Download or read book Paradigm Shift in Language Planning and Policy written by Ettien Koffi and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2012-01-27 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book proposes a paradigm shift in language planning and language policy in Africa. For the past fifty years, the dominant model has been the hegemonic model whereby a language of wider communication (LWC) is imposed on minority languages. It is now time for a paradigm shift in favor of a more egalitarian model in which all the languages spoken in the same country, irrespective of their size, are planned. The paradigm shift concerns four critical areas: status planning, cost-benefit planning, acquisition planning, and corpus planning. Such a shift is justified for the following reasons: First, the hegemonic model has a dismal track record of success in Africa and elsewhere. Second, the hegemonic model exacerbates linguistic conflicts in many countries. Consequently, policy makers shun it for fear of jeopardizing the fragile social fabric in their respective countries. Last, a shift away from the hegemonic model is recommended because it is too costly to implement. The "democratic model" is undergirded by the Strategic Game Theory proposed by David Laitin. It forecasts a 3±1 language outcome for most African countries. This outcome supports the "three language formula" now called for by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

Download or read book Paradigm Shift in Language Planning and Policy written by and published by . This book was released on with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book proposes a paradigm shift in language planning and language policy in Africa. The new democratic model for language planning has several assets over the traditional hegemonic language of wider communication (LWC) model: It does not endanger minority languages, nor does it endanger social cohesion in multilingual countries; it is less costly and makes literacy in the mother tongue marketable. The theory that undergirds the democratic model is the Strategic Game Theory.

Download or read book The Cambridge Handbook of Language Policy written by Bernard Spolsky and published by . This book was released on 2012-03 with total page 768 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first Handbook to deal with language policy as a whole and is a complete 'state-of-the-field' survey, covering language practices, beliefs about language varieties, and methods and agencies for language management. It will be welcomed by students, researchers and language professionals in linguistics, education and politics.

Download or read book Languages in Africa written by Elizabeth C. Zsiga and published by Georgetown University Press. This book was released on 2015-03-03 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: People in many African communities live within a series of concentric circles when it comes to language. In a small group, a speaker uses an often unwritten and endangered mother tongue that is rarely used in school. A national indigenous language—written, widespread, sometimes used in school—surrounds it. An international language like French or English, a vestige of colonialism, carries prestige, is used in higher education, and promises mobility—and yet it will not be well known by its users. The essays in Languages in Africa explore the layers of African multilingualism as they affect language policy and education. Through case studies ranging across the continent, the contributors consider multilingualism in the classroom as well as in domains ranging from music and film to politics and figurative language. The contributors report on the widespread devaluing and even death of indigenous languages. They also investigate how poor teacher training leads to language-related failures in education. At the same time, they demonstrate that education in a mother tongue can work, linguists can use their expertise to provoke changes in language policies, and linguistic creativity thrives in these multilingual communities.

Download or read book Language Policy and Economics The Language Question in Africa written by Nkonko M. Kamwangamalu and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-04-23 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book addresses the perennial question of how to promote Africa’s indigenous languages as medium of instruction in educational systems. Breaking with the traditional approach to the continent’s language question by focusing on the often overlooked issue of the link between African languages and economic development, Language Policy and Economics argues that African languages are an integral part of a nation’s socio-political and economic development. Therefore, the book argues that any language policy designed to promote these languages in such higher domains as the educational system in particular must have economic advantages if the intent is to succeed, and proposes Prestige Planning as the way to address this issue. The proposition is a welcome break away from language policies which pay lip-service to the empowerment of African languages while, by default, strengthening the stranglehold of imported European languages.

Download or read book Language Nations and Multilingualism written by Ying-Ying Tan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-12-30 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Language, Nations, and Multilingualism explores the legacy of Herder’s ideas about the relationship between language and nationalism in the post-colonial world. Focusing on how anti-colonial and post-colonial nations reconcile their myriad multilingualisms with the Herderian model of one language-one nation, it shows how Herder’s model is both attractive and problematic for such nations. Why then does the Herderian model have such valency? How has the Herderian ideal of one nation-one language continued to survive beneath the uncomfortable resolution struck by new multilingual nations as they create fictions of a singular national mother tongue? To what extent is Herder still relevant in our contemporary world? How have different nations negotiated the Herderian ideal in different ways? What does the way in which multilingual post-colonial nations deal with this crisis tell us about a possible alternative framework for understanding the relationship between language and nation? By approaching this investigation from diverse archives across Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean, Language, Nations, and Multilingualism proposes answers to the aforementioned questions from a global perspective that takes into account the specificities of a range of colonial experiences and political regimes. And by extending the discussion backwards in time to offer a more historical reading of the making of modern nations, it allows us to see how multilingualism has always disrupted constructions of monoglot nations.

