Multilingual education in Africa

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Grade-school students in a classroom in South Africa. South-african-school-children.jpg
Grade-school students in a classroom in South Africa.

Multilingual education in Africa is an outlook on how to approach teaching students in the different states in Africa considering the different possible languages to use for instruction. The continent experiences an immense diversification of languages spoken in its different states; [1] therefore, like in other diversely populated regions in the world such as North America or Europe, there are many choices for which languages to use as the medium of instruction, in which specific areas, and to what extent. This is a dilemma that researchers and policy makers have been looking into for years and has left African countries with diverse solutions for teaching language in their schools.

Contents

Introduction

The necessity of multilingual education in Africa relies on families, schools, and other related organizations to make complex decisions on which languages should be considered essential and how they should be implemented in education curricula. A common notion is that using international languages as a medium of instruction, commonly corresponding to the state's European colonial power (such as French in Sénégal or English in South Africa), is more advantageous for a child at an early age to begin developing so that they become more employable in the future. [2] However, as formal education is usually in the colonial tongue, it is problematic that the local community and even the instructors often do not communicate in those languages fluently. [3] In most cases, children benefit more from education in their mother tongue or the local language of the place of instruction than they do from instruction in a language received from a former colonial power. Linguistic experts have researched this phenomenon and identified the different routes that African states have taken to address the subject.

Colonial influence

The African continent's rich history of European colonization has resulted in an abundant amount of influence on each state's developmental trajectory. Most African states' modern government and societal infrastructures were developed by the relevant colonial power during the period between colonization and independence, including its methods of implementing education. [4] Even today, some countries which have had colonial influence on Africa insist on characterizing their language as the most essential language to teach in Africa. Some scholars even argue that English is the most important language to incorporate into African education, despite the prominence of mother-tongue languages that already exist in the local communities. [5] As we can see below, different international actors have diverse ideas on the most effective strategies for implementing multilingual education in African states.

Language education strategies

UNESCO's findings

The United Nations (UN) serves as one of the significant parties in influencing language choices in the education curricula of not only African nations, but of many other nations in the world. The agency within the UN that works primarily in this role is UNESCO, which differentiated between the weak and strong bilingual models for African students in their study. [6] UNESCO observed that weak bilingual models tend to incorporate an early-exit method of instruction such as teaching the student for one to four years in the local language or the student's mother tongue, before switching to the second language. In contrast, strong bilingual models tend to incorporate a late-exit method which would have a target objective of fluency in both the languages, i.e., language one (L1; the mother tongue) and language two (L2; the secondary language).

One to four years of instruction in the local tongue has not shown to be sufficient because children in developing countries or poor communities generally do not have the capacity to switch from their L1 by the end of grade 3 and be simultaneously proficient in the curriculum. A study of South African grade 6 students who were educated through an L1 medium on average received a national achievement score of 69%, whereas those who were educated with an L2 achieved only 32%. [6]

Multilingual strategies

UNESCO concludes that there are about four models that yields the best results for multilingual education in Africa: [6]

  1. L1 as a medium of instruction in primary and secondary school, with additional languages learned as electives. This is a model used in South Africa, where Afrikaans learners would be taught in Afrikaans and have one English lesson a day.
  2. Six to eight years taught in L1 followed by dual-medium instruction. It is a model also used in South Africa.
  3. Eight years taught in L1 followed by a complete switch to L2 by the ninth year. This is a model that has been used in Ethiopia where its students achieved an 83.7% pass rate when it was initially implemented versus a significant decrease to 44% when it was removed.

Bargaining theory

A common strategy that organizations and individuals use to influence multilingual education is sensitization. This is used as a means for elites to substantiate language choices in education. The strategy was incorporated through the research of Ericka Albaugh when she researched the process choosing language mediums in sub-Saharan Africa. [7] In 2007, Albaugh introduced her bargaining theory method in her article entitled "Language Choice in Education: A Politics of Persuasion" which explains five key players who influence the decision of which language to use as the medium of instruction in Africa: nationalist leaders, bureaucrats, the ministry of education, parents and the regional elites. [8]

International actors

Just like the UN, there are numerous NGOs and other IGOs which attempt to improve education in underdeveloped nations, including those in Africa, such as the Peace Corps, a United States volunteer agency that states their mission [9] of education in Africa is to work with students to improve their learning capabilities and with teachers to improve their teaching ability in the English language. A prominent international NGO that has been working on multilingual education development on the ground in Africa for over fifty years is SIL, [10] which introduced a mother tongue program called PROPELCA alongside prominent education leaders in Africa. The program was designed to facilitate teaching English and French through instruction in the mother tongue. [8] Advocacy for this instructional design started in the Cameroon General Conference in 1995 by Maurice Tadadjeu, a professional linguist who worked with SIL. After receiving positive feedback, the design was tested in schools in Senegal and determined to be a success. Today, it is used as a template for teaching even more international languages through mother-tongue instruction due to further implementation and success in the West African countries of Cameroon, Ghana, and Senegal. [8]

Related Research Articles

In bilingual education, students are taught in two languages. It is distinct from learning a second language as a subject because both languages are used for instruction in different content areas like math, science, and history. The time spent in each language depends on the model. For example, some models focus on providing education in both languages throughout a student's entire education while others gradually transition to education in only one language. The ultimate goal of bilingual education is fluency and literacy in both languages through a variety of strategies such as translanguaging and recasting.

