Learning from multilingual Fijians in Fiji

Over the past week I visited Suzanne Hopf in Fiji to support her PhD data collection and analysis. During the week we 

• visited a school
• assessed children's speech, language, and literacy
• conducted parent information sessions
• visited the market to collect data about people's perceptions of the causes of communication disability in children and adults and how best to support these people.

What a fascinating week! Fiji is a highly multicultural and multilingual society with the official languages being English, Fijian (also known as iTaukei Language, or Vosa Vakaviti), and Hindustani. In addition, there are speakers of: Fiji Hindi, other indigenous Fijian languages (e.g., Lauan); Rotuman; immigrant languages (e.g., Kiribati, Chinese, Punjabi); and Fiji sign language. We learned so much from the teachers, parents, children, and community members. 

As is the case for the rest of my blog, the people in the photographs have given permission for their photos to be used.