Carol Benson

• PhD
• Researcher at MLE International

The purpose of this paper is to highlight how the concepts of transfer and transition differently influence the way language-in-education policies are developed and enacted. We are particularly concerned with multilingual countries and contexts of the Global South, but we would argue that the language-in-education policy implications are similar ar...

Based on our impression of a tremendous increase in research in L1-based multilingual education (MLE) worldwide in recent years, our small team of multilingual, multicultural researchers began a stocktaking project in 2017. Our aim was to create an open-access, searchable database of annotated references to research on policy and practice in the fi...

This chapter analyses research and practice in multilingual education (MLE) based on the learner’s home language (L1). It begins with a look back at experimentation in MLE in Guinea-Bissau, where many of the issues I discussed in my early research in West Africa (Benson, 1994) have proved to be salient in other multilingual contexts. Even up to the...

So far, language has largely been relegated to the periphery of development decision making spaces; this absence of language in development discourse has constituted a significant obstacle to progress. This volume provides an opportunity for stakeholders from different disciplines to reflect on the relationships between language and development in...

The three dialectal varieties of Arabic in the Lake Chad Basin (border Arabic, rural Arabic and popular urban Arabic) form a lingua franca called Kalam Arabic. Reduced to the simple status of ‘Shuwa’ or ‘Chadian’ Arabic by linguists, in fact Kalam Arabic has a regional role to play in mastering the Quran and is a driving force for intercommunity ha...

This paper describes an innovative bilingual education program developed and implemented in 208 primary classes in Senegal from 2009 to 2018 by a Senegalese NGO working with the national Ministry of Education to address issues of quality in primary education. L’approche simultanée or simultaneous approach, also known as bilinguisme en temps réel or...

Target 4.1 of the Sustainable Development Goals calls for all 193 signatory countries, by 2030, to ‘ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes’, and Target 4.5 extends that mandate to ‘eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equ...

This introductory article presents the theme of this special issue-policy and practice in multilingual education with a focus on non-dominant languages-and delves into current issues in policy and practice as we see them, referencing the seven high-quality articles that have been contributed along with other work in the field. Consistent with the a...

Multilingual education (MLE) is paramount in providing educational access and social equity to ethnolinguistic minority populations. This has been long recognized since UNESCO’s classic statement that it is “axiomatic” for children to learn in their own languages. Undertaking research in the Ratanak Kiri province of Cambodia, this book chapter aims...

Despite the essential role of local, regional, national and international languages in human development, there is little reference to language planning in development aid discourse. Beginning with definitions of development aid and language planning, the paper examines how the two were linked in pre- and post-colonial times, showing how language p...

This paper discusses the contributions to this special issue in the context of the African Renaissance and the subsequent need to re-define educational development from a multilingual, multicultural and pan-African perspective. Each contribution offers a different angle to the discussion: a critique of Arabization in Morocco, with questions about w...

This article presents the current state of ongoing research on policy development and implementation of first language-based multilingual education in five northeastern provinces of Cambodia that are home to significant ethnolinguistic minority populations. This research, supported by CARE Cambodia in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Y...

Both humanist and quality concerns should have made language of instruction a priority in educational development, yet there has been no clear trajectory. This study explores whether the advantages of L1-based approaches as documented in the scholarly literature have been reflected in the development discourse over time, based on an analysis of all...

this document is intended to serve as a summary of key research findings and best practices relevant to USAID’s and other stakeholders’ programming efforts with respect to language use in education, and as a resource for putting the evidence and lessons learned into practice. The guidance is based on information assembled from a review of findings...

The guide is organized into the following sections: • Section 1: Rationale for more effective language planning in education presents an overview of the advantages and benefits—at the learner, education system, and community levels—associated with appropriate use of language for education provision. It includes a particular focus on the advantages...

This chapter compares and contrasts research, policy and practice from low-income multilingual countries of the South with findings from bi- and multilingual regions of the North. The focus is on the essential role of non-dominant languages in teaching and learning, and opening our eyes to the monolingual habitus in our perspectives. Terms and conc...

