New Language Bearings in Africa: A Fresh Quest 9781853597282

Citation preview

New Language Bearings in Africa

Multilingual Matters Beyond Bilingualism: Multilingualism and Multilingual Education Jasone Cenoz and Fred Genesee (eds) Bilingualism: Beyond Basic Principles Jean-Marc Dewaele, Alex Housen and Li Wei (eds) Can Threatened Languages be Saved? Joshua Fishman (ed.) Continua of Biliteracy: An Ecological Framework for Educational Policy, Research, and Practice in Multilingual Settings Nancy H. Hornberger (ed.) Cross-linguistic Influence in Third Language Acquisition J. Cenoz, B. Hufeisen and U. Jessner (eds) English in Africa: After the Cold War Alamin M. Mazrui Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism Colin Baker How Different Are We? Spoken Discourse in Intercultural Communication Helen Fitzgerald An Intercultural Approach to English language Teaching John Corbett Intercultural Experience and Education Geof Alred, Michael Byram and Mike Fleming (eds) Language Attitudes in Sub-Saharan Africa Efurosibina Adegbija Language Planning in Malawi, Mozambique and the Philippines Robert B. Kaplan and Richard B. Baldauf, Jr. (eds) Language Planning in Nepal, Taiwan and Sweden Richard B. Baldauf, Jr. and Robert B. Kaplan (eds) Language Planning: From Practice to Theory Robert B. Kaplan and Richard B. Baldauf, Jr. (eds) Language Revitalization Processes and Prospects Kendall A. King Language Socialization in Bilingual and Multilingual Societies Robert Bayley and Sandra R. Schecter (eds) Languages in America: A Pluralist View (2nd Edition) Susan J. Dicker Medium or Message? Language and Faith in Ethnic Churches Anya Woods The Native Speaker: Myth and Reality Alan Davies Negotiation of Identities in Multilingual Contexts Aneta Pavlenko and Adrian Blackledge (eds) The Other Languages of Europe Guus Extra and Durk Gorter (eds) Quebec’s Aboriginal Languages Jacques Maurais (ed.) Teaching and Learning in Multicultural Schools Elizabeth Coelho Where East Looks West: Success in English in Goa and on the Konkan Coast Dennis Kurzon World English: A Study of its Development Janina Brutt-Griffler

Please contact us for the latest book information: Multilingual Matters, Frankfurt Lodge, Clevedon Hall, Victoria Road, Clevedon, BS21 7HH, England http://www.multilingual-matters.com

New Language Bearings in Africa A Fresh Quest Edited by

Margaret Jepkirui Muthwii and Angelina Nduku Kioko

MULTILINGUAL MATTERS LTD Clevedon • Buffalo • Toronto

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue entry for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 1-85359-727-9 (hbk) Multilingual Matters Ltd UK: Frankfurt Lodge, Clevedon Hall, Victoria Road, Clevedon BS21 7HH. USA: UTP, 2250 Military Road, Tonawanda, NY 14150, USA. Canada: UTP, 5201 Dufferin Street, North York, Ontario M3H 5T8, Canada. Copyright © 2004 Margaret Jepkirui Muthwii, Angelina Nduku Kioko and the authors of individual chapters. The contents of this book also appear in Language, Culture and Curriculum, Vol. 16, No. 2. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher. Printed and bound in Great Britain by Biddles Ltd.

Contents Margaret Jepkirui Muthwii and Angelina Nduku Kioko: Editorial: A Fresh Quest for New Language Bearings in Africa

1

Felix Banda: A Survey of Literacy Practices in Black and Coloured Communities in South Africa: Towards a Pedagogy of Multiliteracies

10

Angelina Nduku Kioko and Margaret Jepkirui Muthwii: English Variety for the Public Domain in Kenya: Speakers’ Attitudes and Views

34

Remi Sonaiya: The Globalisation of Communication and the African Foreign Language User

50

Paul M. Musau: Linguistic Human Rights in Africa: Challenges and Prospects for Indigenous Languages in Kenya

59

Rosalie Finlayson and Sarah Slabbert: ‘What turns you on!’: An Exploration of Urban South African Xhosa and Zulu Youth Texts

69

Robinah Kyeyune: Challenges of Using English as a Medium of Instruction in the Multilingual Contexts: A View from Ugandan Classrooms

77

Wale Adegbite: Enlightenment and Attitudes of the Nigerian Elite on the Roles of Languages in Nigeria

89

Kembo-Sure: Establishing a National Standard and English Language Curriculum Change in Kenya

101

Mompoloki M. Bagwasi: The Functional Distribution of Setswana and English in Botswana

116

Anna M. Kishe: Kiswahili as Vehicle of Unity and Development in the Great Lakes Region

122

G.O. Simire: Developing and Promoting Multilingualism in Public Life and Society in Nigeria

135

Modoupe M. Alimi and Sibonile Ellece: Course Design and Testing in an English Programme

148

v

Editorial A Fresh Quest for New Language Bearings in Africa Margaret Jepkirui Muthwii Africa Inter-Regional Translation Services, United Bible Societies, PO Box 42726, Nairobi, Kenya Angelina Nduku Kioko United States International University PO Box 14634–800, Nairobi, Kenya As a backdrop to the papers in this special volume we discuss five major issues that are essential to an understanding of present-day developments in the use of languages in Africa. They are: (1) the effects of the language policies adopted since independence, (2) language attitudes, (3) literacy dilemmas, (4) challenges in the language classroom, and (5) the relationship between language and economic development, and the continent’s response to globalisation. These are factors that shape not only the language practice in each nation in Africa, in one way or another, but also the nature of the complex multilingual situation that they help to create. As one looks at the individual papers in this volume, the significance of these factors can clearly be appreciated. The volume’s major asset lies in the diversity of topics, the range of languages and the African geographical areas covered. Not only do the contributors come from different nations in Africa, but many of them are also established scholars who interact on a daily basis with the unique situations in their own nations. Their perceptions and re-examination of the issues shed fresh light on old terrain and also show what the ‘new’ experiments are achieving. While the situation in a particular nation may have significantly influenced a scholar’s perspectives in determining the options proposed for language in his or her country, together the papers in this volume demonstrate and identify the spirit that presently stirs and motivates language debates and practices in the continent. To use Joshua Fishman’s words, the papers in this volume are all about: the development of therapeutic understandings and approaches that can be adjusted so as to tackle essentially the same illness in patient after patient. However, just as the illnesses that have infected so many of the world’s languages constitute a very recognisable syndrome that yet varies in kind and in degree from one infected language to another, so the diagnoses and cures that are required, fundamentally related though they may be, must also vary, depending on the facts of each case (Fishman, 2001: 1). The reader is invited to see and feel the struggles of the languages of Africa, and to share in the insightful suggestions proposed for the challenges facing them. The volume looks in detail at many of the major languages of the continent, including Kiswahili, Zulu, Khosa, Setswana, Shona and Yoruba, and 1

2

New Language Bearings in Africa

voices the concerns of many other African languages that individual communities cherish and use daily. The English language is not left out. Reading the papers gives one a glimpse of the future of language in Africa, a future that clearly includes an English language that has ‘grown’ in the continent. But as Sonaiya points out, it will have to be a variety that is ‘freely chosen’ and one which does not appear threatening to its users. (Undated references refer to articles in this volume.)

Policies Increasingly more scholars and governments in Africa see language policies adopted at the end of colonial rule as the genesis of the good or bad practices observed today. Many nations had to begin by addressing situations of high linguistic diversity and complex socio-cultural identities. During the colonial period different policies were adopted by different colonial powers. Usually the kind of education offered to Africans was one to prepare them for bluecollar jobs, and thus the local indigenous languages were used as media of instruction. This created a yearning for the language of the master, the language that gave access to white-collar jobs, European thought and other privileges. The dawn of independence thus saw a rapid expansion of education and the adoption of the languages of the former colonial masters as official languages, and thus also as media of instruction in the schools. Many of the language policies articulated soon after independence aimed at achieving national unity. Their objective was to provide trained manpower to take over the positions vacated by the departed colonial powers, getting access to the wider world, and working with the resources available at the time. Thus, even though nationalist movements were prominent in the 1960s and arguments in favour of adopting African indigenous languages as the media of instruction were widespread, many African countries still adopted the former colonial languages as languages of instruction in the schools. The foreign languages were favoured for a number of reasons. They already had standardized orthographies and could be used right away, instead of awaiting the development of the orthographies of the indigenous languages. They had adequate literacy materials for use in the schools. In addition, they offered a unifying force in the multilingual and multicultural setting of most African countries, and they paved the way for African countries to be part of the international world. On the basis of the language policies adopted, African countries fall into three groups. First, there are those like Kenya, which have adopted a bilingual policy, with the mother tongue used as the language of instruction in the first 3 years of education and an official (usually foreign) language used for the higher levels of education. Secondly, there are those like the Republic of South Africa, which have adopted a multilingual policy by designating 11 languages, nine of which are African indigenous languages, as its official languages and therefore languages that can be used for instruction in the school system. Thirdly, there are countries (or parts of a country) that use a foreign language as the language of instruction throughout the school system. The policies stated above, while ‘neat’ on paper actually hide the difficulties inherent in the issue of language in the kind of multilingualism found in

New Language Bearings in Africa

3

Africa. We note that situations surrounding national language policies, in general and in particular as they apply to education in most African countries, have significantly changed from those which prevailed at the time when the policies were set. Today, there are new realities and struggles to grapple with, brought about by changes that the continent has experienced in recent years. In some cases, language policies have had to be redefined to suit the new realities. In others, the old policies were retained and instead the new realities had to operate within them.

Attitudes Attitudes to languages, indigenous and foreign, have been widely studied in African linguistics. Among the important determinants of attitudes are aspirations to acquire international languages and to achieve ownership of languages associated with socio-economic power. In virtually no place in Africa do you not find a foreign language that has interacted with and dueled with the indigenous languages. This has produced an array of attitudinal dispositions in the users of those languages, and partly explains why attitudes have been shown to vary so much from group to group, and to change so rapidly over time. The variations and changes also depict the struggles of a people in trying to come to terms with linguistic situations that are often riddled with paradoxes. For example, in many nations there is a contradiction between the policy of encouraging a child’s mother tongue as the language of instruction in lower primary school and the reality, as the child progresses through the education system, or the complete domination of English or French over indigenous languages. Mother tongue is virtually excluded from the syllabus or relegated to a less important role after lower primary school. Many come to believe sincerely that their native languages do not have the capacity to deal with ‘complex situations’. In some instances where pupils are punished if they use their mother tongue at school, the aspiration to acquire English is almost fanatical. Moreover, the dominant use of English in all school-books produces a people who say they cannot conceive of education in any other medium. In most cases, therefore, the children do not see the language of education at lower school operating in any other sector of life except in the home. Even in cases where efforts exist to implement the stated language policy, teachers in most communities find themselves unable to do so because they are hampered by a serious lack of instructional materials written in the mother tongue. As a result, the complementary relationship that should exist between the language of education and that of the pupils’ wider socioeconomic context is lacking. Also the commonly shown negative attitude towards the adoption of African indigenous languages as the languages of instruction in schools is not surprising in such circumstances. Recent research has shown that language use practices in monolingual and multilingual communities are radically different even in the same nation (Muthwii, 2002). Where this is the case, individual communities lose the ability to understand the issues and to appreciate the struggles of neighbouring communities. They cannot use unity as strength. In nations like Kenya and

4

New Language Bearings in Africa

Uganda, for example, a number of schools are able to abrogate the stated language policy and implement their dream for English as the language of instruction throughout the curriculum. Often, the ability to make such a move also means they have the resources to support their decision and to get fairly good learning results. Such schools are in the minority. The other schools, often without such ‘muscle’, have very limited resources. They appear to languish in the confusions brought about by the paradoxes inherent in the school system. This research has also shown that such confusions result in massive translation and code switching in the learning/teaching process. Consequently, pupils from such ‘disadvantaged schools’ end up not performing as well in national examinations as those from their more aggressive counterparts. The genesis of the problem according to this East African study (Muthwii, 2002) is that the policies make a number of general assumptions and take their correctness for granted. They tend to assume that English is ‘natural’ to all children in a multilingual setting, which is not the case, especially to children who come from a predominantly African language or mother tongue-oriented background. They assume that fair play and equality of educational opportunity will prevail, and that the situations on the ground are conducive for the implementation of their ‘English only’ language policy. Language policies should not be so dependent on assumptions, but should be built on existing attitudes and practices in the countries and communities that they are dealing with. With regard to a learner’s fundamental right to feel secure and confident while learning and using a given language in education and in the public domain, norms such as those propagated in the teaching, learning and use of native English appear to leave most second language learners feeling unsure of themselves. They are not confident enough to participate in the world of English. When peoples’ attitudes are at variance with the norms that a given education system expects of the learners, trouble occurs. No wonder a trait associated with many children in African schools is passiveness and silence in class. It is possible that many such learners find the norms beyond their reach. They either do not have the liberty or the ability to express themselves, or are uncomfortable with the expectations of using an English that has little resemblance to the variety they are acquainted with, namely, that of the models around them. Attitudes and views significantly contribute to the socio-psychological processes that ultimately determine whether people accept a language and strive to possess it, or whether on the other hand, it just ‘puts them off’. Since there is still a significant place for English in Africa today, prudence suggests that varieties of English whose usage embarrass or threaten a speaker may not be the appropriate English to propagate not only in education but also in the whole spectrum of the public domain (KemboSure, Kioko & Muthwii). (Undated references are to articles appearing in this volume.)

Literacy Another consequence of bad language policies, attitudes and practices in the continent is the unsatisfactory levels of literacy in many nations. Recently

New Language Bearings in Africa

5

in parts of Africa, there have been large-scale research projects undertaken to determine the magnitude of the literacy problem and to help put in place appropriate intervention measures. One such study, based on criterionreferenced tests, was carried out by the ministries responsible for primary education in Kenya and Zimbabwe in collaboration with the Southern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) (IIEP and Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Kenya, 2001). (SACMEQ, initiated by IIEP in 1991 and housed in the UNESCO sub-regional office in Harare, is an international NGO dedicated to policy analysis and development with regard to issues of educational quality. SACMEQ has 14 member countries: Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.) This report, popularly referred to as SACMEQ, was designed to measure the level of mastery of English reading in the 1998 Standard 6 pupils, and it considered two levels of mastery, minimum and desirable. The minimum level was deemed to be the mastery necessary for recognition of basic linguistic building stones, for example the alphabet and simple words; the desirable level was deemed to be the mastery necessary for successful learning in Standard 7. A similar study carried out in Uganda in 1999 focused on the mastery of reading and writing by Primary 6 pupils. It measured the adequate and advanced levels, these two terms sharing more or less the same definitions as those of minimum and desirable, respectively. The results of the performance tests reveal a bleak pattern of achievements in English in the three countries studied. Discussing the results of the SACMEQ report and the Ugandan results, Makau (2001) concludes that: Over three quarters and about two thirds of grade 6 pupils in Kenya and Zimbabwe respectively fail to achieve the mastery necessary for successfully using the language as the medium of learning in grade 7. At P6 in Uganda 98% of pupils fail to achieve the advanced grade, presumably mastery that would enable them to comfortably pursue further education. Respectively, in Uganda, Zimbabwe and Kenya 35%, 54% and 87% fail to achieve the minimum acceptable level of competency, as indication that these pupils are virtually illiterate in English. In all three countries, the data shows that pupils in urban schools (Nairobi, Harare and the urban sub-sample in Uganda) have a distinct advantage over their peers in rural schools. Equally important, …mastery is characterized by large disparities among rural provinces (Makau, 2001: 12). If performance tests are anything to go by, then the findings of the SACMEQ report shows the gravity of the challenges in literacy in at least the three nations where the study was carried out. It is indeed a bleak situation. It also calls into question what is happening to literacy in English, the language that most people claim to be literate in, especially in Anglophone Africa. The issue of school dropout is closely associated with that of language of instruction. In most countries in the continent the rate of drop-out is reported to be worryingly high, especially where the language of instruction is not the mother tongue, and also where pupils are expected to pay school levies. According to the SACMEQ report referred to above, over 50% of pupils who

6

New Language Bearings in Africa

enrol in primary Grade One never complete the primary cycle. Out of those who complete the primary cycle, less than 50% enter into secondary education. Hence, where an international language is the preferred language of instruction, as is the case in Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe, it is not necessarily the case that using it is successful in enabling school children to achieve useful levels of literacy. What does this say for many communities in Africa, given the dominance of the English language? It seems that it is not far-fetched to argue that many drop-outs can neither read meaningfully in an international language nor in their mother tongue. And also that literacy in minority or regional languages is declining even more rapidly than literacy in English in most cases, given the poor treatment it receives in the school system. This is why issues of literacy in indigenous African languages occupy an important place in the debates of many scholars in Africa today. In this volume alone, four papers address the issue of literacy and communication, albeit, from different perspectives, and Musau carefully articulates the challenges and prospects of implementing linguistic rights in all of Africa, arguing for the need for individual countries to develop strategic plans that will guarantee linguistic justice. Unlike most of the African nations, the Republic of South Africa now accords its nine standard African languages national status. They enjoy the same status as the former colonisers’ languages, namely, English and Afrikaans. The paper by Finlayson and Slabbert, therefore, provides the unique opportunity to see these ‘languages that people speak everyday’ participate in the creation of literature. No doubt, the many indigenous African languages in use in the continent would look at the opportunity accorded to Xhosa and Zulu with envy. How they would all wish for an extension of domain of usage in order to ‘turn their speakers on’! Adegbite evaluates the reasons for the negative attitudes that African people have towards literacy in their indigenous languages. While negative attitudes will persist in some quarters in Nigeria, in spite of enlightenment efforts, many other reports indicate a shift to more favourable dispositions towards indigenous languages. According to him this is attributable to the collective participation of the people of Nigeria: scholars, government agencies, ethnic cultural groups, communities and individuals. If language groups are given a chance to develop literacy and knowledge in their own tongues this will not only expose them to different world views and make them a more informed and tolerant population but would also enable them to participate more meaningfully in development issues in their nations. Not only will learners gain more cognitively and linguistically, if instructed through their mother tongue, but their literacy in these languages will create a new tradition of writing in them.

Language Teaching Whether an African country adopts a monolingual, bilingual or multilingual language policy, the question of which variety will be taken as the standard in the education system is an important one. In the case of African indigenous languages the issue of standards translates to the choice of the variety to be used, since several dialects of the same language often exist. Finlayson and Slabbert describe a pilot literary competition aimed at encouraging urban

New Language Bearings in Africa

7

learners to use the languages they speak everyday in the creation of literature and to facilitate the recognition of these urban varieties for use in the curricula of both schools and universities. These are efforts to create standards that are acceptable to the users. It is expected that such efforts will result in an increase in the interest of learners in studying and using more relevant forms of the African languages in their day-to-day activities in the urban economic sector. A further challenge in the use of African languages is the absence of standardised orthography and literacy material for use in the language classroom. Where orthographies are present, many of them relate only in a remote way to the spoken language because they ignore significant prosodic features such as tone, vowel length and, at times, vowel quality. This makes the written material in these languages a challenge to read even for those who are literate in the languages (Kioko, 2002). Thus, even when the decision to use African languages for education is made, there is need to prepare the African languages to meet the challenges of being languages of instruction in schools. The key issue in standards and language teaching in Africa is, however, linked to the adoption of foreign languages as official languages in many African states. It is a challenge because aspirations are too far removed from realities. When African countries attained independence, many of the European teachers left. Although there was also expansion in teacher training colleges, the presence of the native-speaker model receded to the background with the departure of the native speakers. The learners thus began to approximate the model of their non-native teachers, a model significantly different from the native variety. These models are characterised by innovations drawn from the sociocultural environments within which the languages are used. In the majority of the African countries, however, local varieties of these international languages have not been formally recognised and thus the norms continue to be those of the native speakers. Many of the innovations, be they phonological, morphological, syntactic or semantic, have for a long time been viewed as errors, and research has dealt principally with deviations from native-speaker norms. Thus the textbooks and examinations target external norms to which teachers and pupils have limited access. Kyeyune describes the challenges faced in teaching English in a multilingual classroom in Uganda and proposes the use of a bilingually based communicative approach to language instruction instead of one based on teacher domination of classroom talk and an emphasis on subject content. This brings us to another kind of reality. In the study of English in Africa, the era of error analysis has come to an end. Research on English standards is beginning to acknowledge the African varieties that are emerging. In addition, it has been found that some varieties are preferred to others, depending for example on whether or not they indicate the ethnic group membership of the speaker (Kioko & Muthwii, 2001). Kembo-Sure aptly uses excerpts from contemporary Kenyan discourse to argue for the identification and codification of a local standard English ‘anchored on the performance of ‘educated and articulate Kenyans and not on the native-speaker model’. He proposes the adoption of a strong bilingual education that is informed by the social-cultural and psycholinguistic realities. Muthwii and Kioko show the

8

New Language Bearings in Africa

attitudinal dynamics of the varieties of English in Kenya and the variety identified by the community as suitable for use in the public domain. We see, therefore, that communities have evolved the ability to tell apart the varieties of the languages within their repertoire and to use them to communicate particular wants using particular varieties. Designating English or French as the language of work or education still leaves the members of the language community to decide on which variety, which is just as crucial in the context of social interaction. The choice of language used in a situation depends on what language or its variety makes speakers feel comfortable or uncomfortable, secure, confident or threatened, able or not able to follow and participate in conversations and interactions. (See also Sonaiya’s discussion in this issue.)

Globalisation and Economic Development A final issue in this discussion is the relationship between forces of globalisation and economic development in Africa. As seen in recent studies on language of instruction in Kenya and Uganda, for example, there is an enormous pressure exerted by social and economic indicators for youngsters to learn an international language (cf. Muthwii, 2002). The clamour in favour of international languages is seen from the highest levels from where language policies are set and where it is determined which language or languages will be considered national languages, down to the case of a district primary school where students are routinely beaten if they are overheard speaking their own languages. Parents overwhelmingly do not favour instruction of their children in indigenous African languages, even in the lower primary classes. They have their reasons. But all of it boils down to negative attitudes toward the African languages and the fact that instructional materials are not readily available in the African languages in most nations in Africa, especially south of the Sahara. These attitudes are almost always reinforced by government language policy. While parents and policy-makers clamour for English the statistics on the success of such an approach are not encouraging. For example, according to Simire about 33% of the total population of Nigeria are literate in English (the official language) but only 15% of these can really use English effectively in professional and administrative activities. From this, you could say 85% of Nigerians have no meaningful knowledge of the official language, a situation very similar to that indicated earlier for Kenya and Uganda. Education in foreign languages has thus become education for a minority, and the majority is excluded from national development programmes. If the development of such countries were to hinge on communication using English, then we must accept that it will involve a very small minority of the population. Naturally, this becomes a hindrance to economic, political and socio-cultural development because institutions and other corporate organisations cannot perform their developmental roles accurately unless they can understand and be understood in their immediate environments. With such language situations how can these nations respect the language rights of the minority groups? What happens to the need for communitybased initiatives and organisation for development? As Musau argues, the absence of the recognition of language rights means that the local languages will inevitably not be developed and empowered. In turn, their speakers will

New Language Bearings in Africa

9

not have access to government services, programmes, knowledge and information. They often do not understand the policies, the objectives and the procedures of development and therefore cannot meaningfully participate. Kishe drawing from much experience working with communities in the East African great lakes region makes a very strong case for Kiswahili instead of the oftenfavoured English language. With this language, members of the communities will no longer remain powerless. They will no longer be isolated and marginalised by global languages.

Conclusion In spite of the many problems there are also breakthroughs. African leaders, for example in South Africa and parts of Nigeria, are beginning actively to encourage the use of local languages, which enable many to participate meaningfully in the development of their communities and countries. Scholars are researching and writing more directly on what they perceive as solutions that address the realities of today. Tangible efforts to develop African languages can be cited in nation after nation, the most conspicuous are those of the nine South African languages and Kiswahili in East Africa. These moves in the long run will bridge the gap between the highly educated minority and the semi-educated majority and empower whole populations for economic development. However, communities will have to embrace more and more a practice of true bilingual education where the rights of the child to use his/her indigenous language is acknowledged and supported at the same time as English is learnt and used in preparation for full participation in the wider international community. Correspondence Any correspondence should be directed to Dr M.J. Muthwii, Africa InterRegional Translation Services, United Bible Societies, PO Box 42726, Nairobi, Kenya. References Fishman, J.A. (2001). Can Threatened Languages Be Saved? Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. IIEP and Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Kenya (2001) The quality of education: Some policy suggestions based on a survey of schools. SACMEQ Policy and Research No. 6. Paris: UNESCO. Kioko, A.N. (2002) A case for improved orthography. In F.R. Owino (ed.) Speaking African: African Languages for Education and Development (pp. 231–241). Cape Town: CASAS. Kioko, A.N. and Muthwii, M.J. (2001) The demands of a changing society: English in education in Kenya today. Language, Culture and Curriculum 14 (3), 201–213. Makau, B.M. (2001) Improving primary school pupils’ literacy in English in Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe – a concept paper. Unpublished paper presented at a Rockefeller Foundation Workshop, Nairobi, October 2001. Muthwii, M.J. (2002) Language Policy and Practices in Education in Kenya and Uganda. Nairobi: Phoenix Publishers.

A Survey of Literacy Practices in Black and Coloured Communities in South Africa: Towards a Pedagogy of Multiliteracies Felix Banda Department of Linguistics, University of the Western Bellville, 7535 Cape Town, South Africa The initial motivation for the study was the view of multilingualism as a resource, in which all languages and literacies at the disposal of a learner are used for his/her benefit. In turn, interest was motivated by the notion of literacy practices as social practices linked to broader cultural and socioeconomic conditions (Street, 2001). Interest was also motivated by recent studies which stress the value of understanding the literacy practices that groups and communities are already engaged in before embarking on literacy programmes and pedagogical interventions (Prinsloo & Breier, 1996; Street, 2001). Drawing on a questionnaire designed to profile literacy practices in black and coloured communities and schools in South Africa, the study concludes that literacy practices are linked to demographic, geographical, attitudinal, linguistic, cultural and socioeconomic factors, all of which intersect in multiple ways with the legacy of apartheid. As a way of bridging the gulf between community literacies and schooled literacies, the study suggests a multiliteracy approach in which local literacies become vehicles for accessing educational discourses.

Dysfunctional Schools The South African Minister of Education defines dysfunctional schools as those with less than 20% pass rates at senior secondary school leaving examinations, that is, matriculation examinations in South Africa (Asmal, 2002: 4). In South Africa, the so-called dysfunctional schools are mostly found in the sprawling black townships and rural areas (Asmal, 2002). In 1999 a quarter of mostly black secondary schools or 1034 schools were dysfunctional, and by the end of 2002, the number of dysfunctional schools had reduced to 242 (Asmal, 2002: 4). This, according to the minister, was proof that the quality of education in black schools was improving. As will be apparent in this study, black parents remain unconvinced, and have lost faith in the schools in their communities, and have continued to send their children to coloured schools, while those who can afford the fee structure and transport costs in former Model C schools, send their children to these formerly white schools (cf. Arenstein, 2003; Banda, 2000; De Klerk, 1996, 2000; Dlamini, 2003; Jack, 2003; Zulu, 2003). The Minister of Education is aware of the fact that township schools, in particular were getting depleted of learners as a result of a ‘boycott’ of such schools by black parents: Our long-term goal is to ensure that no learner should travel long distances to seek quality education because their local school fails to per10

Literacy Practices in South Africa

11

form. And I want to assure all South Africans that we will not rest until we have ensured that all our schools work effectively (Asmal, 2002: 4). However, as we shall see later the exodus from black township and rural schools has continued unabated (cf. Arenstein, 2003; Dlamini, 2003; Jack, 2003; Zulu, 2003). It is difficult to see how parents would have a change of heart given the current situation in black and rural schools. There is no doubt that government has increased funding to formerly disadvantaged schools, but more has to be done in terms of retraining teachers and management of resources. The other problem is that the squalor that often surrounds black schools does very little to raise the confidence of black parents. Research has shown that black learners have difficult coping with academic discourse, in part, for over-reliance on ‘primary’ discourse (Gough, 2000; Gough & Bock, 2001). Recent studies have focused on the use of English as a medium of instruction as the main reason black learners continue to perform comparatively poorly in academic tasks (Alexander, 2000; Desai, 1999; Hugh, 2000). In this study it will be argued that the problem goes beyond the issue of choice between mother tongues and English second language education. In analysing educational experiences of black learners, Gough and Bock (2001: 124) conclude that the classroom practices in both Xhosa and English that these learners are exposed to, do not encourage development of secondary discourses. Therefore, it will be argued that the major problem relates to effective teaching and schooling that prepares learners for the rigours of academic discourse. It is also about finding ways of taking advantage of everyday literacies, and the kinds of literacies learners bring to the educational setting, for access to educational discourse – hence, the pedagogy of multiliteracies. The study will investigate the following: (1) The literacy practices in black and coloured communities. (2) The literacy practices in rural and urban communities. (3) The relationship between the apartheid legacy and, attitudinal, linguistic, socioeconomic, etc., factors and literacy practices in these communities. (4) The pedagogical and curricula implications for classroom instruction arising from these literacy practices.

Literacy as Social Practice Literacy event as a concept comes from the idea of speech event as used in sociolinguistics. The concept is useful as it enables researchers to focus on particular situations ‘where things are happening and you can see them’ (Street, 2001: 6), such as an act of reading and/or writing. In this study we use the phrase ‘literacy practices’ rather than literacy events, as we focus not on the practices of reading and writing per se, but on the social and cultural context that determine the choices people make between the different practices, as well as the meanings surrounding such choices. In any case, it is not always possible to separate literacy events from literacy practices. It is not surprising then that some researchers in New Literacy Studies extend the con-

12

New Language Bearings in Africa

cept of literacy event to literacy practices (cf. Baynham, 1993, 1995, 2000; Prinsloo & Breier, 1996). Therefore, the phrase literacy practices will be used to cover literacy events as well in this study. The study conceptualises literacy as a social practice immersed in ‘socially constructed epistemological principles’ (Street, 2001: 5). In this idiom, literacy is about how people’s knowledge (past and present), identity and being, influence the choices they make between different literacy practices and the way they interact with reading and writing. Choices people make, for instance, between reading a weekly community newspaper (which is free of charge) and a daily paper (which has to be paid for) is a social practice, which could tell us something about their culture, history, socio-economic standing, as well as their position in relations of power. Following Street (2001), then, we shall view literacy practices as socioculturally determined ways of thinking and doing reading and writing in different cultural contexts. Such a definition implies the development of pedagogical and didactic programmes that take into account the socio-cultural context of literacy practices. Clearly, the context of the current study has been influenced tremendously by the apartheid legacy, in which blacks and coloureds live in separate communities, with different cultural, historical and socio-economic conditions. Thus, context includes the fact that former white schools are better resourced than former coloured schools, which are in turn better resourced than formerly black schools. Thus, what gives meaning to the choices people make about which school to send their children is not necessarily determined in terms of literacy. In South Africa’s case, socio-economic, material resources (or lack of them) and historical factors (e.g. the apartheid legacy) determine the choices. Studies in New Literacies (Barton, 1999; Baynham, 2000, 2001; Prinsloo & Breier, 1996; Street, 2001) have emphasised ethnographic/anthropological techniques in studying literacy practices in an attempt to account for how meaning is constructed around literacy events. However, as will become evident in this study it is entirely possible to account for meaning surrounding literacy events through an analysis of historical precedents and contexts, and the choices people make between different literacy practices. As Barton (1999) notes, literacy practices are embedded in history. This could be personal, community and national history, or a combination of them. In any case, the strength of the present study is in the fact that it seeks to provide baseline profiles of literacy practices in two communities (black and coloured) on which ethnographic/anthropological research on specific literacy practices, or case studies could be based. The apartheid legacy Few would argue against the fact that apartheid legislation stifled the conditions for a culture of reading and writing in certain communities, and black communities being at the lowest rung suffered most from such cultural deprivation. Even taking into consideration the argument that most of Africa did not have a reading and writing culture, the problem in South Africa became even more poignant as government legislation made it difficult if not imposs-

Literacy Practices in South Africa

13

ible for the majority of blacks to interact with written text, let alone develop a reading and writing culture. Everyday literacy events such as reading newspapers, books and watching television, as well as easy access to community and school libraries, were seen as part of white culture. Black cultures were expected to have very little to do, if any at all, with such literacy events. The policy of separate development in which blacks were expected to stay in their poverty stricken rural ‘homelands’, or in restricted crime-ridden high-density townships in urban areas, merely served to underscore the fact that such literacy practices as reading papers or books were seen as part of a white culture. In any case, the nature of apartheid was such that these literacy practices were a luxury blacks could not afford. The poor infrastructure, lack of libraries, lack of teaching resources, untrained and poorly trained teachers, and the poor quality of education in black schools generally under the Bantu education system, only served to impoverish the literacy culture. In short, few would argue against the fact that apartheid laid the conditions for impoverished literacy practices in black communities. In particular, there were restrictions on access to written linguistic resources, which are critical for both early and later schooled literacy development. According to Francis (2000), interaction with written language, that is both narrative texts and contextualised writing, is critical to early literacy learning. Moreover, ‘[p]robably without the emergence and elaboration of narrative discourses, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to learn the more abstract text schemata associated with schooling’ (Francis, 2000: 41). Narrative genre is one aspect of everyday literacies that people take for granted, and yet it facilitates ‘access to the less transparent expository texts, and academic discourse in general’ (Francis, 2000: 44). However, in the absence of books and libraries and reading material, even the acquisition of narrative competence, which Francis (2000: 44) calls the most basic and universal of all non-conversational discourses applicable to academic discourse tasks, becomes difficult. The question then is to what extent things have changed since the first all race elections in 1994. Everyday literacies and schooled literacies Studies in New Literacy Studies (Barton, 1999; Baynham, 2001, 2000; Baynham & Massing, 2000; Street, 2001) emphasise that literacy is not just about reading and writing in a teacherly way as taught in an education setting. A comprehensive definition of literacy needs to take account of literacy activities embedded in such activities as going through a shopping list, sorting out dates on a calendar, listening to news broadcasts, reading a daily newspaper and listening to oral narratives or to drama on a radio, etc., and the choices made between these everyday literacy activities. The argument in this paper is that some everyday literacies and availability of reading material outside the classroom can facilitate not just general literacy development, but also facilitate access to the schooled literacy required for academic discourse. What needs to be noted, though, is that in this idiom literacy is conceptual-

14

New Language Bearings in Africa

ised as a social process with a social and ideological character. Thus as Street and Street (1991: 61) put it literacy becomes: a symbolic key to many of the society’s gravest problems: Issues of ethnic identity, conflict, achievement (or underachievement) can be diverted into accounts of how literacy acquisition can be improved and the distribution of literacy enhanced; issues of poverty and unemployment can be turned into questions about why individuals failed to learn literacy at school, or continue to refuse remedial attention as adults. In this regard, the significance of schooled literacy is perceived in terms of its relationship to socio-economic, historical and cultural factors, as well as to community (and in a wider sense, national) discourses and not merely in terms of the discourse of education. Moreover, considering that current literacy events and practices are a product of the past (Barton, 1999: 7), one cannot ignore the impact of the apartheid legacy on South African society. Given South Africa’s apartheid past, then, problems and questions relating to access to schooled literacy not only have ethnic or rural–urban, rich–poor dimensions, but more significantly are given meaning and are constructed by racial factors too. Therefore, in South Africa, the apartheid legacy is such that the so-called black schools and communities are still trapped in impoverished literacy practices, while white, and to some extent, coloured schools and communities have retained their privileged positions. We are mindful of the fact that what took ages for apartheid to build cannot be undone in a few years of democracy, just like we are aware that we cannot blame apartheid for everything that is currently going wrong with the South African school system. What is important is the fact that there are literacy practices in black communities that could be used as stepping-stones to the schooled literacies. For instance, investigating aspects of oral tradition and practice, recent studies have shown that Xhosas are involved in social practices normally associated with schooling (see, Gough, 1990, 2000; Gough & Bock, 2001; Kaschula, 1991).

The Study The present study is just one component of a larger study investigating the relationship between multilingualism and multiliteracies and access to different domains, such as: 앫 The economy (for example, employment opportunities, access to loans, access to land and the right to fair labour practices). 앫 Political processes (rights, privileges and benefits of citizenship and the right to exercise these rights responsibly). 앫 Learning and academic life. 앫 Media including the area of language and right to information, as well as technology, etc. These domains derive from the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (Act 108), which provides the Bill of Rights, which prescribes a new inclusive citizenship, equality, language, education, employment and freedom of

Literacy Practices in South Africa

15

expression (Government of South Africa, 1996). Thus, if literacy is a barrier to these critical domains, it also acts as a barrier to deny people of full citizenship rights as enshrined in the constitution. The present study focuses on profiling literacy practices in coloured and black communities and schools. In turn, focus is on the interaction between demography, the rural–urban dimension, literacy practices and a host of socioeconomic, cultural and educational factors, against the backdrop of the apartheid legacy, all of which give meaning to literacy events and the choices people make between different literacy practices. Personal and demographic data One hundred and twenty-one learners in their first year Language and Identity course at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa, took part in the study. Learners filled in an adapted version of the Scottish Executive adult literacy household survey (2001) as part of their tutorial work. The 121 learners comprised 69% black and 31% coloured learners. These statistics are interesting on their own as the University of the Western Cape was until the 1980s a ‘coloured’ university, created during apartheid to cater for coloured people. We shall in due course elaborate on the reasons for the movement of black learners to the comparatively high-quality educational institutions in formerly coloured and white institutions. The change in demographic makeup in institutions that follow such movements has often led to a change of medium of instruction as well, usually from Afrikaans to English. For instance, the University of the Western Cape used to be exclusively an Afrikaans medium of instruction institution until the early 1980s. With increasing large numbers of blacks learners being enroled at the institution, it appears the medium of instruction will remain largely English for a foreseeable future. Most of the variations between reported variables are not statistically significant, given the sample sizes, but the results show compelling evidence and trends, with important pedagogical and curricula implications. The survey was conducted in the second semester as some questions required learners to compare their literacy practices and experiences from primary, secondary to university levels. The ages of the participants ranged between 17 and 32 – the majority (64%) being in the 19–22 age range. The male–female gender ratio in the South African school system is fascinating, particularly when one compares it with other African countries. The survey shows 37.7% male and 62.7% female. Although the ratio might differ from faculty to faculty, and department to department, this is a very high ratio. Indeed, one is always reminded of the high number of females when one walks the corridors of South African universities. The other factor that this study wanted to investigate is whether the rural– urban dichotomy had a differential effect on the literacy practices of learners. Thus, it is noteworthy that 53.7% said they grew up in a rural area, while 46.3% grew up in an urban area. The majority of black learners comes either from the rural areas of Eastern Cape Province, or from the sprawling black townships dotted around Cape Town. Most of the coloureds come from the urban and suburban areas of Cape Town. Sociolinguistic studies in Africa have shown that typically Africans (in

16

New Language Bearings in Africa

Table 1 Language(s) spoken in the home (%) (n = 121) Choice 1 2 3 4 Total

Afrikaans

English

Xhosa

Zulu

Sotho

Swati

Other*

%

18 18 10.7 3.3 50

16.4 48.4 8.2 0.8 73.8

63.3 2.5 0 0 65.8

2.5 4.1 6.6 1.6 14.8

0.8 4.1 3.3 5.7 13.9

0 0 0 0 0

0 0.8 0.8 0 1.6

100 77.9 29.5 12.3

*Other = Swahili

urban areas in particular) speak at least two languages in their homes (Banda, 1996, 2000; Schmied, 1991). Participants were asked to list the language(s) they spoke at home, starting with the one most frequently spoken. This was meant to gauge the extent of multilingualism in households. Table 1 shows the results. Regarding the extent of bilingualism/multilingualism, it is worth noting the names of the languages listed and percentage of speakers after the most frequently spoken language. In that regard, it is significant that 77.9% claim to use two languages; 29.5% three languages, and 12.3% four languages. Effectively, none claim to use only one language in the home. Looking at it from a demographic viewpoint, it appears blacks are more likely to use at least three languages in their homes than coloureds (41.6% vs. 2.8%). On the other hand, learners from urban areas are more likely to use more than two languages than their rural counterparts (84.8% vs. 69.2%) However, considering that 73.8% of respondents claim they used English as the first or as the other language in their home, the role of English in the lives of South Africans cannot be overemphasised (cf. Banda, 2000; De Klerk, 1996; Smit, 1996). Literacy practices at home The survey asked participants to indicate which language(s) they prefer writing and reading in their homes (Table 2). The data show that blacks prefer writing in English/Xhosa (51.3%). It is also noteworthy that there seems to be a preference to write in English (23.8%) compared with Xhosa (16.3%). Among coloureds, there is preference for both English/Afrikaans (43.5%) and English only (40.5%). Clearly, for blacks and coloureds, there seems to be less preference for Xhosa only or Afrikaans (16.3% and 16.2%), than for English Table 2 Preferred languages for writing in (%)

Afrikaans English Xhosa English/Afrikaans English/Xhosa Afrikaans/Xhosa English/Zulu

Black (n = 80)

Coloured (n = 37)

Rural (n = 61)

Urban (n = 56)

2.5 23.8 16.3 0 51.3 1.3 5

16.2 40.5 0 43.2 0 0 0

4.8 24.2 16.1 4.8 43.5 0 6.5

8.9 35.7 5.4 23.2 25 1.8 0

Literacy Practices in South Africa

17

only (23.8% and 40.5%, respectively). These figures also suggest coloureds are more likely to prefer writing in English only than blacks. However, it appears that there is more preference for writing in English only among urban learners (35.7%), than among rural learners (24.2%). In addition, those from rural areas are more likely to accept Xhosa only or an English/Xhosa combination, than learners from urban areas (16.1% vs. 5.4%, and 43.5% vs. 25%, respectively). Table 3 shows the preferred languages for reading. What seems to stand out here is the extremely low preference by blacks to read in Xhosa (2.5%), while their reading in English only is at 40.5%. The table also shows more support for reading in Xhosa in rural areas than urban areas. The reading preferences for coloureds do not seem to differ much from their writing habits. Considering that the apartheid regime deliberately promoted the use of Afrikaans, both as an official language and medium of instruction (cf. Banda, 2000), it is surprising that there is minimal support for its use even among coloureds, most of whom received some of their education in the language. Thus, even though there is more reading material outside the classroom in Afrikaans than in Xhosa, this does not translate into more reading and writing in the language. We should also note that with the dismantling of apartheid, there is much interaction between different language groups and races. Urban areas, in particular, are becoming the meeting places of diverse speech communities. Thus, the importance of English as a medium and lingua franca in such interactions cannot be overemphasised. In addition, as pointed out elsewhere, literacy in English is often perceived as a passport to socioeconomic status and mobility. The next set of questions related to availability of library facilities in black and coloured communities, as well as their use. The assumption here is that the presence of community libraries nurtures reading and writing habits, hence facilitating literacy development essential for academic discourses. It is noteworthy that during apartheid black communities in particular were denied library facilities, and thus, one wonders about the extent of the apartheid legacy in the new South Africa. It is clear from Table 4 that libraries are more likely to be found in urban areas (93%) than in rural (7%) areas. There is a racial dimension to access to libraries. All coloured respondents said there was a public library in their area as opposed to only 53% of blacks. In essence, whereas all coloured areas have libraries, only about half (mostly urban) black areas have public libraries. Mindful that having libraries without resources Table 3 Preferred languages for reading in (%)

Afrikaans English Xhosa English/Afrikaans English/Xhosa Afrikaans/Xhosa English/Zulu

Africans (n = 79)

Coloureds (n = 36)

Rural (n = 60)

Urban (n = 55)

2.5 40.5 2.5 3.8 43 1.3 3.8

16.7 38.9 0 41.7 0 0 0

3.3 40 1.7 8.3 40 1.7 3.3

10.7 41.1 1.8 23.2 17 0 1.8

18

New Language Bearings in Africa

Table 4 Availability of public libraries in communities (%) Rural (n = 56) Urban (n = 65) Black (n = 84) Coloured (n = 37)