Language education – the process and practice of teaching a second or foreign language – is primarily a branch of applied linguistics, but can be an interdisciplinary field. There are four main learning categories for language education: communicative competencies, proficiencies, cross-cultural experiences, and multiple literacies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First language</span> Language a person is exposed to from birth

A first language (L1), native language, native tongue, or mother tongue is the first language a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term native language or mother tongue refers to the language of one's ethnic group rather than the individual's actual first language. Generally, to state a language as a mother tongue, one must have full native fluency in that language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Language immersion</span> Use of two languages across a variety of educational subjects

Language immersion, or simply immersion, is a technique used in bilingual language education in which two languages are used for instruction in a variety of topics, including maths, science, or social studies. The languages used for instruction are referred to as the L1 and the L2 for each student, with L1 being the student's native language and L2 being the second language to be acquired through immersion programs and techniques. There are different types of language immersion that depend on the age of the students, the classtime spent in L2, the subjects that are taught, and the level of participation by the speakers of L1.

A medium of instruction is a language used in teaching. It may or may not be the official language of the country or territory. If the first language of students is different from the official language, it may be used as the medium of instruction for part or all of schooling. Bilingual education or multilingual education may involve the use of more than one language of instruction. UNESCO considers that "providing education in a child's mother tongue is indeed a critical issue". In post-secondary, university and special education settings, content may often be taught in a language that is not spoken in the students' homes. This is referred to as content based learning or content and language integrated learning (CLIL). In situations where the medium of instruction of academic disciplines is English when it is not the students' first language, the phenomenon is referred to as English-medium instruction (EMI).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Mother Language Day</span> Annual observance to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity

International Mother Language Day is a worldwide annual observance held on 21 February to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and to promote multilingualism. First announced by UNESCO on 17 November 1999, it was formally recognized by the United Nations General Assembly with the adoption of UN resolution 56/262 in 2002.

Sequential bilingualism occurs when a person becomes bilingual by first learning one language and then another. The process is contrasted with simultaneous bilingualism, in which both languages are learned at the same time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Languages of Singapore</span>

The languages of Singapore are English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil, with the lingua franca between Singaporeans being English, the de facto main language. Singaporeans often speak Singlish among themselves, an English creole arising from centuries of contact between Singapore's internationalised society and its legacy of being a British colony. Linguists formally define it as Singapore Colloquial English. A multitude of other languages are also used in Singapore. They consist of several varieties of languages under the families of the Austronesian, Dravidian, Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan languages. The Constitution of Singapore states that the national language of Singapore is Malay. This plays a symbolic role, as Malays are constitutionally recognised as the indigenous peoples of Singapore, and it is the government's duty to protect their language and heritage.

Minority (non-Japanese) students can be found throughout the entire Japanese education system. An incomplete list of possible cultural and or language minorities represented in Japanese schools include:

World Englishes is a term for emerging localised or indigenised varieties of English, especially varieties that have developed in territories influenced by the United Kingdom or the United States. The study of World Englishes consists of identifying varieties of English used in diverse sociolinguistic contexts globally and analyzing how sociolinguistic histories, multicultural backgrounds and contexts of function influence the use of English in different regions of the world.

An English-medium education system is one that uses English as the primary medium of instruction—particularly where English is not the mother tongue of students.

Multilingual education (MLE) typically refers to "first-language-first" education, that is, schooling which begins in the mother tongue, or first language, and transitions to additional languages. Typically, MLE programs are situated in developing countries where speakers of minority languages, i.e. non-dominant languages, tend to be disadvantaged in the mainstream education system. There are increasing calls to provide first-language-first education to immigrant children from immigrant parents who have moved to the developed world. Offering first-language-first education to immigrant children in developed countries has gained attention due to the unique challenges these students face. When students move to a new country, language and cultural barriers can affect their academic progress and well-being. Some suggest that providing instruction in their first language initially, as part of multilingual education (MLE) programs, could help ease their transition. By recognizing and respecting their linguistic and cultural backgrounds, these programs aim to create a supportive learning environment where students feel more comfortable and confident. While this approach may contribute to the preservation of heritage languages, implementing MLE programs present other potential benefits and challenges.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Education in Niger</span>

Education in Niger, as in other nations in the Sahelian region of Africa, faces challenges due to poverty and poor access to schools. Although education is compulsory between the ages of seven and fifteen, with primary and secondary school leading into optional higher education, Niger has one of the lowest literacy rates in the world. With assistance from external organizations, Niger has been pursuing educational improvement, reforming how schools utilize languages of instruction, and exploring how the system can close gender gaps in retention and learning.

