Inquiry Project Proposal By Kathena Siegel

ENGL394-010 English Language: Rhetorical and Cultural Contexts Professor Deborah Bieler, Ph.D October 12, 2011

Inquiry Question and Description

For my inquiry project I will answer the question, are the older speakers of pidgin teaching younger generations how to use this language or are there no new speakers being taught, which will ultimately lead to the language slowly becoming extinct over time? I want to be able to see if there is a certain age in which the usage of pidgin dramatically decreases, or if this level remains constant across every generation. I also want to research these consistencies in comparison to how often this language was spoken at various points in history to see if there are any differences between past and present pidgin uses. Rationale For Inquiry Question I was adopted from Hawaii at the age of three and left there when I was five, so I never grew up knowing what pidgin is because of the non-pidgin speaking, Caucasian parents that raised me from infancy. It was not until two summers ago when I finally went back to Hawaii and met my biological Mother and Grandmother that I came face to face with this fascinatingly simple and unique language. What really intrigued me about my experience in Hawaii is the fact that older individuals seemed to speak pidgin fluently, while teenagers did not seem to use it as often. This observation led me to question whether pidgin is in this younger generations vocabulary from childhood, or is it not being used frequently among this age group. If it is not taught to these children from a young age, I am curious to see if there are any assumptions pertaining to whether pidgin is beginning to decrease in popularity thus leading to its extinction in Hawaiian society. Action Plan In order to answer the question that I have inquired about, I intend to gather information regarding pidgin use and whether or not this is a prominent part of Hawaiian culture. I think that

the majority of this data will consist of interviews and other primary resources that include opinions and views from the Hawaiian people themselves. I will also delve into things like culture, language structure, history, and various classes of pidgin speakers. It also important for me to consider Hawaiian households and family structures because, this is where the usage of pidgin is primarily cultivated. Parents have one of the biggest influences on the language that their children use and, since pidgin is taught at a young age, they are one of the biggest determiners of the amount that they learn and speak on a regular basis. In doing so, my argument will be supported in terms of modern day and present day usage of pidgin. Strengths and Weaknesses One fear that I have regarding this project design is whether or not enough information and data will be available for me to utilize. I do not know if there is a substantial amount of studies available to me, which really scares me. On the other hand, I also think that my project has multiple strengths because I am extremely passionate about this subject. Anything having to do with Hawaii is of great interest to me, so I think that I will be able to easily write about this topic. Timeline For Project Completion Now that the inquiry proposal is done, I plan on going to the library quite frequently and working with a librarian to help me find appropriate sources for this project. Once or twice a week, I want to research as much as I can in order to build a solid and credible foundation for the end result. While I am accomplishing this, I also intend on getting the basic steps out of the way like writing my introduction and thesis and mapping out the general information in each paragraph. After this is done a month from now, I want to have a first draft done and ready to edit by November sixteenth and continuously edit and read over my paper until it is finally due.