Yes

No

46.2 93 53.6 100

53.8 7 46.4 0

and proper management and use, is the same as not having any, the disparities demonstrated here are still a matter of concern. Reading and writing in daily life We needed to know the kinds of ‘everyday’ reading and writing, and their frequency. The idea is to determine common literacy practices and their frequency. For the purposes of interpretation, we shall define regular/frequent use of information sources as being once a week or more, and infrequent/not regular use as being those who never or do not know whether they have ever used the sources. In general, apart from the writing of SMS messages, there is little else done in the home environment (Table 5). However, there is regular ‘reading’ of images (cf. Kress & van Leewen, 2001) and listening to radio and cassettes, and to television. News is highly organised and planned; as well as being very formal in style, it usually contains examples of various construction types akin to those in academic or educational discourse. That there is regular use of the radio, TV and reading of daily newspapers does not necessary mean that respondents or their guardians actually buy and own these items. For example, as will become apparent, not many blacks (and coloureds for that matter) can afford a daily newspaper. But once one member of the community has a TV set, other members of the community will come to watch the news and other programmes with him/her. However, when we take into account the demographic and geographical background of the respondent it becomes clear that reading and writing practices may differ according to race and place of residence. We shall illustrate this by considering a few variables. Table 5 Kinds and frequency of reading and writing in daily life (%)

Write SMS messages (n = 120) Write a letter or anything else (n = 121) Filling in official forms (n = 119) Read newspapers (n = 121) Read magazines (n = 120) Listen to radio (n = 121) Listen to cassettes or CDs (n = 121) Use a personal computer (n = 115) Watch educational programmes (n = 121) Watch recreational programmes (n = 121) Watch news in English on TV (n = 121)

Regular (at least once per week)

Never/Don’t know

53.3 45.9 4.3 72.9 75.9 92.6 83.5 56.5 74.4 87.6 90.1

25.5 9 49.6 4.1 1.6 1.6 4.1 28.7 3.3 3.3 3.4

Literacy Practices in South Africa

19

Table 6 Writing SMS messages (%)

Rural (n = 65) Urban (n = 55) Black (n = 83) Coloured (n = 37)

Regular (at least once per week)

Never/Don’t know

36.9 72.7 44.6 72.2

21.5 14.5 20.5 13.9

Regular (at least once per week)

Never/Don’t know

41.5 50.8 45.5 43.2

10.8 7 9.6 8.1

Table 7 Letter writing (%)

Rural (n = 65) Urban (n = 56) Black (n = 84) Coloured (n = 37)

It is clear from Table 6 that SMS messaging is popular among both black and coloured learners, albeit the latter are more likely to use it than the former (72.2% vs. 44.6%). It also seems that urban learners are more likely to use SMS messages than those from rural areas (72.7% vs. 36.9%). It seems affordability of a handset and airtime is a factor that determines the literacy practice of SMS messaging. With regard to ‘everyday’ literacy practice of letter writing, there appears to be no significant racial pattern, but Table 7 seems to suggest that learners from urban areas are more likely to engage in letter writing than those from rural areas. This is surprising as one would have expected learners from rural areas would be the ones more likely to write to the relatives they left behind. As one would expect, Table 8 shows that learners do not regularly practice filling in forms. One reason for this is that most of them are still unemployed, and have very little contact with bureaucratic practices. However, this has implications for access to some aspects of bureaucratic language. Computers The advent of information technology has meant that computer literacy is important in society. Given South Africa’s past policy of apartheid, the question is whether use of computers has a rural–urban dimension and a demo-

Table 8 Filling in official forms (%)

Rural (n = 62) Urban (n = 57) Black (n = 82) Coloured (n = 37)

Regular (at least once per week)

Never/Don’t know

6.5 1.8 4.9 2.9

58 40 53 43.2

20

New Language Bearings in Africa

Table 9 Use of personal computers (%) Regular (at least once per week)

Never/Don’t know

53.3 60 52.6 63.9

35 21.8 34.6 16.7

Rural (n = 60) Urban (n = 55) Black (n = 78) Coloured (n = 37)

graphic dimension. It seems (Table 9) that learners from rural areas are more likely to have never used a computer than their urban counterparts (21.8% vs. 35%). Similarly, black learners are more likely to have never used a computer than coloured learners (16.7% vs. 34.6%). Reading material Exposure to different kinds of writings or reading materials outside the classroom is likely to engender a culture of reading and writing in a child (cf. Francis, 2000). Thus, respondents were asked to indicate the kinds of reading materials found in their homes. It would seem (Table 10) the weekly community newspapers are popular in both groups, perhaps for the reason that they are offered free of charge in South Africa. They are usually in Xhosa in black areas and Afrikaans and English in coloured communities. Contrast this with the daily newspaper mostly in English, which costs money. It is clear that coloureds are more likely to read a daily newspaper than blacks (59.5% vs. 48.8%). It is also clear that, in general, coloured households are more likely to have a variety of reading material, including encyclopaedias (54.1% vs. 17.1%) than black households. In terms of the rural–urban dimension, the following pattern emerges. Again, for the obvious reason that the weekly newspapers are free of charge, they are the most popular reading material of both urban and rural households. However, it is also clear that reading, as a literacy practice, is more likely in urban areas than in rural areas (Table 11). Literacy practices at primary, secondary and university Respondents were asked to indicate where they did their primary education. In this regard, 50% said in a rural area and the other half said in an urban area. As to the demography of the school, 65.6% said their school was formerly ‘black’; 31.1% said formerly ‘coloured’ and 3.3% indicated a formerly Table 10 Kinds of reading material found in the home according to race (%) black (n = 83) coloured (n = 37) Yes Daily newspaper Weekly community newspapers Magazines More than 25 books An encyclopaedia A dictionary

No

Black

Coloured

Black

Coloured

48.8 80.2 75.9 40 17.1 91.7

59.5 72.2 32.4 62.2 54.1 91.9

51.2 19.8 24.1 60 82.9 8.3

40.5 27.8 67.6 37.8 45.9 8.1

Literacy Practices in South Africa

21

Table 11 Kinds of reading material found in the home according to rural–urban dimension (%) rural (n = 64), urban (n = 56) Yes Daily newspaper Weekly community newspapers Magazines More than 25 books An encyclopaedia A dictionary

No

Rural

Urban

Rural

Urban

46.9 76.6 65.6 41.3 18.6 90.8

57.7 79.6 57.9 54.5 41.8 93

53.2 23.4 34.4 58.7 81.4 9.2

41.1 20.4 42.1 45.5 58.2 7

‘white’ school. The qualification ‘formerly’ is being used here in the sense that schools are no longer officially segregated according to race. By and large, learners mostly go to schools that were allocated to them during apartheid. However, in recent years there has been a significant movement of learners from black or rural schools to formerly coloured or white, or urban schools. The reasons for this are discussed elsewhere. What is worth noting is that in some cases the result of this movement has been the change of the medium of instruction in some schools from Afrikaans to English, as some formerly white schools have completely changed complexion. In most of such cases, the complexion of the teaching staff has not changed quite as fast, and has remained mostly white. In this study 4.8% of blacks said they went to coloured schools, while 8.1% coloureds said they went to white primary schools. No black indicated having gone to a white primary school. No coloureds went to a black school. The low number of learners who went to a primary school other than the one designated under apartheid is understandable considering that apartheid was only dismantled completely after 1994. Racial segregation was still in place when the respondents were in primary school. The picture is different at secondary school as the number of blacks going to coloured schools rises to 14.3%, and another 3.6% go to white schools. At secondary school level, the number of coloureds going to white schools rises to 24.3%. It appears then blacks are more likely to go to coloured schools than to white schools; while coloureds do not go to black schools, but to white schools. Regarding the urban and rural divide, it is clear that the former are more likely to go to white schools than the latter (17.5% vs. 4.6%). Clearly, the figures in the current study are conservative as this research only targeted learners that reached university level. Thus, as will become apparent, the number of black and coloured learners in formerly white schools is much higher than our data suggest (cf. Arenstein, 2003; Dlamini, 2003; Jack, 2003; Zulu, 2003). Starting reading and writing One question relating to reading and writing patterns in black and coloured communities is when children start their reading and writing. The assumption here is that an early or late start in reading and writing has implications for

22

New Language Bearings in Africa

later literacy practices. That is, ‘experience’ in reading and writing could have an effect on success or failure in the kinds of literacies required at secondary and university levels. In this connection, respondents were asked to indicate when they started reading. It is clear from Table 12 that coloureds start at an earlier age than blacks (4–6 years vs. 7–10 years). But as the table also shows it also seems urban learners start earlier than rural learners. Asked whether their primary school had a library only 30.3% of the respondents gave a positive response, and 69.7% said their school did not have one. In terms of demographics, it seems that black primary schools are less likely to have a library than coloured schools (19% vs. 54.1%). Moreover, primary school libraries are less likely to be found in rural areas than in urban areas (12.3% vs. 50.9%). The situation improves in secondary schools as 68.6% of the respondents said that their secondary school had a library. It also appears that 63.9% of secondary schools are in an urban area. However, a look at the urban–rural and coloured–black dimension is revealing. It seems urban secondary schools are more likely to have a library than rural schools (80.7% vs. 57.4%). It also seems that coloured secondary schools are more likely to have a library than black schools (75.7% vs. 65%). In short, the trend so far is that literacy material and facilities are more likely to be found in urban areas than in rural areas, and in coloured household and communities than black households and communities. Literacy mediation at home There are many of literacy activities in the home environment. In South Africa, most reading and writing is in English, a language which to most South Africans is a second language. In this regard, reading and writing in English is always a burden and it is not uncommon for people to seek help from family and friends with reading and writing. Respondents were asked to indicate the frequency of assistance with reading and writing they required from family members, friends and neighbours. The pattern seems to suggest respondents are more likely to seek mediation in literacy practices that are official/academic in nature, than in those that are non-official/non-academic, such as writing notes to friends and relatives, reading books for pleasure or reading newspaper articles. A look at how the two demographic groups fare is revealing, as the pattern suggests that coloured learners are less likely to seek mediation in the above literacy events than black learners. The full results are presented in Table 13. Table 12 Age in starting to read and to write (%) 0–3 years Black (n = 83) Coloured (n = 37) Rural (n = 64) Urban (n = 56)

1.2 10.8 1.5 7

4–6 years 7–10 years 28.6 51.4 30.8 40.4

52.4 24.3 52.3 33.3

Over 10 years

Don’t know

9.5 5.4 9.2 7

8.3 8.1 6.2 12.3

Literacy Practices in South Africa

23

Table 13 Frequency of assistance with reading and writing at home (%) Most of the time Reading information from government departments, businesses or other institutions (n = 118) Filling in forms such as job applications (n = 119) Filling in forms such as bank deposit slips (n = 121) Writing notes to friends and family (n = 120) Writing (job) application letters (n = 119) Reading instructions, such as on how to do an assignment (n = 121) Reading instructions, e.g. on how to use a TV (n = 121) Reading magazines (n = 121) Reading newspaper articles (n = 120) Reading academic articles (n = 119) Reading books for pleasure/relaxation (n = 120) Reading school books (n = 121)

Rarely/Never

Black

Coloured

Black

Coloured

58.8

40.5

23.8

54.1

46.9

43.2

33.3

43.2

28.9

43.2

51.8

51.4

35.4

5.4

50

86.5

44.4

37.8

34.6

45.9

54.2

32.4

15.7

54.1

50

40.5

26.2

51.4

37.3 39 43.2 37.8

13.5 8.1 27 8.1

36.1 36.6 29.6 41.5

81.1 86.5 67.6 86.5

56.6

35.1

19.3

56.8

Literacy mediation at primary school Learners particularly during the early stages of their education, such as at primary school level, need support at home with their chores. Such chores, almost invariably have to do with reading and writing of ‘homework’. As Table 14 shows, parents/guardians and teachers at school are the main mediators. That this study suggests black parents help their children with reading and writing is surprising, as perceptions are that they do not. Gough and Bock (2001) also found that blacks’ parents indeed help their children with their reading and writing. What is not clear, however, is the nature of this help. Table 15 shows the pattern changes somewhat at secondary school level. It seems the teachers and the study group take prominence. At university level (Table 16) tutors take a particularly strong mediating role. Tutors are usually chosen from ‘promising’ learners. Clearly tutors are Table 14 Frequency of assistance with reading and writing at primary school (%)

Father/Mother/Guardian (n = 120) Brother(s)/Sister(s) (n = 107) Friend(s)/Neighbour(s) (n = 105) Teachers (n = 117) Study group (n = 115)

Most of the time/Some of the time

Only now and then/Hardly at all

23.6 47.8 67 86.3 42.6

73.3 53.2 33.7 13.7 47.4

24

New Language Bearings in Africa

Table 15 Frequency of assistance with reading and writing at secondary school (%)

Father/Mother/Guardian (n = 109) Brother(s)/Sister(s) (n = 110) Friend(s)/Neighbour(s) (n = 109) Teachers (n = 117) Study groups (n = 115)

Most of the time/Some of the time

Only now and then/Hardly at all

52.3 55.5 53.2 79.5 66.3

47.7 45.5 46.8 20.5 33.7

Table 16 Frequency of assistance with reading and writing at university (%)

Lecturers (n = 120) Fellow learners (n = 118) Tutors (n = 118) Family members (n = 118) Study groups (n = 120)

Some of the time/Most of the time

Only now and then/Hardly at all

78.3 79.6 91.6 50.8 70.8

21.7 10.4 8.4 49.2 29.2

learners, who normally speak the same mother tongue and come from the same communities as those that seek help. Thus, tutors find themselves in a better position to help other learners than even lecturers. The high frequency of mediation at university, compared with secondary school and primary school is significant. This is important to questions of whether secondary school prepared learners for the kinds of reading and writing found at university level. The survey also asked respondents to indicate the kinds of reading they find most difficult at university. Table 17 shows the results according to demographics. Clearly, black learners are more likely to find difficulty with all kinds of reading than coloured learners. It is noteworthy that both groups have Table 17 Kinds of reading learners find difficult according to race (%) Most of the time/ Some of the time Information from computers (n = 120) Letters (n = 117) Lecture notes (n = 119) Diagrams (n = 117) Filling in government forms (n = 118) Academic books (n = 119) Academic articles (n = 116) Magazine articles (n = 116) Creative writing in English (n = 119)

Only now and then/Hardly at all

Black

Coloured

Black

Coloured

78.3

52.8

21.7

47.2

63.3 65.8 63.8 65

16.2 22.2 16.7 51.3

36.7 34.2 36.2 35

83.8 77.8 83.3 48.7

61.7 62.8 64.1 61.7

54 37.8 16.2 29.7

38.3 37.2 35.9 38.3

46 62.2 83.8 70.3

Literacy Practices in South Africa

25

Table 18 Kinds of reading learners find difficult according to rural–urban dimension (%)

Information from computers Letters Lecture notes Diagrams Filling in government forms Academic books Academic articles Magazine articles Creative writing in English

Most of the time/ Some of the time

Only now and then/ Hardly at all

Rural

Urban

Rural

Urban

75 65.5 66.7 62.9 66.1 65.1 61.9 57.3 66.6

64.3 28.6 35.7 32.7 53.6 51.8 45.3 40.2 34

25 24.5 33.3 37.1 33.9 34.9 38.1 42.7 33.4

35.7 71.4 64.3 67.3 46.4 48.2 54.7 59.8 66

difficulty with the ‘languages’ of computer information, ‘official’ documentation from banks, government, etc. and academic books. This in a way relates to difficulty with computer literacy, officialese literacy and academic literacy. Table 18 shows the same results according to the rural–urban dimension. It suggests that urban learners are less likely to experience difficulty with different kinds of reading than rural learners. Again, it appears that both groups have difficulty with the ‘languages’ of computer information, ‘official’ documentation from banks, government, etc. and academic books. Self-appraisal of skills The survey did not attempt any objective measurement of reading and writing skills, but did include a number of questions asking learners to assess their own skills. We had anticipated that learners’ own perceptions of their skills would present a more positive picture than would be derived from the skills tests had they been given. Learners generally have a fairly high opinion of their literacy skills for the schoolwork that they do (Table 19). This does not, of course, mean that they consider their skill levels to be high, just that they consider them to be adequate for the work required at school. Indeed, we found that learners likely to have difficulty with educational discourse, blacks in this case, tend to be more likely to consider that their literacy skills fall short of what is required.

Table 19 Self-appraisal of reading skills (n = 119) Reading skills Daily life Secondary school University

Excellent

Good

Moderate

Poor

Black Coloured Black Coloured Black Coloured Black Coloured 9.5 13.3

29.7 32.4

69 69.9

56.8 54.1

20.2 15.7

10.8 8.1

1.2 1.2

2.7 5.4

15.9

22.2

65.9

55.6

15.9

19.4

1.2

2.8

26

New Language Bearings in Africa

Table 20 Self-appraisal of writing skills (n = 1190) Writing skills Secondary school University

Excellent

Good

Moderate

Poor

Black Coloured Black Coloured Black Coloured Black Coloured 12

16.2

65.1

59.5

21.7

21.6

1.2

2.7

8.5

11.1

67.1

66.7

24.4

19.4

0

2.8

In general learners rate their reading skills in English highly, and as Table 20 shows, they rate their writing skills just as highly as their reading skills. In spite of the high self-appraisal, 65.8% of the learners felt that their writing skills in English limited their chances to do well at university. Only 24.2% said their writing skills in English did not limit their chance of success at university (10% indicated ‘Don’t know’). In particular, black learners are more likely to find learning through English limiting than coloured learners (76.9% vs. 43.2%). This does not put a damper on black learners’ attitude towards writing and reading in English. On the contrary, they appear more sanguine about utilising English than coloured learners. It is not surprising then that black learners are more likely than coloured learners to strongly agree that secondary school education prepared them adequately for tertiary level education (59.8% vs. 38.9%). However, in general, learners’ high self-appraisal in literacy skills in English is more indicative of learners’ positive attitude towards English, than actual practical skill in the language. Attitudes to learning Table 21 shows their positive attitude to learning and acquiring new skills. It is also evident from the table that there is no strong agreement about whether secondary school education prepared learners well enough for university education. It is noteworthy that the relatively low rating about whether secondary education prepared learners adequately for tertiary level education is mostly due to coloured learners. As mentioned above, coloured learners are less likely to strongly agree that secondary education prepared them for university level education (38.9% vs. 59.8%).

Table 21 Attitudes to learning

I enjoy learning new skills (n = 115) Learning new skills would improve my quality of life (n = 119) I need to learn new skills throughout my working life (n = 120) Secondary school prepared me for the work I do at university (n = 118)

Strongly agree

Tend to agree

Tend to disagree

Strongly disagree

86.1 86.6

13 12.6

0.9 0.8

0 0

85.7

14.3

0

0

53.8

28.6

11.8

5.9

Literacy Practices in South Africa

27

Pedagogical and Curricular Implications In the main, nothing much has changed since the dismantling of apartheid. People generally still live in the communities and schools demarcated for them during apartheid (cf. Banda, 2000; De Klerk, 1996). From the results it appears that literacy practices are linked to: 앫 앫 앫 앫 앫

Demography (racial background). Geography (rural vs. urban). Languages spoken in the home. Attitudes to different languages. Availability and management of reading materials and facilities and resources both inside and outside the classroom. 앫 Cultural and socioeconomic factors. 앫 The apartheid legacy. In terms of literacy mediation, the following seem true: 앫 Teachers and parents are typical mediators at primary school. 앫 Teachers and study groups are typical literacy mediators at secondary school 앫 Tutors and study groups are typical mediators at university. In arriving at pedagogical decisions and designing curricula these factors need to be taken into consideration. Senior secondary school leaving results released by the Ministry of Education (Table 22) seem to support the main finding of this study, as provinces with huge rural populations and those with large black populations did not do as well as urbanised provinces with large populations of coloureds and whites. In this regard, it is noteworthy that the relatively rural and underdeveloped provinces with huge black populations such as the Eastern Province (where the majority of respondents come from) and Mpumalanga got the lowest pass rates, while heavily urbanised provinces and those with huge populations of coloureds and whites, such as the Western Cape and Northern Cape had the highest pass rates. Eastern and Mpumalanga Provinces are also comparatively poor provinces often lacking in infrastructure and resources. The use of the English second language instead of African languages as Table 22 Senior secondary school leaving results 2002 (Ministry of Education, 2002) Province Eastern Cape Free State Gauteng Kwazulu-Natal Limpopo Mpumalanga North West Northern Cape Western Cape Source: Ministry of Education (2002: 7)

2001

2002

45.6% 59.0% 73.6% 62.8% 59.5% 46.9% 62.5% 84.2% 82.7%

51.8% 70.7% 78.1% 70.8% 69.5% 55.8% 67.8% 89.95 86.5%

28

New Language Bearings in Africa

media of instruction has often been blamed for poor pass rates at school among black learners (cf. Alexander, 2000; Desai, 1999; Hugh, 2000). In this paper, it is argued that it is not just the use of English that is of critical concern, but more so a failure to utilise the multilingual situation and multiliteracies to the benefit of the black learner. In addition, there is a lack of resources and infrastructure in black communities and schools. As was clear from this study, black and rural communities and schools lack libraries and reading materials, and where these are available, it appears they are not properly managed. This has, in turn, culminated in the poverty of literacy stimuli in black townships and rural schools, so that learners from these areas are often found not to have the kinds of schooled literacies required for education discourses (Banda et al., 1998; Gough, 2000; Gough & Bock, 2001). Such a scenario has implications not only for early literacy development, but also literacy practices associated with academic discourse in general (Francis, 2000). It is not surprising then that in one study, it was found that black university learners performed just as poorly on English academic tasks, as on Xhosa academic tasks (see Banda et al., 1998; Gough & Bock, 2001). It also noteworthy that the current school set up appears biased towards those that start to interact with written texts early (Francis, 2000), to the extent that they have a head start on literacy development. The role of English English is increasingly becoming the language of the market and globalisation, as well as the language of the new world order (Fairclough, 2000). In South Africa, as elsewhere, English is also associated with access to orders of discourse, and thus is confused with schooling. In this regard, English is perceived to provide access to a hierarchically ordered world of employment, status and power, as well as access to discourses that enable one to attain multiple lifeworlds and hence multiple layered identities, and thus cultural recognition (cf. Fairclough, 2000). This in a way explains why blacks and coloureds prefer English to Afrikaans and African languages as languages of literacy. The perception is without merit as there are literacies in African languages that could prove beneficial to accessing academic discourse (see, Gough, 2000; Gough & Bock, 2001; Kaschula, 1991). In the globalised world with its attendant information technology, in which English is perceived to rule, blacks and those in dysfunctional schools with the barest of resources, find themselves trapped in a one-dimensional past with a single identity – ostensibly, with no future prospect in a world with so many promises. Thus, parents see sending their children to better resourced former white schools as a solution and a cultural risk they have to take. Therefore, the following headlines on different reports on the exodus of black learners from black township and rural schools to formerly white schools and urban areas, in the weekly City Press newspaper, were not surprising: (1) ‘Black children flock to former white schools to escape poor schooling.’ (Zulu, 2003: 9) (2) ‘Township, rural education left poorer.’ (Arenstein, 2003: 9)

Literacy Practices in South Africa

29

(3) ‘Parents make sacrifices for brighter future for learners.’ (Jack, 2003: 9) (4) ‘Exodus from township schools due to “ill-disciplined teachers”.’ (Dlamini, 2003: 9) Arenstein (2003: 9) cites a principal of a rural school in Mpumalanga Province who said although his secondary school had a library, there was not a single book in it. About science and biology laboratory, the principal had this to say: ‘This school is 14 years old, and I’ve never seen a microscope or any science equipment for our empty laboratory.’ This situation highlights the importance of school libraries that are properly resourced, and managed in such a way that they are integrated into the school curriculum. It is interesting that already some township schools are running half empty, with more than 30 classrooms unused (Dlamini, 2003), while some formerly white schools are filled to more than their capacity. For instance, Arenstein (2003) reports of a formerly whites only school in Mpumalanga which received over 10,000 applications in 2003, in a school which can only accommodate 1200 pupils per year. According to Zulu (2003) black parents who send their children to formerly whites only schools demand that their children be taught English as a first language, and Zulu (their mother tongue) as a second language. This preference for an English medium of instruction, and a general preference to read and write in English (in this case by both black and coloured learners) as shown by the study is often taken as indicative of negative attitudes towards African languages (cf. De Klerk, 1996; Smit, 1996). This argument ignores the fact that materials in English are more readily available outside the classroom than those in local languages, thus fuelling perceptions of English being the language of literacy, and hence, the key to genres of power. As this study showed where material written in an African language (e.g. weekly community papers) is readily available it is more likely to be read than that written in English (daily papers) (76% vs. 46%). African languages We need to point out that a positive attitude towards English does not necessarily translate into a negative attitude towards African languages. De Klerk (2000) finds that the major reason black parents send their children to former white schools is because there are better facilities, resources and management here than in their areas. In essence, the major reason has little to do with negative attitudes to African languages. The preference for English could also be a reaction to what Fairclough (2000) calls the marketisation and globalisation of language practices, as people try to acquire what are perceived to be literacies of power. It has to be remembered that the apartheid system in South Africa purportedly valued African languages and cultures by legislating that different language and cultural groups ‘develop’ separately. In reality very little was done to promote African languages as possible avenues to literacies of power. Bantu education with its emphasis on mother tongue education for blacks became synonymous with mediocrity and powerlessness. Such perceptions still persist. In short, blacks are wary of being denied what are perceived to be the languages and literacies of power (cf. Street, 2001). In essence, black parents putting their children into former white schools should

30

New Language Bearings in Africa

be seen as an attempt to get first-class education and gain access to the genres of power. However, given that the current genres and literacy practices are not fixed, universal and given (cf. Street, 2001), focus should be on the transformation of the educational set-up, so as take advantage of multiliteracies. This means using literacies in local African languages as well as English. On the part of parents, educators and policy-makers, this entails an awareness of the value of local literacies, and the uses of everyday literacy practices for the acquisition of more powerful standard literacies. In essence, there is need for what Gee (2000: 50) calls ‘communities of practice’, that is, the aligning and merging of local literacies and schooled literacies. In this idiom, learners would become aware that the diverse local cultures and literacy practices are resources for more powerful literacies. For instance, Gough and Bock are able to illustrate using a Xhosa praise poem that features of structure and organisation, e.g. ‘initial descriptive clauses followed by an argument or exhortation’ (Gough & Bock, 2001: 100), as well as, logical linkages of cause and contrast typical of Western academic discourse, are present in traditional oral discourse. And they note: ‘the ability to produce such discourse is variably present in the community’ (Gough & Bock, 2001: 100). We are mindful that more accomplished orators produce stylistically better speeches (cf. Gough & Bock, 2001), but the argument here is that literacy practices should be situated in the communities. In this regard, learners will be immersed in meaningful practices within their community, playing multiple and different roles depending on their backgrounds and experiences (New London Group, 2000). This would enable collaborative practice between community and school, as literacies in local languages and English would supplement and complement each other. Thus, ‘academic language’ as a single entity would not exist, as: there are many different school languages, different styles of language used in different school practices … [and] … different styles of language used for a variety of civic, economic and political purposes. None of these many styles of language is ‘decontextualised’. They are all – just like ‘everyday’ face-to-face language – contextualised’ (Gee, 2000: 63). This pedagogy of multiliteracies as described here assumes a teaching– learning situation that promotes learning conditions that lead to equitable social participation in the negotiation of a multiplicity of discourses. Thus, learning processes should take into account, rather than ignore, the different subjectivities, interests, intentions, commitments and purposes learners bring. The curriculum needs to mesh the different literacies, discourses, languages and registers that learners bring to school as a resource for learning. The changes that are needed Given the results of the present study, the major problem is not that blacks and learners from rural areas have more difficulties accessing more powerful literacies than coloureds and those from urban areas, but more so that there is a reluctance by parents, educators and policy-makers to transform the

Literacy Practices in South Africa

31

educational set-up, and to engage with the kinds of literacies the learners bring to the school environment. As a way of illustration, considering the results of this study, the voice of someone reading a written text on radio or TV could be used as a point of access to the schooled literacy skills of planned discourse, as well as cohesion and coherence (Halliday & Hasan, 1976). SMS messaging could be used as an access point to planning, and techniques to organising texts, note-taking and summaries. There are also ‘everyday’ literacies of consulting a calendar which could be used as a way to access the skill of scanning and scheming of information, while going through a shopping list could be used as a way to access the literacy skill of sorting out information. Of course, careful listening to and observing spoken discourses of educated people could be used as a way into ‘educated’ discourses. It can be argued that some of these can already be found in some primary textbooks in all 11 official South African languages, but the classroom practice of rote learning and memorisation prevalent in black and rural schools (Gough & Bock, 2001) means that these tasks are not contextualised, that is, they are not situated in ‘communities of practice’ (Gee, 2000: 50). Then, there is the issue of literacy mediators. This study has shown that there are mediators of literacy both in the community and the school, whose function enables learners to arrive at literacy purposes they would not normally achieve on their own. Designers of syllabuses and curricula need to recognise the important functions mediators play. In fact, a comprehensive training programme for community- and school-based mediators could enhance their mediating skills and roles in mentoring, guiding and designing learners’ learning processes at different levels. Given the apartheid legacy in South Africa, such training could be envisaged as part of a more general language in education policy and as social transformation to ameliorate past injustices, where the black majority were oppressed and disempowered under the guise of promoting and protecting their cultural and language rights. This would necessarily mean different interventions at different levels. In this idiom, teaching and learning become the pedagogy of transformation and access – transform the current genres and forms of literacy, and – access to symbolic capital with a real valency in the emergent realities of our time. Thus, everyday literacy practices become windows or stepping-stones to educational discourses. Acknowledgement This material is based upon work supported by the National Research Foundation under grant number NRF GUN 2050619. Any opinion, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Research Foundation. Correspondence Any correspondence should be directed to Dr Felix Banda, Department of Linguistics, University of the Western Bellville, 7535 Cape Town, South Africa.

32

New Language Bearings in Africa

References Alexander, N. (2000) English unassailable but unattainable: The dilemma of language policy in South African education. PRAESA Occasional Papers 3. Cape Town: PRAESA. Arenstein, J. (2003) Township, rural education left poorer. City Press, 9 February, (p. 9). Asmal, K. (2002) Speech by Professor Kader Asmal, Minister of Education on the release of 2002 Senior Secondary School Leaving Results, Goodhope Auditorium, Cape Town, 27 December. Banda, F. (1996) In search of the lost tongue: Prospects for mother tongue education in Zambia. Language, Culture and Curriculum 9 (2), 109–119. Banda, F. (2000) The dilemma of the mother tongue: Prospects for bilingual education in South Africa. Language, Culture and Curriculum 13 (1), 51–66. Banda, F., Gough, D.H., Bock, Z., Duncan, P., Anthonissen, C. and Foster, D. (1998) Learning about learners, learning about language. AD Issues 6, 3–41. Barton, D. (1999) An Introduction to the Ecology of Written Language. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd. Barton, D. and Ivanic, R. (eds) (1991) Writing in the Community. London: Sage. Baynham, M. (1993) Code-switching and mode-switching: Community interpreters and mediators of literacy. In B.V. Street (ed.) Crosscultural Approaches to Literacy (pp. 294– 314). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Baynham, M. (1995) Literacy Practices. London: Longman. Baynham, M. (2000) Narrative as evidence in literacy research. Linguistics and Education 11 (2), 99–117. Baynham, M. (2001) Reading the weather: Ruling passions, numeracy and reading practices on an Australian farm. Paper presented at the Language in Action Seminar Series, Linguistics Department, University of the Western Cape, 10 July 2001. Baynham, M. and Masing H. (2000) Mediators and mediation in multilingual literacy practices. In M. Martin-Jones and K. Jones (eds) Multilingual Literacies (pp. 191–207). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. De Klerk, V. (1996) Use of and attitudes to English in a multilingual university. English World-Wide 17 (1), 111–127. De Klerk, V. (2000) To be Xhosa or not to be Xhosa: That is the question. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 21 (3), 198–215. Desai, Z. (1999) Enabling policies, disabling practices. Per Linguam 15 (1), 42–53. Dlamini, D. (2003) Exodus from township schools due to ‘ill-disciplined teachers’. City Press, 9 February, (p. 9). Fairclough, N. (2000) Multiliteracies and language: Orders of discourse and intertextuality. In B. Cope and M. Kalantzis (eds) Multiliteracies (pp. 162–181). London: Routledge. Francis, N. (2000) Rincones de lectura comes to san Isidro: New contexts for biliteracy and language maintenance. Language, Culture and Curriculum 13 (1), 31–50. Gee, J.P. (2000) New people in new worlds: Networks, the new capitalism and schools. In B. Cope and M. Kalantzis (eds) Multiliteracies (pp. 43–68). London: Routledge. Gough, D.H. (1990) Oral formula and oral tradition: Problems and prospects. In H.C. Groenewald (ed.) Oral Traditions in South Africa (pp. 27–39). Pretoria: HSRC Publications. Gough, D.H. (2000) Discourse and students’ experiences of higher education. In B. Leibowitz and Y. Mohamed (eds) Routes to Writing in South Africa (pp. 43–58). Cape Town: Silk Road Publishers. Gough, D.H. and Bock, Z. (2001) Alternative perspectives on orality, literacy and education: A view from South Africa. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 22 (2), 95–111. Government of South Africa (1996) The South African Constitution: Act No. 108. Pretoria: Government Printer. Halliday, M.A.K. and Hasan, R. (1996) Cohesion in English. London: Longman. Hugh, K. (2000) The case against bilingual and multilingual education in South Africa. PRAESA Occasional Papers 6. Cape Town: PRAESA.

Literacy Practices in South Africa

33

Jack, M. (2003) Parents make sacrifices for brighter future for learners. City Press, 9 February, (p. 9). Kaschula, R. (1991) Tradition and innovation in Xhosa izibongo. In E.R. Sienaert, A.N. Bell and M. Lewis (eds) Oral Tradition and Innovation. University of Natal: Oral Documentation and Research Centre. Kress, G. and van Leewen, T. (2001) Multimodal Discourse. London: Edward Arnold. Ministry of Education (2002) Senior Secondary School Leaving Results 2002. South African Government Printers: Pretoria. New London Group (2000) A pedagogy of multiliteracies. In B. Cope and M. Kalantzis (eds) Multiliteracies (pp. 9–37). London: Routledge. Prinsloo, M. and Breier, M. (eds) (1996) The Social Uses of Literacy. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Schmied, J. (1991) English in Africa. London: Longman. Scottish Executive (2001) Adult Literacy Review: Household Survey. On www at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library3/lifelong/alrhs-00.asp Accessed 20.8.2002. Smit, U. (1996) On status, roles and attitudes to English in South Africa. English WorldWide 17 (1), 77–109. Street, B.V. (2001) Introduction. In B.V. Street (ed.) Literacy and Development: Ethnographic Perspectives (pp. 1–18). London: Routledge. Street, J.C. and Street, B.V. (1991) The schooling of literacy. In D. Barton and R. Ivanic (eds) Writing in the Community (pp. 143–166). London: Sage. Zulu, M. (2003) Black children flock to former white schools to escape poor schooling. City Press, 9 February, (p. 9).

English Variety for the Public Domain in Kenya: Speakers’ Attitudes and Views Angelina Nduku Kioko United States International University, PO Box 14634–800, Nairobi, Kenya Margaret Jepkirui Muthwii Africa Inter-Regional Translation Services, United Bible Societies, PO Box 42726, Nairobi, Kenya The study sought to establish the attitudes of Kenyan speakers (n = 210) towards three varieties of English: (1) ethnically marked Kenyan English, (2) standard Kenyan English and (3) native speaker English (British, American, Australian, etc). Of the three varieties, the most preferred by both rural and urban respondents for use in the media and education was standard Kenyan English. Most of the respondents also considered this as the variety used by successful professionals like lawyers, doctors, engineers and successful business people. Contrary to expectation, intelligence, ambition, expertness and confidence are attributed to speakers not when they use native varieties of English but when they use the non-ethnic-marked variety of Kenyan English. The study suggests that further research should be less concerned about the deviation of Kenyan English from native speaker norms and concentrate more on the formal description of the variety of English that Kenyan speakers overwhelmingly prefer.

Many studies have shown how the attitudes of people act as a powerful social force that determines the conduct of social life. People are attracted to or are indifferent to an object depending on their attitude towards it; the attitude being either cognitively based or ‘feelings’-based reactions to an object (Cargile & Giles, 1997: 195). While this relationship between attitude and conduct is generally true of many aspects of life, it is one that has also been observed with respect to the linguistic codes used in a community (Cargile et al., 1994; Ryan & Giles, 1982). The much research that has been done, especially on people’s evaluative reactions to accents and languages, has shown that people have distinct feelings about codes. They: find some accents ‘unpleasant’ others ‘beautiful’; some registers ‘stuffy’ some styles ‘pedantic’, some languages or kinds of languages ‘unacceptable’ or the speakers ‘less desirable’; and so on [%] Linguistic prejudice either for or against particular dialects or languages, is a fact of sociolinguistic life, a fact we must recognise (Wardhaugh, 1986: 110). Certain varieties are deemed more appropriate for certain messages than other varieties. Code and message are inseparable (Muthwii, 1986). Moreover, this dynamic relationship between language attitudes, code and message makes language a powerful social force that ‘does more than convey intended referential information; for better or worse, hearers may react to linguistic and paralinguistic variation in messages as though they indicate both personal and social characteristics of the speaker’. (Cargile & Giles, 1997: 195). Whether consciously or not, a member of a speech community is subject to these shared 34

English Variety for the Public Domain in Kenya

35

norms. Indeed, a speaker’s choice of code also reflects how the person wants to appear to others on a particular occasion. The code the individual chooses does have important consequences for how s/he is viewed by others (cf. Giles & Powesland, 1975). Moreover, the sociolinguistic paradigm of variability distinguishes between individual variations and social variability. Social variability is regarded as an inherent property of linguistic systems that must be incorporated into grammatical rules. To the extent that linguistic variability is socially conditioned, its investigation depends on valid assumptions about the matrix in which it operates. Hence, it is argued that a speech community must form the starting point of linguistic analysis, not the individual speakers of a language or the linguistic competence of individuals (Labov, 1972). A speech community is defined in functional terms as a system of organised diversity held together by common norms and aspirations (Romaine, 1982). The notion can be applied to a small geographical area (Russell, 1982), or to a larger entity (Muthwii, 1994). Members of such communities typically vary with respect to certain beliefs and other aspects of behaviour and such variation shows systematic regularities at the statistical level of social facts. From the social psychological perspective on language attitudes, a speaker’s choice of code also reflects how s/he wants to appear to others. The code s/he chooses does have important consequences for how others view her/him as is apparent from various matched-guise experiments that social psychologists have done (cf. Giles & Powesland, 1975). If a person A is perfectly bidialectal in variety X and Y of the same language, how is s/he judged as a person when speaking variety X? How do the same judges evaluate A when A is speaking variety Y? In marched-guise experiments the judges are unaware that they are judging A twice and that the only variables that A is using are variety X on one occasion and variety Y on the other, and using each for the same purpose. Since the only factor that is varied is the language variety or dialect used, the responses and judgements provide group evaluations of speakers of those varieties and therefore tap social stereotypes. Experiments have shown that listeners partly judge what is said by the variety of the code the speaker chooses to use. Certain varieties are deemed more appropriate for certain messages than other varieties. Therefore, the sociolinguist working within the paradigm of variability and code choice considers social evaluations that draw on attitudes. These help linguists determine to a high degree of accuracy the power of conformity and value evoked by the use of each language used in a community. To a large extent, it is possible to point out the code that members of a community consider as possessing more prestige, more acceptability, more pleasantness and other characteristics of the speakers.

Language Varieties and Attitudes in Kenya Language norms in Kenya are closely related to the social meanings that English, Kiswahili and the ethnic languages have acquired over time. Each of these languages has certain speech domains associated with it. While Kiswahili is the national language, English is designated the official language that is supposed to be used in education, administration, the media and in many

36

New Language Bearings in Africa

other formal and informal settings. The ethnic languages have no official role in the public domain. Nonetheless, an individual’s knowledge and use of English, of necessity, interacts closely with the other two languages within his/her repertoire. English is mainly learned in formal educational settings. Because it is an important language for participation in the public domain almost all Kenyans with some education have acquired English, albeit with certain variations. In studies on New Englishes, two main parameters have been shown to determine variations in English; these are the indigenous (ethnic) language(s) of the speakers and their level of education (Bamgbose, 1982; Bokamba, 1982; Zuengler, 1982). Abdulaziz (1982) also recognises as significant a rural vs. urban speaker distinction. Given the powerful social force that attitudes have in determining conduct, there was a need first to establish the attitudes that Kenyan speakers of English have towards the English spoken at the place of work, in the education system and in the media in their country. These are considered the three most significant language domains that determine the acquisition and use of English in Kenya. Of interest in this study was not only the language used by the individuals in these contexts but also their attitudes towards the various codes within their repertoire, in particular, the variety of English used in public domains. Language in the media and education, in particular, is seen as a powerful tool in modelling language for language learners. The views and attitudes of Kenyans toward the varieties of English have been used in this paper to argue for a recognisable variety of English that could justifiably be called standard Kenyan English. The persuasion in this paper is that when speakers’ attitudes are known and well understood, language planning and implementation in education, for example, is better achieved, making it possible for most Kenyans to happily use the English language more constructively in public domains. Study sample and method Subjects were classified according to (1) education, (2) ethnic language, and (3) urban/rural setting. The sample was drawn from five ethnic groups: Gikuyu, Luo, Luhya, Kalenjin and Kikamba. These are representative of Kenyan English speakers in terms of numbers (they comprise more than 50% of the Kenyan total population) and secondly, in terms of language typology they represent the three main language types – Bantu, Nilotes and Para-nilotes. On the education parameter, we have considered speakers from the three levels of education; primary, secondary and university. Finally, our sample has equal representation of rural and urban speakers. Two main methods were used for data collection for the general study; taperecording and direct measurement (questionnaire). The issues discussed in this paper draw from the information collected using the questionnaire. The questionnaire directly sought the respondents’ language evaluation, language preferences, desirability and reasons for using a particular language or variety; it analysed trends in evaluations of social groups who use a particular variety; and it observed patterns of self-reports concerning language use. To ensure that we had a large enough sample for this direct measurement,

English Variety for the Public Domain in Kenya

37

more than 300 questionnaires were distributed, of which 210 were used for this study (cf. Milroy, 1987). The questionnaires were distributed evenly among the three educational levels, the five ethnic groups and the urban/rural dichotomy. For the majority of the primary school graduates, we had to administer the questionnaire orally and record their responses. Their language proficiency was quite low in that they could hardly interact meaningfully with the questionnaires without help from the researchers. The responses to the general questionnaire were analysed statistically to establish the majority view concerning English as used in Kenya and to find out the variety that is preferred for use in the formal domains such as school, law courts, media and so on. Any variations among the various variables identified for this research were carefully noted.

