. Written Tongan is used for religious, governmental, informational, commercial, and personal functions: written English for external relations, higher level administration, and education. While the educational system is encouraging the learning of English, it is maintaining emphasis on the Tongan language.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)459-469
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development
Volume4
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 1983

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