Jamaican Creole (JC) and Standard Jamaican English (SJE) are the two dominant languages in Jamaica but they do not function equally in certain contexts. In public formal domains, the use of JC is limited since most information from the state is disseminated to the public in English. When JC is used in such contexts traditionally reserved for English, linguistic gatekeepers such as teachers and service representatives (SRs), use corrective gate-keeping practices to repair the speech of their interlocutors.

The importance to educational practice of linguistic research in the Caribbean has never been underplayed. Although linguistic descriptions have a validity all their own, it is in their application to educational practice that they can best serve our societies.