Results of the Study The place of work The information in Tables 1 and 2 suggests that English is the unrivalled language at the place of work, both in urban and rural areas. While the use of English in the work place in the urban areas is very high as compared with that of Kiswahili, we observe that in both contexts, the use of ethnic languages (L1) in the place of work is minimal, irrespective of the ethnic language region. On average, the use of English in the work place in the urban areas is quite high (73%) as compared with the rural areas (57%). Kiswahili generally trails behind English to the same extent in both contexts. Generally, the Luhya community reports no room for L1 at the place of work. The language pracTable 1 Language choice at work: Percentages according to ethnic group (rural respondents)

Eng. Kisw. L1 Eng/Kis Kis./L1 L1/Eng. No response

Luo

Luhya

Gikuyu

Kikamba

Kalenjin

Avg % score

75 4.2 12.3 8.3 — — —

79 16.7 — 4.2 — — —

50 29 12.3 — — 8.3 —

37.5 12.3 20.8 16.8 4.2 4.2 4.2

41.7 37.5 8.3 4.2 4.2 — 4.2

56.6 20 10.7 6.7 1.7 2.5 1.7

Table 2 Language choice at work: Percentages according to ethnic group (urban respondents)

Eng. Kisw L1 Eng./Kisw Kis/L1

Luo

Luhya

Gikuyu

Kikamba

Kalenjin

Avg % score

64.3 7.1 7.1 21.4 —

68.3 25 — — 6.3

68.3 25 — 6.3 —

81.3 6.3 — 12.5 —

81.3 12.5 — — 6.3

72.7 15.1 1.4 8 2.5

38

New Language Bearings in Africa

tices of a given ethnic group could show significant differences between urban and rural contexts. For example, Kikamba rural speakers report the lowest percentage of use of English at the place of work and the highest use of ethnic language in this domain in rural areas, while their urban counterparts not only have the highest proportion of English but no room for L1 at work. Indeed, the Kikamba rural respondents also reported the highest occurrence of code switching at the place of work. For the Kalenjin sample, the choice between English and Kiswahili is about the same in rural areas but is definitely in favour of English in urban contexts. The use of L1 in the place of work in urban contexts is negligible for all ethnic groups but clearly present in rural contexts for all the ethnic groups except the Luhya speakers. Overall, there was not much difference in language choice depending on the education level of the speakers between rural and urban samples. The following observations sum up the choices given the level of education of the speakers: (1) The use of English at work increases with the increase of education at quite similar proportions in both samples. The rural sample, for example, showed 35% of primary school graduates use English, 50% of the secondary level graduates, and 85% of university graduates. Conversely, the use of Kiswahili at work decreases with the increase of education; the urban data showed a sharper decrease from one category to another. (2) While 15% of both primary and secondary level graduates in the rural sample reported using L1 at the place of work, there were hardly any cases at the university level. (3) Primary and especially secondary school graduates showed a greater range of choices in the language for work than university graduates who predominantly use English at the place of work in both rural and urban contexts. In general, there was more variation in the choice of language for work the lower the educational level of a speaker is. (4) The range of language choice by urban speakers is very limited. English is used by the majority (73%) while a few (15%) choose Kiswahili or a mixture of the two (7.6%). When the respondents were asked to give the reasons for their choice of code at the place of work, they enumerated them as indicated below: (1) English: English is the official language of the workplace, therefore, the expected language. Its use creates integration among people from different ethnic groups. Where English was not chosen it was either because the respondent was not fluent in the language or because his/her work involved dealing with subordinate staff whose proficiency in English was claimed to be lower. (2) Kiswahili: Those who chose to use Kiswahili as the language of work said that their work involved dealing with subordinate staff or directly with the public and claimed that Kiswahili was the expected language in these domains. The choice of Kiswahili was also linked to the multi-ethnic nature of the workplace; Kiswahili has a unifying effect. (3) Mother tongue: In the few cases where an ethnic language was used at the workplace, it was in rural contexts and/or the respondent dealt with

English Variety for the Public Domain in Kenya

39

the general public directly. A good example of such a case was a graduate agricultural officer at Wamunyu market in Machakos district. At school Respondents were asked to identify the variety of English used in the schools attended by members of their families and to give their views on the same. From Table 3 overleaf we observe that there is a great deal of divergence in the views of respondents as to the variety of English used in their local schools. However, apart from both rural and urban Luo communities and urban Gikuyu speakers, the majority of speakers identified the ethnically marked (E-Marked) variety as the one used in their schools. This is the variety of English that exhibits salient linguistic features associated with the ethnic language of a speaker. While the majority of rural Luo and urban Gikuyu speakers felt that the native English variety is the one used in their schools, urban Luo speakers considered the non-ethnically marked (non-E-marked) English as the variety used. This is English that does not identify its speaker as hailing from any of Kenya’s ethnic languages. Going by the perceptions of the respondents, we also note from the above that even urban areas have E-marked varieties of English, probably because most urban residents are immigrants from rural contexts. We also noted that the choice does not necessarily have much to do with the level of education of the speaker. Respondents were also asked how happy they were with the variety of English used in the schools attended by members of their families. The responses from urban respondents were more or less the same across language groups; there were equal numbers of speakers happy as those unhappy. There were significant differences, however, between rural speakers across the language groups as seen in Table 4. Interestingly, those who indicated dissatisfaction were mainly the same people that had thought that the E-marked variety of English was the one used in their local schools. This explains why the Luo speakers have a high percentage of satisfied users of English due to what they perceive as the variety used in their schools. It is noteworthy too that in all the language groups, the dissatisfied respondents preferred the non-E-marked and not the native English variety. Only in a few cases was the native English variety preferred. The language of the teacher Both rural and urban respondents from all the language groups predominantly preferred a teacher who uses the non-E-marked variety as shown in Table 5. The table also indicates the common reasons for the choice of that variety of English. Some of the commonest reasons for preferring the non-E-marked variety included concerns for ease and effectiveness in communication, the possession of a neutral identity and independent philosophy, the indication of proficiency and naturalness in one’s speech (see Table 5 for details). In the rural context, the slight deviation from the dominant preference was mainly observed among respondents with only primary education of whom a few preferred the E-marked English variety. When native English was preferred among urban

(a) E-marked (b) Non-E-marked (c) Native English (d) Mixture (a, b) (e) Other

Variety of English

61% 26% 4% 7% —

Kalenjin 71% 25% 4% — —

Kikamba 54% 21% 21% 4% —

Gikuyu

Rural 4% 38% 58% — —

Luo 44% 40% 4% 8% 4%

Luhy

Table 3 Respondents’ identification of the English used in Kenyan schools

56% 38% 6% — —

Kalenjin 68% 25% 0% 6% —

Kikamba

0% 38% 56% 6% —

Gikuyu

Urban Luo 29% 57% 14% — —

56% 25% 13% 6% —

Luhy

40 New Language Bearings in Africa

English Variety for the Public Domain in Kenya

41

Table 4 Contentment with the existing variety in schools (rural respondents) Responses Yes No

Kalenjin

Gikuyu

Kamba

Luyha

Luo

32% 68%

62% 38%

26% 74%

46% 54%

71% 29%

respondents it was more often by respondents with a university education. The main reasons had to do with a striving to communicate with and like people from without Kenya. The media When the respondents were asked to indicate the variety of English they would like to hear or see used in the media, they overwhelmingly chose the non-E-marked variety for more or less similar reasons as those observed in relation to English in education. As can be noted in Table 6, there is only a slight difference in the preferences of rural speakers as compared with urban ones. English that exhibits intelligence and confidence Sociolinguists’ analysis of discourse based on speech of multilingual speakers (cf. Muthwii, 1986; Myers-Scotton, 1993; Scotton, 1983) demonstrate that intelligence, ambition, expertness and confidence in many formerly colonised parts of the world are attributes that have been associated with the use of the English language vis-a`-vis the use of ethnic languages. Over the years, as English was used as a language of power in these regions, these attributes became part of the social meaning of the English language. With the varieties of English that have emerged in these regions, it was the objective of this research to establish which variety of English in the Kenyan speech community carried these attributes. Respondents’ choices of the variety that carries these attributes are as shown in Tables 7 and 8. Table 7 deals with the variety the respondents perceive to be used by successful professionals. Both rural and urban speakers mainly consider the non-E-marked variety as the one used by successful professionals like lawyers, doctors, engineers and successful business people. For each language group, however, the research showed that the opinions of urban speakers on this question are not as divergent from one another as those exhibited by rural speakers. Moreover, the bulk of the divergent views by rural speakers and to a lesser extent those of urban speakers are observable at the lower levels of education. The higher the level of education of a speaker the more convergent his/her assessment is of language use issues with those of other members of that group. This may be an indication that either the speakers with less education are ill-informed on the identity and characteristics of the variety of English used by the professionals or that the professionals who live among these people exhibit a wide repertoire of the varieties of English. Could it be, for instance, that professionals who operate in rural contexts use all three major varieties in their speech than do their urban counterparts? We also note that the Non E-Marked variety significantly features in the respondents’ responses when we consider also the views of the speakers shown in (d), (e) and (f) in Table 7.

42

New Language Bearings in Africa

Table 5 The variety of language admired in a teacher Variety of English

Rural

Urban

4%

3%

(b) Non-Emarked

83%

78%

• It is clearly understood by all, while the native English variety is not understandable by Kenyans. It is too ‘deep’ and is impossible to attain because of mother tongue interference. • The non-E-marked is easy to use when expressing oneself and does not embarrass one. It does not give away the tribe of the speaker; hence, one can feel comfortable in carrying on conversation with people from other tribes and cultures; no cultural biases, no nepotism, no misunderstandings by other ethnic groups. It brings unity. • The ethnic-marked variety is difficult to follow and is not good for a child. • The non-E-marked variety enables the child to develop his own philosophy devoid of tribal or racial considerations. It is a variety that increases teacher’s efficiency. • It has correct pronunciation and grammar. It shows proper mastery of the language, while the ethnic variety shows a lack of knowledge of English. • It is a tool for communication with all people beyond Kenya. It is understood by majority of Kenyans. • It appears (sounds) natural; it is better than foreign accents and is not an imitation of white man’s speech. It is African and with good, clearer pronunciation. Those who use the native English variety are pretenders.

(c) Native English

10%

16%

• The native variety will help in communication with foreigners. It is fluent. • It is the best, the original and understandable. We should strive to speak the native speaker’s standard. I want my child to speak like the English. • It is used worldwide. • It is good for teaching.

(d) Combination of (b) and (c)

3%

1%

(e) Other

0%

2%

(a) E-marked

Reasons for choice • It identifies speaker with one’s African roots. • The child will better understand and interact with the teacher. It is most readily learnt.

• It is real and still close to native English.

English Variety for the Public Domain in Kenya

43

Table 6 Respondents choice on the best language for media Variety of English

Rural

(a) E-marked

13%

7%

(b) Non-Emarked

71%

71%

• All users easily understand it. It is clear and straightforward not as exaggerated as native English. If the native English or the E-marked variety is used, one may not understand some words. The non-E-marked variety disadvantages no Kenyan. It is fluent and sounds Kenyan and it shows sincerity. It is English that has no modification. It does not ape British English. • The non-E-marked variety is more realistic and it is comfortable and is the midway. It teaches correct pronunciation and grammar. It assists the mastery of language because broadcasters are the models of Kenya. • It brings national consciousness and unity. It is standard English that has no mother tongue influence. TV and radio should have a national outlook not ethnic outlook. The non-E-marked variety is neutral, accent free and does not arouse tribal sentiments, biases or hatred. Ethnicity is not highlighted. • It shows eloquence and professionalism. It reflects international commonness and social balance while the E-marked shows backwardness and lack of progress. It is articulate. It does not bore the listeners.

(c) Native English

12%

20%

• It is the best variety that can draw the attention of listeners, irrespective of where they come from in the world. There are many types of people listening to TV or radio. It sounds more entertaining, livelier. • It is well spoken and listeners can imitate it, it has no mistakes since it is from the native speakers. Native speakers taught most of the scholars who use it so the scholars can act as models. One sounds more learned. It uplifts Kenyan standards in language use. • The accent is clear and most people understand it. It has better expressive power. It is authentic, the original. • So that foreigners can understand and know that the speaker has the right English.

—

• It is real and still close to native English. It appeals to both the local and wider world.

(d) Combination of (b) and (c)

3%

(e) Other

1%

Urban

2%

Reasons for choice • One can understand everything because it is closer to mine. The ethnic influence makes it ‘Kenyanised’.

44

New Language Bearings in Africa

Table 7 The identity of the English variety used by successful professionals Variety of English (a) E-marked (b) Non-E-marked (c) Native English (d) Combination of (a), (b) and (c) (e) Combination of (b) and (c) (f) Combination of (a) and (b)

Urban

Rural

5% 62% 29% — 3% 1%

4% 68% 24% 2% 1% 1%

Table 8 English that best marks intelligence, confidence, ambition and expertness The language of intelligent speakers (a) E-Marked (b) Non-E-marked (c) Native English (d) Combination of (a), (b) and (c) (e) Combination of (a) and (b) (f) None of the above varieties

Rural %

Urban %

6 73 18 2 — 1

1 67 24 3 3 2

On the specific question of the best language they consider to exhibit intelligence and confidence, most respondents in both social settings see the nonE-marked variety, rather than the native English variety, as the best variety that marks these social traits. While we note the few that considered the native English variety as the best choice, it is also observed that the core of divergence in the opinions of both urban and rural populations on this issue lay with the lowly educated respondents, a situation very similar to that already observed on the language of education and successful professionals. Prestige Generally, the majority of urban speakers in all language groups believed that Kenyans admired or thought prestigious the native English variety. Likewise, most Luo rural respondents and to a lesser extent the Gikuyu and Kamba respondents held this belief too. In contrast, the majority of Kalenjin and Luhya rural speakers believed that it was the non-E-marked variety that was most admired by Kenyans. Table 9 shows this polarisation in the beliefs of rural and urban speakers. It also shows the degree of difference in opinion between people with secondary education and those with university education. Table 9 Variety of English admired by Kenyans/the most beautiful variety of English to speak The English variety admired by most Kenyans

Rural %

Urban %

Secondary %

University %

(a) E-marked (b) Non-E-marked (c) Native English (d) Combination of (b) and (c) (e) Combination of (a) and (b) (f) None of the above varieties

6 53 37 1 — 3

1 35 62 1 — 1

4 41 55 — — —

3 48 47 2 — —

English Variety for the Public Domain in Kenya

45

We see that in Kenya there is not a significant difference brought about by educational differences of respondents on this issue, rather, differences are seen more when the urban/rural dichotomy is used. However, when there is any difference, the tendency in many cases is for the respondents with secondary education to move toward the native English variety more than their university counterparts. The majority of the speakers from all the language groups considered the non-E-marked variety to be the most beautiful English to speak. Whenever rural respondents named the E-marked variety as the most beautiful it was because they thought it was closer to their accent, a response similar to that of some rural Kamba speakers who said they preferred the same variety for media. Speakers’ assessment of their own speech The respondents were given a chance to evaluate their own speech when asked if ever they used English that could lead listeners to guess the ethnic language group that they (the respondents) came from. Although speakers’ perceptions of the language they believe they speak are not foolproof (Milroy, 1987), presumably their responses can still be used to get an idea of what speakers do or do not accept to be associated with. Speakers’ perceptions of self can create a force that enables the individuals to move linguistically in a given direction in the acquisition and use of language. Hence in this research we observe that there is such a marked difference in the evaluations of self between one group and another (Table 10). While many members of some communities clearly perceive themselves as using the E-marked variety of English some like the rural and urban Luo speakers think otherwise. Table 10 Speakers’ perceptions of whether they use E-marked variety or not Response Yes No

Kalenjin

Gikuyu

Kamba

Luhya

Luo

71% 29%

65% 35%

63% 37%

43% 57%

23% 77%

Table 11 Places and times when E-marked English is used Type of environment reason

Respondents’ remarks

Social gatherings

In meetings in my home area. At home. When making fun and imitating others, especially those who speak with mother tongue influence. When with friends. In drinking places when tongues slip in relaxed moments. When addressing my ethnic group. With age mates. Outside office. I can’t help it. It is the natural English I know. Certain words betray one’s tongue. When serving customers. In class to ‘connect’ with students. During political campaigns. Places with lowly educated people. When annoyed in private or in public.

Linguistic ineptness Customer orientation Emotionally charged

46

New Language Bearings in Africa

For some speakers, examples of times and places where they thought they used E-marked English included such settings as ‘at all places and times’, ‘every time I use English’, ‘in class and also in the office’. Categories and details of respondents’ responses are further indicated in Table 11. From these divergent views, it is only enough to indicate that the places and times when respondents use E-marked English were numerous. They covered non-formal contexts mainly but many indicated that it occurred even in domains that would otherwise be designated as contexts for formal language use.

Discussion Although in a general way the language used in the public domain in Kenya is a product of the historical language policies, much of the actual identity of the language(s) used is a product of the interaction of the ethnicity factor, the rural–urban dichotomy, and the attitudes that Kenyans have toward the languages within their repertoire. The use of some languages or their varieties makes them feel ‘comfortable’ or ‘uncomfortable’, ‘secure and confident’ or threatened, able to follow and participate in conversations/interactions or disadvantaged or cut off altogether. While such reactions to languages and accents are common to all communities they are especially important to recognise in language contact situations, more so in communities where individuals still identify themselves in terms of their ethnicity. As Scherer and Giles (1979) argue, attitudes and views significantly contribute to the socio-psychological processes that ultimately determine what a people accept and strife to possess or what ‘puts them off’. These are aspects of attitude that could be exploited by education systems to enhance language learning and use. As seen from respondents’ attitudes, English is still seen as an important language for participation in the public domain in Kenya. Together with Kiswahili, the two languages form the languages used in the media, education and places of work. Earlier research on language use in Kenya showed the two languages functioning in a non-ideal diglossic relationship whereby their functional roles overlapped considerably (Abdulaziz, 1982). While this is still true to some extent, the findings of this research differ from those of Abdulaziz in that there is no significant overlap between Kiswahili and English in the place of work. Tables 1 and 2 show that English is predominantly the language of the workplace both in the rural and the urban areas; the language policy that designates English as the official language was quoted as the main factor determining the choice of language to be used in the workplace. Respondents could clearly distinguish between E-marked and non-Emarked varieties of English taking note of what they considered to be ‘good’ characteristics of the English they prefer. A majority of speakers do not appreciate being identified with their ethnic languages when speaking English; they desire to fit in or be associated with a wider world than their own ethnic ones. With regard to the non-E-marked varieties of English, we note that the reasons for choosing the various varieties of English either for education or for media are closely related and signal certain factors that are important to the majority of Kenyan speakers of English. For example, many of them indicated that to be able to understand messages/information in

English Variety for the Public Domain in Kenya

47

English is important. Obstacles to such understanding may arise because of pronunciations or grammars that are foreign to the speaker of English. The non-E-marked English is seen as correct in both these parameters. Accents that cannot be understood or grammatical structures that cannot communicate meaning are a hindrance to language learning and usage. The non-E-marked English (and not native English), therefore, apart from being seen to have the correct pronunciation and grammar is also seen to symbolise a ‘wider world identity’. It is also noted from respondents’ views that the use of a given language gives a user a sense of security and confidence. Since there is still a significant place for English in Kenya today, prudence suggests that varieties of English whose usage embarrass a speaker may not be the appropriate English to propagate for the public domain. When peoples’ attitudes are at variance with the norms that a given education system expects of the learners, trouble occurs. No wonder a trait associated with many children in Kenyan schools is passiveness and silence in class (Rockefeller Foundation, 2001). It is possible that many such learners find the norms too unattainable. They either do not have the liberty or ability to express themselves or are uncomfortable with the expectations of using an English that has little resemblance to the variety they are acquainted with, that of the models around them. With regard to a learner’s fundamental right to feel secure and confident while learning and using a given language in education and the public domain, norms such as those propagated in the teaching, learning and use of native English appear to leave most Kenya learners and potential users feeling unsure of themselves. They are not confident to participate in the world of English. As already observed above, many Kenyans prefer linguistic neutrality when using the English language. A Kenyan image, and not an ethnic one or foreign one, is most appreciated; respondents saw this as being positive because it is difficult to practice nepotism or tribalism on an interlocutor whose tribal affiliations are not obvious from his/her speech. An English variety that enhances this factor brings about more unity than the other varieties. For language planning and implementation in education, it is significant to take note of the fact that respondents not only identified the variety of English used in the media as a tool to aid in the learning of English but also thought highly of the English used by successful professionals. If a people’s attitudes have any force in molding behaviour, then users of English in the media and successful professionals must be seen as powerful models whose English set the norms for users of English in Kenya. In terms of the direction of aspirations in Kenya, the results from this research clearly show that they are definitely not in the direction of E-marked varieties of English but significantly toward the non-E-marked variety and to a lesser extent the native English varieties. The English used by Kenyan ‘stars’ in the media and successful professionals needs to be studied, documented and used for teaching in the school system. Since the pronunciation and grammar of the non-E-marked English is clearly rated favourably by the majority of speakers, this recognisable variety could justifiably be considered as the standard Kenyan English, the variety which, in fact, is the model that speakers/learners of English approximate to when

48

New Language Bearings in Africa

using or learning English, the kind of model that the majority consider to be appropriate for use in public domains of language use.

Conclusion This study has shown the attitudes and views of users of English in Kenya towards the various varieties of English and the other languages in their repertoire. From their views we have constructed a general impression of the features of the psychological and social forces that operate in the choice of language, if indeed peoples’ attitudes are a major influence on language norms and choices. The attitudes of speakers have also been used in this paper to identify a standard variety of English in Kenya. The non-E-marked English, and not the native variety appears to be the main standard that respondents approximate to when using English. Since English is learned at school, the language of the teacher and the role of the media cannot be ignored. Neither can that of other successful professionals. They are the norm setters, the models that speakers of English in Kenya approximate to. When the specific standards of correctness and appropriateness of these key models are studied and incorporated in the education process, the use of the English language in the public domain will be made more relevant and dynamic not only for a few Kenyans, as the case is now, but for the many others who wish to participate in the world of English. Correspondence Any correspondence should be directed to Dr Angelina N. Kioko, United States International University, PO Box 14634-800, Nairobi, Kenya.

References Abdulaziz, M. (1982) Patterns of language acquisition and use in Kenya: Rural–urban differences. Journal of the Sociology of Language 34, 95–120. Bamgbose, A. (1982) Standard Nigerian English: Issues of identification. In B.B. Kachru (ed.) The Other Tongues: English Across Cultures (pp. 99–111). Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. Bokamba, E.G. (1982) The Africanisation of English. In B.B. Kachru (ed.) The Other Tongues: English Across Cultures (pp. 77–97). Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. Cargile, A.C. and Giles, H. (1997) Understanding language attitudes: Exploring listener affect and identity. Language and Communication 17 (3), 195–217. Cargile, A.C., Giles, H., Ryan, E.B. and Bradac, J.J. (1994) Language attitudes as a social process: A conceptual model and new directions. Language and Communication 14 (3), 211–236. Giles, H. and Powesland, P.F. (1975) Speech Style and Social Evaluation. London: Academic Press. Labov, W. (1972) Sociolinguistic Patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania. Milroy, L. (1987) Observing and Analysing Natural Language. Oxford: Blackwell. Muthwii, M.J. (1986) Language use in pluri-lingual communities: English–Kalenjin– Kiswahili in Kenya. Unpublished MA thesis. University of East Anglia. Muthwii, M.J. (1994) Kalenjin in Kenya: The socio-phonological interaction of an ethnic language with English and Kiswahili. Language Forum 2 (1), 1–48. Myers-Scotton, C. (1993) Social Motivation for Code-Switching: Evidence from Africa. New York: Oxford University Press. Rockfeller Foundation (2001) Language policy and practices in education in Kenya and

English Variety for the Public Domain in Kenya

49

Uganda (Perceptions of parents, pupils and teachers). Unpublished research report, August, 2001. Romaine, S. (ed.) (1982) Sociolinguistic Variation in Speech Communities. London: Edward Arnold. Russell, J. (1982) Networks and sociolinguistics variation in an African urban setting. In S. Romaine (ed.) Sociolinguistic Variation in Speech Communities (pp. 125–140). London: Edward Arnold. Ryan, E.B. and Giles, H. (1982) Attitudes Towards Language Variation. London: Edward Arnold. Scherer, K.R. and Giles, H. (1979) Social Markers in Speech. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Scotton, C.M. (1983) The negotiations of identities in conversations: A theory of markedness and code choice. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 44, 115–136. Wardhaugh, R. (1986) An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Zuengler, J.E. (1982) Kenyan English. In B.B. Kachru (ed.) The Other Tongues: English Across Cultures (pp. 112–124). Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.

The Globalisation of Communication and the African Foreign Language User Remi Sonaiya Department of Foreign Languages, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria This article discusses, from an African perspective, the two dimensions associable with the question of the globalisation of communication: the promotion of the learning of some international languages (the quantitative dimension) and the teaching and learning of communication skills (the qualitative dimension). It suggests that the time is ripe for stripping the continued use of European languages on the African continent of its historical burden of colonialism and adopting a functional approach whereby the languages are seen as performing specific functions related to modern living. A similar approach is advocated with respect to the learning of communication skills as well: they should be seen as applicable in specific contexts only and not indiscriminately to every sphere of life. In terms of the hopes being expressed in various quarters that the learning of foreign languages would contribute to promoting mutual understanding among the peoples of the world, it is claimed that only a language that is freely chosen, not imposed or felt to be threatening, could stand the chance of fulfilling such hopes.

The importance ascribed to the notion of communication within the new world order raises some fundamental questions with regard to language teaching in general, and these questions are receiving a certain amount of attention among researchers in the discipline. Roughly, there are two dimensions to this globalised communication: first, the knowledge of several (international) languages is encouraged, for it is seen as a sure way of making possible communication with people who are outside one’s own language community. The second dimension has to do with the idea of effective communication in whichever language one is using, and it is in pursuit of this goal that even native speakers seek to sharpen their communication skills in their first languages. In this paper I discuss this question of the globalisation of communication from an African perspective; that is, examine it within the context of the language issues which are pertinent and of importance on the African continent. The use of ‘African’ in a context such as this often involves a certain degree of generalisation. Of course, the African experience may be similar and the issues being contended with may bear close resemblance across the continent, but there are often significant individual variations upon what may clearly be general themes. My observations will, therefore, be largely drawn from the Nigerian situation, particularly the Yoruba people in the southwestern part of the country. Some general aspects of the language question which are of importance to Africans are the following: the rights of speakers of minority languages (and in this case all African languages qualify) in the face of the promotion of a few global ‘super languages’; the continued use, within the educational system, of European languages (it is in Africa that one finds millions of people being schooled not in their mother tongues but, rather, in languages foreign to their 50

The Globalisation of Communication

51

culture); the continuing presence of European languages as official languages of many countries and the concomitant issue of national languages; the standardisation of related languages; the question of national identities and the part which language plays in it. The discussion which follows will touch on some of these issues inasmuch as they bear on the subject that is under consideration, namely, the globalisation of communication. This paper examines the two dimensions of the globalisation of communication mentioned above, that is, the promotion of the learning of some (specific) international languages on the one hand, and that of the teaching and learning of communication skills, on the other. With respect to the first aspect, it will be shown that the fact of the continued learning and use of European languages in Africa still poses considerable problems. However, it will be suggested that a functional attitude to these languages needs to be adopted by Africans, similar to the manner in which many other citizens of the world are currently approaching the learning of foreign languages. On the learning of communication skills, the position taken will be that some caution might need to be exercised, for it is in this area that one might rightly speak of some form of cultural imperialism. The position will be reiterated that in the enterprise of foreign language learning, room for cultural and even individual preferences must be made so that the learner does not feel threatened by the target culture. In this case, communication skills may be seen as a way to enhance the functionality of a particular language variety.

Africans as Learners and Users of Global Languages The learning and use of foreign languages is a worldwide phenomenon. Early bilingual education was advocated by the Renaissance humanists, but in more recent times international organisations are reiterating that position and giving it a broader application. In 1993, a forum of UNESCO experts, hoping to help build a world which would be rid of many of the conflicts currently tearing it apart, proposed that the education of young people must include exposure to ‘a plurality of languages, religions and cultures’ (1993: 3). Over a decade earlier, the European nations had agreed, during a meeting held in Strasbourg in 1979, that bilingualism was the only reasonable option, both for the states within the European Union as well as for their citizens (UNESCO, 1980: 166). Apart from the position of governmental and non-governmental organisations who are looking to multilingualism as a means of promoting mutual understanding among the world’s peoples, foreign languages are also being learned all over the world for a variety of reasons, ranging from business to personal interest. What is peculiar in the African context, however, is that the issue of foreign languages is not a neutral one. The presence of European languages, for example English or French, on the African continent carries with it a whole historical baggage which continues to affect the users of those languages. The question of language has been a major preoccupation for many educated Africans, and literary writers have probably been the continent’s mouthpieces in this respect, expressing a variety of points of view. The basic issue is the fact that these languages did not come to be established on the

52

New Language Bearings in Africa

continent as a result of the choice of the African peoples; rather, they were imposed during the process of colonisation. The weight of this is ruthlessly captured by the statement credited to the Boer leader, Steyn, in 1913, that ‘the language of the conqueror in the mouth of the conquered is the language of slaves’ (cited in Prah, 1998), and this is what constitutes some kind of psychological burden for many an African. A writer like Ngugi Wa Thiongo came to a point where he decided to abandon the English language as his medium of expression. Others who did not go as far as giving up writing in European languages none the less frequently expressed feelings of alienation as a result of being constrained to use a language that was not truly theirs. Egejuru (1980) reports on interviews conducted with several African writers and states that many of them admit to using European languages out of compulsion, not by choice. He notes that Camara Laye sees foreign languages as being ‘indispensable as a means of communication with the outside world’ (p. 36), while Ousmane Sembene says that in order to ‘get acquainted with universal literature, I am obliged to use the French language which is my exile because deep down I exile myself when I use French’ (p. 39). One distinct difference, therefore, between the way in which foreign languages are used in Africa and in some other parts of the world is this aspect of them being used out of obligation or compulsion on the continent, while they are adopted by choice in other places. English or French in the mouth of a Dutch or Chinese national does not make the same statement as those languages in the mouth of an African. At least, that is the way that many Africans feel. However, this question needs to be looked at more carefully in order to get a clearer understanding of all the issues involved.

The Complex Nature of the Language Question One of the major points to be taken into consideration in understanding the complex issue of the language question in many African countries is the fact that the foreign languages are even being used in the education of children. This is considered as particularly worrisome to many who believe that early education should be in the pupil’s mother tongue. In Nigeria, for example, experiments have been conducted on mother tongue education (notably the project done at the Obafemi Awolowo University in the 1970s), but in spite of the acclaimed successes the fact remains that the majority of parents simply do not want their children to be schooled in Yoruba or some other Nigerian language but rather in English which, they believe, would stand them in better stead for their future professional development. The effect of the use of English in early education is that there is now a considerable proportion of the Nigerian citizenry who are practically illiterate in their mother tongues. For example, it could be estimated roughly that about 30% of the undergraduates in Nigerian universities are unable to read or write in their mother tongues or are only able to do so with difficulty – and the trend is worsening. To complicate matters further, a high level of competence is not being attained either in the English language, given the economic woes of the country which have led to a drastic fall in standards in the educational system. What we have at the end of the day is large numbers of people who

The Globalisation of Communication

53

do not achieve a very high degree of competence either in their native languages or in their second language. Furthermore, the importance of the role played by European languages can also only be properly understood when seen in the light of the tensions which usually exist among the different ethnic and linguistic communities within the African countries. In the context of subtle or more obvious rivalry among the ethnic groups, each with its own language, the European language, which is perceived as neutral and non-partisan, is often given preference. In Nigeria, for instance, the members of a particular ethnic community might more readily accept among them an English-speaking person (or a speaker of some other foreign language) than they would someone speaking a Nigerian language different from theirs. Thus, while there is considerable dissatisfaction with the fact of being compelled to keep on learning and using the foreign languages left behind by the former colonial masters, those same languages are seen, in some sense, as a saving grace, as a way of ‘resolving’ or, at least, glossing over the very thorny issue of the relationship (e.g. relative status) between the various competing languages within a particular country. To add to the complexity Egejuru (1980: 54) notes that Wa Thiongo, when asked if he thought that African languages would some day come to replace the European ones being used on the continent, had replied: ‘I think English is only a stopgap; it will not be used always. It is not a language that expresses the people’s culture. I see it as a temporary phenomenon that is dying’. Wa Thiongo was obviously mistaken for, in the 20 years since those words were spoken, English has clearly not shown itself to be a dying phenomenon; rather, it has come to be established even more firmly as the world’s most widely used language. Language and culture Another point needs to be discussed before I move on to the second aspect of the matter under consideration, and it follows from all that has been said so far on the very fact of learning and using European languages in Africa. What comfortable position could Africans take and what attitudes could be adopted which might help them come to terms with this reality? Starting from Wa Thiongo’s statement quoted in the preceding paragraph – ‘[English] is not a language that expresses the people’s culture’ – it would seem as if the assumption was that any language acquired was doomed except it became a vehicle for the expression of culture. A similar point is made in Prah (1998: 2): It is in language that people find their mental home, their definitional relationship to the external world. What this also means is that people can hardly be themselves in an idiom in which they have difficulty understanding or expressing themselves. They can barely be creative and innovative in a language they have to struggle with in order to command expression. There is no doubt that language is the vehicle of expression of a people’s culture and the window through which they understand the world and are

54

New Language Bearings in Africa

themselves understood. Prah’s statement could be used, for example, to defend the use of the mother tongue in early education; having to learn in a language that has not yet been properly mastered could itself constitute a hindrance to learning. However, it does not seem justifiable to assume that every acquired language has to become an identity language – which is what Wa Thiongo seems to be saying. It must be recognised that different languages spoken by an individual may serve different purposes in that person’s life. Adopting a functionalist approach to foreign language learning and use may therefore help to resolve some long-standing, thorny issues for Africans. It is this approach that Amin Maalouf advocates in his very important work, Les identite´s meurtrie`res (1998), in which he states, for instance, that every modern person needs at least three languages: first, the mother tongue or heart language; in the third position English, and in-between those two, another language, freely chosen, based on the individual’s specific needs or interests. Functions of language Very briefly, I wish to identify some of the functionality criteria that could be used to argue for the use of some particular language in a particular sphere of activity. What is needful is for Africans to recognise that multilingualism is on the increase in the world today. Several countries have adopted policies which promote the teaching and learning of languages not found within their borders, and there are countless educational institutions requiring their students to pass a foreign language examination as a condition for graduation, because they have concluded that those languages would be useful to them in some domain of activity. Such a perception of the language question could be beneficial to Africans as well. A basic function that needs to be performed by a language is that of identity. That each individual needs an identity language, one in which they feel completely ‘at home’ does not need to be argued for. This, most frequently, is the mother tongue, but does not have to be. In the experience of many people the identity language is usually associated with particular competences, for example, praying, telling jokes or counting. In African societies, the identity language could perform a very important function in the area of adult literacy programmes. This point is underscored by Govan Mbeki in his foreword to Prah’s book, already mentioned. Given the very high levels of illiteracy in Africa (up to or more than 50% in many areas), African languages have a key role to play in combating this ‘disease’. Secondly, the world in which we live now is such that the need has been felt by many for a ‘one-language-does-all’, which would enable people with different backgrounds to interact in a variety of settings: hold meetings, send e-mail, chat over a business meal, send text messages on their mobile phones, and so forth. English has evolved as that language and is being learned all over the world. For example, Hu (2002: 93) states that in the Republic of China the English language over ‘the last quarter century % has been gaining importance and popularity at an accelerated rate’. Thus, for Africans who have had to learn English as a second language, they could actually see their position

The Globalisation of Communication

55

as an advantage. The whole world seems to agree that they need English; many Africans possess it already and should simply make the best use of it. The third function which a language may have in an individual’s life is to allow for personal development in a given area of interest. Again, this may be a direct consequence of the kind of world we are living in now: a world without borders, making available information on all kinds of topics, places and objects and allowing the development of interests in all these spheres. Many people are now learning foreign languages for such reasons: for example, a Brazilian desirous of discovering her Yoruba roots decides to learn the language of the Yoruba people; a doctor who wishes to join Me´decins sans Frontie`res in bringing relief to a particular region starts to learn the language spoken in that region; or someone watches a TV programme on Egyptian art and decides to pick up Arabic. This is an area where many Africans already have a certain degree of experience, and which they may share with the rest of the world. One of the effects of the linguistic diversity in African countries is that it brings people into contact on a regular basis with different languages, and this produces a certain openness towards others. The result is that people tend to acquire several languages. It is not unusual to find, for example in Nigeria, people who speak three, four or five of the nation’s languages. However, Africans themselves need to jealously guard this heritage of openness which, most unfortunately, has been greatly compromised by all the fraticidal wars that have ravaged their countries in the past few decades. Indeed, the point I wish to make here is that it is at the level of this ‘third’ language (second for Amin Maalouf, 1998) that the hopes for promoting mutual understanding through the learning of languages may truly be realised. This can really not be achieved at the level of the learning of the English language, for example, which now has a clearly defined function for it to perform in modern society and which is also extremely prone to accusations of imperialism (as will be seen in the following section). It is at the level of a language that is freely chosen, not seen to be imposed, that any real gains could possibly be made and ‘the potential contribution of the field of applied linguistics to mutual understanding’ (Boxer, 2002: 150) could stand the chance of becoming reality.

The Question of Communication Skills We come now to examine the matter of the teaching of ‘communication skills’ with a view to enhancing effectiveness in communication. As was mentioned earlier, this is the area where one might rightly accuse some proponents of certain teaching methods of cultural imperialism. Cameron (2002) states, for example, that some professionals who teach communication skills take as being objectively superior qualities which in reality are nothing but cultural preferences of modern-day, white, Anglo-Saxon Americans. These practitioners, according to her, promote ‘particular interactional norms, genres and speech-styles across languages on the grounds that they are maximally “effective” for purposes of “communication”’ (p. 69). Thus, for them, using ‘direct speech’ in conversation should not only be taught to, say, Japanese learners of English, but these same learners should be encouraged to apply this norm

56

New Language Bearings in Africa

to Japanese as well. Cameron’s article makes the point clearly against this kind of position and raises most of the relevant questions which need to be addressed. One or two other issues will be addressed here. First, there are accusations of imperialism which are not well-founded and which should not be confused with the type being discussed in this section. For example, Zaid (1999) comments on the contents of some EFL textbooks and decries the references to cultural elements which might be offensive to learners from a different culture. I believe such accusations to be unfounded, since the choice of a textbook to be used for a particular group of learners does not depend on the textbook’s authors, but on the teachers and learners. They are the ones to judge whether a particular textbook is appropriate or not. The textbooks which Zaid finds offensive are most probably not intended for the learners in his own part of the world at all but for those whose cultural realities and values are not too different from the ones depicted in the textbooks. It is untenable to demand that people not reflect their own cultural values in a teaching manual because these might offend some potential user of the manual. This is not the sort of case where one can correctly levy the accusation of the ‘foisting of hegemonic Anglo-American culture on the world’ (Zaid, 1999: 111 – quotation credited to Bex, 1994). Varieties of communication The issue of the teaching and learning of communication skills, however, is different and demands more careful thought. Inasmuch as these communication skills are being taught as indiscriminately applicable to all spheres of life, then there is a real danger in them. Cameron (2002: 80) points out that the practice has its roots in ‘Western modernity with its rational, goal-oriented and individualistic outlook’ and might even be tantamount to a desire to mechanise the human being by ensuring the same automatic response in all similar situations. For Africans, and indeed for the rest of the world as well, it is important to have a clear view of what is at stake here, just as it is in the case of the learning of foreign languages. The communications skills being offered may well be useful, but possibly only in performing certain functions associated with the fast-paced, information-saturated lifestyle of (some) modern human beings. I see them particularly useful for conducting opinion polls, telephone interviews, talk shows and the like, where the important point is to obtain information and not necessarily to genuinely interact with another person. Where honest, sincere interaction is involved, as among friends and loved ones, or even between teachers and their students, it would be a great pity to start to focus on some manipulative communication skill. One wonders whether part of the effect of this ‘skills’ learning is not the growing sense one has of many people coming across as highly superficial or even downright fake! Africans should beware. What the foregoing means, effectively, is that speakers of a language may well apply communications skills for a specific purpose in a given context, but switch the skills button off when interacting in another context, still in the same language. That is, one might ultimately question the impression that

The Globalisation of Communication

57

is given that the communication skills are based on the cultural preferences of speakers of the English language. It seems that it would be more appropriate, instead, to see them as either the preferences of a particular class of English speakers (possibly, those with a penchant for hype and showmanship), and it would be unfair to all the other normal, regular speakers of English to paint them all as belonging to that category. In concluding this section, I would like to mention the concern expressed by Kramsch and Thorne (2002) in respect of the type of communication which foreign language learners are engaging in over the Internet. They state that while the Internet was seen at first as a tool which could provide learners with authentic material and interaction with native speakers, it would appear as if the expected communicative goals were not being achieved. According to these authors: (Kramsch & Thorne, 2002: 83) whereas communicative language teaching was predicated on the authentic exchange of information and the development of mutual crosscultural understanding % computer-mediated interaction seems to favour phatic contact and favourable presentation of self. Indeed % students are certainly engaged in communication. But has the communication led to any new understanding? A point needs to be made here, namely, that communication via the Internet is precisely one of those contexts in which communication skills could be properly applied. The objectives of such communication, in the context of foreign language learning, could really not be to promote a normal kind of communication among the learners on both sides, since the context is stripped of elements like gestures, tone of voice and facial expressions, which play an important role in regular interactions. It should be no surprise, therefore, that Internet communication for language learning purposes would be phatic. Indeed, learners should really be taught the skills needed for this kind of communication.

Conclusion The question of foreign language learning being able to contribute to mutual understanding is one which preoccupies many these days. However, there is substantial dissatisfaction because not much progress is being made. This seems to be an indication that the whole enterprise needs to be examined more closely. Communication among people is generally assumed to be a good thing, and it is happening on a global scale. But how is it to be pursued? I have examined in this paper both the quantitative and the qualitative sides of the globalisation of communication from the African perspective. My position is that Africans need to come to terms with their past, especially with respect to their continued use of European languages. A way of doing this, it was suggested, is to focus on the functional roles that each of the languages they use plays in different spheres of their lives. In terms of the promotion of understanding among the peoples of the world, it was claimed that a language freely chosen and not imposed stood the best chance of achieving this. The matter of the teaching and learning of communication skills was also discussed. Again, a functional approach was advocated as the only one which

58

New Language Bearings in Africa

could make it acceptable, with the skills seen as making possible the performing of certain specific functions. Communication skills would not take up a person’s entire existence or become part of the person’s culture but would be applied in particular contexts. As Sonaiya (2002) indicates, cultural neutrality is a myth. This does not mean, however, that one could not recognise that a particular culture’s ways of doing things might be better suited to a specific context. Such ways could be adopted, but without any threat to one’s overall manner of behaviour. Finally, sincerity, honesty and authenticity may well be very important elements to consider in this matter of the globalisation of communication. A lot of communication may well be going on at the global level, but most of it may continue to be less than satisfactory inasmuch as it puts so much emphasis on predetermined, non-authentic norms. Correspondence Any correspondence should be directed to Dr Remi Sonaiya, Department of Foreign Languages, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. References Bex, A.R. (1994) The problem of culture and English language teaching in Europe. International Review of Applied Linguistics 32 (1), 57–67. Boxer, D. (2002) Discourse issues in cross-cultural pragmatics. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 22, 150–67. Cameron, D. (2002) Globalization and the teaching of ’communication skills’. In D. Block and D. Cameron (eds) Globalization and Language Teaching. London: Routledge. Egejuru, P.A. (1980) Towards African Literary Independence. Westport: Greenwood Press. Hu, G. (2002) Potential cultural resistance to pedagogical imports: The case of communicative language teaching in China. Language, Culture and Curriculum 15 (2), 93–105. Kramsch, C. and Thorne, S.L. (2002) Foreign language learning as global communicative practice. In D. Block and D. Cameron (eds) Globalization and Language Teaching. London: Routledge. Maalouf, A. (1998) Les Identite´s Meurtrie`res. Paris: Bernard Grasset. Prah, K.K. (1998) Between Distinction and Extinction: The Harmonisation and Standardisation of African Languages. Witwatersrand: Witwatersrand University Press. Sonaiya, R. (2002) Autonomous language learning in Africa: A mismatch of cultural assumptions. Language, Culture and Curriculum 15 (2), 106–16. UNESCO (1980) Introduction aux e´tudes interculturelles. Paris: UNESCO. UNESCO (1993) Considerations of the results of the deliberations of the Ad Hoc Forum of Reflection. Report No. 142 EX/37. Paris: UNESCO. Zaid, M.A. (1999) Cultural confrontation and cultural acquisition in the EFL classroom. International Review of Applied Linguistics 37 (2), 111–26.