Download or read book Giving Space to African Voices written by Zehlia Babaci-Wilhite and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-08-07 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book sets out to bring voices of the South to the debate on localization of education and makes the case that it should be considered a right in education. Despite all the scientifically-based evidence on the improved quality of education through the use of a local language and local knowledge, English as a language of instruction and “Western” knowledge based curriculum continue to be used at all educational levels in many developing nations. This means that in many African countries, the goal of rights to education is becoming increasingly remote, let alone that of rights in education. With this understanding and with the awareness of the education challenges of millions of children throughout Africa, the authors argue that local curriculum through local languages needs to be valued and to be preserved, and that children need to be prepared for the world in a language that promotes understanding. The authors make a clear case that policy makers are in a position to work towards a quality education for all as part of a more comprehensive right-based approach. We owe it to the children of the South to offer the best quality education possible in order to achieve social justice.

Download or read book Intersections in Language Planning and Policy written by Jean Fornasiero and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-09-28 with total page 539 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume encompasses the range of issues encountered by language scholars who teach and research in departments of languages and cultures within the higher education system, predominantly in Australia, but touching other universities worldwide. Related studies on language planning, methodology or pedagogy have focused on one or more of these same issues, but rarely on their totality. Intersections as a metaphor running discreetly through the essays in this volume, connects them all to a lived reality. The field of languages and cultures, as it is practised and reflected upon in Australian universities, is essentially an interdisciplinary and interconnecting space - one in which linguistic and disciplinary diversities meet and join forces, rather than collide or disperse along different pathways. The international and local studies featured here focus on language planning, new pedagogies and language reclamation and link to meeting points and commonalities. They show that language scholars are increasingly finding themselves on common ground as they tackle issues of policy and practice affecting their field, whether within their institutions, within the tertiary system, or within the framework of government policy.

Download or read book The Palgrave Handbook of Minority Languages and Communities written by Gabrielle Hogan-Brun and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-12-11 with total page 614 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Handbook is an in-depth appraisal of the field of minority languages and communities today. It presents a wide-ranging, coherent picture of the main topics, with key contributions from international specialists in sociolinguistics, policy studies, sociology, anthropology and law. Individual chapters are grouped together in themes, covering regional, non-territorial and migratory language settings across the world. It is the essential reference work for specialist researchers, scholars in ancillary disciplines, research and coursework students, public agencies and anyone interested in language diversity, multilingualism and migration.

Download or read book Re thinking Postcolonial Education in Sub Saharan Africa in the 21st Century written by Edward Shizha and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-04-17 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What have postcolonial Sub-Saharan African countries achieved in their education policies and programmes? How far have they contributed to successful attainment of the targeted 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on education? What were the constraints and barriers for developing an education system that appeals to the needs of the sub-region? Re-thinking Postcolonial Education in Sub-Saharan Africa in the 21st Century: Post-Millennium Development Goals is an attempt to demonstrate that Sub-Saharan Africa has the potential and capability to provide solutions to challenges facing its desire and ability to provide sustainable education to its people. To that end, the contributors are academics with an African vision attempting to come up with African home-grown perspectives to fill the gap created by the lapse of the MDGs as the guiding vision and framework for educational provision in Africa and beyond. The book seeks to articulate and address African issues from an informed as well as objective African perspective. The book is also intended to provide insights to scholars who are interested in studying and understanding the nature of postcolonial education in the Sub-Saharan African region. Given the objectives and themes of this book, it is intended for academic scholars, undergraduate and graduate students, human rights scholars, curriculum developers, college and university academics, teachers, education policy makers, international organisations, and local and international non-governmental organisations that are interested in African education policies and programmes. “Rethinking Postcolonial Education in Sub-Saharan Africa in the 21st Century provides contemporary reflections from multiple perspectives and re-positions the issue of education at the forefront of the debates on African development.” – Lamine Diallo, Associate Professor, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada “The book is a welcome addition to discourses and analyses on education in sub-Saharan Africa with reference to a postcolonial critique and the Millennium Development Goals framework on education in Africa.” – Michael Tonderai Kariwo, PhD, Instructor and Research Fellow, University of Alberta, Canada

Download or read book Sociolinguistics in African Contexts written by Augustin Emmanuel Ebongue and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-05-11 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume offers a new perspective on sociolinguistics in Africa. Eschewing the traditional approach which looks at the interaction between European and African languages in the wake of colonialism, this book turns its focus to the social dynamics of African languages and African societies. Divided into two sections, the book offers insight into the crucial topics such as: language vitality and endangerment, the birth of ‘new languages’, a sociolinguistics of the city, language contact and language politics. It spans the continent from Algeria to South Africa, Guinea-Bissau to Kenya and addresses the following broad themes: Language variation, contact and changeThe dynamics of urban, rural and youth languagesPolicy and practice This book provides an alternative to the Eurocentric view of sociolinguistic dynamics in Africa, and will make an ideal read or supplemental textbook for scholars and students in the field/disciplines of African languages and linguistics, and those interested in southern theory or ‘sociolinguistics in the margins’.

