As reported by school staff

4.3.2 As reported by school staff

Language attitudes reported by school staff are generally negative towards the vernacular, and school staff members gave mixed reports about the feelings of outsiders toward the Bebeli language. One headmaster reported that people from neighbouring groups like the Bebeli language, but others reported that people say it is a funny language and hard to learn. Only two teachers in the area were reported to be learning Bebeli. School staff members also reported that the Bebeli language is being lost, and some reports suggest that this is because people have negative views of Bebeli or simply do not care about it. These negative attitudes pose a threat to the vitality of the Bebeli language. A staff member from Banaule Primary said that people from other language areas say that Bebeli is a difficult language to learn. A staff member from Dalavu Elementary made the same comment and also said that some people think that it is a funny language. She said, however, that Bebeli people think their language is nice because they can understand other languages, but others cannot understand Bebeli. The headmaster from Laheri Primary, who is a Nakanai speaker, said that people from neighbouring languages like Bebeli and can understand it. He also said that the Bebeli people are proud of their language, and that two teachers a married couple from south New Britain are learning Bebeli. An elementary teacher from Morokea said that people do not feel like Bebeli is really their language; rather, it feels like a foreign language to them. He said the people are not happy to use their own vernacular, and because of this, the language and culture will be lost. His elementary school, designed to teach in vernacular, no longer teaches in Bebeli because parents want them to teach in Tok Pisin. Parents feel that their children, if educated in Bebeli, would not succeed academically. The parents themselves have not taught children Bebeli, and as a result, children cannot speak Bebeli. The deputy headmaster at Ruango Primary said that literature in Bebeli would help to preserve the language and culture, and suggested that the low level of interest that the Bebeli people place on their language and culture would be increased by promoting the vernacular through written materials. This indicates that the Bebeli people currently have a negative attitude towards their language or that other factors are causing the language to be lost. The headmaster at Ruango Primary said that the Bebeli people need to be proud of their language. He feels that their language is special, because other people do not know it and it is only spoken in a small area. None of the three primary schools attended by Bebeli students Laheri Primary, Banaule Primary and Ruango Primary has a policy forbidding children to use languages other than English or Tok Pisin at school. However, as one headmaster commented, children do not use Bebeli at school because they do not know it.

4.3.3 As reported by church leaders