Linguistic Human Rights in Africa: Challenges and Prospects for Indigenous Languages in Kenya Paul M. Musau Kiswahili Department, Kenyatta University, PO Box 43844, Nairobi, Kenya With reference to Kenya, the paper shows that although linguistic rights have been eloquently articulated in various charters and declarations, their implementation has been problematic. In Africa this has led to an imbalance of status between the former colonial languages and the indigenous ones. This imbalance is evident in the educational systems and in media practice. This state of affairs is attributed to lack of clear-cut democratic language policies, lack of programmes of policy implementation, negative attitudes towards indigenous languages and the complex language situation that obtains in many African countries. It is recommended that a guiding vision and a plan of action for implementing linguistic rights are necessary if linguistic justice is to prevail in Africa.

Linguistic human rights are aimed at the promotion of linguistic justice and the removal or prevention of linguistic inequalities or injustices that may occur because of language (Phillipson et al., 1994: 1). The benefits accruing from the implementation of these rights include the right to individual and collective identity. As Philipson et al. (1994: 7) explain it, this is the right to be different, the right to identify with one’s mother tongue, to learn it and to have education through it and to use it. To be sure, linguistic rights also include the right of an individual to learn other languages including the official language or languages that are used in a particular area so that the individual can participate in the social, political and economic processes of a given geopolitical entity. These rights have also been defined in some sources to include ‘major languages of global communication’, which can enable people to ‘access power and information sharing in the twenty first century’ and to ‘bridge the gap between the rich and the poor countries’ (Hurst & Lansdell, 1999: 3). Linguistic rights also enable a person to access information and knowledge, particularly basic scientific and technical knowledge (see Phillipson & Skutnabb-Kangas, 1994: 344). In short, as formulated by UNESCO, linguistic rights are important for an individual’s ‘development’, which has been defined as the process of ‘increasing and enhancing human capabilities, affording people access not only to material benefits … but to such intangible benefits as knowledge and to play a full part in the life of the community’ (quoted in Wolff, 2000: 7). Linguistic rights have been eloquently articulated in various charters and declarations. For example, the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights of Barcelona (UNESCO, 1996) lists all the rights that should apply to human languages and communities that speak them. In its introduction, it states that ‘overall principles must be found so as to guarantee the promotion and respect of all languages and their social use in public and private’. More specifically 59

60

New Language Bearings in Africa

for Africa, The Asmara Declaration on African Languages and Literatures of January 2000 states among other things, that: (1) All African children have the unalienable right to attend school and learn their mother tongues and that every effort should be made to develop African languages at all levels of education. (2) The effective and rapid development of science and technology in Africa depends on the use of African languages. (3) African languages are vital for the development of democracy based on equality and social justice. (4) African languages are essential for the decolonisation of African minds and for the African Renaissance (Asmara Declaration, 2000). Earlier, in 1976, the Cultural Charter for Africa, articulated by the Organisation for African Unity (OAU) in article 6 (2) stated that member states should ‘promote teaching in national languages in order to accelerate their economic, political and cultural development’ (Phillipson & Skutnabb-Kangas, 1994: 135). Generally, there is no paucity of charters and declarations, on what ought to be done to guarantee linguistic justice for all the language communities. The implementation of these charters and declarations has, however, been problematic. In Africa only the languages of the former colonial masters seem to be favoured, the indigenous languages seem to be losing out. Using Kenya as an example, and with specific reference to language in the education system and the media, this paper discusses the challenges and prospects of implementing linguistic rights in African countries.

The Language Situation in Kenya Kenya is a linguistically heterogeneous country with over 40 indigenous languages (Mbaabu, 1996a: 147). According to Gorman (1974: 398), roughly 66% of the population speak languages belonging to the Bantu branch of the Niger–Congo family, the largest language groups in this category being Kikuyu, Kamba and Luyia. About 31% of the population speak Nilotic languages while 3% speak Cushitic languages. Other languages spoken are from the Indian subcontinent, among them Hindi and Urdu. According to Whiteley (1971: 46), 75% of Kenya’s population is accounted for by the seven largest groups, six Bantu and one Nilotic. These languages, usually referred to as ‘mother tongues or vernaculars’ are designated as the media of instruction in lower classes of primary schools in areas (mainly rural) where they are dominant. These languages are also generally the vehicles of intra-ethnic communication and solidarity. Two languages have official status in Kenya. These are English and Kiswahili. English is the official language in which most of the government business is conducted. Government records, reports and all forms of written correspondence are in English. It is officially the medium of instruction in upper primary classes, secondary schools and tertiary institutions. To be sure, English is also used in lower primary classes as the medium of instruction especially in urban areas and in some e´lite schools (Mbaabu, 1996a: 128). English is the official language of the courts and is predominantly used in Parliament alongside Kiswahili. It is the language of power and e´litism and is a major asset in social

Linguistic Human Rights in Africa

61

mobility. Kiswahili, also referred to as the ‘national language’ is an African language of Bantu origin (see Nurse & Spear, 1985). It is a language of crossethnic communication in Kenya. It is widely used by politicians and government officials when interacting with members of the public. It is also used in verbal communication in business and is the language of wider communication in the Eastern and Central African region. In some areas of communication in Kenya, there is a tendency towards bilingualism. Besides its use in parliament, Kiswahili alongside English is used in official government documents such as passports, passport application forms, registration of persons documents, including identity cards and post office documents. Both languages are also used in labels on commercial products. Language policy in education: An historical overview Shortly before independence, the colonial government gave the English language an impetus whose effect continued after independence. The Education Department’s Annual Report for 1951 (Colony and Protectorate of Kenya, 1953: 12) called for the teaching of English from lower classes because it contended that it was pedagogically unsatisfactory to use three languages (English, Kiswahili and mother tongues) as media of instruction in primary schools. This started to be implemented in 1958 in what came to be known as the ‘New Primary Approach (NPA)’. This approach involved using English as a medium of instruction on an experimental basis in Asian schools from the first day that a child entered school (Mbaabu, 1996a: 115). This policy was later extended to cover African schools (p. 120). The trend of giving prominence to English was continued after independence. The Kenya Education Commission, also referred to as the Ominde Commission, which was appointed to review education matters for independent Kenya recommended the continued use of English from class one. Kiswahili, which the commission recognised as ‘a tool of national integration and a means of Pan-African communication’ (Republic of Kenya, 1964: 60– 61), was to be made a compulsory subject in all primary schools. As for the vernaculars, the commission recommended a daily period of story-telling! It is important to note that the recommendations of the commission were adhered to with respect to English. Kiswahili was taught, but not examined; the result was that both teachers and pupils did not take the language seriously, in fact, teachers concentrated on examinable subjects at the expense of Kiswahili. The ‘Gachathi Report’ of 1976 reiterated that Kiswahili should be a compulsory and examinable subject (Republic of Kenya, 1976). This recommendation, however, had to wait for yet another government report, the ‘Mackay Report’ (Republic of Kenya, 1981). It was during the implementation of the ‘Mackay Report’, which dealt with the restructuring of the education system in Kenya in 1985, that Kiswahili became a compulsory and examinable subject in primary and secondary schools. This greatly boosted the status of Kiswahili. It is currently taught in all five public universities of Kenya and some of the private universities are also preparing to introduce it as a degree course. It is also noteworthy that Kiswahili is now used in the writing of MA and PhD.

62

New Language Bearings in Africa

theses and dissertations in the university departments that teach it. This language is also used to teach a variety of linguistic courses in Kiswahili teaching universities. For the first time in the history of Kiswahili in Kenya, more students are now studying the language than ever before. This growth has been accompanied by the training of more Kiswahili teachers and the publication of books for use in and outside school. The status of Kiswahili in education in Kenya in recent years shows the decisive role of policy in the development of a language. It shows that favourable policy, especially in education, can boost the fortunes of a language. Having said that, however, it should be noted that no policies or plans have been put in place, either for the short term or long term, for making Kiswahili a medium of instruction for other subjects except the language itself, nor are there any plans for putting the language to new uses, for example, keeping government records. Moreover, there is no attractive reward system for learning and using the language in new functions.

The Mother Tongues During the colonial period in Kenya, various education commissions, among them the Beecher Report of 1949 (Beecher, 1949), recommended the use and the teaching of mother tongues in the first 3 years of primary education. This trend was reinforced after independence by the ‘Gachathi Report’ of 1976 which recommended that mother tongues (’languages of the catchment areas’) should be used as languages of instruction from class one to class three (Mbaabu, 1996a: 147). The implementation of this policy has faced several problems. One of the major problems has been that of unavailability of teaching materials. In a country with over 40 languages, instructional materials have so far been developed only for 22 languages. This has meant that some children do not yet have an opportunity to learn their languages or that some have continued to use materials from other languages which are deemed to be closer to their own language. For example, in the past, the Mbeere and the Embu people who consider themselves to be distinct ethnic entities have used materials in Kikuyu, a language which they consider to be different from their own. This has been problematic. A case is also cited in Mbaabu (1996a: 149) where several ethnic groups on the Kenyan coast known as the Mijikenda preferred to use materials in Kiswahili (which they considered to be more neutral) rather than in Kigiriama, one of the languages with which their languages are closely related. Even when some learning materials have been developed, these have been inadequate for sustaining literacy in these languages (Mbaabu, 1996b: 30). Besides, learning or teaching materials are not exclusively written materials like grammars, glossaries and readers, they also include, audiovisual materials and the latter are not always available. Closely related to the issue of mother tongue learning materials is the general trend of book publication in Kenya. It has been estimated that 90% of Kenya’s book business is from school textbooks (Chakava, 1992: 128). A summary of new publications in English, Kiswahili and mother tongues for the 5-year period 1985–1989 shows that out of 1,045 new titles that have been published, 777 (74%) were in English, while 219 (21%) were in Kiswahili leav-

Linguistic Human Rights in Africa

63

ing mother tongue with a dismal 44 (4%) and others 1% (Chakava, 1992: 140). This clearly shows that English takes the lion’s share of the textbook publishing industry followed from a distance by Kiswahili, the mother tongues take the last position. This publication trend mirrors Kenya’s language policy, in which English gets top priority followed by Kiswahili and in which the mother tongues appear to be losing out. The other problem that confronts mother-tongue teaching has to do with teacher training. As Mbaabu (1996b: 22) shows, primary school teachers in Kenya are not trained in the teaching of mother tongue. The general assumption that seems to prevail is that a teacher who speaks a certain mother tongue can teach it or that a teacher can transfer skills learnt for the teaching of other languages like English and Kiswahili into the teaching of mother tongue. This may not necessarily be true and there appears to be a need for sound training in the teaching of mother tongues. Indeed, as Wolff (2000: 7) states, all language teachers, whether of English or African languages, must be exposed to the general methodology of language teaching and to the methodology of teaching specific languages. The foregoing discussion on the teaching of mother tongues makes the whole picture appear very bleak, but as Bamgbose (1976: 14) says for West African languages, the challenges are formidable but despair should not be allowed to set in. An effort should be made to teach all the mother tongues in Kenya and to develop adequate materials for all. In order to minimise the cost of preparing materials for mother-tongue instruction, an attempt could be made to standardise or to harmonise some of the closely related languages and dialects (Mbaabu, 1996b: 29). This is an argument that in recent years has been heard at frequent intervals in conferences that deal with the development of African languages. For instance, Prah (1998: 8) argues that the harmonisation of African languages which show high levels of mutual intelligibility would greatly facilitate the economics of scale in the development of educational materials for African societies among other benefits. However attractive this idea might be, people have to think of its viability, especially in terms of the acceptability of the materials developed by different users who consider themselves to be members of different ethnic groups with different identities. The ultimate goal of developing African indigenous languages should be to make these languages translatable with other languages suitable as vehicles of modern discourse. But before this can happen, these languages will need to be taught not only at the lower levels but also at upper levels of education including the universities. In addition, extensive research will need to be undertaken on these languages with a view to developing, among other things, suitable pedagogical materials. (At the moment there appears to be a tendency for university research to treat these languages as sources of data for testing linguistic theories.) All of this will be possible if there is collaborative effort between the universities and other agencies that are interested in the teaching and the promotion of mother tongues.

Media Practice The media practice in Kenya like the education system also shows a bias in favour of English. There are about 12 radio stations in Kenya (see Daily

64

New Language Bearings in Africa

Nation, 1 October, 2001). The oldest and the only one with a nationwide coverage is the Kenya Broadcasting Co-operation (KBC) radio. The rest are mainly privately owned FM radio stations, which are exclusively based in Nairobi, the capital city and Mombasa, the second largest city. The KBC radio, following an Act of Parliament, broadcasts in English (on the English Service Station), in Kiswahili (on the Kiswahili Service Station) and in 16 mother tongues (on the Central Service Station, Eastern Service Station and the Western Service Station). The KBC radio broadcasts in English and Kiswahili take place from 5.00 a.m. to 12.00 midnight. The 16 vernacular stations share stations, which means that each one of them broadcasts for several hours in a day. It is important to note that not all ethnic groups have been allocated broadcasting space on the KBC radio (Mbaabu, 1996a: 166). With only 16 ethnic groups broadcasting, more than 20 ethnic groups are not heard in a country with over 40 ethnic communities. It is difficult to tell what criterion is used to determine which languages should be broadcast and which ones should not. As for the FM radio stations, the majority of them seem to prefer English as their language of broadcasting, with occasional news bulletins in Kiswahili. Only one FM radio station broadcasts exclusively in Kikuyu, one of Kenya’s most populous mother tongues. Concerning television broadcasting, Kenya has five TV stations. The government-owned, Kenya Broadcasting TV station has two channels (KBC TV 1 and KBC TV 2). The first channel broadcasts in English and Kiswahili. According to Bourgault (1995: 125), in 1980, 35% of the KBC TV broadcasts were in Kiswahili and the rest in English. The second KBC TV channel broadcasts in English only. The rest of the TV stations largely broadcast in English, although a few of them broadcast at least one news bulletin in Kiswahili daily. It is also to be noted that many of these TV stations are often linked directly to major Western TV channels, among them the Cable News Network (CNN) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). From the foregoing, it is obvious that only two languages are used for broadcast on TV, these are English and Kiswahili. It is also obvious that English gets the lion’s share of the airtime on TV. None of the indigenous languages save for Kiswahili is broadcast on TV. English also dominates the print media. The most widely circulated newspapers, The Daily Nation, The Standard, The Kenya Times and The People are all in English. This also applies to the popular magazines on politics, law, economics, religion and sports. Only one newspaper, Taifa Leo writes in Kiswahili. There are, however, religious monthly newsletters in Kiswahili among them the Sauti ya Vita (The War Cry) published by the Salvation Army Church. To be sure, The Kenya Rural Press Extension Project launched in 1974 with the help of the then West German Government through UNESCO helped to start nine rural newspapers in Kiswahili (Mbaabu, 1996a: 167). The sustainability of this project, which depends entirely on donor support, may not, however, in the long run be assured. With regard to the use of indigenous languages other than Kiswahili, it is to be noted that in recent years, after the liberalisation of the mass media, a few newsletters (printed irregularly) in other indigenous languages have been in circulation, mainly in the urban areas. These newsletters are of a political nature and include Otit Mach (Luo), Thome

Linguistic Human Rights in Africa

65

(Kamba), Mwihoko and Kihooto (Kikuyu) and Mwanedu (Taita). In summary, the media in Kenya are dominated by the English language. Kiswahili takes second place while the mother tongues seem to have a minimal role to play. One notes that there is no policy with regard to the use of African indigenous languages in the media. By and large, the media in Kenya seem to serve the English-speaking e´lite mainly in the urban areas.

Implementing Linguistic Rights in Kenya From the foregoing, it is obvious that linguistic justice obtains in Kenya only partially. English enjoys more power and prestige followed by Kiswahili, the language of wider communication, and the local languages or mother tongues are relegated to the third position. Several factors have led to this state of affairs. Kenya does not seem to have a clearly stated democratic language policy that recognises and promotes all the languages used in the country. As seen above, language policy in many sectors, including education and mass media, is not clear. For instance, it is not clear why it is only 16 mother tongues that are taught in schools in a country with over 40 mother tongues. It is also not clear what policy is in place for teaching the mother tongues that are not being taught. Similarly, it is not clear why some languages are broadcast on the national radio and why others are not. In fact, there is no policy with regard to language use in the media generally. Although the majority of Kenyans speak their mother tongue and Kiswahili, these languages have not been given the treatment they deserve. For linguistic justice to prevail, there is need for a clear democratic language policy. For Kenya, such a policy will recognise and spell out the role of all the languages used in the country and their potential in the realisation of the aspirations of their users. For mother-tongue users these aspirations will include the ability to read and write in their languages, accessing information and knowledge in them, and participating in the political, economic and judicial systems of Kenya in these languages. Closely related to the issue of policy is that of implementation. As Wolff (2000: 1) says, one of the major obstacles that impedes progress towards giving African languages their rightful place in society is the paying of lip-service to their use. Wolff goes on to say that African organisations, African leaders and African experts, no matter how solemnly, pay only lip-service to the use of indigenous African languages in official functions. This has also been the case in Kenya. Although, for instance, there have been pronouncements and even decrees with regard to enhancing the role of Kiswahili, this has not been followed immediately by concrete measures of implementation. For example, the recommendation that Kiswahili should become a compulsory and examinable subject made in 1976 was implemented 9 years later in 1985. The recommendation made by the ruling party (Kenya African National Union), which has been in power since 1963 to the time of writing, to make Kiswahili the official language in all government business made in 1970 (Mbaabu, 1996a: 132) has not been implemented nor has any plan of action been worked out to that end. This state of affairs as Rwantabangu (1989: 3) says ‘points to a lack of deep-seated commitment among the e´lite and the policy makers in particular’.

66

New Language Bearings in Africa

Language Attitudes Negative attitudes towards indigenous languages by the African e´lite are also a major obstacle in the implementation of linguistic justice. As Wolff (2000: 2) explains, negative attitudes are usually based on ‘obvious superficial rationalizations in an attempt to justify imbalances born of injustices of history and circumstances’. In Kenya for instance, negative attitudes of the e´lite with respect to the indigenous languages can be found in government reports and public pronouncements, and to be sure, they are also to be found among Africans of all walks of life (Wolff, 2000: 2). Regarding the possibility of making Kiswahili the language of instruction, The Kenya Education Commission Report also known as the Ominde Report, for example, claimed that this would not be possible because it would be ‘a grave misuse of public funds to translate textbooks and supplementary books into Kiswahili’ and that it would not be possible to use this language because ‘it would require adaptation to unaccustomed scientific uses’ (Mbaabu, 1996a: 125). One notices the circularity of the argument that adapting a language as a medium of instruction is expensive and at the same time, a language cannot be used as a medium of instruction before it is adapted for that purpose. The negative attitudes are, therefore, rationalised in terms of ‘expenses’, ‘non-scientific language’, ‘lack of neutrality’, ‘lack of internationality’ and other similar descriptions (see Ansre, 1977). The consequence of the negative attitudes is that the ex-colonial languages are favoured and little attention is paid to the indigenous African languages; the African languages, if at all, are used in a restrictive manner, for example, they may be confined to the first 3 years of education or they may be taught as subjects but not used as a medium of instruction (Wolff, 2000: 3). The end result is low status and esteem for the African languages. The picture of the challenges facing linguistic rights in Africa would be incomplete without mentioning the complexity of the African language situation. One must appreciate that it may not always be possible to implement all the linguistic rights that an individual in a country may deserve. In Kenya, for example, for a child to enjoy absolute linguistic rights, he or she will need to learn at least three languages, namely, English, Kiswahili and a mother tongue (where applicable). For children going to school in the urban areas or settlement areas where there are mixed populations, it may not be possible for practical reasons to be taught their mother tongue. The complex linguistic situation has implications for the funding of linguistic justice. In Kenya, linguistic justice can only be achieved if government allocates funds for the teaching and development of three types of languages, i.e. mother tongue, the language of wider communication (Kiswahili) and the official language (English). Even if the government had the will and the commitment to see linguistic justice, the complex linguistic situation would still financially pose a big challenge to the government bearing in mind the poor incomes of most African governments. It, therefore, may well be the case that chances of dispensing linguistic justice may be greatly enhanced with an improved economic situation.

Linguistic Human Rights in Africa

67

Conclusion Using the linguistic situation in Kenya as an example, and with particular reference to the education system and practices in the media, this paper has outlined some of the challenges that face the implementation of linguistic rights in Africa. The paper shows that in spite of the many charters and declarations, linguistic justice is impeded by, among other things, the lack of clearcut democratic language policies, lack of programmes of implementation where policies may exist, negative attitudes towards the use, promotion and development of African languages, and the complex language situation that obtains in many African countries. If linguistic rights are to be implemented in Africa, there is need for countries to develop strategic plans that will guarantee linguistic justice. Different countries may opt for different strategies as may be applicable to their peculiar linguistic situations. Whatever strategies are opted for, however, it will be imperative to entrench linguistic rights guarantees in the countries’ constitutions. It will also be imperative to make language planning a part of the overall government long-term planning. Such a plan will strive to have as many African languages as possible taught in schools, not only in the lower levels but also in higher levels of education. It will also aim at the use of as many languages as possible in the mass media. Above all, it will aim at developing the African languages so that they can be used as modern vehicles of discourse. This will only happen if the value of these languages is increased and the functions to which they are put are increased. It is worth mentioning, however, that the implementation of linguistic justice in many African countries is likely to be influenced by the economic well-being of these countries. Even with the best of strategic plans, it may not be possible to implement them without financial implications. This is why language planning has to be made part of the overall government planning and budgeting. Correspondence Any correspondence should be directed to Dr Paul Musau, Kiswahili Department, Kenyatta University, PO Box 43844, Nairobi, Kenya ([email protected]).

References Ansre, G. (1977) Four rationalizations for maintaining the European languages in education in Africa. Kiswahili 47 (2), 55–61. Asmara Declaration (2000) Asmara Declaration on African Languages and Literatures. On www at http//www.queensu.ca/snid/asmara.htm. Accessed 24.9.2000. Bamgbose, A. (1976) The changing role of mother tongue in education. In A. Bamgbose (ed.) Mother Tongue Education, The West African Experience (pp. 1–22). Paris: UNESCO Press. Beecher, L.J. (1949) African Education in Kenya. Nairobi: Government Printers. Bourgault, M. (1995) Media in Sub-Saharan Africa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Chakava, H. (1992) Kenya publishing: Independence and dependence. In P.G. Altback (ed.) Publishing and Development in the Third World (pp. 119–150). London: Hans Zell Publishers.

68

New Language Bearings in Africa

Colony and Protectorate of Kenya (1953) Education Department Annual Report for 1951. Nairobi: Government Printer. Daily Nation (2001) Leisure, 1 October, p. 21. Gorman, T. (1974) The development of language policy in Kenya with particular reference to educational system. In W. Whiteley (ed.) Language in Kenya (pp. 397–453). Nairobi: Oxford University Press. Hurst, R. and Lansdell, J. (1999) Designing textbooks for the less privileged child to meet the language needs of the twenty-first century. Unpublished paper. Mbaabu, I. (1996a) Language Policy in East Africa: A Dependency Theory Perspective. Nairobi: Educational Research Publications. Mbaabu, I. (1996b) Mother Tongue in Education. Nairobi: Lectern Publications and Friends of the Book Foundation. Nurse, D. and Spear, T. (1985) The Swahili: Reconstructing the History and Language of an African Language 1500–1800. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Phillipson, R. and Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (1994) Language rights in postcolonial Africa. In R. Phillipson, M. Rannut and T. Skutnabb-Kangas (eds) Linguistic Human Rights: Overcoming Linguistic Discrimination (pp. 335–345). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Phillipson, R, Rannut, M. and Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (1994) Introduction. In R. Phillipson, M. Rannut and T. Skutnab-Kangas (eds) Linguistic Human Rights: Overcoming Linguistic Discrimination (pp. 1–19). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Prah, K.K. (1998) The missing link in African education and development. In K.K. Prah (ed.) Between Distinction and Standardization of African Languages (pp. 1–15). Witwatersrand: Witwatersrand University Press. Republic of Kenya (1964) Kenya Education Commission Report Part I (Ominde Report). Nairobi: Government Printer. Republic of Kenya (1976) Report of the National Committee on Educational Objectives and Policies (Gachathi Report). Nairobi: Government Printer. Republic of Kenya (1981) Second University: Report of the Presidential Working Party (Mackay Report). Nairobi: Government Printer. Rwantabangu, K. (1989) Language education and nation building in Africa. A paper presented at the 7th Congress of Comparative Education, Montreal Canada, June 26–30. UNESCO (1996) Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights. Barcelona. On www at http://www.linguistic-declaration.org/index-gb.htm. Whiteley, W.H. (1971) Some factors influencing language policies in Eastern Africa: Can languages be planned? In J. Rubin and B.H. Jernudd (eds) Sociolinguistic Theory and Practice for Developing Nations (pp. 145–158). Honolulu: University Press of Hawahii. Wolff, H.E. (2000) African languages in education: The heart of the African language question. Unpublished paper presented at Maseno University College, Kisumu, Kenya, May 10–20, 2000.

‘What turns you on!’: An Exploration of Urban South African Xhosa and Zulu Youth Texts Rosalie Finlayson Department of African Languages, University of South Africa, PO Box 392 UNISA 0003, Pretoria, South Africa Sarah Slabbert University of the Witwatersrand, PO Wits 2050, 191 Anderson Street, Northcliff 2195, South Africa The status of the current standard African languages has been seriously undermined by factors such as the association of the standardisation process with colonial and neo-colonial structures, the lack of function of the standards and the rise of high status non-standard urban varieties. This paper describes the process leading to and some interesting outcomes drawn from a pilot literary competition whose aim, apart from encouraging urban youth to use the languages they speak everyday in the creation of literature, was to contribute to the development and analysis of oral and literary texts for wider use in urban schools. The literary competition focused on grades 8 and 9 Xhosa and Zulu learners in the Eastern Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu Natal provinces in South Africa. Learners were invited to enter various genres and no subject restrictions were imposed, and consequently any aspect of urban lifestyle could be explored within the theme of each entry. It is anticipated that the final publication of the entries will facilitate the recognition of these urban varieties for use in the curricula of both schools and universities. This could also further result in a perceived increase in the interest of learners and students in both studying and using a more relevant form of the African languages in their day-to-day activities.

Effective and continuous restandardisation is one of the key processes in the development of the previously disadvantaged and marginalised official languages in South Africa. Such a process in the South African context would entail a greater understanding of the complex relationship between the non-standard varieties and the standard forms of the African languages. The 1996 constitution of South Africa declared all 11 major South African languages as national official languages. This declaration, which was also part of the interim constitution of 1994, has given, for the first time in the history of South Africa, national official status to the African languages. Appropriate and accepted standard forms of the African languages are a requirement for the effective use of these languages in higher functions. The status of the current standard languages, however, has been seriously undermined by a number of factors: the association of the standardisation process with colonial and neo-colonial structures, the lack of function of the standards and the rise of high status non-standard urban varieties. In fact, the standard languages have been considered as in danger of becoming unviable modes of communication (Calteaux, 1995: ix). Standard African languages differ substantially from the language varieties that are spoken in the multilingual, urban centres of our provinces. The standard forms are linguistically the closest to the rural varieties. For that reason 69

70

New Language Bearings in Africa

they have become more closely associated with those people who express traditional and more conservative values. The non-standard varieties, on the other hand, embody the modernity and relative affluence of the urban centres. This has led to tensions in teaching standard African languages as first-language subjects to multilingual urban African youth. These tensions also have very definite implications for future language policies in education. Another recent development in the status of African languages is the distinct swing away from the selection of an African language as a grade XII subject and as a course subject at university. The value thus empirically assigned to the formal teaching and learning processes signals danger for the further development of our African languages. With the increasing rate of urbanisation, coupled with the inadequacies of language teaching at all levels of education as a result of South Africa’s historical legacy, we are increasingly being confronted with a mushrooming of urban varieties (cf. Finlayson & Slabbert, 1997, 2000; Khathi, 1992; Slabbert & Finlayson, 1999; Slabbert & MyersScotton, 1996). This situation is further exacerbated by the in-migration of foreign nationals in primarily the larger urban centres in search of employment and a better way of life. Further, outcomes-based education (OBE) requires inter alia the development of learning material for the African languages within a new education paradigm (Jansen & Christie, 1999: 152). There is also a need for learnercentred teaching and learning strategies. This implies that the languages that the learners actually use will have to be taken into consideration in the development of this more appropriate learning material. For learners to become actively involved in the learning process of their primary languages, a satisfactory relationship between the learning process of their primary languages as well as a satisfactory relationship between the standard and the non-standard spoken varieties will need to be established that will precipitate a regained sense of pride in ‘my language’.

PanSALB Literary Competition To explore the nature and richness of some of the currently used urban language varieties, a research proposal was prepared and submitted to the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB) for its support and possible funding. This paper describes the process leading to and some interesting outcomes drawn from the research proposal, namely a pilot literary competition sponsored by PanSALB and conducted during 1999–2000. The aim of the competition, apart from encouraging urban learners to use the languages they speak every day in the creation of literature, was also to contribute to the development and analysis of oral and literary texts for wider use in urban schools. It was envisaged that a process could be set in motion that would reappraise the standard African languages on a regular basis in order to prevent stagnation. In order to survive it is essential for every standard language not to close the doors on a changing world and hence also not to deny its own internal dynamics. The PanSALB pilot literary competition focused on grades 8 and 9 Xhosa and Zulu learners in the Gauteng, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu Natal provinces of South Africa. It was envisaged that the competition would be expanded eventually to include all the African languages, hence the term ‘pilot’. Learners

Urban South African Youth Texts

71

were invited to enter various genres, e.g. short stories, poems, one-act dramas, rap songs, kwaito, essays, melic poems, etc. According to the organisers of the competition, ‘We wanted the learners to use whatever genre inspires them, or to put it colloquially, what “turns them on!” ’. No subject restrictions were imposed on the learners and consequently any aspect of the urban lifestyle could be explored within the theme of each entry. The project team held many debates and discussions and devoted much thought as to what attractive prizes could be offered, the first consideration being that the prizes must appeal to learners of this age group in all the provinces. The second priority was that the actual learner should be the true beneficiary of the prize. The eventual decision was that the two language winners each would receive R2500.00 and the overall winner would receive a cheque for R5000.00. The winners would also receive a certificate and a trophy that would be used by the winning schools to act as an incentive for the promotion and development of the indigenous languages. The three winning schools would also each receive a cheque for R1000.00. Further, the three schools with the most entries would each receive a floating trophy. The first 300 learners who submitted entries would each receive a specially designed lapel badge with the PanSALB logo. The project team was structured to form two groups, one dedicated to Xhosa schools and the other to Zulu schools. In promoting the competition, 1000 posters were printed and these posters were distributed among the team members to be put up at schools and exhibited in prominent public places such as libraries and Department of Education district offices. Entry forms were prepared in the format of a Z-folded flier and in both languages, namely Xhosa and Zulu, depending upon which side of the folder was turned face up. Entry forms were distributed widely in all three provinces and the competition was publicised in the PanSALB newsletter as well as in Bona magazine, a popular monthly publication. Three thousand five hundred PanSALB newsletters were subsequently given to the project team for distribution to learners at all the schools visited. A full-scale dry run using the promotion materials was conducted at Minerva High School in Alexandra, Gauteng Province, on 18 November 1999. Feedback from this initial exercise was used in enhancing both the process to be followed and the quality of the promotional material. The Xhosa and Zulu teams toured the three provinces giving presentations and distributing entry forms in 384 schools. The Eastern Cape team managed to establish an appointment for a talk show on Umhlobo Wenene, a popular Xhosa radio service. The Kwazulu Natal team arranged a radio recording to be broadcast on Ukhozi Zulu radio in the week after their return from the school visits. This recording was broadcast three times in the course of the week. The provincial teams were received everywhere with great interest and enthusiasm. This was reflected by the overwhelming response with 1398 entries being received.

Themes and Genres The variety of topics used by the learners clearly showed that their ideas were informed by the circumstances, developments and events occurring

72

New Language Bearings in Africa

within the prevailing socio-economic climate. The impact that these events have on their daily lives, for example, the scourge of the HIV/AIDS pandemic as well as the impact of crime in this country, drew particular attention. Table 1 provides a summary of the genres and themes from the 41 winning entries. Table 1 Genres and themes from the 41 winning entries Genre Xhosa Drama Essay Essay Essay Poem Short story Essay Essay Short story Poem Essay Essay Essay Poem Essay Poem Essay Essay Poem Drama Zulu Short story Poem Essay Poem Poem Essay Poem Essay Poem Poem Poem Poem Poem Poem Poem Poem Poem Poem Poem Poem Poem

Theme HIV/Aids Everyone is affected by time The relevance of lobola in modern times My loved ones Man and the grave Baby snatching The importance of the police force The preservation of Isixhosa Feminism In praise of learning The new South Africa Crime HIV/Aids Love Changes brought about by the new government Hope The importance of traditional customs in a changing world Our new freedom – women’s rights Mandela Beware, Aids kills! Crime does not pay HIV/Aids Life in the city Success Quo vadis – whereto? Life in the city What future will modern learning bring? Life in a township Poverty Mother My friend Crime HIV/Aids Death Beautiful flower HIV/Aids Madiba Prayer The good life The break of dawn Life is short

It was clear that learners are acutely aware of political and social change and the impact of these forces on their own and their families’ lives. For example, the winning entries included two essays on women’s rights. In addition, there was also a reappraisal of African traditions, customs as well as the African languages. The stature of Mandela has obviously impressed the entrants as demonstrated by the number of essays and praise poems in his

Urban South African Youth Texts

73

honour. Learners at this age are also grappling with real-life issues such as love, death, life, hope, success and poverty. Purely lyrical contributions, e.g. poems on the break of dawn and a summer flower were relatively few. Overall, the manner with which these issues were dealt with by the learners displayed a considerable sense of maturity. A striking feature of the contributions received was the sensitivity and serious concern displayed by the youth in the topics and genres selected and in the manner in which they were addressed. While some of the renditions could be perceived as amusing to the reader the solemn nature of the contributions came across very strongly. Almost sadly, very little light-hearted humour and pure creative imagination, with flights of fancy were apparent in the entries. On the other hand, the adjudicators considered this aspect positively, noting that ‘[F]or most of these scholars it seemed to have provided a means to channel noble ideas which otherwise would have been lost to the wider community, especially the learners.’ The judges felt that competitions such as these should be held regularly if one of the aims is to develop the African languages and also to give recognition to the realities born through change and transformation. This would in turn sharpen the language and communication skills of the students.

Genres A wide variety of genres was evident in the contributions, ranging from essays, short stories, dramas and poems. Of the top 40 entries there were 13 essays, 22 poems, two dramas and three short stories. This could also be perceived as confirming the observation made regarding the focus on factual issues being grappled with instead of fiction. Another feature of the entries was the creative way in which genres were mixed, for example the inclusion of poetry in argumentative essays. For example, one essay on ‘Masibuye isidima sethu mabhinqa’ (May our dignity return, Women) begins with a typical praise poem, in this instance in exceedingly good standard Xhosa: Aa MXhos’ omhle kaNgqika, kaPhalo! Sizukulwana sikaSandile, Aa! Velile! Ndiboleken’ indlebe, ndithethe, Ndiphalaze ndide ndityekeze, Iingcamango zam ndicamgce, Ngoluhle lokhomokazi, Lo Mzantsi Afrika omtsha. (Ah, beautiful Xhosa of the house of Ngqika and Phalo! Offspring of Sandile, Ah Velile! Lend me your ears and let me speak, Let me pour out my heart and spill My most innermost thoughts and secrets and ponder The beauty of this new democracy This New South Africa.) This praise poem includes an appeal to outstanding figures in Xhosa history for consideration of women’s rights especially in the new South Africa.

74

New Language Bearings in Africa

Language It was evident from the contributions that the entrants were not bound by the strict rules of the language and that they indeed felt free to express themselves in the language that they frequently use. In all the essays presented, the freedom of expression was apparent. One could also easily identify characteristics of the predominantly urban backgrounds from which they emerged. It was also interesting to note that the practice of code-switching was used creatively especially in some of the drama submissions. For example in the winning Xhosa entry, a drama on the scourge of AIDS, frequent use of ‘grand’, ‘amaboys’, ‘my friend’ occurs. Hence Phindezwa retorts to Thandi: ‘That’s my friend! Uyeke ukubalisa ngeAIDS eseMerika. My friend, aba ndithetha ngabo nguMncedi kunye noMsimelelo.’ (That’s my friend! Just stop talking about this AIDS (as if it’s) of America. My friend, these whom I’m talking about are Mncedi and Msimelelo.) It appears that the influence of the standard language has nevertheless played a role. First of all, it was apparent that some of the teachers appeared to have acted as informal adjudicators in certain cases by correcting the submissions of the learners. This is being investigated in detail by one of the team members. Secondly, there is evidence that both genre and theme influenced the choice of language. In the poems and especially those poems in praise of traditions and cultural values, the authors made use of a ‘purer’ Xhosa with very little code-switching. This was especially evident in mixed genre contributions where, for example, a short story in the urban variety would be introduced by a poem in a purer Xhosa. An essay by a 12-year-old female learner on the importance of customs and traditions includes a poem within an essay, creating a more emotive and passionate cry in the appeal to be heard: Yizani bantwana bomthonyama, Bantwana beendl’ entsundu yizani, Yizani siphuthume ubuntu bethu, Siphuthume amasiko ethu, Isidima nesithozela sakwantu. (Come children of the soil Children of the Black people come, Come and let us uplift our humanity, Let us raise up our customs, The respect and the worth of our African people.) This short poem calls upon the traditional Xhosa people to take pride in themselves and maintain the richness of the nation through respect and the honouring of traditional customs. The adjudicators mentioned in particular that they appreciated the linguistic creativity displayed by those who took part in this competition. Conclusion The winners were announced at a gala dinner at the conference centre of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Pretoria on Friday 18 August 2000. The dress code on the invitation stipulated ‘traditional’ and

Urban South African Youth Texts

75

the beautiful traditional outfits of the winners established an African ambience with its related flair and colour for the occasion. The culmination of the competition in a gala evening embodied the true spirit of the competition in that the entire function created a platform for the expression of the African languages previously absent from our multicultural calendar. The free and easy mixing as well as a sense of appreciation for both traditional and modern was most visibly displayed during the event. A warmly expressed comment made by all the members of the project team, was that the competition was both a spiritually rewarding and an enlightening experience. Not only has this experience been one of tangible empowerment for all members of the project team, but the project has also produced a considerable database. It is hoped that this rich resource will be used by researchers and teachers to celebrate our rich African heritage and further develop our languages. This event did in fact ‘turn on’ all those involved! Nevertheless, on a more cautionary note, the objective to elicit the natural spoken urban varieties in written form was not fully achieved. Learners appeared to be inhibited by a number of factors that included the norm of the written word, the genre and the teachers. Further exercises of such a nature will have to take this into consideration. The way forward With the overwhelming success of this pilot project, moves are underway to expand the competition to include all the official languages to ascertain not only ‘what turns the learners on’ but also what rich varieties are being spoken by our urban youth. In future projects the effect of the inhibiting variables needs to be minimised in order to achieve in full the objective of the project, i.e. to record in creative writing the richness of the urban varieties. A possible strategy to assist in this regard would be to workshop a play/drama that could be recorded. In this way the inhibiting variables already mentioned would be eliminated. The huge database that has been created has provided source material for both Master’s and Doctoral students conducting research. It has also provided opportunities for further targeted research towards establishing how the gap between the standard African languages and the varieties used by the urban learners can be bridged. This will facilitate the recognition of these urban varieties by educational authorities for use in the curricula of both schools and universities. This could result in a perceived increase in the interest of learners and students in both studying and using a more relevant form of the African languages in their day-to-day activities in the urban economic sector. For the database established through this competition to have value in terms of the dynamics of change in language use, resources need to be mobilised on a regular basis to monitor changes in language use both in the rural and urban areas. Without a longitudinal perspective changes cannot be carefully monitored, recorded and analysed. Once the publication of all winning entries has been completed and incorporated in the curricula of learning institutions, a greater sense of value, pride and appreciation will undoubtedly evolve for the changing forms of speech, literature and drama already available to enrich our daily lives.

76

New Language Bearings in Africa

Correspondence Any correspondence should be directed to Dr R. Finlayson, Department of African Languages, University of South Africa, PO Box 392, UNISA 0003, Pretoria, South Africa. References Calteaux, K. (1994) A sociolinguistic analysis of a multilingual community. Unpublished D. Litt et Phil thesis. Johannesburg: Rand Afrikaans University. Finlayson, R. and Slabbert. S. (1997) ‘We just mix’: Codeswitching in a South African township. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 125, 65–98. Finlayson, R. and Slabbert, S. (2000) ‘I’m a cleva’: The linguistic make-up of identity in a South African urban environment. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 144, 119–136. Jansen, J. and Christie, P. (eds) (1999) Changing Curriculum Studies on Outcomes-Based Education in South Africa. Cape Town: Juta. Khathi, T. (1992) Intra-lexical switching or nonce borrowing? Evidence from SeSotho– English performance. In R.K. Herbert (ed.) Language and Society in Africa (pp. 181– 196). Johannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand Press. Slabbert, S. and Finlayson, R. (1999) The future of the standard African languages in the multilingual South African classroom. In R. Finlayson (ed.) African Mosaic: Festschrift for J.A. Louw (pp. 355–376). Pretoria: Unisa Press. Slabbert, S. and Myers-Scotton, C. (1997) The structure of Tsotsitaal and Iscamtho: Codeswitching and ingroup identity in South African townships. Linguistics 35 (2), 317–342.

Challenges of Using English as a Medium of Instruction in Multilingual Contexts: A View from Ugandan Classrooms Robinah Kyeyune Department of Language Education, School of Education, Makerere University, Uganda Based on interviews with teachers and students, the paper looks at some of the ways in which teachers’ use of English as a medium of instruction sometimes frustrates the students’ learning efforts instead of facilitating them. While options for change may include adopting mother tongue as an alternative medium, there are theoretical reasons for believing that it would not necessarily lead to a great improvement, since the problem is not just one of linguistic competence but has deeper roots in dominant modes of teacher–pupil communication. In addition, there are the wellknown practical difficulties with education through the mother tongue. The maintenance of English may be an easier option, with careful adoption of a bilingualbased, communication-oriented approach to instruction. To facilitate learners’ comprehension and analysis of classroom talk, it is argued that teachers should be trained in two basic elements. They should have the skills necessary for supporting learning through an analytical understanding of language-related barriers. In addition, they should be fluent in the two critical skills of questioning and explaining.

There is a growing public concern in Africa that poor standards of English, among teachers and pupils, are leading to an unsatisfactory quality of educational performance. This is felt not only in Uganda but is probably shared by critics in other ESL situations on the continent where English is not only the official language but also the medium of instruction for the greater part of school life. This raises questions about the nature of our teaching practices and provokes interest in the use of English as a vehicle of classroom communication. We are made to reflect on some fundamental questions: What awareness do we, as teachers, carry into the classroom regarding the implementation of the English-as-medium policy? How does our use of English in the classroom affect the outcomes of teaching–learning activities? What course is open to us for ensuring effective practice and consequently desirable standards of using English as a means of transmitting knowledge, skills, attitudes and values? To answer these questions is essentially to theorise on the learners’ position in the learning process. The process of theorising may point us in a useful direction for understanding the changes we need to introduce as a means of improving learning. The process here is facilitated by a secondary analysis of data initially gathered in an ethnographic study aimed at an understanding of the preconditions for effective implementation of change in language education. In this context the descriptive data from secondary schools are analysed from an interpretive approach for insights into the challenges facing teachers using English as the medium of instruction. An understanding of 77

78

New Language Bearings in Africa

these challenges is presumed to be the basis on which we can found the options for an improved approach.