Wolfgang Butzkamm is Professor Emeritus of English as a foreign language at Aachen University, Germany. He is credited with the development of a principled and systematic approach to the role of the mother tongue in foreign language teaching which radically differs from a target-language-only philosophy prevailing in many countries. For him, traditional monolingualism is an instance of a more general naturalistic fallacy which is committed when foreign language teaching is modelled after the natural acquisition of a first language (L1), as in the direct method (education) which was also called the natural method.

Second-language attrition is the decline of second-language skills, which occurs whenever the learner uses the second language to an insufficient degree or due to environmental changes the language use is limited and another language is becoming the dominant one.

Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) is an approach for learning content through an additional language, thus teaching both the subject and the language.

Multi-competence is a concept in second language acquisition formulated by Vivian Cook that refers to the knowledge of more than one language in one person's mind. From the multicompetence perspective, the different languages a person speaks are seen as one connected system, rather than each language being a separate system. People who speak a second language are seen as unique multilingual individuals, rather than people who have merely attached another language to their repertoire.

Translanguaging is a term that can refer to different aspects of multilingualism. It can describe the way bilinguals and multilinguals use their linguistic resources to make sense of and interact with the world around them. It can also refer to a pedagogical approach that utilizes more than one language within a classroom lesson. The term "translanguaging" was coined in the 1980s by Cen Williams in his unpublished thesis titled “An Evaluation of Teaching and Learning Methods in the Context of Bilingual Secondary Education.” Williams used the term to describe the practice of using two languages in the same lesson, which differed from many previous methods of bilingual education that tried to separate languages by class, time, or day. In addition, Vogel and Garcia argued that translanguaging theory posits that rather than possessing two or more autonomous language systems, as previously thought when scholars described bilingual or multilingual speakers, bilinguals and multilingual speakers select and deploy their languages from a unitary linguistic repertoire. However, the dissemination of the term, and of the related concept, gained traction decades later due in part to published research by Ofelia García, among others. In this context, translanguaging is an extension of the concept of languaging, the discursive practices of language speakers, but with the additional feature of using multiple languages, often simultaneously. It is a dynamic process in which multilingual speakers navigate complex social and cognitive demands through strategic employment of multiple languages.

A social domain refers to communicative contexts which influence and are influenced by the structure of such contexts, whether social, institutional, power-aligned. As defined by Fishman, Cooper and Ma (1971), social domains "are sociolinguistic contexts definable for any given society by three significant dimensions: the location, the participants and the topic". Similarly, Bernard Spolsky defines domains as "[a]ny defined or definable social or political or religious group or community, ranging from family through a sports team or neighborhood or village or workplace or organization or city or nation state or regional alliance".

In bilingual education, students are taught content areas like math, science, and history in two languages. Numerous countries or regions have implemented different forms of bilingual education.

References

  1. ↑ "Languages of Africa", Wikipedia, 2020-03-28, retrieved 2020-04-01
  2. ↑ "How should Africa teach its multilingual children? | British Council". www.britishcouncil.org. Retrieved 2020-04-01.
  3. ↑ Multilingual education in Africa : lessons from the Juba language-in-education conference. McIlwraith, Hamish. London: British Council. 2013. ISBN   978-0-86355-703-3. OCLC   977938721.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  4. ↑ Young, Crawford, 1931- (1994). The African colonial state in comparative perspective. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN   0-585-38278-6. OCLC   49414696.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  5. ↑ ANDINDILILE, MICHAEL (2018). Agbaje, Adigun; Hendricks, Emeritus Fred (eds.). The Anglophone Literary-Linguistic Continuum: English and Indigenous Languages in African Literary Discourse. NISC (Pty) Ltd. doi:10.2307/j.ctvh8r2vh. ISBN   978-1-920033-23-1. JSTOR   j.ctvh8r2vh. S2CID   151230411.
  6. 1 2 3 Ouane, Adama (2010). Why and how Africa should invest in African languages and multilingual education: An evidence- and practice-based advocacy brief. 20148 Hamburg, Germany: UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning. pp. 31–39. ISBN   978-92-820-1171-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  7. ↑ "Ericka Albaugh". Faculty and Staff Profiles. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
  8. 1 2 3 Albaugh, Ericka (2007). "Language Choice in Education: A Politics of Persuasion". The Journal of Modern African Studies. 45: 1–32. doi:10.1017/S0022278X06002266. S2CID   154915746 – via JSTOR.
  9. ↑ "Projects in South Africa". www.peacecorps.gov. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
  10. ↑ "Fifty years of language development in Africa". SIL International. 2012-03-05. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
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