This chapter explores how educational approaches in low-income multilingual countries are pervaded by a monolingual habitus, or set of assumptions built on the fundamental myth of uniformity of language and culture. This habitus is evidenced in transitional bilingual approaches and unrealistic expectations for native-like proficiency in second or f...

This entry describes contexts calling for multilingual schools, presents agreed principles of language and literacy learning, discusses international approaches to developing appropriate curricula, and indicates new directions in the field.

Early literacy, relevant content learning and effective classroom communication is necessary for education to make a difference in marginalized children's lives. Teaching in the learner's home language has the potential to make schools more inclusive and participatory, and will go a long way to attracting children to school, keeping them in school,...

This article describes how 16 Mozambican languages—and counting—have been brought into primary education in Mozambique through a 2002 curriculum reform, and how they are faring in light of tensions between general aspirations for dominant languages and public demand for bilingual education. Bilingual education based on learners' home languages, as...

This paper illustrates how a methodological tool called ‘drawing-voice’ can be used to demonstrate qualitatively what statistical and policy data are not able to reveal regarding the educational realities of Hmong minority communities in northern Vietnam, particularly with regard to the role of local language and culture in school. This paper descr...

Guinea-Conakry, West Africa, was one of the only countries of sub-Saharan Africa to reject the colonial language along with colonial rule, at least in basic education. Under its first president, Sékou Touré, Guinea adopted eight major national languages as media of instruction for primary and middle school levels. Language emancipation through educ...

A strong case can be made for developing more flexible and relevant multilingual strategies for teaching and learning within the field of bilingual education. This paper aims to demonstrate how current linguistic and educational practices in countries like Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and Ethiopia suggest new directions for research and practice. A pr...

This article describes a South Africa-based training programme in multilingual education for African educators and assesses its potentially transformative effects on participants. Based on a range of data collected during four course runs, as well as an e-mail survey of past participants, the authors explore how the programme has supported educator...

Terms and (Re)DefinitionsInternational Policy and Research Supporting Indigenous and Vernacular LiteraciesWhy Monolingualism and Monoliteracy?Moving Beyond Monoliteracy?

One of the principal mechanisms through which inequality is reproduced is language, specifically the language used as the medium of instruction. The learner’s mother tongue holds the key to making schooling more inclusive for all disadvantaged groups, especially for girls and women.

Given the unique character of bilingual students and the programmes that support them, primary bilingual teaching is a challenging job in any country. However, bilingual teachers in developing contexts are especially challenged; they are often undertrained and underpaid, and must function in under-resourced schools with undernourished students. Mea...

Given the unique character of bilingual students and the programmes that support them, primary bilingual teaching is a challenging job in any country. However, bilingual teachers in developing contexts are especially challenged; they are often undertrained and underpaid, and must function in under-resourced schools with undernourished students. Mea...

While there is renewed interest in bilingual schooling in developing countries, many systems have found it difficult to move from the experimental phase to more generalized implementation. Highlighting educational development in the cases of Mozambique and Bolivia, while also providing examples from other countries in which the author has worked,th...

This paper argues that bilingual education in developing countries represents an encouraging facet of efforts to improve primary schooling both quantitatively in terms of participation and qualitatively in terms of learning processes. Public education in many multilingual nations still involves submersion in the ex-colonial language, which results...

The recent experiment in bilingual education in Mozambique known as PEBIMO, which utilised two different Bantu languages in transitional programmes for lower primary schooling, offered an alternative to exclusive instruction in Portuguese, which is a foreign language for approximately 98 percent of Mozambicans. Evaluations done during the final two...

The PEBIMO project was designed to determine whether bilingual education could improve the quality of primary education in Mozambique, recognizing that Portuguese is not the native language of the majority of Mozambican students. The project began in 1992 with 8 cohorts of first grade in 2 provinces; during this investigation, students were in four...

Translation and adaptation of the original document written in Portuguese, submitted in May 1997 to the National Institute for Eductional Development (INDE) in Maputo, Mozambique. Incl. bibl.