The Status of English in Education We need to adopt a general question in our reflection on the challenges: What has gone wrong with teachers’ use of English? I use the question not to prompt answers of whether or not we should use English. I am aware of the quick and passionate arguments ‘for’ and ‘against’ that stakeholders raise with regard to this issue. Some of these are popularly summarised in broad statements about English being a foreign language and having been the instrument of colonial administration. They spark off considerations for using mother tongue as the child’s natural medium of thought and expression, and therefore the right of a child to be taught through it. While awareness of these arguments is useful background to the process of theorising, I am concerned here about the need to formulate theories about what we can easily correct. One possible error in the use of English is that we have pushed the policy too far, expecting even infants to learn through English. It is possible to trace the root of this error in the history of our language education policies. Pointing the finger at the e´lite, Philipson (1990) suggests that policy formulation has erred. He explains that when in 1961 a conference at Makerere resolved that English should be taught early on in education, the main arguments were invalid. Those arguments also led to the conclusion that the more English children were exposed to, the better for them; and later policy declarations to the contrary have not affected our practice. The Report of the Education Review Commission (Ministry of Education, 1989) recommends that children be taught in the mother tongue for the first 4 years of primary school, while learning English as a subject, and then be gradually weaned on to English as a medium of instruction. Yet to date, there is no written language education policy to guide practice and schools continue to use English as a medium of instruction even in nursery school. Even in the general sense of education being the imparting of knowledge and skills and values, the status of medium of instruction has not been translated into practical, conscious and careful manipulation of learning activities. Findings discussed later on in this paper show that teachers in Uganda’s secondary schools, for example, are not aware of the significance of the English language in the classroom. The findings also show that the students themselves have no mastery in the language. Yet both parties have had long-term exposure to English both as a medium of instruction and as a school subject. However, they have experienced it only in the very formal, academic and structured arrangement of the classroom. Learner interaction has only been with their non-native speaking teachers and a few textbooks. Moreover, this is usually done with the sole aim of passing examinations. Debate in teachers’ fora often brings up the argument that using English as a medium of instruction means including all learners in the mainstream education system. The proponents of this argument think that English being a second language, and therefore foreign to all, makes it neutral with respect to all the indigenous population. And they argue that using any of the indigenous languages of Uganda may in effect identify knowledge with the

English as a Medium of Instruction

79

host tribe. This means that only a minority would benefit from education. In her exploration of factors facilitating or hindering the adoption of a national language, Nsibambi (2000) alludes to the arguments ‘for’ and ‘against’ English and indigenous Ugandan languages. But the label ‘second language’ implies that Ugandans should have an ability to use English that is comparable to their ability in their mother tongue. As Tiffen (1969: 14) puts it, learners in the ESL context should have ‘an ability to use it which is almost second nature … we aim to create what has been called English-speaking bilinguals’. Teachers therefore assume their students to be fluent in the language when they are not. The system has not realized that the learner should have a ‘thorough command of the English language if he is to be educated in the modern sense of the word’ (Tiffen, 1969: 7). This realisation is fundamental to our search for the necessary change.

English as a Medium of Instruction A medium of instruction is an enabling tool. It facilitates the learning of subject content, and is also a means by which students reflect on different facts and viewpoints in order to construct a new view of the world, including the meanings they attribute to the new concepts they are introduced to, and the values they attach to them. But it seems that teachers take the learners’ language ability for granted and perceive any gaps in learning to be merely a result of learners’ lack of care for school work. They are quick to blame students’ negative attitudes. Some of their views are reflected in the responses in the interview below. The interview is part of an inquiry carried out in schools to find out the preconditions for effective management of change in English language education. In the case-studies in this research the subject of change was a new syllabus. RK is the researcher. The rest of the participants are teachers at a secondary school. Teachers Interview 1 RK: What seems to be the major problem you encounter in using English in teaching? T1: If the students were serious they would do well. But they don’t care. They think English is natural and they don’t need to spend their time on it like they do on other subjects. T2: These students don’t work hard. They think that English is not important. And they forget that they need to pass it to get a good grade. So if … RK: That is what we need to talk about. What about the language itself? Here you seem to be concerned so much about the subject. What about … Are there any problems relating to students’ views on English as a language? Do you …? T3: [Geography] For us in geography we are not interested in the language. We mark points and not language. Even in UNEB, we mark the points. If a student makes a point, he gets the marks. If he doesn’t … RK: Is it always easy to see the student’s point? T4: [History] You follow a marking scheme. That’s all.

80

New Language Bearings in Africa

For teachers of English at this school, for example, the concentration of the teaching effort is on the status of English as an examinable subject. In their view, all the students’ weaknesses are the result of their negative attitudes. Teachers of other subjects, on the other hand, are solely concerned with the content of their subjects. They do not acknowledge that content is expressed using language. For both categories of teachers the concern is examinations, not effective learning. Elsewhere, the teachers’ responses reflect a lack of commitment to any potential means of bringing about the desired change. They leave the challenges to the students. Asked how they deal with the observed problems one teacher, an experimenter, explained, T5: I tell them to read a lot of novels. I think this is useful for learning vocabulary. They can improve a lot. Me, I read a lot of books and it helped me catch up. RK: How should they read? Do you give them any guidance on which novels to read? T5: They should also make an effort. Novels are very good for language; they are full of vocabulary and can improve your English. RK: So what do they read? When you’ve told them to read … What have you discovered … What do they actually read as a result of your encouragement for them to read? T5: I don’t check on that. Teachers may be aware of students’ difficulties and the possible solutions. Yet their lack of responsibility for follow-up on improvement indicates failure to fulfil their role in dealing with the challenges. We shall return to some suggestions for bringing about change in our assessment of the situation. Here, we must look at other examples of inadequacy in teachers’ approaches to teaching English.

Students It is necessary for us to try and see things from the students’ point of view as well, since students and teachers are partners in the classroom. Revelations about what students feel they can do with English may suggest some ways for teachers to maximise learning outcomes. In some schools the practice of punishing students who speak ‘the vernacular’ has a spill-over effect into the classroom. It makes the students hate the language and this attitude becomes a key barrier to learning. John’s remarks in a focus group discussion, for instance, suggest that he cannot learn effectively because he feels he is burdened with having to speak English. Interview 1 RK: You say that schools mistreat you if you speak your language. Has any of you been in such a situation? Have you faced this problem before, anywhere? John: Me I have ever been punished. Even at this time I have not learnt enough English. So I find it a burden to speak the English. So even when I

English as a Medium of Instruction

81

was still in Mbarara there we used to speak our language. We used to speak Runyankore as the main language there. RK: In school? John: In school. But in class we used to use what? RK: English? John: We used to use English. But in the compound, we used our Runyankore. Tolerance of the use of the mother tongue or area local language (Runyankore) in John’s former school evidently enhanced communicative effectiveness outside class. It in turn facilitated students’ tolerance of use of English in class. In the following example, Susan’s observation illustrates the desperation that students experience due to teachers’ intolerance of students’ limited mastery of vocabulary. It also illustrates that the desperation is aggravated by the teachers’ lack of awareness of their own inadequacy in language use. In his failure to explain the difficult terms he used in the history lessons, Susan’s teacher sought an escape by making it seem that the fault lay with the students rather than with his style. Interview 2 Susan: We get another problem. It’s that some teachers … they used to talk some vocabularies when we came to class. RK: To use …? James: Hard terms. RK: Hm, … difficult words? Susan: So, when we used to say we don’t understand, he used to tell us that if the tough gets going … RK: When the going gets tough …? Susan: Yeah. RK: … the tough get going. Susan: Yeah. RK: (with a chuckle) And you didn’t get going. Susan: Yeah. They used to leave us there, puzzled. So when we used to just … Sometimes we used to come to the library, sometimes we used to … (not audible on tape). Susan evidently felt intimidated because the English expression ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going’ was unfamiliar. And her intimidation cannot be good for learning. At the progressives’ school too, students complained about the teachers’ adamant refusal to entertain questions during their lessons. Interview 3 Sanyu: But, Madam, … RK: Yes? Sanyu: If we don’t understand, it is difficult to ask the teachers. Our teachers …. Abbas: Some teachers shout at us. They don’t want us to ask them questions when they teach us.

82

New Language Bearings in Africa

Alex: They say, ‘I don’t want your questions. Don’t fool around.’ RK: They do? Sanyu: They do. They say, ‘Don’t bother me. Keep your questions. You will ask me at the staff room.’ Students may be too inexperienced to consider that they are being denied the opportunity to learn effectively. However, their protest against intolerance is significant. It suggests that if teachers paid attention to learning needs, they would discover that students often lack the mastery required for them to cope with the demands of learning through the English medium. The Ugandan students’ situation is comparable to that of Fibi in Rogers (1990). Fibi in metropolitan Kenya laments that she does not know enough English to cope with her schoolwork. Her plight is evident. ‘At school we used to use tribal language. When we moved to Nairobi my English is not enough for school. I am sad because I used to do well but now you see I am not a person who is educated’ (Rogers, 1990: 8). Fibi sounds educated enough to make a very useful evaluation of her situation and to articulate it so ably. Yet her remarks carry evidence that one’s social esteem can be founded on the success of his or her schooling. This will in turn be built on the mastery of the medium of instruction, and therefore, of the academic requirements. These experiences are also comparable to Cham’s in Danling’s (1995) accounts of Asian children’s struggles with English as the language of education. Cham found himself in an ESL school environment, and despite his strong desire to write about his childhood experiences in his home environment he was frustrated by his inability to write in English. ‘He wanted to write about them, but he regretted that “I don’t have words for them, my English (is) too poor”’ (Danling, 1995: 131). The lack of the required facility for mastering English is a great setback for students despite their determined struggle to improve and their knowledge that such mastery is a basic qualification for a job in the future. For Cham, the longing was ‘I want to speak well, learn more words, and write correctly. I want the others to understand me. Then I can learn other things, and get jobs’ (Danling, 1995: 132). This is no different from John’s insistence on the burdensome nature of English in his Ugandan classroom, which is made great especially by the lack of appropriate teacher intervention. John: Me, I am already supporting that English is a burden because … whereby if for me myself … I feel I can manage a question whereby you tell me that this question needs this and that … (emphatically) Hm? If you explain properly and interpret it, I can do for you that number. But there are sometimes, mostly in economics, whereby you find a question … You fail because really you didn’t know what really the examiner was … . John’s concern is that teachers do not explain tasks sufficiently to enable students to accomplish them. Thus students fail simply because they do not understand what they are required to do. If he had such support, John would be able to understand even examination requirements and do well. A recognition of the disparity between students’ language backgrounds and

English as a Medium of Instruction

83

their abilities is fundamental to our debate on challenges. Added to it is a recognition of the disparity between students’ and teachers’ expectations of each other’s knowledge and use of English. As Ashworth (1985) argues, such disparity in learning situations means that the language needs of some individuals are addressed while those of others are not. As long as this disparity prevails the language education policy fails. Overall, the gap that students’ views emphasise is one that Cummins (2000) has identified in relation to academic literacies. Cummins’ focus is on immigrant children and their ability to attain fluency in the dominant language of the society they move into. He argues that while such children gain conversational fluency quite easily, they nevertheless need at least five years to catch up with native speaker fluency for academic requirements. I want to argue that in this regard the position of Ugandan students does not differ much from that of immigrant children. After all, English being a foreign language to them, these users have to tackle an unfamiliar code to address concepts that are as unfamiliar.

Effecting Change in Classroom Interaction Many educators believe in the logic of suggesting that if children are failing to learn through English, the obvious alternative is the mother tongue. There is no shortage of suggested benefits of mother-tongue medium. These are matched by equally numerous benefits of English as medium. This paper does not have the space for all these details but acknowledges the interesting accounts presented by Nsibambi (2000), Pattanayak (1986), Schmied (1991) and Stroud (2001). They emphasise that the argument cannot be easily concluded in favour of mother tongue or English. Yet the evidence already explored in this paper is useful for developing alternate points of view, particularly on the issue of effectiveness in classroom communication. It is not certain that teachers would do much better if mother tongue was the medium of instruction, for their failure is not simply in the use of English. Rather they have failed to facilitate the development of learners’ academic literacies. It would seem that a systematic blend of selected strengths of the two media – English and mother tongue – would be practical. However, bilingual options have to be considered with caution. I argue for cautious adoption because there is, for instance in the Ugandan situation, the challenge of multilingual classrooms. In these classrooms the learners come from several language backgrounds and this diversity creates difficulties for teachers who want to reach every learner. Reference to bilingual options therefore means not the knowledge and use of any particular mother tongue. Rather, it means the teachers’ awareness of the learners’ deficiencies in using English and the relative fluency they may exhibit in using their mother tongues. This fluency should not be taken for granted, for it may not translate so easily into academic literacies. Nevertheless, teachers will want to exploit this resource. They can facilitate learning through English by referring to the concepts that the learners have mastered in the mother tongue. Bilingual training A policy for bilingual training for teachers does not require them to be fluent in the several mother tongues that may be represented in a single classroom.

84

New Language Bearings in Africa

However, it implies consciousness-raising about the constraints on achievement that arise from teachers’ lack of mastery of English. It implies subtle ways of exploiting the invaluable experiences that the learners have internalised through their mother-tongue medium. The practice of bilingual training then should involve equipping teachers with the skills of integration. These skills will be useful for enhancing students’ performance of the heuristic, imaginative and representational functions of language. In our execution of the curriculum through the English medium, we are bound by duty to enable learners to use the language rewardingly in asking and following-up questions, informing others and explaining situations and ideas, all with native-like ability. Right from the core of the school’s existence, throughout its various operations, explicit guidance for language use must be laid down for all those involved in executing the curriculum. Besides classroom teachers, those responsible for the growth of the school in other ways should use the content of the curriculum to enhance language development and ultimately learning. Then recommendations 138 and 139 of the Bullock Report shall be given their proper place. For instance: 138 In the secondary school, all subject teachers need to be aware of: the linguistic processes by which the pupils acquire information and understanding, and the implications for teachers’ own use of language; 139 To bring about this understanding every secondary school should develop a policy for language across the curriculum. The responsibility for this policy should be embodied in the organizational structure of the school (Marland 1977). Many years after their pronouncement, the recommendations of the Bullock Report still require our attention. A close scrutiny of their implications should teach us that instruction is an educational action much larger than utterance of subject content. Bilingual practice by teachers should aim at their facilitation of bilingual abilities in the learners. It should enable learners to make reference to language experiences outside the classroom as a means of understanding what they are taught in the classroom. Marland stresses the aim of the language across the curriculum policy as: … simply to face the basic educational problem by endeavouring to create a ‘virtuous circle’: if a school develops thought and time to assisting language development, language in all areas will be helped; if attention is given to language in the content and skill subjects, language development will be assisted powerfully by the context and purpose of those subjects (Marland, 1977: 3). The value of the recommendations would be enhanced by the planning strategies that Cooper (1989) and Cummins (2000) refer to. If we want to help learners acquire skills for using the English language to learn, we should consider planning the goals as well as the modes of operation. The acquisition goals that Cooper discusses are appropriate to our needs, since we have seen that it is the gaining of functional ability that is at stake. We need to adopt

English as a Medium of Instruction

85

approaches that combine the direct as well as the indirect modes of teaching learners the skills of English that they need. Direct modes, as Cooper explains, depend on classroom instruction and would fall directly under the responsibility of the language teacher. These are implied by Cummins in ‘ESL or bilingual teachers’. The indirect modes referred to by Cooper are dependent on other means of teaching and learning that are recognisable outside explicit language instruction. They should be emphasised in other subject classes and in all other school activities. Although its immediate context is the conclusion of studies elsewhere, Cummins’ recommendation for bilingual training is certainly relevant to so many other ESL situations, including Ugandan schools. For instance, focusing on the obligation of the school to English language learning (ELL) students, he argues: First, educating bilingual/ELL students is the responsibility of the entire school staff and not just the responsibility of ESL or bilingual teachers. The numbers of ELL students in many districts, together with the time periods, typically required for students to catch up, means that ‘mainstream’ classroom teachers must be prepared (in both senses of the term) to teach all the students in their classrooms (Cummins, 2000: 36). To classrooms, I hasten to add all places in the school, and to the classroom teachers I add everyone who interacts with the learners. Appel and Muysken’s (1987) reflection on models of bilingual instruction may be useful for us here. The transitional or assimilationist model they refer to is ideal for children being first introduced to school, and therefore expected to have difficulties with the school language which is often different from the home language. However, it may have to be applied to the secondary school. Its value for the latter context lies in its inherent ability ‘to make it easier for the child to adjust to existing education demands’ (Appel & Muysken, 1987: 65). The same value is reflected in Cummins and Swain’s (1986) argument for schools to facilitate the promotion of an additive form of bilingualism if they aim to develop to full potential the students’ academic and cognitive ability. We may also want to dwell on Hornberger’s (2002) suggestion that ideological space be opened up in education for multilingualism to become a resource and support literacy development and learning. I propose that we should commit resources to case-studies of bilingual instruction, devoting these to clear, systematic documentation of the realities of this practice. We should then use the information to evaluate our attempts to change the outcomes of instruction and develop grounded theories as the basis of classroom practice. Pursuing quality learning and teaching through serious reorientation of our use of English is a demonstration of readiness to turn all the practical challenges to advantage by exploiting the potential of the language for facilitating learning. One theory that arises then concerns the urgent need for unifying the aims and objectives of teaching with the overall need for enabling learners to master the thought processes involved in mastering school work. The practical pursuit of the learning needs of individual learners will certainly happen in the ESL context. Teachers will, nevertheless, have to remain cognisant of the language backgrounds of the learners. Such con-

86

New Language Bearings in Africa

scious care for the effects of using English in the classroom should form the basis of the language-across-the-curriculum policy that is often paid lipservice. Teacher education should therefore be concerned about the need to include bilingual training and specific communication skills as components of teacher training.

Communication Skills Training: Questioning and Explaining A theory arises on the need for teacher training programmes to examine the character of teaching and learning events as essentially communication events. This means rigorous practice in developing teachers’ communication skills. Teachers should be involved in communication-based, communicationoriented learning activities both in and outside the classroom. This would serve as a means of sharing and articulating knowledge. The classroom views explored in this paper suggest that teachers’ explanation and questioning skills are too poor for teacher talk to be effective. By acting in a militant and custodial spirit, teachers fail to explain the meaning and application of concepts. Better able to ask evaluation questions and to clarify issues, for example, they should encourage students to think aloud. Students’ questions and requests for clarification are a positive sign of their attempts to internalise and organise knowledge. The admission that students are entitled to clear explanation and to the exchange of ideas can facilitate teachers’ reciprocation in classroom dialogue, which in turn builds bridges rather than walls between them and their students. Explaining requires mastery of content, vocabulary selection and sensitivity to the language of other sources, especially textbooks. For example, although history may be popularly ‘the study of man and his past’, students cannot depend solely on narrative skills in learning the subject. For them to apply the knowledge skillfully, their teachers need to develop the learners’ ability to examine and question relationships between events, to compare factual accounts for consistency, to account for events or patterns of events, to give accounts of events and to link events or to sequence them. In geography and physics, students need to be empowered to explain phenomena or processes and relationships, to compare and/or contrast … and to give detailed descriptions of objects or observations. All these make up a complex set of demands on students’ abilities as well as those of teachers. Moreover, training should address the use of different types of questions and their implications for the respondents’ behaviour, besides their effectiveness in classroom interaction. We may find it useful here to refer to the general awareness that teachers need to develop for improving their questioning skills. This reference is based on Payne’s (1951) suggestions for questioning in research, which I think are valid for the teacher’s role. Firstly, like the good researcher who is aware of the subject, the good teacher should be aware of the learners’ involvement. He or she should allow them to talk about their concerns, even if these may not constitute any part of the teacher’s expressed agenda of the lesson. That is to say that the teachers should be flexible and allow themselves to break away from the limits of their lesson plan if the subject of the diversion will enhance thought patterns and, consequently, the quality of learning. Secondly, self-discipline is required of teachers not to take

English as a Medium of Instruction

87

for granted knowledge or the effectiveness of its communication in the learning process. Thus ‘yes/no’ and leading questions will be better avoided in preference of open-ended questions that allow learners room to explain their position.

Conclusion I have suggested that the actual status of English in multilingual classrooms is not appreciated and, that this is one major reason why teachers are failing in their pursuit of better standards of English. The policy of English as a medium of instruction is complicated by there being other indicators of status that are not easily complementary. Basing my theory on students’ descriptions of their failures in the classrooms, I have also pointed out gross faults in the practice based on the recommendation for English as a medium of instruction. The requirements of ‘instruction’ have not been given due attention and teachers have not committed themselves to using English to enable learning. In light of these observations the vague but significant illusion of the need to switch to the mother tongue as a medium of instruction is not exactly a useful effort for language policy development. Instead, teachers need to break away from teacher domination of classroom talk and the emphasis of subject content and adopt a language- or skills-based, communication-oriented bilingual approach to teaching. This approach recognises student participation and teacher responsibility especially for bilingual language support for learning. Correspondence Any correspondence should be directed to Dr Robinah Kyeyune, Department of Language Education, Makerere University, School of Education, Uganda. References Appel, R. and Muysken, P. (1987) Language Contact and Bilingualism. Newcastle upon Tyne: Edward Arnold. Ashworth, M. (1985) Beyond Methodology. Second Language Teaching and the Community. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cooper, R.L. (1989) Language Planning and Social Change. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Cummins, J. (2000) Language, Power and Pedagogy: Bilingual Children in the Crossfire. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd. Cummins, J. and Swain, M. (1986) Bilingualism in Education. London and New York: Longman. Danling, F. (1995) ‘My Trouble is My English’: Asian Students and the American Dream. Portsmouth: Boynton/Cook Publishers Inc. Hornberger, N.H. (2002) Multilingual language policies and the continua of biliteracy: An ecological approach. Language Policy 1 (1), 27–51. Marland, M. (1977) English Across the Curriculum. Oxford: Heinemann Educational Books. Ministry of Education (1989) Education for National Integration and Development. Report of the Educational Review Commission. Kampala: Government of Uganda. Nsibambi, R. (2000) A language policy for national integration: Facilitators and inhibitors. In K. Parry (ed.) Language and Literacy in Uganda. Kampala: Fountain Publishers.

88

New Language Bearings in Africa

Pattanayak, D.P. (1986) Educational use of the mother-tongue. In B. Spolsky (ed.) Language and Education in Multilingual Settings. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd. Payne, S.L. (1951) The Art of Asking Questions. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Philipson, D. (1990) Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Rogers, J. (1990) The world for sick proper. In R. Rossiner and R. Bolitho (eds) Currents of Change in English Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Schmied, J. (1991) English in Africa. An Introduction. Harlow: Longman. Stroud, C. (2001) African mother-tongue programmes and the politics of language: Linguistic citizenship versus linguistic human rights. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 22 (4), 339–355. Tiffen, B. (1969) A Language in Common. A Guide to English Language Teaching in Schools and Colleges. London: Longman.

Enlightenment and Attitudes of the Nigerian Elite on the Roles of Languages in Nigeria Wale Adegbite Department of English, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria This study describes the effect of enlightenment on attitudes of the Nigerian elite to the roles assigned to English and indigenous languages in Nigeria. From the results of a preliminary investigation into the attitudes of undergraduate students in a Nigerian University, it was presumed that enlightenment of citizens on the importance of indigenous languages vis-a`-vis English in Nigeria might bring about a positive shift in their attitudes towards their mother tongues. The study then delves into available literature on enlightenment efforts and shifts in attitudes of Nigerians towards their indigenous languages and examines these issues in the wider context of language planning and national development. From all indications, it seems that, although a greater number of the elite class still do not have favourable dispositions towards their indigenous languages as they do towards English, the seed of the positive realisation of the complementary roles of indigenous languages and English in national development has been sown among a few Nigerians. What remains is for these few people to water this seed so that it can germinate and spread among all Nigerians in order to enhance collective participation towards national developmental efforts.

Research on language planning in Nigeria today has centred on both status and corpus planning. While the research on status planning has centred on the roles assigned to English and indigenous languages in Nigeria and attitudes of speakers to numerous languages (Adegbija, 1994; Akindele & Adegbite, 1999; Bamgbose, 2001), the corpus planning research has investigated the graphisation, standardisation and intellectualisation of indigenous languages, particularly the minority languages (Afolayan, 1979; Bamgbose, 1977; Emenanjo, 1990; Williamson, 1985). This study focuses on status planning, especially the effects of language attitudes on the assignment of roles to English and indigenous languages in Nigeria. The over 400 languages in Nigeria have been categorised in different ways by scholars, based on the parameters of sequence of acquisition, number of speakers and roles assigned to languages. Considering the acquisition sequence, the following labels are recognised: (1) Mother tongues (i.e. indigenous languages): Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, Edo, Efik, Tiv, Fulfide, Kanuri, etc. (2) Second language: English (3) Foreign languages: French, Arabic and others. The categorisation in terms of number of speakers and roles assigned to languages has provided us with the following labels: (1) Dominant language: English (2) Majority languages: Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba (3) Minority languages: Angas, Edo, Efik, Tiv, Fulfide, Kanuri, etc. 89

90

New Language Bearings in Africa

Awonusi (1993) describes the languages in terms of levels of importance as in Table 1. Also, Bamgbose (1993) describes the status of Nigerian languages using the following terms: dominant, deprived, endangered and dying. The dominant label matches the status of English in Nigeria. Apart from the generally positive attitudes that Nigerians have towards English, they tend to have a negative attitude towards indigenous languages other than their own (Adegbija, 1994; Babajide, 2001). Table 1 Status of languages in Nigeria Status Level V Level IV Level III Level II Level I

Language(s)

Roles

English Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba

National and international roles Regional lingua francas, used in network news Pidgin English Restricted lingua franca Edo, Efik, Fulfude, Idoma Igala, Ethnic languages used in network Ijo, Kanuri, Nupe, Tiv news Other minor languages Ethnic or sub-ethnic roles

The deprived languages refer to the three major indigenous languages in Nigeria, Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. In spite of the relative advantage that the majority languages may have over the minority languages, in terms of the extent of their use for communication, it has been noted, that the former are hardly ever used beyond personal communication with family and friends. Indeed, many speakers of both majority and minority languages, most especially the latter, do not believe that their languages can be used for any serious conduct of modern day affairs (Adegbija, 1994; Igboanusi & Ohia, 2001). The endangered languages are minority languages that are used very little or not used at all for communication. Crozier and Blench (1992) affirm that many of the smaller languages in Nigeria are already extinct or are very nearly extinct; an example is Bassa-Kontagora with only 10 speakers alive in 1989. Shaeffer (1997) further warns that Emai, spoken by a small community in Edo State and the 30 different languages spoken in the area would probably be dead by the year 2050 as none could serve as a lingua franca and they are being supplanted by other languages.

Attitudes of Undergraduate Students A preliminary investigation was carried out in November 2001 to examine the attitudes of some undergraduate students to the roles assigned to English and indigenous languages that serve as the mother tongues of various people of Nigeria. A total of 200 Part Three students of Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife were exposed to a set of lectures on a course entitled ‘Multilingualism and National Development’ offered by the Department of English in the university. The students were asked to respond to some questions in a questionnaire before and after the lectures were given. The questions sought information about the language(s) they would prefer for personal communication, social interactions (e.g. city celebrations and festivals) and official transactions at the local, state and national levels. They were also requested to give

The Roles of Languages in Nigeria

91

reasons for their preferences. The responses before the lectures are presented in Table 2 showing the extent of their preferences in particular situations, in rounded up percentages. The languages involved here are English, Hausa, Igbo, minority groups’ languages, Pidgin and Yoruba. The minority languages referred to are Edo, Idoma, Ijaw, Isolo, Kilma and Urhobo. The presentation above shows that, before the lectures, all groups of students, except the Hausa, preferred English to their mother tongues for serving many of the roles listed. Historically, the Yoruba and Igbo ethnic groups were much earlier exposed to western education than the Hausa, while many Hausa indigenes see English as a tool or symbol of an alien culture, Christianity and religion. Being also predominantly Muslims, the Hausa promote the speaking of Arabic along with Hausa in several domains. Students from the minority groups showed the least interest in using their mother tongues beyond personal communication. In view of the smallness of their population and their absorption into communities dominated by the major ethnic groups, members of the minority groups end up learning and using the majority language(s) dominant in their communities, in addition to using English and Pidgin, while their interest in their own languages diminishes. After the lectures, there was generally an apparent change in the response of students in favour of their mother tongues, to the extent that Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba students were, respectively, proposing their languages to assist English as official languages and minority groups’ students recognising their languages at state level and even for social communication. Table 2 Language preferences of undergraduate students Hausa students Personal communication Social communication (semi-formal) National official communication State official communication Local government official communication Igbo students Personal communication Social communication (semi-formal) National official commmunication State official communication Local government official communication Yoruba students Personal communication Social communication (semi-formal) National official communication State official communication Local government official Minority group students Personal communication Social communication (semi-formal) National official communication State official communication Local government official communication

English

Hausa

0 20 60 25 10

100 80 40 75 90

English

Igbo

Pidgin

25 40 90 75 55

55 50 10 25 45

20 10 0 0 0

English

Yoruba

20 30 80 70 50

80 70 20 30 50

English

Mother tongue

Pidgin

10 50 100 65 40

50 15 0 10 20

40 35 0 25 40

92

New Language Bearings in Africa

Statement of the problem The findings above might generate a presumption that the lectures have resulted in shifts in attitudes of students. But it is a fact that attitudes are not easily changed as their formations are based on deep-seated cognitive, emotive and social factors (cf. Baker, 1988). Thus, rather than embark on an experimental study in which just one or few enlightenment efforts are matched with reflections of attitudes, we prefer to take a more global perspective of using existing research reports and documentary evidence to describe how enlightenment in different forms and content could have influenced the activities (as a reflection of attitudes) of the elite in language planning and policy-making.

Negative Attitudes to Indigenous Languages in Nigeria The Nigerian elite has been blamed for the inferior status of indigenous languages compared with English (Oyesakin, 1992). Since it is the elite that dominate policy-making in Nigeria, the interest of the elite has always been equated with public interest. Consequently, the dominance of English over the indigenous languages in Nigeria and the attendant positive attitude towards the language can be attributed to elitist interests. Ordinarily the masses could not have had negative attitudes towards their respective mother tongues if they had not been ‘misled’ or ‘misdirected’ by the elite whom the former look up to for direction. Despite the fact that English is spoken by less than 20% of Nigerians, the language has been made a sine qua non to the survival of individuals in the nation (Adeniran, 1977). Afolayan’s (1999: 83) description of the positive attitudes of Nigerians to English is very apt here and we quote him as follows: As ex-colonial people, Nigerians hold English in great awe. They so overrate English that literacy in English is considered the only mark of being an educated person. For example, for them science and technology are not within the reach of any person who cannot master the English language. Not surprisingly, therefore, the language, unlike any of the Nigerian mother tongues, is regarded as being politically neutral for adoption by people. Consequently, political expediency makes the English language the ready language for adoption for national literacy today. Indeed some Nigerians, desirous of having a head start in the drive for literacy with its attendant politico-socio-economic advantages are already striving to make it their family mother tongue. Several reasons have been identified by scholars (Adegbija, 1994; Bamgbose, 2001; Oyetade, 2001) for the attitudes of Nigerians to languages in the country. Some of these are colonialism, elitism, ethnicism, mobility and job prospects, level of language development and lack of knowledge of the workings of language. Some observations made by scholars in respect of the above factors are briefly discussed below. The attitude that recognises as normal the continued use of European languages in all advanced sectors of life shows that the Nigerian elite is plagued by linguistic imperialism (Ansre, 1975; Bamgbose, 1985). Oyetade (2001: 21) has rightly observed that many elite parents send their wards to fee-paying

The Roles of Languages in Nigeria

93

primary schools where the medium of instruction is English. This is predicated on the belief that the earlier a child begins learning in English, the higher his/her chances of better mastery of the language. This will ultimately guarantee good performance at the subsequent levels of education and eventually a good job. Some parents in the elite group go to the extent of banning their children from using their mother tongue at home even though both parents speak the same language. In certain schools, indigenous languages, pejoratively called ‘vernaculars’ are highly prohibited in preference for English. This attitude of the elite has made the non-literate in society no less positively disposed towards English than their literate counterpart. Everybody, literate and non-literate, easily recognises the perceived importance of English as a prerequisite for a better condition of life. Thus, all parents have the desire to ensure that their wards are educated and speak English for their personal and family aggrandisement (cf. Oyesakin, 1992). The inferior status accorded the indigenous languages is also reflected in the school curriculum where little time is devoted to the study of the languages in comparison with English. Some of the few teachers who teach the languages are not even qualified to do so. The low status accorded the indigenous languages in the educational system and the negative attitudes of parents already have repercussions on the interest of their children. Oyetade (2001: 24) shows that applicants for language courses in Nigerian universities prefer European languages to Nigerian languages. The preference pattern for English, Yoruba and Igbo for 1990 and 1991 at the University of Ibadan (located in the Yoruba city of Ibadan) is as shown in Table 3. Even then, it is observed that many of the students do not come to study the indigenous languages out of genuine interest. Some use the courses to secure admission with an intention to change over to other courses of their interest. On ethnicism, the English language is favoured as a neutral language by the various ethnic groups. The Hausas will not agree to use Yoruba or Igbo as a national language, neither will any Igbo and Yoruba groups succumb to the use of Hausa as a national language. The fear of ethnic domination, politically, economically and culturally is entertained by each of these groups against one another, while the minority groups resent domination by all three majority groups. Some scholars in a bid to defend their job as English language teachers have viciously condemned patriotic calls for a development of the indigenous languages in the country. An elite of no less status than Professor Obemeata, a reputable English language scholar and teacher, in a newspaper article (Obemeata, 2002: 2), presents the view of an educated group who feel

Table 3 Preference pattern of applicants for English, Igbo and Yoruba courses at the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria Year

English

Igbo

Yoruba

1990 1991 Total

384 344 728

8 8 16

29 29 58

94

New Language Bearings in Africa

threatened that a positive shift in attitude towards the indigenous languages could negatively affect their job prospects. Highlights of the submission made in the article are as follows: (1) Children have no advantage in being taught in the mother tongue. The mother tongue has a negative effect on intelligent test performance of children. (2) Mother tongue interferes negatively with the learning and usage of the English language. (3) Mother tongue learning does not lead to educational development and it does not seem to contribute to an improvement in the quality of education in the country. (4) The language project of NERDC (that is, developing indigenous languages) may, after all, be a colossal waste of resources. The incurable damage, which the above argument must have done to language learning in Nigeria, cannot yet be ascertained. But the consequence of the negative attitude of speakers to indigenous languages can be seen in the perpetuation of negative factors of underdevelopment directly or indirectly related to language, for example, language inactivity or death, illiteracy and underdevelopment of education, communication, politics and the society as a whole. The last instance of negative attitude to discuss here pertains to the plain ignorance of some members of the elite group about language, as demonstrated by some political members of the elite class. This is well illustrated by a report of an incident that took place in one of the state legislatures in Nigeria not too long ago (cf. Bamgbose, 2001). On 9 December 1991, the Lagos state house of assembly discussed the desirability of using Yoruba, the dominant language of the state (about 90% of the population speaks Yoruba as their mother tongue or second language), and as a language of debate in the house, in accordance with the provisions of the constitution (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999: Section 97) which empowers each state to decide on the use of such a language in addition to English. The outcome of this debate was that the house, wholly constituted by Yoruba legislators, rejected this dominant and major Nigerian language on the grounds that: Yoruba language is not appropriate for the conduct of business of the House of Assembly since Lagos is a cosmopolitan city. Besides, its use is capable of demeaning and reducing the intellectual capacity of legislators (The Guardian, 10 December 1999).

The Forms and Content of Enlightenment Activities Many language scholars and educationists (Adegbija, 2000; Bamgbose, 2001) have consistently emphasised the need for the Nigerian people to develop positive attitudes towards both the indigenous languages and English. From all indications, it seems the main target of the enlightenment programme, in the first instance, is the Nigerian elite in their various formations. Enlightenment has come via formal classroom lectures, symposia, seminars, workshops and conferences. Much information has also been passed on in the form of

The Roles of Languages in Nigeria

95

opinions, suggestions and appeals through the non-formal means of the mass media and public speeches at religious and social gatherings. The content of enlightenment activities that have taken place is geared towards a positive reorientation of the cognitive experiences and emotive tendencies of Nigerians towards their indigenous language. A summary of the basic information content of the enlightenment programme is presented here from our own viewpoint: (1) A human being without competence in his/her mother tongue is deprived and dehumanised. To be denied the opportunity to acquire education or communicate in one’s mother tongue is a violation of one’s linguistic rights (Tollefson, 1991; Wolff, 1999). It is, therefore, a challenge for speakers to (i) strive to be competent and literate in their mother tongues, and (ii) improve their competence in English before they finish their formal education. (2) The use of mother tongues in informal and formal contexts enhances ethnic solidarity, social integration, linguistic and cultural pride and efficiency in communication. It also enables the languages to develop and increase in status (Adegbija, 1994). The use of the mother tongue in the education of a child enhances cognitive development and intellectual capacity, creativity and manipulative ability (Bamgbose, 1976; Chumbow, 1990; UNESCO, 1953). Some major projects that provided justification for the statement above were the 6-year (Yoruba) Primary Project (SYPP) carried out in Ile-Ife in 1976 (cf. Afolayan, 1979, 1999) and the Primary Education Improvement Project on Hausa (PEIP) carried out in Zaria (Lassa, 1977). The acquisition of competence in a mother tongue facilitates the proper learning of a second language (Cummins, 1984; Royer & Carlo, 1991), whereas the straight use of a foreign/second language to teach children who are not yet competent in their mother tongues may result in lack of competence in both the mother tongues and second language, especially when there is lack of adequate exposure to the second language (Adegbija, 1994; Bamgbose, 1985). At best, the children may in the words of Cummins (1981) acquire ‘basic interpersonal communicative skills’ (BICS), but not ‘cognitive academic language proficiency’ (CALP) in the second language; thus, they fail to acquire basic intellectual skills in their mother tongues. The primacy of the mother tongue in a bilingual/multilingual person is non-negotiable (Adegbite, 1993; Afolayan, 1991). (3) English is a second language in Nigeria. The high social prestige attached to it may be justified on the grounds that it performs certain instrumental functions as a language of inter-ethnic communication, official communication, language of education and language of globalisation, providing access to education, gainful employment and information technology (Crystal, 1997). But it hinders effective social mobilisation and does not effectively convey all the nuances, cultural loading, feelings and emotions required by the particular messages people want to communicate (Adegbija, 1994). As a second language, it ought to complement the indigenous languages that serve as mother tongues of Nigerians. Thus,

96

New Language Bearings in Africa

rather than dominate those languages, it should occupy a secondary position to them. (4) Multilingualism is an asset rather than liability to a nation if the linguistic resources are well planned. Such planning must recognise the primacy of the mother tongues of individuals, the complementary role of the second language and the voluntary options of learning some other languages. The diversity in multilingualism can be positively harnessed to engender unity and progress in a nation, as Donna M. Ogle says in Reading Today (Ogle, 2001: 4): Individually, we can only know a part, Together, we can understand the whole. Shift in language attitudes As has been stated previously in this paper, the educated elite all have a positive attitude towards English and no case has ever been made for a reversal of this trend. If anything at all, the call that is being made is for this same attitude to be extended to indigenous languages such that both can play complementary roles in their being utilised for national development. With respect to the indigenous languages, the patterns of attitude before and after enlightenment have been observed in two directions: (1) where negative attitude persists; and (2) where there is a shift from negative to positive attitude. The first pattern has already been presented above with its attendant effects. Scholars have also reported instances of the second pattern. In the past three decades, papers, articles and books reporting experimental, empirical and theoretical research have been presented in support of enhancing the status of indigenous languages in Nigeria. At various educational and linguistic conferences and workshops, scholars have discussed and presented communique´s on the complementary roles of indigenous languages and English in national development. The activities of authors, publishers, mass media practitioners, film artistes and producers too in promoting the indigenous languages have also increased in recent times. However, all these positive efforts need to be stepped up for the campaign to receive wide acceptance among the elite and consequently gain the support of the masses. On corpus development, standard orthographies have been produced for about 65 Nigerian languages via the efforts of government, ethnic cultural groups, communities and individuals (Adegbija, 1993; Emenanjo, 1990; Mukoshy, 1992). Emenanjo (1990) claims that a few of these languages have well-established orthographies, standard written varieties, long traditions of writing, large and varied corpora of written literature among all other types of texts and sophisticated and dynamic metalanguages. Despite these efforts, no Nigerian language may, in the strict sense of the term, qualify to be called ‘developed’ because none of them is used as a medium of teaching subjects at higher levels of education (Bokamba & Tlou, 1977). Olaofe (1990) observes that while English is taught as either a specialist or service course or both in all Nigerian universities, only 35% of the universities offer Yoruba, 25% Hausa and 30% Igbo. Apart from the three major languages, very little attention is paid to the minor languages. Lastly, the National Policy on Education (NPE), published in 1977 and

The Roles of Languages in Nigeria

97

revised in 1981 and 1998 (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1977), and The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999) give documentary evidence for the roles assigned to languages in the nation. The content of the language provisions in the NPE can be paraphrased as follows: (1) The medium of instruction in pre-primary education shall be the mother tongue or language of immediate community (NPE, para 11.3); (2) The medium of instruction in the primary school is initially the mother tongue or the language of the immediate community and, at a later stage, English (NPE, para. 15.4); (3) Each child should be encouraged to learn one of the three major indigenous languages, viz. Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba, in addition to his or her own mother tongue, at the secondary school level (NPE, para. 19.4). In the Nigerian constitution, two provisions of language are stated for use in the national and state’s houses of assembly thus: (1) The business of the national assembly shall be conducted in English, Hausa, Ibo (sic) and Yoruba when adequate arrangements have been made thereof (The Constitution, Section 55). (2) The business of the House of Assembly shall be conducted in English but the House may in addition to English conduct the business of the House in one or more languages in the state as the House may by resolution approve (The Constitution, Section 97). Although the provisions in the two documents above have had far-reaching effects on the attitudes of some Nigerians to indigenous languages, many scholars still believe that much more impact will be made on language planning and development if: (1) some provisions are stated more clearly by removing ambiguities and completely deleting escape clauses that tend to water down the provisions, e.g. ‘when adequate arrangement have been made thereof’ or ‘subject to availability of teachers’; (2) a comprehensive language policy can be formulated completely on its own terms instead of shifting language provisions from educational and political policy documents; (3) statements of the provisions can be backed with concrete action in terms of adequate implementation, political will and support of the people.

Conclusion Since national development is best achieved by the collective participation of the people of a nation and since the complementarities of both the indigenous languages of the citizenry and English provide the best means of their social mobilisation towards developmental activities, both the elite and masses ought to be correctly informed about language planning and policy issues. Enlightenment may seem to have repercussions on shifts in attitudes towards indigenous languages in Nigeria. But the success of the enlightenment programme would depend first on the acceptance of the critical elite group before it is later embraced by the masses.

98

New Language Bearings in Africa

Although Bamgbose (2001: 9) concedes that attitudes are not easily changed, even in the face of compelling evidence, he still suggests that awareness campaigns should be designed to combat negative language attitudes. Fortunately the pattern of shifts in attitudes recorded has been, unidirectional, from negative to positive and not vice versa. It is expected that this trend should continue. Recently a colleague who is a good friend of this writer justified this positive expectation. Despite his vast knowledge about languageplanning issues, he used to argue vehemently against the use of indigenous languages in education, while he supports the dominant propagation of English. A year ago as a leader of a literacy organisation in Nigeria he coordinated a World Bank/Universal Basic Education (UBE), Nigeria-sponsored project on condition that the mother tongue of people must serve as medium of instruction in early primary education. He embarked on the project sceptically, but was surprised later by the positive end result. His (Onukaogu, 2002: 35) recent article in a Nigerian newspaper, Nigerian Tribune, entitled ‘Promoting literacy through reading and writing in mother tongue’ aptly represents his current stand on the language policy issue. Correspondence Any correspondence should be directed to Wale Adegbite, Department of English, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile–Ifex, Nigeria ([email protected]).

