The african situation is aptly captured by ouadraogo 2000 when he asserts that, education and language issues are very complex in africa because of the multiethnic and multilingual. This means that they must reach a high level of competence in english by the end of grade 3, and they need to be able to read and write well in english. Home language and english language ability in south africa. Introduction to african languages the african language. Perspectives for english language teaching in nigeria in the. Swahili is the most spoken language in africa, with over 100 million speakers. In south africa language has now become a terrain of struggle, a struggle over the basic human right to express oneself in ones mother tongue. The necessity of collective involvement in language policy. Below are top 11 african languages to know when doing business on the continent or enjoying tourist destinations and experiencing diverse cultures on the continent. North africa hardcover robert kirkpatrick editor price. English in africa is a scholarly journal devoted to writing in the english language in africa. The language of instruction in multilingual nigeria has always been a matter of concern to educators and educational planners. Khuluma education english as a first additional language.
South africas secondlargest language, xhosa is spoken by 17. In total, there are at least 75 languages in africa which have more than one million speakers. Bantu and nilosaharan language families, a common lingua franca. The principle languages on the continent include arabic, french and english. Why and how africa should invest in african languages and. Africa often do not, or seldom, understand what is being communicated in english pansalb, 2000. Globalization is thought of by some as the world getting smaller, the global village, so to speak. The terms language and dialect have rather different meanings in informal speech from the more rigorous definitions that must be attempted by linguists. More importantly, rt also provides emotional support for underachievers. Hausa is a major trade language widely spoken in the northern parts of ghana as a second language and in some suburbs of urban areas like madina, and maamobi in accra agbozo, 2015. Six of the worlds ten fastestgrowing economies are in subsaharan africa. History and importance of english language in nigeria. These extremely poor results in english, the language of. I do not claim that i published or had any role in the writing of this paper.
The reality is, however, extremely difficult for an ell to learn a new language while simultaneously acquiring literacy in the l2 and not receiving support in their home language. Language is one of the factors that make the world a global village. English language education policy in the middle east and. It is a regional language, with a third of its speakers living in the eastern cape, where it is the language of 83. Today, 26 countries in subsaharan africa use english either as an official language exclusively like nigeria and ghana or as an official language alongside another african language like in kenya or south africa negash, 2011. Without language, there would be little or no effective communication, and communication is the umbrella that secures understanding, cohesion, and unity. Tanzania dumps english as its official language in schools. Phonemic diversity supports a serial founder effect model of language expansion from africa, science 15 april 2011. The hausa language is the most wellknown chadic language in nigeria mampoza. No african will be denied access to foreign languages, but all educated africans will be competent in that one african language, so. The 1996 langtag language plan task group report defines. Multilingualism and education in africa xi martin c.
Arabic was ranked the 5th most spoken language in the world by research group ethnologue, with over 240 million speakers worldwide. These are ethiopia, mozambique, tanzania, congo, ghana, zambia, and nigeria. Ayi kweh armah, our language problem 1985 once adopted, that african language will be taught as a compulsory language in all african schools, alongside the current official languages it will eventually replace. The substudies focus on issues ranging from language choice, proficiency levels in the namibian languages to other aspects around teacher education and development. In this paper, professor chetty argues that, instead of blaming poor literacy rates and academic performance on the fact that that learners in disavantaged communities are required to use english as their language of learning and teaching, we should rather look to the low intake of. The impact of teachers limited english proficiency on.
Lifelong learning for all in multilingual africa multilingualism is a. They are also characterized by a complex pattern of african first languages mainly from the. The english language was first brought to south africa at the end of the 18th century. The status of english in a multilingual south africa.
In africa, there are more than 100 million speakers, with egypt accounting for more than 54 million. Gabon, another francophone state, followed suit in 2012. Africa is the only continent where the majority of children start school using a foreign language. English in south africa a doubleedged sword 2 teaching. In the former case we have borrowing recipient language agentivity, in the latter, imposition source language agentivity. The diversity of africa s languages is evidenced by their populations.
English in africa was founded in 1974 to provide a forum for the study of african literature and english as a language of africa. Apr 07, 2020 over one billion people live in africa. First of all, south africa and then the englishspeaking countries zimbabwe, zambia, milawi and botswana. Across africa the idea persists that the international languages of wider. It spread northwards during the 19th century with the colonial exploration and exploitation of presentday zimbabwe and zambia former southern and northern rhodesia respectively, especially by david livingstone and cecil rhodes. Official language policies have variously been enunciated in documents such as the national policy on education 1977, revised in 1981, and the 1979 constitution. The british relinquished their colonies fairly easily, e. Njoroge is the director, confucius institute and a senior lecturer of linguistics at kenyatta university, kenya. English language is a worldwide language, and its the means of communication in over 30% of all countries in the world. The languages of africa are divided into several major language families. Pdf challenges and strategies for teachers and learners.
More than 23 african countries list english as one of their official languages. Not until one or two major african languages are standardised, taught in schools, acquired by more than 80 per cent of africans and used as common languages, the colonial languages would forever. Its the 2nd largest and 2nd most populous continent on the planet and makes up 20% of the total landmass on earth. Bubacarr bah german research chair holders at the centres of the. African institute for mathematical sciences aims in ghana, cameroon and south africa l. The language situation in africa today was a government primary school which had swahili medium upto the fourth grade. Definition of a language the preparation of a listing of nigerian languages inevitably begs the question of the definition of a language. Founded in 1974, it focuses on original research on african writing in english, with a leaning towards historical rather than theoretical enquiry. A new partnership for development, peace and a better future. English is a west germanic language first spoken in early medieval england. In south africa, the tempo and complexity of educational change and the. This relates to the argument posed by sociolinguists and applied linguists that cognitive development is negatively impacted by education through a language other than a childs home language heugh, 2000. In south africa, many children start using their additional language, english, as the language of learning and teaching lolt in grade 4. First of all, south africa and then the english speaking countries zimbabwe, zambia, milawi and botswana.
The rest are spoken by populations ranging from a few hundred to several hundred thousand speakers. The roads to independence have been different for different countries and painful for many. The state of african languages and the global language politics. Lengeling, malarcher, and mills 1995, march further indicated that rt can guide students to a deeper understanding of the language, content, and learning process in foreign language classrooms. English in southern africa n when discussing english in africa it is important to distinguish between south africa a country, officially called the republic of south africa and southern africa a region which consists of various countries. Another source of inspiration is the experience of working as a british council and hornby school teacher trainer in east africa and west africa, which are geographically far apart but struggling with. Other studies of language proficiency in south africa have focused specifically on literacy and academic proficiency levels. The largest number of responses was from small businesses 1099 employees and large enterprises more than 2,500 employees.
Professor kamwangamalus panoramic assessment of language planning, economics and game theory in colonial, postcolonial and globalised subsaharan african settings brilliantly deploys notions of prestige planning to recurring dilemmas about the choices of medium of instruction in schooling and language choices in public and private. Across africa the idea persists that the international languages of wider communication arabic, english, french, portuguese and spanish are the only means. With anywhere between and 2000 languages, africa is home to approximately onethird of the worlds languages. It generally appears that the official language of a country is the one in which the laws of the country are made and publicised, whereas the national language is. It is the second largest continent and is the most diverse in terms of cultures, languages, genetics, and physical traits. It is a bantu language believed to have originated from other languages, mainly arabic, due. Shoup, ethnic groups of africa and the middle east 2011, p. Top 11 most spoken languages in africa africa facts. Challenges and strategies for teachers and learners of english as a second language. Mar 05, 2015 rwanda, a former belgian colony, downgraded french and adopted english as its official language in education in 2008.
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