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- Convenors:
-
Bert van Pinxteren
(Leiden University)
Maarten Mous (Leiden University)
Elise Solange Bagamboula (INALCO (PLIDAM))
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- Stream:
- Language and Literature
- Location:
- 50 George Square, G.01
- Sessions:
- Friday 14 June, -, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
Foregrounding potential and emerging new language practices and policies that favour increased indigenous language use.
Long Abstract:
NOTE: after the paper presentations, there will be a Panel Discussion on the same theme.
After decolonization almost all African countries chose former colonial languages as national languages. Economically and psychologically, at the time it seemed the rational choice for most countries. It provided continuity, both within countries and between countries and former colonizers. However, it also it marginalized large sections of the population, unable to participate in national debates due to lacking language skills and knowledge.
Increasingly, these continuities face disrupting influences. The world order is changing, breaking down the dominance of colonial countries in favour of new players such as China. This creates space for countries to readjust their language policies in order to increase educational efficiency and to cater to demands by groups wanting to use their own languages in more social domains. Examples include:
- changing language policies in countries like Ethiopia, eSwatini and South Africa;
- emerging community-based radio and TV stations in countries like Ghana;
- use of indigenous languages as medium of instruction for language teaching in several countries;
- related developments.
This is opening a space for new social, cultural and developmental vigour, as predicted by scholars like Vansina and Prah. It uses hitherto untapped communication potential that exists in many African countries. However, it also creates new divisions. This panel seeks to foreground both the potential for a shift in language use and actual developments on the ground. It will entertain presentations on continent-wide tendencies, as well as specific case studies.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 14 June, 2019, -Paper short abstract:
Current African educational systems fail in developing African talent. The use of colonial languages is a major factor in this. The paper shows that requiring these languages as currently done will become unsustainable. It proposes rational choices for developing and using African languages more.
Paper long abstract:
Average enrolment in tertiary education in Sub-Saharan Africa is one-eighth that of Europe and less than a third of that in Southeast Asia. It means that in Africa, talent is wasted - blocking development. The paper will show that as enrolment rates increase, the current requirements for foreign language mastery will become an unsustainable burden on education systems. Sooner or later, changing to African languages in major parts of the educational systems will become inevitable, something that Prah and others have consistently called for. However, as De Swaan (2001) and others have shown, there are real obstacles to such a change.
In other parts of the world, knowledge of mathematics is seen as key to success. In Africa, foreign language knowledge is key to gaining status. Current elites have a vested interest in keeping it that way. African languages have a low status in society, being branded as good only for the poor and backward. Using African languages more is seen as a threat to national unity. Increased usage of African languages meets with both silent and vocal resistance on much of the continent.
Yet, as the paper argues, most of these obstacles are unsustainable and can be overcome. Rational language choices and rational policies are both necessary and possible. The paper will suggest one possible way for arriving at such choices.
Paper short abstract:
African language policies seem to promote use of indigenous languages, although there seems to be a missing link between the policies and the actual practice in the classroom situation hence affecting learners' acquisition of knowledge, skills and attitudes.
Paper long abstract:
Africa is stuck with the western education system left behind by its colonial masters; where the colonial language is still the major medium of instruction in classroom. Learners grapple with acquiring the medium of instruction in addition to learning the subject matter during the teaching -learning process. But, the language policies and other legal frameworks of African countries seem to promote not only the use of indigenous languages as media of instruction but also as subject areas in school in order to help learners acquire knowledge, skills and attitude necessary for participating in state development. There seems to be a missing link between the language policies in Africa and the actual practice in the classroom situation. Using a case of Uganda, the study examined the position of indigenous languages in the language policy of 1992. It also investigated challenges of implementing the language policy in the School system, and their implication to the attainment of knowledge and skills. Employing a case study that involved ethnographic modes of inquiry, the researcher found out that the indigenous languages enjoy an important position in the education system. However, it was also revealed that the policy decision to instruct urban children in English and rural ones' in local languages had led the former to abandon the policy and instruct learners in English. This had far reaching effects on learners' knowledge and skills obtained from school. The researcher recommended equitable implementation of the language policy regardless of the schools' geographical location.
Paper short abstract:
Colonial disruption in Africa's development manifests prominently in the area of language ecology. This paper examines semilingualism as a manifestation of colonial disruptions, and the potential of policies such as the new Lagos (Nigeria) indigenous language policy to address the problem.