References Adegbija, E. (1993) The graphicization of a small-group language: A case study of Oko. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 102, 153–173. Adegbija, E. (1994) Language Attitudes in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Sociolinguistic Overview. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Adegbija, E. (2000) Language attitudes in West Africa. In A. Bamgbose (ed.) Sociolinguistics in West Africa. (Special Issue No.141 of International Journal of the Sociology of Language) 75–100. Adegbite, W. (1993) Towards an efficient bilingual programme for teaching language skills in Nigerian primary schools. Literacy and Reading in Nigeria 6, 340–351. Adeniran, A. (1977) A sociolinguistic factor analysis of Yoruba–English bilingualism among Form V pupils of secondary schools in Ibadan area. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Ibadan. Afolayan, A. (1979) A Current Evaluation of Six Year Primary Project EDUCAFRICA. Washington D.C.: UNESCO. Afolayan, A. (1991) Editorial. Journal of English as a Second Language 3, 1. Afolayan, A. (1999) The alienated role of the mother tongue in literacy education for sustainable national development: The western Nigerian Yoruba example. Proceedings of The 1st Pan-African Reading for All Conference (pp. 70–88). Pretoria, South Africa. Akindele, F. and Adegbite, W. (1999) The Sociology and Politics of English in Nigeria. IleIfe: Obafemi Awolowo University Press. Ansre, G. (1975) Four rationalizations for maintaining European languages in education in Africa. African Languages 5 (2), 10–17. Awonusi, V.O. (1993) The English language, national development and unity in Nigeria: A sociolinguistic perspective. Education Today 6 (2), 5–8. Babajide, A.O. (2001) Language attitude patterns of Nigerians. In H. Igboanusi (ed.) Language Attitude and Language Conflict in West Africa (pp. 1–13). Ibadan: Enicrownfit.

The Roles of Languages in Nigeria

99

Baker, C. (1988) Key Issues in Bilingualism and Bilingual Education. Clevedon and Philadelphia: Multilingual Matters. Bamgbose, A. (1976) Mother Tongue Education: The West African Experience. London and Paris: Hodder and UNESCO. Bamgbose, A. (1977) Language in Education in Nigeria (vols 1, 2). Lagos: Federal Ministry of Information. Bamgbose, A. (1985) Barriers to effective education in West African languages. In K. Williamson (ed.) West African Languages in Education (pp. 22–38) Wien: Beitrage Zur Afrikanistik Band 27. Bamgbose, A. (1993) Deprived, endangered and dying languages. Diogenes 161, 19–25. Bamgbose, A. (2001) Language policy in Nigeria: Challenges, opportunities and constraints. Keynote address at the Nigerian Millennium Sociolinguistics Conference, University of Lagos, August 16–18. Bokamba, E.G. and Tlou, J.S. (1977) The consequences of language policies of African states vis-a`-vis education. In P. Kotey and H. Der-Houssikian (eds) Language and Linguistic Problems in Africa. Columbia: Homebeam. Chumbow, B.S. (1990) The place of the mother tongue in the national policy of education. In E.N. Emenanjo (ed.) Multilingualism, Minority Languages and Language Policy in Nigeria (pp. 61–72). Agbor: Central Books and Linguistics Association of Nigeria. Crozier, D. and Blench, R. (1992) An Index of African Languages. Dallas: Summer Institute of Languages. Crystal, D. (1997) English as a Global Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cummins, J. (1981) Bilingualism and Minority Language Children. Ontario: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Cummins, J. (1984) Bilingualism and Special Education: Issues in Assessment and Pedagogy. San Diego, CA: College Hill. Emenanjo, E.N. (ed.) (1990) Multilingualism, Minority Languages and Language Policy in Nigeria. Agbor: Central Books. Federal Republic of Nigeria (1977) National Policy on Education (revised 1981 and 1998). Lagos: Federal Government Press. Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999) The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Lagos: Federal Government Press. Igboanusi, H. and Ohia. I. (2001) Language conflict in Nigeria: The perspective of linguistic minorities. In H. Igboanusi (ed.) Language Attitude and Language Conflict in West Africa (pp. 125–142). Ibadan: Enicrownfit. Lassa, P.N. (1977) An Evaluation of the Primary Education Improvement Project. Zaria: Institute of Education, ABU. Mukoshy, I. (1992) Seminar Report for the Federal Ministry of Education 33. Lagos: National Language Centre. Obemeata, J. (2002) Language of instruction. Independent (newspaper) Sunday, August 4, p. 2. Olaofe, I.A. (1990) The relevance of linguistic teaching and learning to the implementation of the National Language Policy. In E.N. Emenanjo (ed.) Multilingualism, Minority Languages and Language Policy in Nigeria (pp. 50–60). Agbor: Central Books. Onukaogu, C.E. (2002) Promoting literacy through reading and writing in mother tongue. Nigerian Tribune Friday, October 25, p. 35. Oyesakin, A. (1992) Who is afraid of mother tongue? Paper presented at the Seminar in Honour of Prof Ayo Bamgbose, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, January 9–11, 1992. Oyetade, S.O. (2001) Attitude to foreign languages and indigenous language use in Nigeria. In H. Igboanusi (ed.) Language Attitude and Language Conflict in West Africa (pp. 14–29). Ibadan: Enicrownfit. Ogle, D.M. (2001) Leadership lessons: Conference probes second language research needs. Reading Today 19 (1), 4. Royer, J.M. and Carlo, M.S. 1991. Transfer of comprehension skills from native to second language. Journal of Reading 34 (6), 450–455 Shaeffer, R. (1997) This Day (newspaper) March 31, 1997, p. 4.

100

New Language Bearings in Africa

Tollefson, J.W. (1991) Planning Language, Planning Inequality. New York: Longman. UNESCO (1953) African Languages and English in Education. Paris. Williamson, K. (ed.) (1985) West African Languages in Education. Wien: Beitrage Zur Afrikanistik. Band 27. Wolff, H.E. (1998) Multilingualism, modernization and post literacy: Some central issues concerning the promotion of indigenous African languages in a democratic society. Paper presented at a workshop on The Role of the African Languages in Democratic South Africa, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.

Establishing a National Standard and English Language Curriculum Change in Kenya Kembo-Sure Department of Linguistics, Moi University, Box 3900, Eldoret, Kenya The paper revisits the debate on the new forms of English and proposes a curricular reform that would make the teaching of English in Africa effective and profitable. The discussion is based on sample texts from Kenyan users of English and relates the linguistic form to the sociocultural contexts in which the language is used. The paper argues for the identification and codification of a local standard English anchored on the performance of ‘educated and articulate’ Kenyans and not on the nativespeaker model. The paper then recommends a curriculum reform that focuses on language use and function and that situates language teaching in the social–cultural and historical context of the learners and teachers. Doing this would make English language learning and teaching relevant to the aspirations of the people. Finally, the paper also argues that multiple standards of English around the world will not necessarily foster intercultural misunderstanding, but on the contrary, it would enhance mutual respect and increase intercultural interaction.

The debate about the establishment and codification of new forms of English has been going on in earnest for nearly three decades now and there is no indication that it is going to go away soon. This paper is another attempt to show that the historical and sociocultural circumstances of learning and using English in Africa cannot be ignored as we discuss the model to be used as the target of education and hence a measure of students’ educational achievements and, hence, success in life. The paper is a discussion of the question of the model of English to be adopted for Kenya and a proposal of a curriculum change to make the choice of a local standard implementable and profitable. Written texts are used to provide a context for discussion, but the first text is a transcription of a conversation, used here only to introduce the substance and the theoretical frame of the paper. Text 1 KS: You wouldn’t have had to come all the way if you asked for the number from Jayne. RT: Any way, I had no otherwise; I had to come. JK: RT, what do you mean you had ‘no otherwise’? RT: You know, Madam we speak Kenyan English. JK: Eh, RT, remember you are a teacher of English; you can not just speak anything and say you are speaking Kenyan English. (16 December, 2002) This conversation is part of a larger discourse which ensued when one of our postgraduate students (RT) stopped by (at my house) to ask if we had finished reading her proposal and if she could have the comments to enable her to do 101

102

New Language Bearings in Africa

her corrections before Christmas. My wife and I happen to be co-supervisors of RT’s work. It was late morning and I was sitting in the sun working on the draft of this paper as my wife (JK) was hanging her washing on the washing line. RT had travelled 40 km to come here and was sipping a cold orange drink that JK had just offered her as we discussed the reasons for the delay to submit her proposal. The conversation is not really the focus of my paper since I am interested in written texts in this paper, but the reference to Kenyan English and the response to it by JK are relevant to what I intend to discuss and I will show what I mean presently. In one of his early discussions of the language syllabus, Brumfit (1982: 105) had the following to say: The model of teaching which tells the foreigner to adopt our system is both untruthful . . . and unhelpful because it implies that he cannot communicate without adopting our positions unnegotiably. . . . The rules of the language system, even discourse rules, may of course provide a basis, but a syllabus must offer a methodology which enables students to become comfortable in the negotiating process of language use: they must become fluent speakers, listeners, readers and writers. Brumfit was discussing the merits of the communicative syllabus (which was in vogue at that time) as opposed to the earlier grammatical syllabuses. The communicative syllabus was based on notions/functions, whereas the grammatical syllabus was based on the teaching of rules. For the foreign learner he recognises the futility of insisting on grammatical accuracy based on the native-speaker model as he also advocates for a negotiated meaning which can only arise from the learner’s ability to manipulate the situational and cultural potentials open to him. This is where my adoption of the conversation can be justified. JK is expressing an attitude to a form which violates the axioms of a grammatical syllabus, whereas RT is trying to muster all the linguistic resources at her disposal to make a conversation and she is rationalising her ‘deviation’ as an example from a national variety – Kenyan English. But why doesn’t JK, who is also Kenyan, recognise the form as the Kenyan variety? Or does she, but frowns on anything other than the British standard that is propagated by the school? The debate whether (or not) to recognise geopolitical varieties of English has been going on for many years and it is not my intention to embark on a full debate here. However, I will do so in order that I may give the conversation and my paper some theoretical perspective. JK’s objection to a ‘deviation’ can be seen in the professional (and almost moral) light in which Quirk (1989) saw the debate. In Quirk’s view: It is neither liberal nor liberating to permit learners to settle for lower standards than the best; and it is a travesty of liberalism to tolerate low standards which will lock the least fortunate into the least rewarding careers. Sir Radolph Quirk’s position reminds one of the Deficit Theory or the socioe-

English Language Curriculum in Kenya

103

conomic determinism as seen by Bernstein (1972). As Bernstein relates educational disadvantages among working-class children to the ‘restricted code’ they acquire from their parents, Quirk’s missionary zeal is to free ‘the least fortunate’ from poverty and disease by teaching Standard English – what Bernstein calls the ‘elaborated code’; and for Quirk any linguist or language teacher condoning anything other than the ‘standard’ is a ‘half-baked quack’. The main problem with Quirk’s position is that in his paper he argues for teaching the native-speaker variety of the ‘standard’ in all parts of the world where English is taught, for according to him, there is no agreement in ESL countries as to what constitutes the national or regional standards. And his evidence is that the elite in those countries such as Nigeria, India and Kenya ‘. . . tend to protest that the so-called national variety of English is an attempt to justify inability to acquire what they persist in seeing as ‘real’ English’ (p. 8). For example, he cites Prime Minister Indira Gandhi as complaining about the poor standards of English in India and ordering the education officials to do something about it. This position ignores two fundamental facts. First, even with the education authorities decreeing that Standard British English (or General American, for that matter) be the goal, not all children will have access to the model. Britain has, so far, not been able to provide this idealised variety to all the children in the depressed districts in the cities and children of immigrant communities. Why then would that be expected of ESL countries? The truth is that the standard variety has been artificially made a rare commodity even in the ‘inner-circle’ (Britain, Canada, Australia, etc.) countries, so that only the socially and economically powerful have unlimited access to it, whereas the less powerful must make do with less than the standard. The problem is graver in ESL countries, such as Kenya, India and Fiji. Secondly, Quirk ignores the fact that English in these regions represents a ‘disjunction’ between the native cultures and the medium of communication in the communities. The exotic life has to be expressed through new linguistic symbols and the consequence is mutual influence between language and culture. That is, as the local people wrestle with the cultural elements in the new language, they also adapt the language to signify their indigenous conceptualisations of the world as accurately as possible (Kachru, 1977, 1982; Schmied, 1991). More than 60 years ago, an Indian writer aptly explained this dialectical relationship and dilemma as follows: The telling has not been easy. One has to convey in a language that is not one’s own the spirit that is one’s own. One has to convey the various shades and omissions of a certain thought-movement that looks maltreated in an alien language. . . . We are all instinctively bilingual, many of us writing in our own language and English we cannot write like the English. We should not. We can write only as Indians (Rao, 1938, cited in Ashcroft et al., 1989: 61). This inner struggle experienced by writers and speakers of English as a second/foreign language is what my student (RT) represents in her statement – ‘You know, Madam, we speak Kenyan English’. The words are English, but the spirit and the ‘thought-movements’ are Kenyan. She has been teaching English and supervising teachers of English for more than 15 years. She is,

104

New Language Bearings in Africa

therefore, not an L2 early acquirer whose performance would be regarded casually as having a preponderance of first-language interference; she is a certified language teacher pursuing a second degree in linguistics. The question as to whether we should condemn her ‘deviation’ or not may be answered by Kachru’s (1982: 325) distinction between ‘deviation’ and ‘mistake’ as he discusses in Understanding Non-native English Texts: . . . a deviation can be contextualised in the new ‘unEnglish’ sociolinguistic context in which English actually functions; its ‘meaning’ must, therefore, be derived with reference to the use and the usage appropriate to that cultural context. . . . Because such innovations have gone through various processes of nativization, both linguistically and culturally, a description of such formations must consider the context of the situation as relevant for the analysis. A mistake, on the other hand, does not necessarily have an underlying sociolinguistic explanation: it may be essentially a marker of acquisition inadequacy, or it may indicate a stage in language acquisition. Returning to the conversation, when I asked JK why she thought RT’s use of Kenyan English forms was inappropriate, JK argued that the form was not even Kenyan since she had heard it in the speech of Nigerians and other nationals. This introduces quite an uphill task for the analysis of non-native forms in an attempt to isolate the sociolinguistic and cultural motivations for such usages. For example, can the deviation be traced to RT’s mother tongue rules? Is it a form propagated through some official documents or the local and international mass media? Is it expressing a particular local cultural meaning?

Establishing the Standard We know that what is called the ‘standard’ of any language is the idealised form usually best exemplified in written texts and highly formal situations of speech interactions, for example, scientific conferences, court-room discourse or tutorial discussions. In view of the globalised application of English as an international lingua franca, what form should be adopted to ensure crosscultural understanding and effective international communication, but at the same time providing a realistic national model for education and intranational communication? Where a language is a native tongue, one of the competing dialects is selected and then developed through rigorous corpus, status and acquisition planning and then codified as the standard language. The choice has been, in most cases, the variety spoken at the capital by the ruling class, although the variety spoken by a non-controversial minority group, as was the case of the Kiunguja dialect of Kiswahili, can sometimes be the most prudent choice. In the case of English in the ESL areas like Kenya, the choice of a national standard is even more difficult to arrive at. In an attempt to provide teachers with informed guidelines regarding correctness, Kachru’s categories of ‘deviations’ and ‘mistakes’ must be critically considered in order to isolate the ‘motivations’ of the forms and not be satisfied with superficial explanations of ‘origin’ (Brumfit, 1982). For example,

English Language Curriculum in Kenya

105

it is so easy to trace the origin of an L2 learner performance error to his mother tongue, but it is not easy to explain why mother-tongue interference occurs at every point that it does in a construction. With regard to acceptance of a form, it is not a question of anything goes in the name of ‘nativisation’, what Quirk cynically refers to as ‘liberation linguistics’ and Brumfit calls neo-Whorfian relativity. According to Quirk, the L2 learner is entitled to the ‘best’. Unfortunately his ‘best’ is the native speaker model, but in Brumfit’s view, to accept any deviation entails the attitude that the L2 learner cannot achieve the ‘best’, after all. The latter position is opposed to an exonormative model as it advocates for the best possible endonormative form to adopt as the standard: . . . the best goal for the non-native speaker is the English of the most educated and articulate speakers of English in his own linguistic group (Brumfit, 1982: 89). The question of ‘educated and articulate . . . in his linguistic group’ still remains subjective, indeterminate, but there are some relatively objective criteria to use to characterise a suitable local form. For example, it has been suggested that it must be internationally intelligible, locally acceptable and culturally relevant. The greatest advantage with such a local model is that it is realistic: i.e. (1) it is achievable by the learner; (2) it is demonstrable by the teacher; and (3) it is easy to identify with by the learners. Also inherent in the search for the model is the standard for performance evaluation. What should the teachers regard as a ‘mistake’ requiring correction and what is used to determine level of proficiency? In Kenya, at the end of every cycle in the education system (primary and secondary), there is an external examination set by the Kenya National Examination Council and the results are used to determine whether a candidate is to be promoted to the next cycle or not. The standard used to do this is largely the Standard British English with a few exceptions mainly based on lexical borrowings from local languages and neologisms; e.g. matatu = a passenger vehicle; mwananchi = citizen; duka = small retail shop, etc. A list of the accepted local forms is normally provided to examiners so that the candidates are not penalised for using them in their compositions. However, the list is short and some purists still insist that these forms be italicised to denote their foreignness. The following two texts will be used to illustrate how teachers could be guided in their decision as to what is acceptable, what warrants correction and what is ‘standard’. The first text is a letter written by a Kenyan 12-yearold girl in her Standard Seven or seventh grade of primary education. She has been exposed to English for at least 7 years at school. Although her parents know English, English is never used at home and since she is going to a rural school, English is strictly a classroom language and used occasionally with the teacher in the staff room or in the headmaster’s office. Dholuo is her principal language at home, in the neighbourhood and outside the classroom in school. However, she was introduced to English-medium learning in Standard Four and that means, save for Kiswahili lessons, all classroom talk should be in English. I say ‘should be’ because there is

106

New Language Bearings in Africa

evidence that the language-in-education policy is never adhered to strictly, especially in the rural schools. The second text is written by a newspaper reporter in a weekly newspaper which is published entirely in English. The reporters are generally university graduates, which means that they have been exposed to English as a formal school subject for at least 12 years and as a medium of learning for at least 16 years. The text is a report of the on-going campaigns for parliamentary and presidential seats, coming on 27 December 2002. Some of the expressions are, therefore, contextualised in the current political discourse in the country and it is only against that background that the reader may understand the text fully. Text 2 Nyagondo Pri. School Box 220 Ng’ iya 13/11/2002 Dear Aunt Jane and Uncle How are you over there, I hope you are fine with us we are fine over here. I am only asking you to pass my greetings to thoso, bill and so on. I am really working had to pass my Siaya District Evaluation test (SDET) to go to Std 8. And I think I would be very happy if I passed with 3 As. I want to promise you that I will go to Std 8. Otherwise I don’t have alot to tell you only about exams. I would be really excited when I passed my exams. Dad, Jim, Mzee and Walter has greated you very much. Good Bye Your faithfull daughter Sicilia M Anindo Deviations (1) Spelling: greated, faithfull, had (hard), alot (a lot). (2) Omission: otherwise I don’t have alot to tell you . . . only about exams (3) Word choice: (i) I would be really happy if I passed my exams; (ii) I don’t have alot to tell you . . . (4) Subject-verb agreement: Dad, Jim, Mzee amd Walter has greated you very much. (5) Style: Spoken style (e.g. How are you over there). Comments This is a typical text from an early acquirer with deviations which would occur even in an English-first-language acquirer. An English girl of Sicilia’s age would not make these mistakes, but a 6- or 7-year-old beginning to experiment with written English may produce some of the errors. What is surprising is that I do not detect anything I would attribute to L1 although I cannot rule out L1 influence altogether. These are errors which fit Kachru’s ‘mistake’ label; they are deviations

English Language Curriculum in Kenya

107

which are not as a result of any productive sociolinguistic or cultural process and therefore, they can only be linked to insufficient mastery of the L2 rules. This being the case, we can conclude as follows: (1) The teacher does not have to be unduly worried about these deviations as they should disappear as the learner progresses along the acquisition scale, and provided they are continually exposed to sufficient ‘comprehensible input’ (Krashen, 1985). (2) The deviations cannot be regarded as part of the evolving national standard because ‘mistakes’ are unstable, unless they are allowed to fossilise as a result of paucity of comprehensible input. Text 3 Kones’ staggering loyalty to his boss – Nyachae – came out clearly during nomination day when he was asked to state his stand on the presidential issue to which Kones gave a deaf ear. The former Bomet MP was given an assurance in Bomet Green Stadium that he will be returned to parliament but what his supporters wanted to hear from him was his political inclination on the top slot. ‘Not all will vote for Nyachae, a person I know will never form the next government not even being second in the presidential race’ said one of Kones’ close allies who sought anonymity. (Leornard Kirui, Weekly Citizen, 8 December 2002) Deviations (1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

Unusual collocation: inclination on the top slot Omission: during nomination day (omission of the definite article ‘the’). Unusual idioms: gave a deaf ear Unusual construction: not even being the second in the presidential race Tense: . . . was given an assurance . . . that he will be returned to parliament.

Comments Unlike text 2 which has a transparent message in a simple style with deviations hardly straining comprehension of the text, text 3 demands a lot more from the reader. One is called upon to gloss some of the expressions in order that the text may make sense. For example: gave a deaf ear = turn a deaf ear to political inclination = political stand not even being = leave alone being This type of text represents a kind of ‘adventurism’ with language which I find common among university and secondary school students trying to experiment with newly-acquired lexical items. For example, they do not realise the fact that some of the expressions are fixed and any substitution of items renders a construction meaningless. This is a case of language being used to

108

New Language Bearings in Africa

‘impress’, and not to express; what Kachru (1982) calls ‘ornamental’ constructions. According to Kachru, this marks a rhetorical difference between Indian English and British English. Text 3 is quite widespread in Kenyan written discourse and cutting across levels of education including university-educated writers. However, it still does not qualify as a ‘fine’ sample of educated English, something teachers should use as the model in school. First, its intelligibility could be rated low even by Kenyan readers; non-Kenyan readers who do not have the advantage of familiar contextual ‘clues’ would find it quite ‘opaque’. Second, it does not contain cultural and sociolinguistic features to identify it with any local community; it contains by and large idiosyncratic deviations, making interpretation fairly strained. Where does this leave us in the quest for ‘standard’?

The Standard Two decades ago, Ferguson (1982) suggested that ‘. . . the whole mystique of native speaker and mother tongue should probably be quietly dropped from the linguists’ set of professional myths about language’ (p. vii). He went further to propose that the general theory of language should account for phenomena such as child bilingualism, people gaining greater competence in a language other than their mother tongue and standardisation motivated by forces outside the L1 community. In a world of increasing intercultural interaction and requiring multilingualism and multiculturalism as the norm rather than the odd, the monolithic English standard is neither tenable nor desirable. This argument could be pushed further to suggest that multilingualism or bilingualism should be considered as ‘a language’ rather than the possession of two independent language systems; and I want to propose here that in establishing a new national standard, the users’ ability to use all the linguistic resources from different languages in a single communicative event must be considered as a marker of accuracy, appropriacy and hence, of proficiency (Webb, 2002). The following text is chosen as an example of what may pass as standard Kenyan English with both sociolinguistic and cultural features that characterise its users and the morphosyntactic rules of the idealised system called English all around the world. The author is a renowned humorist columnist with The Sunday Nation, the best selling newspaper in Kenya. Wahome Mutahi is a graduate of the University of Nairobi, with experience as a civil servant and now an accomplished novelist and journalist. The text is an extract from one of his columns. Text 4 A Political Crisis in My Family Whispers Junior then started whispering things to me. He whispered that he had examined both his heart and head and found that both were not working well. He said that he was now looking for medicine to cure both organs and had seen it in the Rainbow. He added that from the moment, his surgeon-general was Emilio Mwai Kibaki.

English Language Curriculum in Kenya

109

I was, of course, very happy to know that I had an ally in the form of Whispers Junior and now the song became, ‘We are unbwogable! Who can bwogo us?’ Every time we sung that song, the fellow took me aside and whispered, ‘Mbuyu, any chance of something to increase saliva? Si mzee Kibaki ni economist? Si anajua kitu kinaitwa motisha or motivation? Yaani motivation to make the mouth sing for him? Sema na huyo dongera wa kutoka Othaya.’ I kept telling the fellow that the man from Othaya deals with bigger things than making sure that people chewed twigs and that is when he started looking at me in a way to suggest that I have a shortage of thinking stuff in my head. So when he came and declared that he was now an ally of his sister in crowing like a chicken, I was not shocked. He had mangamangad yet again. (The Sunday Nation, 8 December 2002) Grammatical competence In trying to find some workable criteria of a national standard we referred to its ‘international intelligibility’, although even this is far from being noncontroversial. This is what Smith (1983) had in mind when he defined international English as ‘. . . one used by people of different nations to communicate with one another’ (p. 1). I am not concerned with international English, but a Kenyan English which has sufficient intercomprehensibility with other national varieties. In terms of the morphosyntax of English, text 4 is identifiable as English by any speaker from the inner-circle countries (e.g. Britain or Australia), and the outer-circle countries (e.g. Papua New Guinea, Zimbabwe or Singapore). It conforms to the general orthography (spelling and punctuation), wordformation rules (inflection, derivation, compounding, etc.) and to a great extent, lexicology. The text draws its materials from what is popularly known as ‘core English’. So, in terms of Chomsky’s notion of competence, the author has acquired sufficient implicit knowledge of the English language rules and has the creative capacity to produce acceptable sentences. In terms of a teaching syllabus, the text provides a sample of what the teacher can aim for in the classroom. Sociolinguistic competence The major difficulty with discussing non-native standards emerging around the world arises from language-contact related linguistic phenomena, such as code-choice, language shift, bilingualism, lexical choice, etc. Gumperz (1992) introduces a new concept in the study of discourse which he calls ‘contextualisation cues’ and because these cues only function communicatively in a text, he says: They serve to highlight, foreground or make salient certain phonological or lexical strings vis-a`-vis other similar units, that is, they function relationally and cannot be assigned context-independent, stable, core lexical meaning. (Gumperz, 1992: 232) In his categorisation there are prosodic cues (intonation, stress, pitch), paralin-

110

New Language Bearings in Africa

guistic cues (tempo, hesitation, overlapping speaking turns, etc.), code choice (e.g. code or style choice) and choice of lexical forms or formulaic expressions (e.g. opening and closing routines, metaphorical expressions). The process of contextualisation is critical in our discussion of text 4 and since this is a written text, our focus will be on code choice and choice of lexical forms as features of this text that make it Kenyan. For a non-Kenyan to understand the text, many expressions, including some that appear in plain English, must be glossed. This is because they are context-bound, for example, the general context here is the political campaigns going on in Kenya and members of the ‘Whispers’ family supporting different parties; hence the title of the passage. Let me add that the four paragraphs are extracted from a much longer passage, and hence may be interpreted a little out of their context. However, the following gloss will attempt to remedy that hiatus and render the text accessible to any speaker of English anywhere in the world: (1) Rainbow: This is a symbol of a coalition of some 13 political parties fighting to remove the ruling party KANU (Kenya African National Union) from power. (2) Emilio Mwai Kibaki is the presidential candidate nominated by the Rainbow Coalition. (3) The first paragraph is largely referring to the popular belief that political parties bribe voters by buying them drugs and beer. (4) Whispers is the writer’s pen name and Whispers Junior is his son. (5) Othaya is the birthplace of Mwai Kibaki. (6) ‘We are unbwogable’. This is a refrain adopted from a song by a local music group called Gidigidi Majimaji, whose repertoire includes songs done in a mixture of Dholuo, Kiswahili, English and Sheng. Bwogo = to scare

(7) (8)

(9)

(10)

Unbwogable is a word from Dholuo with English affixes (prefix un- and suffixable) now popularly used by the Rainbow Coalition to refer to their fearless challenge to the present ruling party which has for four decades remained unchallengeable. Mbuyu is a Sheng (a local youth jargon) word for ‘father’. ‘. . . any chance of anything to increase saliva?’ This question is an oblique reference to money to buy a mild drug locally known as miraa (kart), and/or beer. ‘Crowing like a cockerel’. This means support for the KANU political party whose symbol is a cock. Earlier in the text, the writer had said that he supports Rainbow Alliance, his daughter supports KANU, his wife FORD-People and his son, not decided. Mangamangad Mangamanga = move from place to place or waver. Mangamangad = shifted position, or changed stand. The Kiswahili word mangamanga is inflected using the English past tense

English Language Curriculum in Kenya

111

morpheme -ed so that it fits in the English frame in which it occurs. This makes the sentence sound natural since it conforms to the morphosyntactic rules of English. Besides the culturally contextualised strings in English, the more striking contextualisation cue is the code switching in the third paragraph which merits some comments. The English rendition of the piece is as follows: Isn’t the old man Kibaki an economist? Doesn’t he know something called motisha or motivation? That is, motivation to make the mouth sing for him? Talk to that influential man from Othaya. Code switching The non-English parts of the paragraph are written in italics and represent words mainly from Kiswahili but with some from Sheng, for example, motisha (Kiswahilized form of motivation) and ndongera (an influential person). In her discussion of the social motivation for code switching, Myers-Scotton (1993) argues that code switching entails ‘rights’ and ‘obligations’. In discourse the speaker and the hearer must agree that the ultimate goal of every exchange is to understand each other by observing certain discourse rules understood by both parties. That is, each of them will be working towards a conversational goal, as is required by Grice’s Co-operative Principle. The author of this text is an accomplished political satirist and therefore, as he does his political commentary, he spices it up with humour that is readily available in frequent code shifts. Whereas a style shift (e.g. resorting to non-standard English) works well in Britain and Canada, a switch to a local language does it even more effectively in Kenya. Code switching as a communication strategy is so widespread in the speech of educated Kenyans that in some situations it is expected rather than marked. For example, talking to my sons in English without switching to Dholuo at points would be regarded as uncharacteristic. The same linguistic behaviour is becoming the norm in the political speeches in Kenya today. In fact, for the past 40 years, the president’s address on national days has been in both English and Kiswahili; that is, the speech is written in English and after reading it, a summary of it is given in Kiswahili. And usually the most politically significant announcements are contained in the off-the-cuff Kiswahili speech. The question now is: How much code switching is allowed and used in our classrooms? The classrooms are presumed to be monolingual, whereas children codeswitch at home and outside the classroom. The current thinking is that codeswitching as a communication material employed by bilinguals must be employed and encouraged by the school as it is being used by educated and celebrated writers in the society as we have seen. Codeswitching has become a feature of ‘good’ writing as it is an established feature of ‘good’ speech among Kenyans. There is perfectly no reason it should not be treated as normal in official communication of all descriptions, including examinations.

Lexical Choices I mentioned earlier that part of the signalling of a new English is a lexicon which contains not only innovations or neologisms (especially from local

112

New Language Bearings in Africa

linguistic resources) but also extension of meaning of the existing English words (to give them relevant semantic flavour) and modified surface forms retaining English meanings. The following are a few examples you might find in standard Kenyan English, but absent in native-speaker varieties. Modified forms Kenyan English be on talking terms can be able avail (verb) fill pick cope up at par sabbatical leave raze down leave alone get/have cold feet in hot soup quite fine clean heart Innovations panya routes

British English be on speaking terms can make available fill in pick up cope on a par sabbatical raze let alone develop cold feet in soup quite well without ill motive

matatu mwananchi zero-grazing (verb/noun) nyama choma jua kali (noun/adj.) magendo majimbo sukumawiki

unofficial routes (especially across national borders) a passenger van a citizen/ordinary man on the street to be a faithful spouse/partner roast meat open air/informal business trade in contraband goods/smuggling a federal system based on ethnicity kale

New meanings township upcountry heavy move with finish one something small

a small town away from the city pregnant have a romantic liaison with destroy one’s reputation a bribe

The formulations used here are a conservative selection from what are referred to as items of Kenyan English. I say conservative because I restrict the list to those items that appear often in carefully edited texts and speech by fairly educated Kenyans with long and active experience with English. Some of the expressions may be found on line at http//www.tu-chemnitz.de/english/real

English Language Curriculum in Kenya

113

/eafrica/index.htm as a subcorpus of International Corpus of English (ICE), which is also available at the University of Bergen. Unfortunately the corpus of Kenyan English (CKE) referred to here contains a great deal of what Kenyans themselves would not pass as standard although they may appear in speech and writings of Kenyans with secondary education and above. It is important to mention here that intravariety variation in Kenyan English is mainly a function of the type of school one attended and not strictly level of education. Apart from high-cost private schools where only children from the very wealthy families go and where you still find native-speaker teachers of English, there are also three categories of secondary schools: national, provincial and district schools. The national schools, like the private schools admit candidates from all over the country but unlike private schools, they also admit the best candidates from the top primary schools. Provincial schools admit the best candidates from the province (or region), whereas the district schools admit from within the district (subregion). This means that national schools are more linguistically heterogenous than the provincial schools and the district ones are the least heterogenous. The use of English, therefore, varies with the type of school and its eventual mastery. Besides, the government expenditure and staffing have been done along school types, with national schools receiving more financial allocation and preference in staffing, whereas the district schools are least endowed with facilities and qualified teachers. This means that even among university graduates you find users of nearnative proficiency and those that write and speak near-broken English.

Conclusion Defining Standard English two decades ago, Strevens (1983: 88) said: a particular dialect of English, being the only non-localised dialect, of global currency without significant variation, universally accepted as the appropriate educational target in teaching English; which may be spoken with an unrestricted choice of accent. The strands of this definition which matter can be listed as: dialect, accent, non-localised, global currency, significant variation, universal acceptance, education target, choice of accent. This definition was quite a useful starting point when it first appeared, but now it falls short of what linguistic pluralism now calls for. That is, there is no monolithic standard, without ‘significant variation’ and with ‘universal acceptance’. The Kenyan English I have discussed here need only enjoy national acceptance, should be the target of education in Kenya and be spoken with any accent. The plurality of standards does not necessarily breed inter-standard unintelligibility since the underlying ‘grammatical’ rules remain universal. The surface variations and discourse differences must be tolerated, encouraged as they add to the richness of English and mutual appreciation between cultures of the world. Besides, variations (lexical, semantic and discoursal) are not insuperable difficulties; with positive attitudes, encounter with these differences becomes only a challenge that is quickly overcome; they finally become such a small price to pay for crosscultural tolerance and appreciation of differences.

114

New Language Bearings in Africa

A look at the standard language in this light entails a reform of the curriculum and language pedagogy. My position in this paper suggests something akin to ‘critical pedagogy’ in its ‘weak form’. I do not wholly subscribe to the ‘strong form’ as proposed by Freire (1970) and later espoused by Pennycook (1994), Phillipson (1992) and Searle (1983). However, in as far as curriculum design seeks to focus on content that emphasises use and function of language and asking teachers to see language teaching as an activity situated in a sociocultural and historical context, then we see a promising and relevant discourse in curriculum reform. The present language syllabus for Kenyan secondary schools has the following as the rationale for teaching English: The school leaver will require good English in a large variety of professional, commercial and day to day transactions in Kenya and international environment (p. 45). The general objective is given as: The aim of the secondary school English syllabus is to increase total fluency in listening, speaking, reading and writing the language (p. 45). A look at the content of the syllabus and the text books used in school leaves one with no doubt that the target of the syllabus is the British English with the RP vowels and consonants listed under speaking skills as what students must master. The syllabus is literally a body of knowledge which is handed down to students through uncritical pedagogical practices as it has been since the beginning of the twentieth century when English was introduced in Kenya. The syllabus is the traditional grammar one with a list of skills and subskills to be taught and hopefully, mastered; it is still a sacred body of canonised knowledge which is handed down by the teacher and dutifully accepted by the learner. English teaching in Africa must first be seen to reflect the institutional contexts in which the language is used. For example, students must learn the forms that are appropriate to signal relationships in the family, intergroup encounters, at the work place, inter-gender interactions, etc. English forms in Kenya are often used to satirise members of ethnic communities not to illustrate our differences but to show how some groups are better than others. The teaching must focus on highlighting the differences in accents as marking cultural-linguistic uniqueness and using the knowledge to reduce differences between groups rather than emphasise separateness. Teachers must also appreciate the role of English in class and gender differentiation and how this is embedded in our history and current power structure. This is not preaching politics in our classrooms, but upgrading the social consciousness of teachers and students so that they develop sensitivity to the linguistic differences and their social meanings in the African societies. This can be achieved by using different text-types and doing critical analysis of the forms and contextual meanings of the texts. These will include cartoons, descriptions, narratives and dialogues. Another important area is emphasis on speech acts as the focus points of discourse, for these are the linguistic correlates of physical actions. How do

English Language Curriculum in Kenya

115

they use language to persuade, promise, express solidarity or ask for forgiveness? It is often assumed that somehow they will pick up these important aspects of language as they grow, but this hardly happens, especially because children do not learn them formally in their mother tongue either. Lastly, the English syllabus must recognise the existence of other languages in Africa and regard all of them as a resource in the teaching of English. The early mastery of literacy skills, including the rhetorical structure in mother tongue helps the development of the same skills in a second language (Cummins, 1984). The transfer of literacy skills across languages is an underexploited learner competence and the consequence is insufficient acquisition of the skills in English, as well as the local language. The proposal here is to have a strong bilingual education which is informed by social-cultural and psycholinguistic realities. Correspondence Any correspondence should be directed to Dr Kembo-Sure, Department of Linguistics, Moi University, Box 3900, Eldoret, Kenya ([email protected]). References Ashcroft, B., Griffiths G. and Tiffin, H. (1989) The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-colonial Literatures. London: Routledge. Bernstein, B. (1972) Social class, language and socialisation. In P.P. Giglioli (ed.) Language and Social Context. London: Penguin Education. Brumfit, C.J. (1982) Problems and Principles in English Teaching. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Cummins, J. (1984) Bilingual and Special Education in Assessment in Psychology. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Ferguson, C.A. (1982) Foreword. In B.B. Kachru (ed.) The Other Tongue. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Seabury Press. Gumperz, J.J. (1992) Contextualisation and understanding. In A. Duranti and C. Goodwin (eds) Rethinking Context: Language as an Interactive Phenomenon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kachru, B.B. (1977) The new Englishes and the old models. English Language Forum 15 (3), 29–35. Kachru, B.B. (1982) Meaning deviation: Towards understanding non-native English texts. In B.B. Kachru (ed.) The Other Tongue: English Across Cultures. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Krashen, S. (1985) The Input Hypothesis: Issues and Implications. London: Longman. Myers-Scotton, C. (1993) Social Motivations for Codeswitching: Evidence from Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pennycook, A. (1994) The Cultural Politics of English as an International Language. London: Longman. Phillipson, R. (1992) Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Quirk, R. (1989) Language varieties and standard language. English Today 21, 3–10. Schmied, J. (1991) English in Africa: An Introduction. London: Longman. Searle, C. (1983) A common language. Race and Class 25 (2), 65–74. Smith, E.L. (1983) English as an international language. In E.L. Smith (ed.) Readings in English as an international language. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Strevens, P. (1983) What is ‘Standard English’. In L.E. Smith (ed.) Readings in English as an International Language. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Webb, V. (2002) Language in South Africa: The Role of Language in National Transformation, Reconstruction and Development. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamin.

The Functional Distribution of Setswana and English in Botswana Mompoloki M. Bagwasi English Department, University of Botswana, P/Bag 00703, Gaborone, Botswana In multilingual societies such as Botswana, language use is an extremely complex matter, further compounded by the fact that the languages involved are themselves dynamic phenomena that often elude the planned outcomes of policies which try to shape and constrain them. The paper describes the functional distribution of the national language Setswana, spoken as a mother tongue by 80% of the population, and English, the official language in Botswana. The role of the two languages is outlined, with particular regard to cultural identity, on the one hand, and social and economic status on the other.

Botswana, like many African countries is a multilingual country. However, unlike most of them, it has an indigenous lingua franca, Setswana, which is spoken by about 80% of the population as a mother tongue. The 80% is represented by eight ethnic groupings who speak different but mutually intelligible dialects of Setswana. Besides these eight Setswana groupings, there are other indigenous minority language groups such as: Bakalaka, Basarwa, Bayei, Bambukushu, Babirwa and Bakgalagadi which make up 15% of the population (Janson & Tsonope, 1991). In addition, there is a small percentage (about 5%) of people of Asian or European origin.

Diglossia in Botswana According to Fishman (1972: 92) diglossia refers to the functional distribution of more than one language to serve different communication tasks in a society. Diglossia exists in multilingual societies which officially recognise several languages and utilise vernaculars as well as those that employ separate dialects, registers or functionally differentiated language varieties of whatever kind. The language that is used for formal functions such as education, government administration, law and business is referred to as the high (H) language and the language that is reserved for less formal and more personal functions such as family use and personal communication is referred to as the low (L) language. In Botswana, English is restricted to the educated population. Estimates of the proportion of Batswana (natives of Botswana) who have knowledge of English range from 35 to 40%. This estimate includes those speakers who are completely fluent and those who have a basic knowledge of English. Those who are not educated use their local languages even at official and formal levels. Despite this low percentage of Batswana who are competent in the language, English is the official language that is used in government administration and records, law and courts, business and education. It is also the official medium of instruction from the third year of elementary school to university. The restricted use of English in Botswana gives one the impression 116

Setswana and English in Botswana

117

that English is more of a foreign than a second language in the country. Schmied (1991) contends that the status of English in Botswana could be best described as a foreign language if the country was not so small and dependent on international relations for its economic growth. As a result of its official status and economic functions there is high value placed on the English language in Botswana. Botswana is like many African countries where, ‘the English language is seen as a personal asset, as an instrument to promote one’s personal career, as a stepping stone to getting a better job and as a social status marker’, (Schmied, 1991: 170). Thus, in Botswana, English can justifiably be given the status of a high language. On the other hand, Setswana is spoken by at least 80% of the population as a mother tongue and understood to some extent by another 10%. This gives Botswana an almost homogenous character, making it unnecessary for English to be strictly and largely spoken by the general population. The education language policy requires that Setswana be used as a medium of instruction from the first to second year of elementary school (National Commission on Education, 1977). At government and official levels Setswana is used both in spoken and written form to communicate with regional authorities and the local population. Setswana is also used in the deliberations of many official and formal meetings where the record or minutes are later translated into English. Setswana is used in everyday communication in government offices, local business, transport, shops, market-place, traditional courts and gatherings, political rallies and at home. Schmied (1991: 170) contends that in many African countries, family life, which in Africa means extended family, is the domain of the mother tongue. English is considered inappropriate for communication at home with the elderly because it suggests that the young generation have abandoned their values and want to distance themselves from their culture and their language. Thus, Gabasiane (1994: 4) asserts that on occasions that require one to have a deeper cultural understanding of Setswana customs and norms such as in traditional court trials, marriage negotiations etc, Setswana must be spoken and spoken well. The National Commission on Education 1977 states that Setswana is the language of national pride, unity and cultural pride. On the basis of its role in the community Setswana can thus be said to be a low language. Fasold (1987) agrees that although diglossia may remain stable for a long time in most communities, overlap is very common and certain specific functions tend to occur in connection with both the high and low. Obeng (1997) points out that increased literacy and broader communication may lead to a demise of diglossic situation and leakage of functions. This is true of both English and Setswana in Botswana where despite the fact that English is considered the language of government administration, Setswana is competing effectively with it as the official language. Setswana is standardised and used with English in business, government and media. The national radio station operates with equal weighting in English and Setswana with the sequence of news broadcast and announcements over the radio always being in Setswana first followed by English, and children are taught in Setswana throughout most of their elementary schooling despite the education language policy

118

New Language Bearings in Africa

which requires the use of Setswana as a medium of instruction to stop at grade two. Botswana has what Fasold (1987) calls a double overlapping diglossia where both the national and official language are occasionally used in official situations and as mediums of instruction in schools. Obeng (1997) argues that diglossia does not necessarily imply bilingualism for all the people in the community. Two or more languages may exist in a communicative situation but that does not mean that everyone will be capable of understanding or using all the languages. For example, despite a widespread acceptance of the English language in Botswana, lack of competence in English is a common problem. Estimates of Batswana who have knowledge of English are very low, about 35–40%. This percentage includes both fluent speakers and those who have a basic knowledge, suggesting that the number of Batswana who can be considered bilingual in Setswana and English is actually in the minority. Fasold (1987) calls this kind of situation a diglossia without bilingualism. Botswana has a history of diglossia without bilingualism. Even at the time of British rule, English was restricted to a small number of people such as those working in the British administration, secretaries for the chiefs, a few English businessmen and their families while the rest of the community who only spoke and knew Setswana had very little power in government.

