Languages and Education in Africa
Languages and Education in Africa

Author: Birgit Brock-Utne

Publisher: Symposium Books Ltd

Published: 2009-05-11

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13: 1873927177

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The theme of this book cuts across disciplines. Contributors to this volume are specialized in education and especially classroom research as well as in linguistics, most being transdisciplinary themselves. Around 65 sub-Saharan languages figure in this volume as research objects: as means of instruction, in connection with teacher training, language policy, lexical development, harmonization efforts, information technology, oral literature and deaf communities. The co-existence of these African languages with English, French and Arabic is examined as well. This wide range of languages and subjects builds on recent field work, giving new empirical evidence from 17 countries: Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, as well as to transnational matters like the harmonization of African transborder languages. As the Editors – a Norwegian social scientist and a Norwegian linguist, both working in Africa – have wanted to give room for African voices, the majority of contributions to this volume come from Africa.

State-Building and Multilingual Education in Africa
State-Building and Multilingual Education in Africa

Author: Ericka A. Albaugh

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2014-04-24

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 1139916777

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How do governments in Africa make decisions about language? What does language have to do with state-building, and what impact might it have on democracy? This manuscript provides a longue durée explanation for policies toward language in Africa, taking the reader through colonial, independence, and contemporary periods. It explains the growing trend toward the use of multiple languages in education as a result of new opportunities and incentives. The opportunities incorporate ideational relationships with former colonizers as well as the work of language NGOs on the ground. The incentives relate to the current requirements of democratic institutions, and the strategies leaders devise to win elections within these constraints. By contrasting the environment faced by African leaders with that faced by European state-builders, it explains the weakness of education and limited spread of standard languages on the continent. The work combines constructivist understanding about changing preferences with realist insights about the strategies leaders employ to maintain power.

Languages in Africa
Languages in Africa

Author: Elizabeth C. Zsiga

Publisher: Georgetown University Press

Published: 2015-03-03

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 1626161534

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People in many African communities live within a series of concentric circles when it comes to language. In a small group, a speaker uses an often unwritten and endangered mother tongue that is rarely used in school. A national indigenous language—written, widespread, sometimes used in school—surrounds it. An international language like French or English, a vestige of colonialism, carries prestige, is used in higher education, and promises mobility—and yet it will not be well known by its users. The essays in Languages in Africa explore the layers of African multilingualism as they affect language policy and education. Through case studies ranging across the continent, the contributors consider multilingualism in the classroom as well as in domains ranging from music and film to politics and figurative language. The contributors report on the widespread devaluing and even death of indigenous languages. They also investigate how poor teacher training leads to language-related failures in education. At the same time, they demonstrate that education in a mother tongue can work, linguists can use their expertise to provoke changes in language policies, and linguistic creativity thrives in these multilingual communities.

English Language Education Policy in the Middle East and North Africa
English Language Education Policy in the Middle East and North Africa

Author: Robert Kirkpatrick

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-12-15

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 3319467786

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This volume offers insights on English language education policies in Middle Eastern and North African countries, through state-of-the-art reports giving clear assessments of current policies and future trends, each expertly drafted by a specialist. Each chapter contains a general description of English education polices in the respective countries, and then expands on how the local English education policies play out in practice in the education system at all levels, in the curriculum, in teaching, and in teacher training. Essays cover issues such as the balance between English and the acquisition of the national language or the Arabic language, as well as political, cultural, economic and technical elements that strengthen or weaken the learning of English. This volume is essential reading for researchers, policy makers, and teacher trainers for its invaluable insights in the role of each of the stakeholders in the implementation of policies.

Language and Development in Africa
Language and Development in Africa

Author: Ekkehard Wolff

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2016-05-26

Total Pages: 375

ISBN-13: 1107088550

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This volume explores the central role of language across all aspects of public and private life in Africa.

An Introduction to African Languages
An Introduction to African Languages

Author: G. Tucker Childs

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2003-12-19

Total Pages: 287

ISBN-13: 9027295883

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This book introduces beginning students and non-specialists to the diversity and richness of African languages. In addition to providing a solid background to the study of African languages, the book presents linguistic phenomena not found in European languages. A goal of this book is to stimulate interest in African languages and address the question: What makes African languages so fascinating? The orientation adopted throughout the book is a descriptive one, which seeks to characterize African languages in a relatively succinct and neutral manner, and to make the facts accessible to a wide variety of readers. The author’s lengthy acquaintance with the continent and field experiences in western, eastern, and southern Africa allow for both a broad perspective and considerable depth in selected areas. The original examples are often the author’s own but also come from other sources and languages not often referenced in the literature. This text also includes a set of sound files illustrating the phenomena under discussion, be they the clicks of Khoisan, talking drums, or the ideophones (words like English lickety-split) found almost everywhere, which will make this book a valuable resource for teacher and student alike.

Education in Africa
Education in Africa

Author: A. Babs Fafunwa

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-09-01

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13: 1000642941

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First published in 1982, Education in Africa offers a comprehensive treatment of the development of education in Africa. Until now only scattered documents on educational growth in individual countries have been available; works devoted to Africa as a whole have tended towards the general and have, by and large, been written by outside observers. This book is a collection of illuminating syntheses of major trends in educational development in Africa, by renowned African educationists, and is the first attempt to supply the need for a comprehensive book on African education written from an African viewpoint. All but one of the chapters were written specially for the book by leading African educators each of whom has had a distinguished career and wide experience in education in his or her own country; they represent eleven nations in all. The volume is designed for African students, teachers and administrators and will also be welcomed by educational planners and by scholars working in the fields of comparative education and the history of education. It will be of special interest to departments, institutions and faculties of education in all the universities and colleges of education in Africa, and to educators and students worldwide who are concerned with comparative African education.

Schooling and Education in Africa
Schooling and Education in Africa

Author: George Jerry Sefa Dei

Publisher: Africa World Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 334

ISBN-13: 9781592210039

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Using the Ghanian schooling experience as a case study, this book explores how research can contribute to the development of a body of knowledge for educational change in Africa. Education in Africa is often said to be in a crisis' caused in part by the colonial legacy, but also due to inappropriate and uncontextualised current educational policies in relation to local human conditions and African realities. This book offers a critical analysis of current educational reform strategies and the actual practice of reform in an African context.'

The Transformative Power of Language
The Transformative Power of Language

Author: Russell H. Kaschula

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2020-09-10

Total Pages: 395

ISBN-13: 1108498825

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A new study of the importance of language for sociocultural change in Africa, from postcolonial to globally competitive knowledge societies.