Paper long abstract:
Connections and disruptions in Africa's socio-political, economic and cultural life manifest prominently in the area of language, communication and national development. The language issue in African development (or non-development) is encapsulated in two opposing views. On the one hand, the colonial intervention and imposition of colonial languages on Africa is seen as a blessing, with colonial languages apparently promoting internal unification, scientific education, international access, and intercultural exchange. On the other hand, the imposition of colonial languages is also seen as disenabling: distorting not only the process of language acquisition but also cognitive processes in general; eroding linguistic diversity; leading to attrition of indigenous languages, loss of traditional knowledge and of traditional modes of knowing, and eroding cultural identity and sense of dignity of Africans. In many African states such as Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa, policies are constantly formulated to address disruptions in the linguistic ecology of once colonized states and to open up new space for indigenous language representations. However, the quality of such policies, and their potential to effect the required transformations, has been quite hotly debated.
In this paper I examine the specific problem of semilingualism in the African context (as a manifestation of colonial disruption in African linguistic ecology), and the potential of policies such as the new Lagos (Nigeria) indigenous language policy to address the problem. I compare the Nigerian context to the situation in other African countries such as Ghana and South Africa, and also examine why earlier such policies had been unsuccessful.
Paper short abstract:
De nombreux pays sub-sahariens connaissent actuellement une modernisation accélérée de leurs infrastructures, boostée par la coopération sino-africaine, qui bouleverse le paysage sociolinguistique de la sous-région.
Paper long abstract:
En République du Congo, la modernisation a entraîné le renforcement de l'identité linguistique des membres du groupe Mbochi, originaires du Nord et leaders au plan politique, autour de la langue lingala. Celui-ci se manifeste par l'utilisation de la langue locale dans la sphère administrative jadis réservée au français. Par ailleurs, les jeunes manifestent, de plus en plus, un engouement, pour l'apprentissage du chinois, attisé par l'octroi facile des bourses d'études, par le gouvernement chinois, qui offrent de meilleures perspectives au terme d'une formation en Chine ; à cela s'ajoutent les stages de perfectionnement accordés aux fonctionnaires. La population est donc davantage exposée à la langue, mais aussi à la colonie chinoise, constituée de cadres et d'ouvriers implantés en nombre pour assurer la modernisation, posant ainsi des problèmes de cohabitation. Cette problématique sera abordée sous l'angle de la glottopolitique qui s'intéresse aux « diverses approches qu'une société a de l'action sur le langage, qu'elle en soit ou non consciente » (Guespin & Marcellessi 1986 : 5). Il s'agira de déterminer les compromis langagiers, mis naturellement en place, sous l'action des modes de production. L'aspect diachronique montrera que pareils effets s'étaient également produits, sous la colonisation française, car l'augmentation du nombre d'expatriés avait favorisé l'exode de plusieurs ethnies qui avait modifié le tissu social. C'est dans ce contexte que la méga-ethnie Laari, composée de Balaari, de Bakoongo et de Basuundi, s'est constituée autour de la langue laari. Ils ont participé à la construction, et à la modernisation de Brazzaville, et excellé économiquement.
Paper short abstract:
Exploration of new frontiers opened up by putting indigenous languages in Kenya to new uses through mass media as well as a discussion of the connections thus created and the disruptions inevitably introduced.
Paper long abstract:
Kenya, like many African countries, is intensely multilingual, with over sixty indigenous languages. A former British Colony, the country gained independence in 1963, but until 2010 when a new constitution was promulgated, English has been the official language on all formal documents and the language of education. Since 2010, Kiswahili, a Bantu language, became a co-official language, while at the same time retaining its status as the national language. Kiswahili is also generally accepted as a regional lingua franca and one can easily communicate across East Africa in it. The 2010 Kenyan constitution had two crucial inclusions that had a bearing on language policies: firstly, Kiswahili was declared the second official language. Secondly, the constitution introduced a devolved system of government, where Kenya was divided up into forty-seven counties which largely reflected the ethnic and consequently language groups represented in the country. Subsequent elaborations of the significance of devolution to educational policies recognized the indigenous languages spoken in the various counties as tenable for instruction in the elementary classes. The devolved system of government also motivated and strengthened ethnic identities that over the last few years have found expression through mother-tongue radio and television stations. The reasons for the establishment of these stations are varied, ranging from cultural expression to promotion of particular faiths to educational matters. The purpose of this paper therefore is to explore and document the frontiers that have been opened up by the revision of language policies in Kenya, as well as the consequent ramifications.