Cultural Identity, Economic Mobility or Social Status? Language is not only a medium of communication but it is also a medium by which the identity, culture as well as social and economic status of the speaker is conveyed. Because of its role in personal, family and regional communication Setswana is considered to be more of a cultural and identity marker, while the use of English in business and educational arenas makes it more of an economic, educational and social status marker in Botswana. The kind of attitudes that the use of these languages represent has naturally led to much debate about which language should be promoted in the country. Those who want to promote culture advocate for an increased use of Setswana in government, parliament, schools while those who want to promote educational and economic advancement advocate for an increased use of English in the country. In the last few years there has been a growing concern over the increased use of English in the country. This concern has even necessitated the formation of a National Setswana language council. Chebanne et al. (1993: 17) state that one of the issues that this council has to deal with is the loss of the Setswana language and culture. They argue that extensive use of English will assimilate Batswana into the English culture and negate the values of the Setswana language and culture. In addition, Janson and Tsonope (1991) argue that the official attitude of Setswana can be best described as benign neglect. The language has been neglected in the sense that it has been seen as part of the traditional society, and by that token, not very interesting for the generation of policy-makers and planners who have been busy leading Botswana to economic development. After investigating the status of Setswana in education and society, NyatiRamahobo (1991) also concludes that there are basically two broad reasons

Setswana and English in Botswana

119

why Setswana is taught in schools: (1) early concept formation and (2) cultural identity and unity. But these reasons do not make it a valued subject when compared with English that has economic value. English is taught for socioeconomic advancement because skills in English lead to jobs. Nyati-Ramahobo argues that the status of Setswana is low in education and among the general Batswana population, and consequently there is very little motivation for studying Setswana in school since both educators and the community value economic mobility over cultural identity. Janson and Tsonope (1991) as well as Nyati-Ramahobo (1991)’s concerns for the diminishing status of Setswana are evident and supported by the 1994 revised education language policy which reduced the number of years that Setswana should be used as the medium of instruction in government schools from grade five to grade two (compare the Botswana government 1977 education language policy and the 1994 revised language education policy). The growing number of parents who pay large amounts of money to send their children to private, also known as English medium schools, is further evidence that there is an increasing preference for more learning and use of English in the country. The Botswana Government Educational statistics indicate a growth in the number of private and English medium schools over the years: for example there were nine in 1981, 48 in 1991 and 71 in 1999. Many of the teachers in these schools are expatriates and in some cases native speakers. Children from rich, e´lite and bilingual families are often sent to these English medium schools to equip them with the language of political, economic and social power. The households that these children come from are also likely to have facilities such as television, radio, library and computer which are all good sources of standard English. Children who go to English medium schools and those who come from wealthy families with such facilities are likely to have more exposure to English. Among the middle-class teenage group who attend such e´lite schools, a new variety of English that is influenced by American English and discotheque jargon is emerging. This variety, which is spoken in an accent and pronunciation that is neither Setswana nor English, is gaining prestige among peer groups and can be heard on a local radio station called RB2 or some television programmes which cater for the interests of youth. This variety is, however, considered distasteful and ‘unEnglish’ by the elderly and conservative members of the population. The above argument clearly shows that although Setswana is the dominant language in the country it will soon face competition from English which is becoming popular not just for educational and economic reasons but also for reasons of status. The important question to consider at this point is how Setswana is withstanding the pressure and whether Setswana is in danger of being assimilated into the English language as the National Setswana Language Council fears. In reality, Setswana is much more widely used than the government policy and socio-economic terms dictate, and thereby far from being assimilated by English. For example, most children come from poor families and go to government or Setswana medium schools where most of the learning and teaching from grade one to grade seven is in Setswana despite the education

120

New Language Bearings in Africa

language policy which states that the use of Setswana should stop at grade two. Setswana is used as a medium of instruction for that length of time because by grade three most pupils have not learnt enough English to be taught in it and most teachers are themselves not competent enough in English to teach in it. Also, despite the status of English as the official language, a large amount of verbal interaction and correspondence between government officials with regional authorities is conducted in Setswana. There is also very little exposure to English in the country especially in the villages and rural areas. Most children and adults live in rural areas which mainly have a pastoral lifestyle where there is no television let alone a computer or library and the only language that the child hears outside the English language class is the mother tongue or Setswana. These children’s acquisition of English is in most cases slow. It is also interesting to note that although there is a growing preference for the use of English there is also social pressure even on those who speak fluent English to impress their Botswana identity on their English. Many words from Setswana have been borrowed into English and are used in English conversations without any explanation. For example, such words as kgotla meeting (meeting held at a traditional gathering place), matimela cattle (stray cattle), bo-bashi (street kids), omang cards (national identity cards) are common words in the English language in Botswana indicating that English is acculturating to Setswana not the other way round. It should also be noted that in Botswana as in many African countries good English with standard grammar and expressions is commendable. However, speaking good educated English does not entail speaking in a native accent and pronunciation. In Africa those who strive to approximate a native pronunciation are frowned upon as distasteful and pedantic (Kachru 1992). This means that the type of English that is used in Botswana is one that reflects Batswana culture, norms and pronunciation not a type of English that reflects British or American culture.

Conclusion Our language policies have become a struggle between our national languages and English rather than a struggle to educate our people and give them the best of what our education systems can offer in terms of efficient communication, cultural identity and development. Current debate on the issue of which language Botswana should promote only serves to keep Setswana and English apart, as if they cannot function at the same level. Adekunle (1976: 25) points out that a sound national language policy should provide for the exposure of the nation’s high manpower to a major language in which scientific and technology information is made available to the world’s community because in this era of rapid technology it would be unwise to give our people an education that limits them to their local areas and local languages. People should study a language that gives them jobs, economic power, political influence, social acceptability and mobility. African governments should come up with policies that aim at equipping African children with a language that would enable them to function and do research not only in Africa but at an international level and at the same time promote cultural pride, unity and development of local languages. This can be done by striking a balance

Setswana and English in Botswana

121

between the local languages and English and using them to complement each other. Correspondence Any correspondence should be directed to Dr Mompoloki M. Bagwasi, English Department, University of Botswana, P/Bag 00703, Gaborone, Botswana. References Adekunle, M.A. (1976) National policy and planning: The Nigerian situation. West African Journal of Modern Languages 1, 23–79. Chebanne, A., Tsonope, J. and Nyati-Ramahobo, L. (1993) The impact of language policy on education in Botswana. Mosenodi Journal of the Botswana Educational Association 1, 13–24. Fasold, R. (1987) The Sociolinguistics of Society. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell. Fishman, J. (1972) The Sociology of Language. Rowley, MA: Newbury House. Gabasiane, R.S. (1994) Language policy: Its impact and implications on classroom practice and different language groups in Botswana schools. MA thesis, Thames Valley University: School of English language Teaching. Janson, T. and Tsonope, J. (1991) Birth of a National Language: The History of Setswana. Gaborone: Heinemann Botswana and University of Botswana. Kachru, B.B. (1992) Models for non-native Englishes. In B.B. Kachru (ed.) The Other Tongue: English Across Cultures (pp. 48–74). Urbana: University of Illinois Press. National Commission of Education (1977) Education for Kagisano (1, pp. 23–24). Gaborone: Botswana Government Printer. Nyati-Ramahobo, L.M. (1991) Language Planning and Education Policy in Botswana. Ann Arbor, MI: Microfilm International. Obeng, S.G. (1997) An analysis of the linguistic situation in Ghana. African Languages and Cultures 10 (1), 63–81. Schmied, J. (1991) English in Africa: An Introduction. New York: Longman.

Kiswahili as Vehicle of Unity and Development in the Great Lakes Region Anna M. Kishe National Kiswahili Council, PO Box 4766, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania This paper discusses the potentiality of Kiswahili in accelerating social, political, economic and cultural integration within the Great Lakes Region. Presently, Kiswahili is a de facto lingua franca spoken by almost 100 million people in the world (Ntakirutimana, 2000). This is an indication of its viability in promoting unity among people with different linguistic backgrounds. In fact, the recommendation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) to adopt Kiswahili as a working language of the organisation in 1986 was motivated by this linguistic and cultural ability of the language. The paper discusses the reasons for the failure to implement these recommendations, and argues that the development of trade within and across borders will be hindered where communication is based on different ethnic languages, or on foreign languages that are not understood by all. The logical basis for making Kiswahili the appropriate tool in facilitating unity and motivating socioeconomic integration in the Great Lakes region is outlined, and recommendations are made for the empowerment of Kiswahili adequately to meet this challenge.

The paper explains how language can facilitate development. It shows that there is a close relationship between language and development and that meaningful development cannot take place where linguistic barriers exist. It is argued that, the present situation in the Great Lakes region, where communication relies on foreign languages (English, French and Portuguese) or different ethnic languages, slows down development since the parties involved in the development process cannot interact effectively. People’s contribution to development can only be realized when the communication barriers are removed. The paper proposes that Kiswahili, which is a de facto lingua franca in the Great Lakes region, be adopted as the medium of communication. The Great Lakes region includes the following countries: the Republic of Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Ruanda, the Republic of Kenya, the United Republic of Tanzania and the Republic of Uganda. In order for development to take place and the desired objectives to be realised in the Great Lakes region, there is need to unite the people through the use of a common African language. Essentially, the paper addresses the logical basis for considering Kiswahili as an appropriate tool for facilitating unity and fostering political and socioeconomic integration which in turn will lead to the development of the region. Finally, the paper proposes measures which can be adopted to make Kiswahili an effective tool of development.

Language and Development Development is a broad concept and its definition depends on the context in which the term is used. It is a multidimensional process involving changes in social structures, acceleration of economic growth, improvement of quality of life and reduction of inequalities. The key constructs of development are 122

Kiswahili in the Great Lakes Region

123

universalism, centralisation, individual achievement, scientific knowledge and technological process (Fishman, 1989). A good definition of development goes beyond the crude economic evaluation based on per capita, gross national product (GNP) and per capita domestic product (GNP). In fact, a definition derived from within the context of situation is far better and thus preferable to one imposed by economic considerations. Fortunately, the Great Lakes states are committed to the promotion of a culture of peace, unity and peoplecentered development, as stipulated in a conference held in Uganda in 2001 (Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation, 2001). Like most African countries the region desires to establish a monolingual and monocultural entity in which national unity and identity can be fostered. Besides, as a result of globalisation the twenty-first century states operate within an economic agenda that is largely prescribed by the rich and powerful nations. While these states are laying strategies of how they are going to become part of the global village, it is still necessary for them to set a common vision for themselves. The vision which should be an outcome of coordinated ideas would be another source of definition. The vision could be an alternative to the dominant construct of development based solely on economics. Knowing the vision enables the government to plan for its implementation. Nationalism Language and development are so interrelated that it is impossible to talk of development without a mention of language. This is because language is often regarded as an integrating force, a means by which participation is facilitated or prevented. It is a vital tool in the promotion of nationalism. As such it holds the key to the establishment of true democracy and equality. Fishman (1989: 109) defines nationalism as ‘the organizationally heightened and elaborated beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of societies acting on behalf of their avowed ethno-cultural self-interest’. It encompasses attitudes of societal consciousness about national identity that provides the necessary dynamics of national unity. The main focus of nationalism is the attainment of the political operational integration which is attained via the machinery of the state. Additionally, nationalism is an economic necessity and can only be achieved by a communication that is capable of reaching all members of society in the economic process. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the regional government to make optimal use of nationalism and its constituents to achieve the set objectives in consolidation with unity and power. Since development is a process which involves the entire spectrum of the society, with each individual making a contribution, a communication channel is imperative in order to mobilise the whole society in the process of social change. It is an essential step in ensuring the full participation of the masses in the political, socio-economic and cultural development. The transfer of skills, new knowledge and any other vital information desired to effect the changes (e.g. production of quality goods and services) can best be delivered to the target group through a common language. In view of the above observations the Great Lakes region requires a common language at both the regional and national levels to mobilise the masses for the development endeavour. Various studies in social change, show that the

124

New Language Bearings in Africa

functions to be fulfilled by a language are determined by the political and socio-economic activities taking place in that community (Cooper, 1989; Wardhaugh, 1986). For example, in colonial times Kiswahili, an African language, was the communication code capable of reaching and uniting the members involved in the slave trade and in the spreading of religions like Islam and Christianity (Mkilifi, 1980). Colonial staff (e.g. soldiers, teachers, policemen as well as junior administrative) used Kiswahili not because they were Swahili but to facilitate the realisation of the colonialist’s development objectives. The language was considered a potential for economic development and a means of providing an inter-tribal integration leading to the dissemination and development of the language. The impact of colonial languages The use of European languages makes it difficult to mobilise a multicultural society such as the Great Lakes region, because such languages re-enforce neocolonialist tendencies. In spite of the fact that most African countries after independence adopted language policies which favoured replacing colonial languages with indigenous languages, the influence of European languages is still strong. It is a reality that in most African states European languages dominate all the formal and technical domains, such as government, business administration, science, technology, trade, commerce, international relations and education (Eastman, 1991). The domains of use accorded to indigenous languages have been restricted to usually a less formal level, such as primary trade and industry, and local courts to name a few. This situation has a considerable impact on many political, cultural socioeconomic and educational matters (Batibo, 2000; Eastman, 1991; Noordin, 2001). The impact can be seen in matters of national unity, group identity and nationalism, where it has resulted in division of people into major linguistic blocks, namely, Francophone (French-speaking countries); Anglophone (the English-speaking countries) and the Lusophone (the Portuguese-speaking countries). The impact can also be seen in the community culture, consequently affecting nationhood, state democracy, equality and harmonious development. Continuous use of European languages has led to creation of two classes in the society; those who master the language, usually the educated, and those who do not. These problems can be eliminated with the use of an African lingua franca as will be discussed in the following sections.

Use of African Languages As pointed out in the aforementioned discussion, continued use of world power language has inevitably led to disunity in the Great Lakes region. The region thus needs a language that would give it a distinct identity in the continent and in the world. An African lingua franca seems to be the right option because it will be accessible to people with similar history and culture and therefore it is the best suited to articulate African culture. An indigenous lingua franca not only fosters pride but builds bridges between its people thus leading to mutual understanding and greater political and economic unity. Fishman (1972: 198) states that:

Kiswahili in the Great Lakes Region

125

A common indigenous language in the modern nation states is a powerful factor of unity. Cutting across tribal ethnic ties, it promotes a feeling of a single community. Additionally, it makes possible the expression and development of ideas, economic targets and cultural identity. Kiswahili An African lingua franca like Kiswahili is capable of playing such a role in a highly multilingual region like the Great Lakes region. According to Batibo (2000: 121), Africa has the highest concentration of languages in the world. Thirty-one per cent of the world languages are found in Africa, giving an average of 50 African languages in each country. A case in point is Tanzania which has about 131 ethnic languages with Kiswahili serving as a national and official language side by side with English. On the other hand, Kenya has about 61 languages (Ntakirutimana, 2000) and Uganda has 47 languages. This linguistic complexity also applies in Rwanda and Burundi. The Democratic Republic of Congo which has the largest area, has about 221 ethnic languages with four more national languages, namely Lingala, Kiswahili, Kikongo and Chiluba. In addition to these, they have French as the official language (Asangama, 2000). Faced with this complex linguistic scene in the Great Lakes region, it is difficult to envisage any striking development. Kiswahili has obvious advantages in the building of nationalism. It will enable the region to establish its authenticity throughout the continent. Writing with reference to the significance of Kiswahili in facilitating unity, Indakwa (1978: 58) remarks: Modern African nationalism is now conceived as the necessary framework for and propelling force behind catapulting Africa into a complex industrial world. Africa needs to build their national states into stronger entities but this work can hardly be achieved when common languages of communication are alien languages rarely spoken and understood by the majority of the people in every African country. The use of Kiswahili in official matters and day-to-day business will not only make regional leaders less dependent on European languages but it will also make them proud. Besides it will provide the Great Lakes countries with a debating ground for their regional affairs without the influence or dominance of foreign thought, which has a tendency of being prejudiced. This will ensure stability and peace in the region and is an important step when making major decisions for the region. It is therefore important that the Great Lakes region gives serious consideration to the development of Kiswahili, which can put the region on a firmer basis politically, socially, economically and culturally. Recently, the regional conference on East African community emphasised the role of Kiswahili for integrating and promoting East African unity and for inculcating patriotism and cultural identity. This objective which is stipulated in item 5.2.1 (East African Community Secretariat, 2000: 4) of the Proceedings of the Stakeholders Meeting of Culture, Arts, Sports and Heritage organised by the East African community in Arusha, states, the secretariat to facilitate the formation of an East African Kiswahili Council. The council would serve purposes such as harmonization of

126

New Language Bearings in Africa

vocabulary, promotion of Kiswahili literature and advocacy of the language’s use in international forums. As such the cooperation of East African countries should be the basis of unity of the Great Lakes region and the regional government should ensure that this objective is implemented. Kiswahili and socioeconomic development If Kiswahili is officially recognised as medium of communication at regional level it will become an important integrating force at the upper horizontal level thus uniting the e´lites from the respective countries. This contention is supported by research done by Scotton (1978). Additionally, Kiswahili as a working language will also act as a point of contact between the government and people who are the target of development thus providing a means of sharing information and exchange of ideas. In other words, Kiswahili will create a major bond between the macro-level, with the politicians and professionals, who hold the knowledge of the skills for development (see also Ryanga, 2003). The continuous use of European languages has resulted in communication barriers between the regional level and national level. It has been noted by a number of researchers (Batibo, 2000; Musau, 2001; Shitemi, 2001) that in most African countries including the Great Lakes region, speakers are excluded from or marginalised with respect to participation at national level, because of the use of an ex-colonial language. Since their knowledge of the English or French language is limited, they are prevented from having direct participation in public interaction, or having meaningful audience with government authorities or making active contribution in public. According to Chessa (2001), this language barrier has rendered them unproductive because of lack of mastery of the communication code. If the medium is understood by all groups represented in the masses it will allow free participation and ensure stability and development of a system in the governing machinery. In an effort to transfer knowledge and skills to the people, the government professionals will need to master the language by learning it. English, which is considered valuable as a language of social mobility and international trade and economy, is an economic incentive to many Africans who are compelled to learn it as second language. Surprisingly, while Africans themselves look down on Kiswahili, non-native speakers of the language learn it to enable them to communicate with Tanzanians or Kenyans in business while in these regions, and also to receive services. This should be a challenge to the professionals and administrators who must consider Kiswahili as a valuable resource due to its social and economic value. Moreover, a common language like Kiswahili is vital in unifying the region politically, socially and economically. If Kiswahili is sanctioned as the language appropriate for business in the area it will not only enhance economic development between the states, but will also facilitate unity among the individual states by creating opportunities and access of mobility of groups from one state to another.

Kiswahili in the Great Lakes Region

127

The African Context As mentioned in the previous discussion, the possibility of using Kiswahili as a medium of communication in Pan-African meetings has been suggested time and again. Kiswahili has been recommended as a tool of inter-ethnic and international communication among African nations in various meetings. In 1958 during the Second Congress of Black Writers and Artists, a linguistic resolution was passed by the congress which recommended an adoption of a lingua franca like Kiswahili throughout the continent. The same proposal was put forth in 1986, by the African ministers of culture during the OAU meeting which took place in Port Loius, Mautitius (Indakwa, 1978) and in the Proceedings of the First International Workshop on the Promotion of Kiswahili as a Medium of Regional Intercommunication, held in Zanzibar (East African Center for Research and Oral Traditions and African National Languages, 1986). Recently, African leaders met in Durban, South Africa, in July 2002 and declared Kiswahili as one of the working languages of the Organization of African Union (Organization of the African Unity and African Economic Community, 2000, Article 25, p. 15). Several studies conducted in Africa to examine the status of Kiswahili among African lingua francas note that Kiswahili is not the only African lingua franca available in the continent (Batibo, 1989; Whiteley, 1969). Other languages could have been picked for this vital purpose. Such lingua francas include Amharic, Arabic, Fulani, Hausa, Zande, etc. Of all the African lingua francas, Kiswahili and Arabic received the highest scores. Today, these two languages are the mostly widely used lingua francas, but of the two, Kiswahili is the most favoured as a communicative tool of African forums in the Great Lakes region. The acceptability of Kiswahili is related to its geographical coverage, history and origin, function, social prestige, use in trade and commerce, and use as a symbol of national identity. These factors are discussed in detail in the section below. Kiswahili is the language of broad communication in Africa. As a lingua franca for East Africa since the nineteenth century it has gained recognition beyond its traditional boarders (Ashton, 2000). The language became a lingua franca when it began to spread beyond its place of origin due to economic, political, administrative and cultural reasons. The dissemination of Kiswahili was further boosted by its adoption as an administrative language in colonial times, and its adoption as a medium of communication in the education system. According to Mkilifi (1980), Kiswahili played a prominent role in the struggle against colonialism in Tanzania. Documented evidence shows Kiswahili to be the largest language in the continent in terms of number of speakers in comparison to other African languages. It is estimated to be spoken by 100 million people in the world (Ntakirutimana, 2000).

The Current Status of Kiswahili The diffusion of Kiswahili did not spare any area in the Great Lakes region and thus it has become the lingua franca of the region, where it is spoken by about 80 million people (Massamba, 1995). In the Great Lakes region, the language functions either as a national or official language or both. It is the princi-

128

New Language Bearings in Africa

pal major means of inter-ethnic communication in urban centres due to the heterogeneous character of urban centres thus creating a link between people of different cultural backgrounds. Also, it is the medium of instruction in some secondary schools and colleges in Rwanda and Burundi (Ntakirutimana, 2000). In Kenya and Uganda, Kiswahili is taught as a subject in both primary schools and secondary schools (Musau, 2000). In Tanzania, Kiswahili is the sole medium of instruction in primary schools, primary teacher training colleges and adult education institutions (Mwansoko, 2001; Qorro, 2000). Also plans to make it the medium of instruction in secondary and tertiary levels are underway (Wizara ya Elimu na Utamanduni, 1997: 19). In view of its widespread nature and the functions it has assumed in the Great Lakes region, one should acknowledge its viability as a language that can easily be acceptable. Kiswahili is not just the principal means of communication in the Great Lakes region and neighbouring countries but is an international language. As a lingua franca it has gained popularity as an international language, found in established departments in which African languages are taught. The language is taught at degree level in various universities in African countries outside the Great Lakes region, such as the University of Ghana and University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Outside Africa, Kiswahili is gaining publicity in European countries as well as in the Scandinavian countries and the Far East countries where it is studied for socio-economic reasons. Leading international universities such as the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London, University of Los Angeles California, University of Florida, University of Hamburg, University of Beijing, and universities in Finland, Japan and America offer graduate studies in Kiswahili. More countries are preparing grounds for the language to be introduced in their universities. The global teaching of Kiswahili is an indication of its prominence and viability in the transmission of knowledge. Kiswahili can now be learned without major difficulties due to computer networking between different countries all over the world. It can then compete with English and French in Africa and develop the potential of becoming the language of international forums of African leaders. As far as the mass media is concerned, Kiswahili has the highest degree of efficiency in getting news across the multilingual and multi-ethnic setting of the African continent. It is the language used in broadcasts in many national radio services in the Great Lakes region and other African countries such as the Comoro Islands, Ethiopia, Mozambique and Republic of Congo. Major broadcasting stations abroad, using Kiswahili include the BBC, Radio Moscow, Deutche Welle, Radio Beijing, Voice of America and Radio India. The role assumed by Kiswahili in the media has proved that the language has become a world-class language, which needs to be promoted as an important tool of development. Linguistically, Kiswahili is a unique language which is easily transcribed. It has a highly developed grammar, rich vocabulary, and creative literature of long standing. The language has been used as a written language of art, literature and commerce since the beginning of the twentieth century. Missionaries used Kiswahili in writing religious literature such as bibles and other

Kiswahili in the Great Lakes Region

129

learning materials which they needed to educate the people in religious matters. According to Whiteley, (1969) this was the time when Kiswahili gained prestige as a result of its religious and literary functions. Additionally, it was the language of instruction in colonial days both in German East Africa and British East Africa. This led to the production and publication of Kiswahili books for both school use and other consumption. Its development as a written language made the language become adaptive to social changes. Today, Kiswahili has developed further to a well-documented language with extensive research work. The standardisation process of Kiswahili which took place during British rule in the 1930s with the formation of the International Language Committee, helped build a strong foundation for its approval and continued development. The process of developing the language to meet the demands of terminology in order to respond to developments in education, science and technology in schools and other fields, continues under the National Kiswahili Council of Tanzania and the Institute of Kiswahili Research based at the University of Dar es Salaam. Various activities are underway to prepare computer-based information for acquisition, retrieval and data processing to enable the language to keep pace with the 21st century requirements of scientific terminology. These activities are significant developments indicating the rapid growth of Kiswahili to meet the demand of its worldwide users. Linguistic neutrality Another advantage of Kiswahili is its neutrality. Sociolinguistically, Kiswahili is not associated with any dominant or powerful group of native speakers. The decision to adopt Kiswahili as an official language at independence in Tanzania was attributed to this characteristic. The influence of Arabic and other foreign languages (e.g. Persian) is a normal phenomenon in language contact situations and should not cast doubt on the origin of Kiswahili as an African language (Kishe, 1995; Mkude, 1986). Kiswahili, which developed from a mere trade language in the eighteenth century, is a language that resembles other Bantu languages in structure and vocabulary. Its association with other Bantu languages makes it receive loyalty from other Bantu language-speaking groups. Additionally, its flexible structure (agglutinating) not only provides room for it to adapt to social changes thereby expanding further, but also gives it the ability to assimilate and incorporate into its structure linguistic forms from other languages and particularly scientific terminology. The flexible and yet predictable structure also makes it possible for learners to master Kiswahili easily. The capacity of Kiswahili as a working language and as a medium of communication is attested through its use in formal settings such as the National Assembly, political rallies, symposiums and workshops. The level of participation is great compared to when a foreign language like English is employed (Khamis, 1990) on these occasions. The wide spread of Kiswahili and the role it plays in enhancing social interaction, economic interaction and integration gives it a better chance of becoming the language of the Great Lakes region for the advancement of development and political unity.

130

New Language Bearings in Africa

Empowering Kiswahili The Great Lakes region authority should seriously consider empowering Kiswahili to be an adequate medium of communication politically, socially and economically. Kiswahili could be empowered by expanding the domain of its use to serve vital government functions in the member states, and in regional administration, business, in the main office and mass media, and by making it a requirement for certain jobs. This empowerment should be accompanied by offering incentives for its use. Normally, people will want to learn a language if it has social and economic value. The promotion and empowerment of Kiswahili can also be enhanced by adopting it as the medium of instruction in elementary schools and at tertiary levels in the member states. Giving Kiswahili an opportunity to serve in the education system will enable it to grow. Empowerment through language planning is another vital step if the language is to fulfil the linguistic requirements and adapt to the new domains of use in order to keep pace with the rapid progress of ideas resulting from the globalisation process. According to (Donna, 1988: 197), language planning is an organised explicit and systematic effort to resolve language problems and achieve related goals through organised intervention in the use and usage. The role of decision-makers in empowering a language is very crucial. The Great Lakes region must first identify the problems to be addressed in language planning. Definitely, the issue of a regional language should be among the first problems to be addressed by the governments of the member states. The solution to the problem must be developed and implemented and the results monitored. Some of the problems often mentioned include the negative attitude towards African languages. Africans themselves regard indigenous languages like Kiswahili as inadequate and incapable of expressing technical terminology (Mwansoko, 2001). It should be realised that any language is capable of meeting the demands placed on it provided that it is given the opportunity to do so with clear language-planning policies. There is yet another worry that the adoption of Kiswahili as a medium of instruction and the working language of African forums for the Great Lakes region will eventually lead to the abandonment of English, a language which is important for international diplomatic relations. The forces of globalisation and super-internationality of English have forced many African countries to change or postpone the implementation of their language policies. For instance, in Tanzania renewed desire to embrace English, the language of technology and information, has lately made Tanzania hesitate adopting Kiswahili as the instructional media in secondary schools (Qorro, 2000). The hesitation has also been linked to the lack of political commitment and the cost benefits associated with the plan (Msanjila, 1997) among others. It is obvious that the role of decision-makers in empowering a language is very central. Therefore, when planning for the empowerment of Kiswahili, decision-makers and the government in general, guided by the linguists and the language planners, should work together in partnership. However, the declaration of Kiswahili as a language of promoting peace and unity and as a tool of people-centred development is not an end in itself.

Kiswahili in the Great Lakes Region

131

The potentiality of Kiswahili in the political, socio-economic and cultural integration of the Great Lakes region is dependent on policy measures to develop the language. The objectives of the Great Lakes region will become a reality if plans and strategies are set properly and faithfully implemented. The plan should state the position of Kiswahili in relation to other local languages. For instance, it should define the domain of uses of Lingala, Kinyarwanda, Kikuyu, Kiganda and Kirundi in relation to Kiswahili. It should also state the role of foreign languages specifically French and English at the regional levels. The language policy should be followed by an action plan for implementation to show all the essential aspects such as the time for implementation, long- and short-term objectives, input, output monitoring and evaluation, etc. The regional government is faced with the following tasks: 앫 to formulate clear language planning policies and review those stipulated in the 1986 OAU Charter. 앫 to prepare implementation schedules (i.e. plan of action, and strategies for full linguistic transformation). 앫 to oversee that ARTICLE 119 (d) of East African Community charter is implemented. 앫 to oversee the resolution proposed in the meeting of Culture, Sports, Arts and Heritage stakeholders in Arusha 2001, items 5.2.1 and 5.2.2 are implemented. Moreover, since item 5.2.1 states: The secretariat to facilitate the formation of an East African Kiswahili Council. The council would serve purposes such as harmonisation of vocabulary, promotion of Kiswahili literature and advocacy of the language’s use in international forums, the regional government create authoritative organs and organisations to serve key functions such as: (1) (2) (3) (4)

Coordination and management of language development. Empowerment of Kiswahili and verification of its development. Modernisation of the language and to ensure its proper usage. Mobilisation of funds for the implementation of the set goals and acquisition of modern equipment such as computers.

Finally, the establishment of organisations such as the National Kiswahili Councils in the various regions and the Interregional Language Committee for the Great Lakes region and other institutions, are a prerequisite for the effective operation of this programme.

Conclusion In the preceding discussion, the role of language in facilitating peace and unity and as a tool of socioeconomic and cultural integration is presented. It is noted that there is a close relationship between development and language, and that development cannot take place in a linguistic vacuum. Development is an activity involving the whole society, and in order for every individual to participate fully, it is essential that the language used is understood by all the stakeholders involved in the development process. Given the multilingual situation of the Great Lakes region, the paper proposes that Kiswahili should be adopted as the medium of communication at

132

New Language Bearings in Africa

the regional and inter-regional levels. The motivation for choosing Kiswahili rather than other African lingua francas has been explained as a product of its status as the de facto lingua franca and its functional capacity as a national and official language in most of the states within the region. It was observed that Kiswahili has a wide coverage, assumes key functions, and is a leveling language of the major linguistic groups. The paper argues that the use of Kiswahili will ensure unity and democracy for the establishment of a stronger entity in the region. The language will facilitate political, social, economic and cultural cooperation. This cooperation is vital to enable the Great Lakes region to meet the challenges of globalisation. The presentation urges African leaders to see the issue of language not only as a unifying factor but as a necessity in their common struggle against neo-colonialism. In the discussion Kiswahili emerges as a valuable resource that needs to be nurtured and developed. Measures to empower the language are proposed and it was noted that the state authority has a paramount role in language planning because it usually influences the changes that take place in the society. Therefore, for effective planning to take place, it is suggested that, language planners and linguists should collaborate with policy-makers in the planning process. Finally, the regional government is urged to assist in the implementation of the resolutions passed in the East African community meetings, with respect to the status of Kiswahili. Correspondence Any correspondence should be directed to Dr Anna M. Kishe, National Kiswashili Council, PO Box 4766, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania ([email protected]).

References Asangama, N. (2000) Hali ya Kiswahili katika Jamhuri ya Kidemokrasi ya Congo. Paper presented at the International Colloquium on Kiswahili. University of Dar es Salaam, March 20–23. Ashton, R. (2000) Technology and potential spread of Kiswahili. Paper presented at the International Colloquium on Kiswahili. University of Dar es Salaam, March 20–23. Batibo, H.M. (1989) The position of Kiswahili among the lingua francas: A typological survey. Journal of Linguistics: Language in Education 4 (1), 27–47. Batibo, H.M. (2000) The empowerment of minority languages for education and development. In R. Trewby and S. Fitchat (eds) Language and Development in South Africa: Making the right choices (pp. 123–34). National Institute for Educational Development, Okahandja, Namibia, April 11–13. Chessa, S.R. (2001) Language as a tool for development: Reflections and developmental linguistics in Kiswahili. In N.I. Shitemi, M.M. Noordin, A.I. Opijah and D.M. Mukuria (eds) Kiswahili: A Tool for Development. The Multidisciplinary Approach (pp. 80–82). Nairobi: Downtown Printing Works Ltd. Cooper, R. (1989) Language Planning and Social Change. New York: Cambridge University Press. Donna, C. (1988) Language planning: The view from linguistics. In F.N. Meyer (ed.) Linguistics: The Cambridge Survey (pp. 193–209). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. East African Center for Research and Oral Traditions and African National Languages

Kiswahili in the Great Lakes Region

133

(1986) Proceedings of the First International Workshop on the Promotion of Kiswahili as a Medium of Regional Intercommunication. Zanzibar, December 11–16. East African Community Secretariat (2000) Proceedings of the meeting of Culture, Arts, Sports and Heritage Stakeholders. East African Community Secretariat Arusha, October 26–27. Eastman, C.M. (1991) The political and social linguistics of status planning in Africa. In D. Marshal (ed.) Language Planning. Philadelphia: John Benjamin Publishing Company. Fishman, J.A. (1972) Language and Nationalism: Two Integrative Essays. The Hague: Newbury House. Fishman, J.A. (1989) Language and Ethnicity in Minority Sociolinguistic Perspective. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd. Indakwa, J. (1978) A lingua franca for Africa: A study for the need for common African language. Kiswahili 48 (1), 57–73. Khamis, A.M. (1990) Swahili as a national language. In The role of language in literacy programmes with special reference to Kiswahili in Eastern Africa (pp. 49–67). Unpublished conference proceedings organized by Kenya Kiswahili Association and National Kiswahili Council of Tanzania. Dar es Salaam, 10–15 September, 1990. Kishe, A.M. (1995) The Englishization of Tanzanian Kiswahili: A study in language contact and change. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Massamba, D.P.B. (1995) Kiswahili kama Lugha ya Mawasiliano. In S.A.K. Mlacha (ed.) Kiswahili katika Kanda ya Afrika ya Mashariki (pp. 1–11). Dar es Salaam: Institute of Kiswahili Research. Mkilifi A.H. (1980) The ecology of Tanzania national policy. In E. Polome and P. Hills (eds) Language in Tanzania (pp. 103–138). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Mkude, D. (1986) English in contact with Swahili. In W. Viereck and W.D. Bald (eds) English in Contact with Other Languages. Budapest: Academia Kiado. Msanjila, Y.P. (1997) Towards a policy on the use of Kiswahili in Africa. Kiswahili 60, 60–66. Musau, P.M. (2000) The spread of Kiswahili in Kenya in the new millenium: Prospects and challenges. Paper presented at the International Colloquium on Kiswahili. University of Dar es Salaam, March 20–23. Musau, P.M. (2001) Freeing the airwaves of cultural enslavement: The case of Media in Kenya. In N.I. Shitemi, M.M. Noordin, A.I. Opijah and D.M. Mukuria (eds) Kiswahili: A Tool for Development. The Multidisciplinary Approach (pp. 36–46). Nairobi: Downtown Printing Works Ltd. Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation (2001) Conference papers of the Great Lakes region to set a millenium agenda for culture of peace unity and people centered development. Uganda, April 5–8. Mwansoko, H.J.M. (2001) Ukweli kuhusu hali ya Tatizo la Istilahi za kufundishia Elimu ya Sekondari na ya juu. Kiswahili (Journal of the Institute of Kiswahli Research, University of Dar es Salaam). Noordin, M.M. (2001) A lingua franca for eastern Africa: The case for Kiswahili. In N.I. Shitemi, M.M. Noordin, A.I. Opijah and D.M. Mukuria (eds) Kiswahili. A Tool for Development. The Multidisciplinary Approach (pp. 69–73). Nairobi: Downtown Printing Works Ltd. Ntakirutimana, E.C. (2000) Uhusiano kati ya Ulughamoja na Maendeleo. Paper presented at the International Colloquium on Kiswahili. University of Dar es Salaam, March 20–23. Organization of the African Unity and African Economic Community (2000) Constitutive Act of The African Union. Roots Africa. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, July 11. Qorro, M.A. (2000) Matatizo ya kutumia kiingereza kufundishia katika shule za sekondari na vyuo vya juu Tanzania. Paper presented at Kiswahili Day celebrations organised by the National Kiswahili Council, Dar es Salaam January 7–8. Ryanga, S.A. (2003) The African Union in the Wake of Globalization: The Forgotten Language Dimension. Dar es Salaam: Institute of Kiswahili Research. Scotton, C.M. (1978) Learning lingua francas and socioeconomic integration: Evidence

134

New Language Bearings in Africa

from Africa. In R. Cooper (ed.) Language Spread Diffusion and Social Change (pp. 63– 93). Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Shitemi, N.L. (2001) Language as a tool for development: Issues to ponder. In N.I. Shitemi, M.M. Noordin, A.I. Opijah and D.M. Mukuria (eds) Kiswahili. A Tool for Development. The Multidisciplinary Approach (pp. 14–20). Nairobi: Downtown Printing Works Ltd. Wardhaugh, W.R. (1986). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd. Whiteley, W.H. (1969) Swahili: The Rise of a National Language. London: Methuen. Wizara ya Elimu na Utamaduni (1997) Sera ya Utamaduni. Dar es Salaam: Adult Education Press.

Developing and Promoting Multilingualism in Public Life and Society in Nigeria G.O. Simire Nigeria French Language Village, PMB 1011, Ajara-Badagry, Lagos State, Nigeria The need to develop and encourage the use of local, national and official linguistic codes in Nigeria for both domestic and international usage cannot be overemphasised. In order to achieve a rapid political, economic and sociocultural change in the country, all academic and specialised institutions and corporate organisations in the local and federal governments, should mobilise, inform and educate the old and young, illiterate and literate, male and female, lowly and highly placed individuals across the diversified ethnolinguistic groups in their respective codes. In other words, these institutions, organisations and various levels of government cannot clearly and effectively perform to the expectations of their respective communities unless they can understand and be understood by their host communities. This paper examines the linguistic and sociolinguistic importance of adopting a multilingual approach in solving Nigeria’s complex linguistic problems in public and social life at the various levels of government as well as in academic and specialised institutions, in strict compliance with the country’s past and current language policy.

The complexity of Nigeria’s linguistic communication network cannot be grasped without an in-depth study of the sociolinguistic situation. In order to aspire to rapid political, economic and socio-cultural change in this modern age, the governments, universities, colleges of education, research centres, specialised institutions such as the Nigerian Institute of Engineers, Nigerian Institute of Architects, Nigerian Law School, etc., as well as professional organisations in general, should be a vibrant part of their host communities providing the inspiration for all corporate bodies to soar to greater heights. In return, these bodies are expected to feed their respective immediate communities the results of their observations, contemplations and analysis of local, national, sub-regional as well as regional and international issues. Clearly, these institutions, local and federal, cannot perform these developmental and evolutionary roles accurately unless they can understand and be understood by their immediate environments. In concrete terms, bringing these organisations nearer to the people invariably means bringing them to the people in the language1 of the people. Hence the pressing need to develop and encourage the use of local, national and official linguistic codes in Nigeria both for domestic and international usage (Akinasso, 1989; Amadu, 1994; SaroWiwa, 1994). In order to sow and nourish the seeds for articulate, meaningful and embedded national development on political, economic, educational as well as sociocultural fronts, it is necessary for the Nigerian government in particular, as well as all professional bodies, to reach the old and young, illiterate and literate, male and female, lowly and highly placed individuals across diversified 135

136

New Language Bearings in Africa

ethnolinguistic groups in their own codes. This means adopting a multilingual approach in solving the country’s linguistic problems in public and social life.

Linguistic Policy in the Colonial Era National level The Nigeria of today is an aggregate of diverse cultures, codes, religions and social outlooks which were lumped together on the eve of 1914 under a colonially convenient administrator. It should be admitted as a statement of fact that, before us the colonial administrators battled with the hydra-headed multilingual problems in the country. Overwhelmed by its scope and nature they opted for the ‘easier solution ‘, a policy which failed to take into consideration the future survival of the country as well as her peoples. Goaded by the strong apprehensions about the political consequences of an eventual propagation of the English language across the country as well as the policy of ‘divide and rule’, the colonial administrators opted for the usage of the three major codes, Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo. But contrary to expectation only minimal attempts were made to produce regional bilinguals (in an indigenous code and English) due to the failure of the diverse Christian missions, which were mainly in charge of education, to promote a consistent linguistic education programme. While in some schools it was a case of ‘straight for English’ from the first day at school, in others it was the indigenous code for the first 3 years because the Christian missions, according to Ajayi (1965) and Ayandele (1966), needed to have ‘natives’ who would be able to read the Bible in their own linguistic codes. Consequently, at best, most of the school products had not more than a smattering of the English language which helped them to be employed as waiters, interpreters, clerical officers, barmen, cooks and gardeners, etc. Regional and provincial levels At that time the three regions into which the country was divided, northern, western and eastern, had their respective provincial forms of multilingualism. Ajulo (1990: 10) points out that ‘Section 114 of the 1951 constitution recognised English as the official language of the legislative Houses in Nigeria; but it recognised Hausa in addition to English in the Northern region’. Why was neither Yoruba in the West nor Igbo in the East given such status? The sociopolitical and cultural cohesion of the North today is owed to the afore-mentioned policy. At best, therefore, the linguistic policy of the colonial masters, where one existed at all, could be termed chaotic and vague. It could be inferred from the above that the Western and Eastern regions had to rely more on interpreters in getting the government nearer to the people; but since the teeming population of these interpreters was neither professionally trained in the art nor had a solid knowledge of the source code (SC) as well as target code (TC) they usually failed in their mission.

Post-Colonial Nigeria The language (linguistic) situation in both colonial and post-colonial Nigeria was a direct reflection of the colonial administrator’s linguistic policy, where

Multilingualism in Nigeria

137

one existed. Between four and five hundred linguistic codes are spoken in Nigeria. In addition, there are English, Anglo-Nigerian pidgin (ANP) and an Arabic code, the three so-called ‘neutral’ codes, in the sense that they belong to none of the ethnolinguistic groups in Nigeria (Agheyisi, 1986; Simire, 1993a). To illustrate better the country’s linguistic complexity it is necessary to bring to focus the ethnolinguistic pyramid of Nigeria (Brann, 1978: 10). Of the four to five hundred linguistic codes spoken in the country, only a few more than one hundred are standardised and reduced to writing (Figure 1).