Download or read book The Languages and Linguistics of Africa written by Tom Güldemann and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2018-09-10 with total page 1034 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This innovative handbook takes a fresh look at the currently underestimated linguistic diversity of Africa, the continent with the largest number of languages in the world. It covers the major domains of linguistics, offering both a representative picture of Africa’s linguistic landscape as well as new and at times unconventional perspectives. The focus is not so much on exhaustiveness as on the fruitful relationship between African and general linguistics and the contributions the two domains can make to each other. This volume is thus intended for readers with a specific interest in African languages and also for students and scholars within the greater discipline of linguistics.

Download or read book The Routledge Handbook of African Linguistics written by Augustine Agwuele and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-03-09 with total page 647 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Handbook of African Linguistics provides a holistic coverage of the key themes, subfields, approaches and practical application to the vast areas subsumable under African linguistics that will serve researchers working across the wide continuum in the field. Established and emerging scholars of African languages who are active and current in their fields are brought together, each making use of data from a linguistic group in Africa to explicate a chosen theme within their area of expertise, and illustrate the practice of the discipline in the continent.

Download or read book Vernaculars in the Classroom written by Shondel Nero and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-06-20 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book draws on applied linguistics and literary studies to offer concrete means of engaging with vernacular language and literature in secondary and college classrooms. The authors embrace a language-as-resource orientation, countering the popular narrative of vernaculars as problems in schools. The book is divided into two parts, with the first half of the book providing linguistic and pedagogical background, and the second half offering literary case studies for teaching. Part I examines the historical and continued devaluing of vernaculars in schools, incorporating clear, usable explanations of relevant theories. This section also outlines the central myths and paradoxes surrounding vernacular languages and literatures, includes productive ways for teachers to address those myths and paradoxes, and explores challenges and possibilities for vernacular language pedagogy. In Part II, the authors provide pedagogical case studies using literary texts written in vernacular Englishes from around the world. Each chapter examines a vernacular-related topic, and concludes with discussion questions and writing assignments; an appendix contains the poems and short stories discussed, and other teaching resources. The book provides a model of interdisciplinary inquiry that can be beneficial to scholars and practitioners in composition, literature, and applied linguistics, as well as students of all linguistic backgrounds.

Download or read book Policy and Planning for Endangered Languages written by Mari C. Jones and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-08-07 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collaborative work written by academics working in the field of language endangerment and members of indigenous communities acting on the frontline of language support and maintenance, this volume offers a unique perspective on how the development and implementation of language policy and planning impact on endangered languages.

Download or read book The Routledge Handbook of Sociolinguistics Around the World written by Martin J. Ball and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-07-28 with total page 992 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on examples from a wide range of languages and social settings, The Routledge Handbook of Sociolinguistics Around the World was originally the first single-volume collection surveying the current research trends in international sociolinguistics. This new edition has been comprehensively updated and significantly expanded, and now includes more than 50 chapters written by leading authorities and a brand-new substantial introduction by John Edwards. Coverage has been expanded regionally and there is a critical focus on Indigenous languages. This handbook remains a key tool to help widen the perspective on sociolinguistics to readers interested in the field. Divided into sections covering the Americas, Asia, Australasia, Africa, and Europe, the book provides readers with a solid, up-to-date appreciation of the interdisciplinary nature of the field of sociolinguistics in each area. It clearly explains the patterns and systematicity that underlie language variation in use, along with the ways in which alternations between different language varieties mark personal style, social power, and national identity. The Routledge Handbook of Sociolinguistics Around the World is the ideal resource for all students in undergraduate sociolinguistics courses and for researchers involved in the study of language, society, and power.

Download or read book Reconceptualising Power in Language Policy written by Abhimanyu Sharma and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-08-12 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book aims to expand the theoretical framework of and counter the Eurocentric narratives in language policy research, by comparing policies of EU and India and demonstrating the importance of taking a comparative perspective while studying language policies. This book challenges the notion of macro-level power in language policy research and offers evidence that, in democratic frameworks, macro-level power is not absolute. It is not uniform across policy domains, but rather susceptible to pressure, especially in the domains of healthcare and social welfare. This book makes three important contributions to the theory of language policy by: Arguing for the need to reconceptualise macro-level power Proposing ‘Categories of Differentiation’ as a new analytical tool for policy research Demonstrating that socio-political changes are reflected at the textual level This book is of interest to researchers working on language policies and those investigating language related legislation across different policy domains, to practitioners and policymakers in language policy, as well as to graduate students conducting comparative policy research. “This is a much valued and timely book making a strong case for the subject of language policy across Europe and India. The large comparative case studies of four distinctive states across Europe and India in a simple descriptive mode makes the reading of this book enjoyable. The domains of administration, legislation, healthcare and social welfare are undoubtedly novel ways to deal within the concept of language policy in a wider sense. The author uses discourse analysis to bring out the relationship between intention, explanation and interpretation of a phenomenon like language policy and its implementation. The social diversity as expressed in linguistic mapping is well captured in the novel idea of “categories of differentiation” both as a normative methodological tool and its historical-empirical manifestation.” — Asha Sarangi, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.