Figure 1 The ethno-linguistic pyramid of Nigeria

English Although English was then the official code of Nigeria as well as the code of administration, education, jurisprudence and press, a minimal number of Nigerians spoke and wrote good English. Since 1979 and up to the present time the relevant section of the four constitutions of the Federal Republic of Nigeria bearing relevance to matters affecting the National Assembly reads: ‘The Business of the National Assembly shall be conducted in English and in Hausa, Ibo and Yoruba when adequate arrangements have been made there-

138

New Language Bearings in Africa

of’. English was chosen as Nigeria’s official code because its international status gave Nigerians more access to the outside world, a role none of the three national official codes of today would have been able to play, even if they were given the chance. The 1951 report of inspectors of education in Nigeria, as quoted in Adekunle (1972: 86) vindicates this point: It is plain fact that the only means by which the Nigerian can understand and take his place in the competitive modern world is English. Thus, his whole future depends on the quality of his command of the English Language. Those Nigerians who spoke and wrote good English constituted the revered e´lite, most of whom later became politicians and administrators on the eve of independence. It was in fact this class of people who took over from the British administrators. On a lower rung of the ladder were officers who managed a form of English in formal situations while they excelled most in their respective maternal codes in semi-official and informal situations. Communication at the local level between the governors and the governed was mostly through interpreters and sometimes in the local linguistic codes. Difficult as it was, communication between members of diverse ethnic groups in urban areas was carried out in one form of English or another (Banjo, 1971), as well as the Anglo–Nigerian pidgin. While a semblance of communication was carried on between those who could manage a word or two of English at the local level, and although there were a few bilinguals and multilinguals, especially in multilingual states, communication on the other hand was greatly impaired, if not totally impossible, between monolinguals and illiterates of diversified ethnic groups across the country. Nigerian indigenous codes At independence, the situation was not dissimilar from that during the colonial era apart from the fact that Hausa, Ibo and Yoruba (three codes of wider communication) were officially recognised as Nigeria’s major codes. Later, these were increased to nine and later again to 12, thus representing the major ethnic groups in the 36 states which make up Nigeria today. These codes are Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, Fulfulde, Kanuri, Edo, Ijaw, Efik, Idoma, Ikwerre, Tiv and Nupe. Huasa, Igbo and Yoruba, the country’s official national codes, are spoken mainly in 18 of the 36 states into which Nigeria is divided. Hausa is a maternal code in states such as Kano, Katsina, Sokoto and Kaduna. Its speakers are estimated to be 22 million. States such as Ogun, Oyo, Ondo, Lagos, Ekiti as well as Osun and part of Kwara and Kogi are monolingual in Yoruba. It is estimated that Yoruba-speaking Nigerians total 20 million while the Igbo code, spoken in states such as Imo, Abia, Anambra and Enugu, has 16 to 17 million approximately. Together, these major ethnolinguistic groups constitute 54% of Nigeria’s total population and it is in this sense that Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba are codes of wider communication. Although considered minority national codes Kanuri (4%), Edo (2%), Fulfulde (9%), Ijaw (2%), Idoma (2%), Efk (3%), Ikwerre (2%), Nupe (2%) as well as Tiv (2.5%) (Oguntoyibo & Alli (1978) play a considerable role in their

Multilingualism in Nigeria

139

respective states, where each of the above minority national codes is dominant among hundreds of less socio-linguistic codes of importance, be it at national or state levels. It is believed that the above-itemised codes make up 22.5% of Nigeria’s total population while a plethora of other minority ethnic codes of far less sociolinguistic importance in the different states of the country total 23.5%. From the analysis above, it is clear that Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo codes taken in isolation, are to a large extent minority regional codes spoken mostly by their respective nationalities although a few Nigerians speak them as a second or third language. Similar views are expressed in Ayorinde (1985: 288) and Adekunle (1972: 89–90).

Nigeria’s ‘Lingua Franca’ Thus, as at present Nigeria has no single national code spoken by the whole population and through which the teeming people’s identity can be effectively expressed. While English, Nigeria’s linguistic window on the world, is in fact one of the codes having the potential to fill this vacuum, it falls short of satisfying the country’s quest for the African ‘soul’ or identity. Nonetheless, it currently guarantees and promotes national unity irrespective of Nigerians’ subjective views about it. It should, however, be admitted that, of about 33% of the total population of Nigerians who are literate in English only about 15% of them really use it effectively in professional and administrative activities. Consequently, English could also be seen as a minority code in the country. In urban cities, fast developing towns (due to the continuous creation of states), as well as villages especially in multilingual areas, in informal or semiformal public contexts, the most frequently used version of English if, indeed it can be considered a form of English, is ANP. Not only does ANP serve as a medium of newscasting and public enlightenment on radio and television, and as an unofficial medium of instruction in some urban as well as rural schools, it is also a popular medium of entertainment and numerous advertisements in the entire country. One can safely say that ANP is the closest thing to real ‘lingua franca’ in Nigeria as regards non-formal domains, becoming the most popular medium of inter-group communication in various heterogeneous communities and in many educational institutions, especially federal government colleges located in various states throughout the country. Like any ‘natural code’ such as Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, French as well as English, ANP is capable of expressing all domains of human interaction, and as such, it should be considered a viable candidate for a national status. The snag about ANP is that unlike official national as well as minority codes with which it is in competition in Nigeria, it is neither considered a standard code nor is it accorded the same recognition as the latter, be it at federal or state levels. Rather, ANP is, regrettably, treated at best as an unwanted child in the family of Nigerian codes, reminding one of the biblical reference to the stone that was rejected by the builders but eventually became the cornerstone. Although initially a maternal code to none in the country, ANP has since acquired ‘children’ as well as ‘grandchildren’ who really think and dream in this code, especially in multilingual states such as Delta, Edo, Rivers, Bayelsa, etc. It should be emphasised here that as an autonomous linguistic code, ANP is currently more widely used in Nigeria than any of the so-called three official

140

New Language Bearings in Africa

national codes, viz. Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. (For additional information on ANP, see Simire, 1993b.) Language policy and the constitution Nigeria’s present national policy on language education as it appears on paper is a bold attempt at language rationalisation in the country (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1977, 1989, 1998). It is a far cry from a hitherto nebulous and chaotic policy. It is meant to give teeth to the linguistic policy as spelt out in sections 51 and 91 of the 1979 and 1989 constitutions, as well as in the relevant sections of the constitutions of 1995 and 1999. But beautiful and laudable as it is, its implementation on the ground has little to offer with regards to nation-building and national integration. The main points of the language policy as it exists are: (1) The federal, (sic) Government considers it to be in the interest of national unity that each child should be encouraged to learn one of the three major codes other than his own mother tongue (the major codes in Nigeria being identified as Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba). (2) Medium of instruction at the pre-primary level will be principally the mother tongue or the language of the immediate community. This would oblige the Government to: (a) develop the orthography of many Nigerian languages; (b) produce textbooks and other materials in Nigerian languages. (3) The government will see to it that the medium of instruction in the primary school is initially the mother tongue or the language of the immediate community and, at a later stage, English. (4) A promise by the government to supply specialist teachers via the teacher training colleges. (5) At the secondary level, English fully becomes the language of instruction while Nigerian languages are taught as a subject. (6) According to the Nigerian policy on education (third edition, 1998) for smooth interaction with our neighbours, it is desirable for every Nigerian to speak French. Accordingly, French shall be the second official language in Nigeria, and it shall be compulsory in schools (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1989). Problems of implementation From the above points it is expected, subject to successful implementation, that a sizeable number of members of the Nigerian community, especially young school-leavers, would reflect the national bilingual or multilingual picture in addition to English and possibly French, the former being one of the codes most used in the country. But with the dearth of specialists in the three major codes, as well as in other subjects, either at primary or secondary school level, it is very uncertain if the majority of pupils would be able to learn more than one code. This is borne out by the fact that the federal government colleges are socially privileged while public secondary schools are less privileged. Secondly, schools situated in urbanised areas are more patronised than those in rural communities since the majority of the less privileged pupils are

Multilingualism in Nigeria

141

neither in federal government colleges nor in private schools. Small wonder that little or no success is likely to be recorded in this domain. Added to the teething problems to be envisaged is the considerable number of codes that pupils from minority linguistic groups would be obliged to learn. This is likely to be burdensome to many pupils as well as their parents. At pre-school it is expected that pupils would learn their mother tongues. This would help them grow faster in the area of metalanguage and concept formation, a significant advantage over teaching in a second code. Secondly, the likelihood of pupils experiencing linguistic inhibitions is remote. Unfortunately, only the rich can afford to pay for their wards in pre-primary school. A critical analysis of our immediate environment forces us to admit that more parents these days will even withdraw their children from primary and secondary schools when what they judge to be ‘excessive expenditure’ is demanded. Finally, at the primary level pupils are expected to learn initially in their mother tongues or the code of their immediate community. However, judging by the huge number of Nigerian linguistic codes, estimated at close to 500, that could be used, it is the opinion of linguists such as Brann (1978), Elugbe and Omamor (1991), Marchese and Schnukal (1982), Ofuani (1981) and Omamor (1982) that ANP, extensively spoken in urban areas in the south, could be developed and adopted as a national code and also for the adult literacy programme, especially in multilingual states of the country. In addition to this, some other semi-urban codes of less restricted communication could be given equal status. It should be reiterated that one’s code is part of one’s identity. Consequently, it should not be denigrated. To do so invariably means denying one’s human ability to communicate. Hence the need to adopt a multilingual approach in solving Nigeria’s linguistic problems in public and social life. Far from being a plague, multilingualism in the country is in fact a source of wealth and strength, which if properly harnessed and managed will act as a source of synergy for a more effective, directed, guided as well as vibrant evolution of a modern, economically viable and technologically developed nation.

Relevance to the Modern Age An effective and more purposeful management of Nigerian codes for the modern age invites an in-depth knowledge of Nigerian codes not only by linguists and sociolinguists, but also by professional translators and interpreters, and by those who are called to govern. There have been seeming adequate constitutional provisions, evidenced in sections 51 and 91 of the 1979 and 1989 constitutions, respectively, for the implementation of a developmentoriented linguistic policy in public and social life (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1977, 1989). This is also evidenced by the fact that a handful of legislative houses across the country made a timid effort towards fulfilling those constitutional linguistic obligations, in addition to the fact that a quadrilingual lexicon of legislative terminologies has been provided. The problem has been the practical attitudes of Nigerians in politics, academia and society in general. These attitudes have militated against the exercise of a more articulate, resultoriented linguistic policy.

142

New Language Bearings in Africa

To clarify this point, permit me to quote the late sage and elder statesman, Obafemi Awolowo who said ‘Nigeria is not a nation’ but a mere ‘geographical expression’ whose constituent units differed so widely in their languages, cultural backgrounds, social outlooks and indigenous political institutions, that a sense of belonging, national loyalty and common identity was completely absent (Awolowo, 1947). Unfortunately, 55 years after, the hard and bitter truth remains irrevocable. Not surprisingly, a country which discriminates against a section of its citizenry either on the basis of linguistic code, ethnic group, employment, as well as denigrates one’s profession and linguistic code, cannot expect total loyalty from its citizens. Profound changes are needed in the values, attitudes and behaviour of the Nigerian e´lite. Secondly, the present general apathy of most Nigerian citizens to government property and business probably stems from the failure of the government itself to reach out to people in their own codes. In both sub-regional and regional spheres, there is a lack of understanding of the dynamics of Nigeria’s modern linguistic needs for sociocultural and politico-economic integration. Using ‘ethnic group’ to refer to all nationalities in the world, Onwuejeogwu argues that in comparison with Nigeria: Russia (USSR) has about twenty-seven ethnic groups; China and India have more than forty; the USA has less than fifty, excluding the Red Indians; England has three, France about eight; and Germany about fifteen. The only place in the world that has over 300 ethnic groups is Nigeria. This uniqueness creates unique problems unknown to the experience of other peoples in the world . . . No western or eastern civilisation has ever evolved a political system [linguistic policy], that can cope with this gigantic problem of hyper-ethnic instability syndrome . . . (consequently), we just have to look inward (Onwuejeogwu, 1987: 2–3).

The Multilingual Approach Rather than resorting to an ad hoc approach to linguistic policy, the government should be seen and heard to be more committed in the implementation of a more vibrant and articulate policy which is expected to usher the country into the twenty-first century. Nigeria should embark at once on a vigorous drive for the training of professional interpreters and translators in European and Nigerian codes. In tune with Ajulo (1990: 18), it may be necessary to create national or regional schools of translation and interpretation, a usual practice of multilingual countries, whose areas of specialisation should cover political, scientific, cultural, literature, technical, literary and philosophical fields. Armed with the academic and practical knowledge of what each linguistic code entails, as well the technical art of translation, which would be acquired from programmes run in the tertiary institutions, these disciples of nationbuilding should embark on the translation into Nigerian codes of books on agriculture, politics, technology, economy, philosophy and prose, poetry, drama, written by Nigerians and foreign authors, official documents, laws, edicts, constitutions, and other texts of the state and federal governments, as well as those of sub-regional and regional statutory bodies such as ECOWAS

Multilingualism in Nigeria

143

and AU. This will enable Nigerians to understand and follow government works in either their own codes or those of their immediate environment. In addition, Nigerians should be encouraged to write in their maternal codes where they possess the linguistic ability. This means that printing and publishing houses may need to re-adapt themselves to the changing tide of events in the country. Readership in diversified linguistic codes need not be small if and when the reading culture is systematically drummed home to Nigerians and cultivated. It is, in fact, the usual practice of multilingual societies. In all spheres of life as well as in subjects such as politics, economics, agriculture, history, geography, mathematics, physics, chemistry, linguistics and foreign languages, books, work books, and pedagogical materials should be written by Nigerians, either individually or collectively, as a matter of educational policy. For the purpose of quality, these books should be edited by a competent body of experts with regard to ideas, theories, methodology and style as well as technical qualities such as binding and presentation. These would be more easily understood by Nigerians. Such books according to Professor Ade-Ojo (1997: 6), would be fed and nurtured by Nigerians’ own experiences while at the same time responding to certain geo-cultural realities of our immediate neighbours. For economic, political, cultural as well as geographical reasons, Nigeria and Nigerians stand to gain in establishing cultural, sporting, social, business, educational and professional relations not only with our immediate neighbours but also with all other French-speaking African and European countries. Linguistic and cultural barriers are partly responsible for the prejudices which have constantly held back the realisation of the lofty objectives and aims of the founding fathers of ECOWAS and AU with regard to sub-regional and regional integration. The problems are not insurmountable. All over Europe, in South and North America, and in Asia, national governments are busy promoting regional development and integration despite linguistic and cultural differences. New languages are being learned in the schools and in adult learning centres, and older people are encouraged to return to formal education. The West African sub-region should wake from the deep slumber into which she had fallen in almost all spheres of human endeavour. Like the legendary Reggae singer, Robert Nestar Marley a.k.a. Bob Marley exhorted Africans when he sang ‘Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds,’ Nigerians and Africans should take their destiny in their hands combining their dual heritage in finding solutions to the problems of national, sub-regional and regional integration. Irrespective of differences in political convictions, inclinations and principles, the primary and more permanent interests of our people should be close to our hearts. It is in this light as well as other reasons adduced above that General Abacha’s foresight in declaring that ‘Nigeria will embark on a vigorous language programme that should ensure that our people, within the shortest possible time, become bilingual’ deserves to be applauded. Presently, a trip to our eastern and western borders reveals that brisk businesses and interactions are negotiated and promoted neither in polished English nor French but in ANP. Even within our immediate neighbours’ countries, our

144

New Language Bearings in Africa

brothers and sisters would still utter words of ANP to people they suspect to be Nigerians, or to Anglophones in general. All linguistic codes, especially those of wider communication and less restricted communication should be promoted. The promotion of the codes yet to be standardised and elaborated entails that they be studied in depth from linguistic and sociolinguistic perspectives, with a view to standardising and streamlining the high versions of these codes to meet with modern needs while at the same time purging them of regional perculiarities as well as foreign impurities, with an all-embracing objective to give them orthographies, dictionaries as well as standardised texts. As much as possible pupils and learners should be taught in their respective maternal codes. Educators, psycho-linguists and sociolinguists are in agreement that the first 13 years is the most delicate and formative phase in a child’s life. A child’s linguistic aptitudes as well as attitudes are acquired mostly between the ages of 5 and 13. Parents, the government and educators should pay more attention to a child’s physical needs, emotional, psychological, intellectual and social potentialities. Global trends In multilingual countries such as USA, Switzerland, Belgium, India, China, Germany and the old Russian Republic, children are taught to explore their own natural environments in their maternal codes in order to inject into them skills such as curiosity, initiative, self-confidence, resourcefulness and adaptability – qualities of immense help in moving with the tide of events worldwide (Fafunwa, 1969). All through the world, linguistic ‘choices’ are often determined by economic, social and political pressures. Speakers’ linguistic choices are not normally different from their own and others’ attitudes towards those choices. Consequently, for language planning to be in any way effective, it should grow out of speakers’ actual linguistic patterns and take into consideration their beliefs and feelings about the beauty, value and significance of different codes. Multilingualism is a norm in the diverse component communities of Nigeria.2 While it enables the speakers of the different communities to maintain contact with one another, an average Nigerian living in urban areas especially in multilingual states identifies himself depending on the context, with a different speech network to which he belongs, to which he expresses his wish to belong and from which he seeks acceptance. Multilingualism is, therefore, not a plague; although it is seen ‘narrowly’ as a personal and social problem. In order to promote linguistic equality, tolerance, social interaction and mutual understanding in a multicultural and multilingual country such as Nigeria, the indispensable need of translators and interpreters stares one in the face. Here again the tertiary institutions such as the colleges of education and universities and future schools of translation and interpretation would need to collaborate more in defining new areas of need in their respective institutions. These institutions should accept the challenge of the modern age whose clarion call is, in addition to producing teachers to teach Nigerian codes in the pre-primary, primary and secondary levels, young school-leavers who would demonstrate profound mastery of our local codes, to continue to build with

Multilingualism in Nigeria

145

more vigour and determination on the solid foundation of the super-structure of Nigerian codes. This infrastructural foundation should include among others, as a matter of priority, the translation of books in such domains as mathematics, music, natural science, philosophy, literature and politics into as many Nigerian codes as possible in order to enrich the latter. It should also include the concentration of energy and time to newer areas of multilingualism, its nature, scope, patterns as well as its attendant impact on development. Above all, their observations, analysis, imaginations as well as thoughts should be translated into more concrete and positive usage in their immediate environment, thereby bridging the present wide gap between the ivory towers and their respective outer communities. On a sad note, it is partially to ‘bridge’ the existing gap between the ivory towers and the barracks that military administrators have been drafted into universities as chief administrators. Ironically, that same gap equally exists between the government and the people in Nigeria, with the attendant consequence of the present general apathy of most Nigerians to government property and business, which they regard as nobody’s business. This paper cannot be ended without an admonition from the late African poet, humanist as well as philosopher David Diop: Apre`s un examen critique approfondi de la conception et de l’orientation de l’Enseignement Colonial, les responsables s’attachent a` donner aux programmes scolaires un contenu qui permet a` l’Africain de se re´habiliter a` ses propres yeux et de regarder enfin le monde non plus a` travers les jugements e´gocentriques du Colonisateur, mais a` partir des re´alite´s objectives. (After an in-depth analysis of the colonial conception as well as orientation of the educational policy, Guinean policy makers have deemed it pertinent to include into the courses’ contents of schools things which will enable the African to rehabilitate himself as well as to look at the world not from the colonial point of view but, rather from his own objective perspective.)

Conclusion Multilingual problems in the ‘geographical expression’ called Nigeria predates 1914 when the Northern and Southern protectorates were fused into one by the colonial administrators. In fact, multilingualism has always been the norm in both protectorates. The real problem in our view is the near absence of well-articulated solutions, concrete implementation strategies and the political will to meet the scope and nature of this hydra-headed sociolinguistic problems; hence the need to adopt a multilingual approach in solving Nigeria’s linguistic problems in public and social life. Both national, sub-regional and regional interrelated needs summon political leaders, linguists, language planners, educators, etc to evolve a more vibrant and articulate policy which, no doubt, should be armed with political teeth in the field. Far from being a plague, multilingualism in the country should in fact be seen as a source of wealth and strength, which if properly harnessed and managed will act as a source of synergy for a more effective,

146

New Language Bearings in Africa

directed, guided as well as vibrant evolution of a modern, economically viable and technologically developed nation. Correspondence Any correspondence should be directed to Dr G.O. Simire, Nigeria French Language Village, PMB 1011, Ajara-Badagry, Lagos State, Nigeria.

Notes 1. In this article ‘linguistic code’ refers to language or a variety of a language because of its neutrality in terms of expression. Such terms as dialect, variety, language, style, standard language, pidgin and creole are inclined to arouse emotions. 2. It is far-fetched to continue to believe that states in the northern part of Nigeria are mostly monolinguals. The contrary is the case because many of these states house as many as seven to 12 linguistic codes. For example, Taraba and Adamawa states house not less than 23 and 10 codes, respectively.

References Ade-Ojo, S. (1997) Bracing up for the new Nigerian bilingual orientation. Paper presented at the fourth FCT ‘French Day’ celebration. Abuja, Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Adekunle, M. (1972) Sociolinguistic problems in English language instruction in Nigeria. In D.M. Smith and R.W. Shuy (eds) Sociolinguistics in Cross-cultural Analysis (pp. 83–101). Washington: Georgetown Press. Agheyisi, R.N. (1986) The standardisation of Nigerian Pidgin. English Worldwide 9 (2), 227–242. Ajayi, J.F.A. (1965) Christian Missions in Nigeria. London: Longman. Ajulo, S.B. (1990) Nigeria’s linguistic requirements in the 21st century: Reflections on sections 51 and 91 of the 1979 constitution (African Affairs N 357, 511). Lagos: Nigerian Institute for International Affairs. Unpublished paper. Akinasso, F.N. (1989) One nation, 400 languages: Unity and diversity in Nigeria. Language Problems and Language Planning 13 (2), 133–146. Amadu, A. (1994) Education for national development. In A. Mahadi, G.A. Kwanashie and A.M. Yakubu (eds) Nigeria: The State of the Nation and the Way Forward (pp. 423– 444). Kaduna: Arewa House. Awolowo, O. (1947) Path to Nigerian Freedom. London: Faber and Faber. Ayandele, E.A. (1996) The Missionary Impact on Modem Nigeria. London: Longman. Ayorinde, D. (1985) The new language policy in Nigeria: Its problems and its chances of success. In N. Wolfson and J. Manes (eds) Language of Inequality. Amsterdam: Mouton. Banjo, M. (1971) The usage of Nigerian English. In J. Spencer (ed.)The English Language in West Africa (pp. 36–54). London: Longmans. Brann, C.M. (1978) Multilingualisme et E´ducation au Nige´ria. Quebec: Centre de Recherche sur le Bilinguisme. Diop, D. (1963) Te´moignages. Etude, Pre´sence Africaine (p. 39). Paris. Elugbe, B.O. and Omamor, A.P. (1991) Nigerian Pidgin: Background and Prospects. Lagos: Heinemann Educational Books. Fafunwa, B. (1969) The importance of the mother-tongue as a medium of instruction. Nigerian Magazine No. 102 (September–November). Lagos: Ministry of Information. Fafunwa, B. (1997) Nigeria can afford free education. The Guardian. October 18, p. 11. Federal Republic of Nigeria (1977) National Policy on Education. Yaba: NERDC. Federal Republic of Nigeria (1989) National Policy on Education. Yaba: NERDC.

Multilingualism in Nigeria

147

Federal Republic of Nigeria (1998) National Policy on Education (3rd edn). Yaba: NERDC. Federal Republic of Nigeria (1989) The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Lagos: Ministry of Information. Marchese, L. and Schnukal, M. (1982) Nigerian Pidgin English of Warri. Journal of Linguistic Association of Nigeria 1, 213–219. Ofunai, O.A. (1981) Pidgin in the junior primary school in Benin City, Nigeria: A case of a neglected people. Unpublished study. Ofunai, O.A. (1984) On the problem of time and tense in Nigerian Pidgin. Anthropological Linguistics 2 (3), 293–304. Omamor, A.P. (1982) On native speakers and linguistic theory. Kiabara Journal of the Humanities 3, 36–54. Onwuejeogwu , M.A. (1987) Indigenous socio-economic and political organisations and their relevance to development in contemporary Nigeria. Paper presented at the Nigerian Anthropological and Sociological Association on Strategies of Authentic Development in Nigeria. University of Ilorin, November 30–December 2. Saro-Wiwa, K. (1994) The constitutional conference and national cohesion. In A. Mahadi, G.A. Kwanashie and A.M. Yakubu (eds) Nigeria: The State of the Nation and the Way Forward (pp. 527–534). Kaduna: Arewa House. Simire, G.O. (1993a) Pourquoi e´crire le pidgin Anglo-Nige´rian. In R. Chaudenson (ed.) Etudes Cre´oles vol. 1 (pp. 150–70). Paris: Didier Erudition. Simire, G.O (1993b): Etude sur la variabilite´ du Pidgin Anglo-Nige´rian: Le Temps, La Modalite´ et L’Aspect. The`se de Doctorat, Universite´ de Nice-Sophia Antipolis, Nice, France.

Course Design and Testing in an English Programme Modoupe M. Alimi and Sibonile Ellece Department of English, University of Botswana, P/B 0022, Gaborone, Botswana The paper discusses the relationship between learning objectives and testing procedures in the Department of English at the University of Botswana, based on an examination of some course outlines and examination papers. Observations show that course designs are deficient in the articulation of learner outcomes. This deficiency is reflected in the test items produced for such courses, as tests are focused on what the teacher has taught and not what the learners are able to do. It is recommended that a gradual, but consistent, approach to overhauling the processes of course design and testing be adopted for the optimal benefit of learners.

There is a consensus in the literature that planning is crucial for successful learning. Eggen and Kauchak (1988: 71) opine that ‘there are three basic steps in the three-phase approach to teaching: planning, implementation and evaluation’ and that ‘identifying goals and objectives is the first step in the planning process’. McCutcheon (1980) demonstrates that planning is important first as an instructional aid for learners and second as a source of increasing teachers’ confidence and security. In the same vein, Duminy and Sohnge (1994: 114) state that pre-purposeful planning and clear objectives are important for maintaining an acceptable standard of evaluation. Usually, national educational goals or principles generate institutional goals, which in turn are translated into specific programme or course aims. In Botswana, for example, the general education philosophy, broadly aims at enabling students to acquire the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviour that will give them a full successful life and continued personal growth, and equipping them to participate effectively in a rapidly changing society (Education for Kagisano, 1977: 23). The more recent report of the National Commission on Education amplifies these aims further as follows: ‘to improve general education so as to prepare students more effectively for life, citizenship and world of work, to enhance the status and performance of the teaching profession’ (National Commission on Education, 1993: 29). At the University of Botswana, this philosophy guides the design of programmes offered by different departments. More recently, Vision 2016 reiterates more strongly the national goal of education in Botswana as having ‘a system of quality education that is able to adapt to the changing needs of the country as the world around us changes’ (Presidential Task Force, 1997: 5). Ultimately, it is the responsibility of ‘teachers to sift through the goals and establish priorities that will take precedence in the classroom’ (Orlich et al., 1985: 17). Researchers in course and curriculum design emphasise the importance of learning or instructional objectives (see Beard et al., 1974; Bloom et al., 1971; Diamond, 1998; Lovell-Troy & Eickmann, 1992; Miller, 1987; Rowntree, 1974; Toohey, 1999). In addition to instructional objectives, course aim and course 148

Course Design and Testing in an English Programme

149

content, particularly in tertiary institutions, are also considered paramount to the success of any programme. While aims are a more general ‘starting point’ (Davies, 1976: 12), objectives are restricted or more specific, and translating aims into instructional objectives may depend on whether a curriculum is founded on a particular education philosophy or dominated by specific expected achievements. Where the latter is the case, then, course designers are faced with questions, among others, ‘what knowledge is the learner expected to attain at the end of the course and what techniques of evaluation or examination will be used to assess the course?’ (Dubin & Olshtain, 1986: 42). McNeil (1976: 45) defines ‘objectives’ as answers to the question, ‘what do we want our learners to be able to do, know or feel as a result of the education or training we will provide?’ Dubin and Olshtain (1986: 42), in looking at the relationship between goals, objectives and evaluation, indicate that ‘goals are usually the basis for specifying instructional objectives which in turn serve as the basis for evaluation’. Duminy and Sohnge (1994: 54) define ‘objectives as detailed, concrete or accurate short-term formulation of intent, usually expressed by verbs conveying precise, observable and measurable activities’. Hence aims express general intent, content expresses input, while objectives express output. Objectives may therefore be viewed as the expected results or the learning outcomes. This is distinct from the aims of a course which describe in general and abstract terms the intent to be strived at over a long period of time, and from the content of a course which simply refers to those things to be learnt in order to achieve the aims and objectives. Commenting on the importance of objectives, Orlich et al. (1985: 32) affirm that even though learners themselves may specify their objectives, the objectives specified by the teacher establish learners’ learning priorities and distinguish between performance and process objectives. According to them, ‘performance objectives, also referred to as behavioural or instructional objectives, are learners’ behaviour, expected students’ performances or outcomes or what the learner will do’ while process objectives are ‘the mental skills which allow the students to interpret the content they have learnt’. In terms of their benefits, Orlich et al. (1985: 33) explain that since ‘performance objectives prescribe what behaviours learners must manifest and are given to them prior to instruction, objectives self motivate the learners and eliminate guesswork in teaching and learning’. Mager (1962: 53) suggests that an objective should indicate ‘what the student will be doing when demonstrating his achievement and how you will know he is doing it’. McAshan (1974), cited in Eggen and Kauchak (1988: 74), criticises Mager’s objectives because they do not identify the educational purpose of the teacher. According to him, an objective should answer these two questions: ‘what do I want the learner to know, understand or appreciate and how will I know if they know or understand?’ In their own view on what constitute good learning objectives, Eggen and Kauchak (1988: 76) recommend merging Mager’s (1962) and McAshan’s (1974) views to include a precise statement on how the objective will be evaluated. Rowntree (1974: 58) suggests words and phrases that are desirable for formulating objectives including ‘describe, evaluate, state, explain, select, distinguish and list’ and proscribe others including ‘know, understand, be familiar with, become acquainted with,

150

New Language Bearings in Africa

obtain a working knowledge of and be aware of’. In this paper, our definition of learning objectives is adapted using some of the salient characteristics of good objectives highlighted by Diamond (1998), Duminy and Sohnge (1994), Eggen and Kauchak (1988), Mager (1962) and Rowntree (1974). We therefore define learning objectives as what learners will be expected to perform or demonstrate, measurable in terms of observable behaviour and expressed using behavioural verbs, at the end of teaching or instruction. Evaluation and testing are dynamic tools useful for assessing the measure of learning that has taken place and for improving course curricula. Weir and Roberts (1994: 4) define ‘evaluation as the systematic collection and analysis of all relevant information necessary to promote the improvement of the curriculum, assess its effectiveness and efficiency, as well as the participants’ attitudes within a context of particular institutions involved’. They distinguish between ‘accountability oriented-evaluation’ and ‘development-oriented evaluation’. While the former examines the ‘degree’ of conformity by staff to ‘professional accountability demands’ and is therefore summative, the latter is aimed at promoting project improvement and is formative (Weir & Roberts, 1994: 5). One important benefit of development oriented-evaluation is that it is an avenue for teachers’ professional advancement especially where it is both ingrained in the programme and systematically implemented. Brown (1994: 253–254) observes that ‘testing and teaching are interrelated’ because both are successful only when they are guided by clear instructional objectives and the validity of a test is dependent on ‘the degree to which the test actually measures what it is intended to measure’. Diamond (1998: 128) indicates that some of the advantages of ‘clearly stated objectives are that it ensures fairness in testing and facilitates student learning because students are provided with direction’. He further asserts that ‘without appropriate objectives, a good instructional programme cannot be developed, and assessment lacks a basis on which to collect data or make decisions’. From the literature, the relationship between teaching, learning and evaluation is strategically hinged on learning or instructional objectives and the success of the three is determined to a large extent by the teacher’s conscious decision to specify at the planning stage what behaviours he expects the learners to demonstrate. In view of this, our aim in this paper is to examine whether there is any relationship between course objectives and test items in the Department of English, University of Botswana, to specify the type of relationship, if there is any, and to make recommendations which will facilitate learning and promote quality and excellence in the graduates. It is important at this point briefly to describe the English programme at the University of Botswana. The programme comprises two broad areas, Language and Literature and it ‘aims at providing an advanced study of English and promoting a proficient and discriminating use of language’ (Department of English, 1998/1999: 2). Teaching in the department, as described in the handbook, which also provides the list of courses, aims/objectives and course outlines is ‘by means of lectures and tutorials, where the lecture is largely a one-person performance by the teacher’ (p. 2).

Course Design and Testing in an English Programme

151

The Study In line with our aim, this paper intends to provide answers to the following questions: (1) Do the courses in the Department of English at the University of Botswana indicate objectives in terms of learning outcomes (what learners are expected to be able to do at the end of the courses)? (2) Do the lecturers in the Department of English believe that their teaching is guided by specific learning outcomes or objectives? (3) Are test items constructed in line with the objectives of the course? Sources of data are the handbook of the Department of English (1998/1999), randomly selected past examination questions and a structured interview with some teaching staff of the department. We approached the tasks highlighted above in three ways. Firstly, we content-analysed course outlines to determine whether the instructional objectives are clearly stated. Secondly, we examined 25 randomly selected past questions, 10 from Language and 15 from Literature, to establish the relationship between the course objectives and tasks given to students. Thirdly, we interviewed informally, a randomly selected sample (10) of staff of the Department of English using a structured interview schedule consisting of 12 items, in order to corroborate our findings with respect to whether or not learning objectives have a direct influence on teaching and testing. Each interview session lasted about 1 hour, 30 minutes. Data obtained from the interview are rich and authentic as they represent open discussions between the authors and colleagues. In analysing the data, simple percentages were found appropriate for research question one, while questions two and three were dealt with descriptively.

Findings Learning objectives and teaching Our findings indicate that the majority of the courses in Literature and Language did not state explicitly the objectives, or the learning outcomes expected of students. Table 1 shows that out of a total of 37 courses (13 and 24 in Language and Literature, respectively), only three (8.1%) have objectives while 36 (97.2%) have aims and 30 (81.1%) have course content. Significantly, those three courses that indicate objectives are from the language component of the programme. Table 2 shows that 91.9% of all the courses have no objectives, 2.7% have no aims while 18.9% have no course content. The results above show that course designers (lecturers) express their aims (what they want to teach) and sometimes provide outlines of what to do Table 1 Percentage distribution of Language and Literature courses with aims, objectives and content Courses Language courses Literature courses Total

Objectives

Aims

Content

3 (8.1%) 0 (0.0%) 8.1%

13 (35.1%) 23 (62.1%) 97.2%

13 (35.1%) 17 (46.0%) 81.1%

152

New Language Bearings in Africa

Table 2 Percentage distribution of Language and Literature courses without aims, objectives and content Courses

Objectives

Aims

Content

Language Literature Total

10 (27.0%) 24 (64.9%) 91.9%

0 (0.0%) 1 (2.7%) 2.7%

0 (0.0%) 7 (18.9%) 18.9%

(course content) in order to fulfil their aspirations. Only very few course designers, however, conceptualise and express clearly the learning outcomes. The reason for this has to do with the unconscious relegation of learners to the background when courses are being designed. Hence it seems that the focus in the learning process is still on the teacher, what he can do (delivery) and not on what he can help the students to do (outcomes) at the end of the teaching. Our findings also show that course designers seem to confuse aims and objectives as shown by the excerpts below. (1) A study of the Elizabethan or Jacobean poetry and drama as a significant literary and cultural expression of the age (E342, neither indicated as aim nor objective). (2) The course will instil in students a sense of the importance of place and time in contemporary fiction. (E424, indicated as objective). (3) Students will be expected to demonstrate familiarity with the major novelists and their contributions to the development of the genre an awareness of the characteristic features and concerns of the novel and an awareness of how these have evolved in response to diverse social and political pressures reflecting changes in attitudes towards man and nature and the growing attention to humanitarianism and the liberty of the individual (E422, indicated as objective). (4) The objective of the course is to make students conversant, first with the novel as a genre, secondly with African novel as a form of fiction embodying certain characteristics peculiar to itself and, thirdly with the major themes embodied in the African novel (E413, indicated as objective). (5) A detailed study of the English sound system and word formation processes. The course is a continuation of the following topics surveyed in E211 (E321, neither indicated as aim nor objective). (6) The course builds upon the material surveyed in E211… students are expected to gain a sound knowledge of English usage and be able to use it with increased facility (E311, neither indicated as aim nor objective). (7) A number of linguistic theories will be examined. The course aims at giving students an operational knowledge of these approaches (E421, neither indicated as aim nor objective). Even if we assume that the course designers merely set out to write aims, some of the examples (1 and 5) will have to be rewritten, while the others (2, 3 and 4) indicated as objectives are merely aims because the learning outcomes have been stated using verbs such as demonstrate familiarity, instil, inculcate, be aware and make student conversant that describe non-measurable behaviours or

Course Design and Testing in an English Programme

153

results. One of the problems that arises from the lack of a clear distinction between aims and objectives is the difficulty of assessing students using these rather abstract concepts. Learning objectives and evaluation Our analysis on the relationship between course objectives and tests show that tests are based on aims, what the lecturer has taught and not what the students are able to do, since objectives were not indicated in the majority of the courses in the first instance. A direct result of this is that many students may end up with ‘head knowledge’ of things taught, but are unable to apply this knowledge in real life situations or in the work environment. This confirms Orlich et al.’s (1985: 35) views that ‘students resort to memorisation and mechanical completion of exercises rather than to attempt more relevant learning activities’ when objectives are not indicated. For example, a student could respond brilliantly to a question on the functions of coordinators and subordinators, demonstrating what he knows mentally, but he is unable to write a coherent report in real life (as a news reporter) using subordinators and coordinators. Yet the twenty-first century work environment requires ‘skills of adaptation, flexibility, initiative and the ability to use knowledge creatively’ (Woods, 2002: 78). As noted in the literature, teachers should benefit from clearly articulated objectives, but this benefit is yet to be effectively utilised, as new members of staff in the department sometimes complain of not knowing how much of the syllabus to cover, or what exactly to focus on. This observation becomes more serious in courses where students are divided into groups and taught by a team of four or five lecturers. Closely related to this is the issue of consistency in presentation of content because without clearly defined instructional objectives, each teacher in the team is left to decide the depth of coverage for his group. From students we have heard complaints such as ‘I don’t know what we are doing in this course, I’m completely lost’. These comments, as vague as they may sound, cannot be dismissed, because the students may actually be unable to establish a relationship between what they are taught in class and the course outline, unless the expected outcomes are also specified

The Interviews Generally, every staff member interviewed agrees that directives in tests make different demands of the students. For example, all the respondents are agreed that a term like ‘examine’ demands in-depth critical analysis, ‘describe’ requires some superficial account of or representation while ‘discuss’ is more open ended and gives students a lot of freedom in terms of their responses. A majority (60%) of our respondents whether in Literature or Language prefers ‘discuss’ as a directive since it leaves open a wide range of options for the students and caters for all levels. Therefore, the choice of directive in examinations and tests is not a function of learners’ instructional objectives, but a function of teachers’ preferences. On the question of what determines the content of examination items, all the respondents indicated that they always refer to what they had taught and not the objectives of the course. Of particular importance are the two responses below (italics for emphasis).

154

New Language Bearings in Africa

Lecturer A: Meanings are in people not in the words. In certain types of tests, the most important thing is not the objective but what was taught. Lecturer B: Students’ attitudes determine their choice of directives because meanings are in people and not in words. These responses leave room for the assumption that the goal of teaching is neither to impart new skills in particular, nor to effect any change in students. Ultimately, therefore, students show no appreciable difference in their initial and final competencies and this situation is inimical to the learners and the society especially in an English programme that is designed mainly to produce teachers for the high schools. Another pertinent observation from the interview is the claim by some of the respondents that they actually have objectives for their courses but that these objectives are in their ‘subconscious’. Since these objectives are not documented, they are inaccessible to the learners and therefore not beneficial to them in terms of helping them navigate the courses with minimal difficulties. Arising from this is the fact that students in different groups who are taking the same course, but are taught by different lecturers, may end up with varied outcomes. Although the majority of our respondents is not comfortable with writing course outlines that define clearly the instructional objectives of each course, they are all agreed that this procedure offers both the learner and teacher tremendous benefits such as coordination and standardisation on the part of the teachers, and learning with ease on the part of the learners. This view is succinctly summarised by one of the respondents as follows: ‘I think that writing detailed course outline equips a new member of staff to function effectively and settle in the system with ease’.

Conclusion Our aim in this paper was to discuss the relationship between learning objectives and testing in the Department of English at the University of Botswana through an examination of some course outlines and past examination question papers in the department. A randomly selected sample of staff members was interviewed, using a structured interview schedule. Our findings show that the majority of courses does not have learning objectives and therefore examinations and tests are often designed on what the teacher has taught. Even though many staff members are not comfortable with writing course outlines which will indicate explicitly the learning or instructional objectives, they are supportive of a move in this direction, in view of the benefits that the procedure will offer to both learners and teachers. It is recommended that the Department of English at the University of Botswana update lecturers’ awareness of pedagogic principles that promote and facilitate learning especially in the university where learner-centred teaching is espoused, and where excellence is the watchword. Courses in the department also need to be evaluated on a regular basis to ensure continuous finetuning of broad aims to reflect instructional objectives. The commencement of the semester system makes it mandatory for lecturers to provide a compass that will direct the students through their learning. Experts in curriculum

Course Design and Testing in an English Programme

155

design from the Faculty of Education will readily provide necessary refresher courses to keep everyone abreast of pedagogic principles that will enhance learner autonomy and learner-centred teaching. We recognise the fact that texts especially in literature differ, just like language skills, and often require different treatment, in terms of objectives. This situation only gives the teacher an added advantage of bringing out the best in the students by specifying learning outcomes. The department will also benefit more from increased collaboration among lecturers particularly in the design and review of courses, as this will ensure that broad learning objectives are identified and clearly distinguished before specific course objectives are drawn up. It is important to mention that our inferences in this study have been drawn using one department in the university. Further research in this area will be more beneficial if more samples are drawn from across a broader spectrum of departments or universities. Such research could also involve classroom observations to provide first-hand information on actual classroom practice in this university or at other universities. Finally, the findings from this study should benefit other departments of English since many of them have comparable structures. Correspondence Any correspondence should be directed to Dr M.M. Alimi, Department of English, University of Botswana, Private Bag 0022, Gaborone, Botswana ([email protected]). References Beard, R.M., Healey, F.G. and Holloway, P.J. (1974) Objectives in Higher Education. London: Society for Research into Higher Education. Bloom, B.S., Hastings, J.J. and Madus, G.F. (1971) Handbook on Formative and Summative Evaluation of Student Learning. New York: McGraw Hill. Brown, H.D. (1994) Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall Regents. Davies, I.K. (1976) Objectives in Curriculum Development. Maidenhead: McGraw. Department of English (1998/1999) Handbook. Gaborone: University of Botswana. Diamond, R.M. (1998) Designing and Assessing Courses and Curricula: A Practical Guide. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. Dubin, F. and Olshtain, E. (1986) Course Design. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Duminy P.A. and Sohnge W.F. (1980) Didactics: Theory and Practice. Cape Town: Maskew Miller Longman. Education for Kagisano (1977) A Report of the National Commission on Education. Gaborone: Government of the Republic of Botswana. Eggen, P.D. and Kauchak, P.D. (1988) Strategies for Teachers: Teaching Content and Thinking Skills. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall. Lovell-Troy, L. and Eickmann, P. (1992) Course Design for College Teachers. Englewood Cliffs: Educational Technology Publications. Mager, R. (1962) Preparing Instructional Objectives for Programmed Instructions. San Francisco: Fearon. McAshan, H. (1974) The Goals Approach to Performance Objectives. Philadephia: Saunders. McCutcheon, G. (1980) How do elementary teachers plan their courses? Elementary School Journal 81, 4–23.

156

New Language Bearings in Africa

McNeil, J.D. (1976) Designing Curriculum. Boston: Little, Brown and Company Miller, A.H. (1987) Course Design for University Lecturers. London: Kegan Page Ltd. Orlich, D., Harder, R., Callahan, R., Kravas, C., Kauchak, D., Pendergrass, R. and Keogh, A. (1985) Teaching Strategies: A Guide to better Instruction. Massachusetts: D.C. Heath & Company. Presidential Task Force (1997) Long Term Vision for Botswana: Towards Prosperity for All. Gaborone: Government of the Republic of Botswana. National Commission on Education (1993) Report. Gaborone: Government of the Republic of Botswana. Rowntree, D. (1974) Educational Technology in Curriculum Development. London: Harper Row. Toohey, S. (1999) Designing Courses for Higher Education. The Society for Research into Higher Education. Milton Keynes: Open University Press. Weir C. and Roberts, J. (1994) Evaluation in ELT. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. Woods, P. (2002) Teaching and learning in the new millennium. In C. Sugrue and C. Day (eds) Developing Teachers and Teaching Practice. London: Routledge & Falmer.