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Language Policy, Literacy, and Minority Languages
Review of Policy Research
Abstract
This paper surveys the development of language policy over the last 40 or more years, particularly with respect to linguistic minorities and the attendant problems of illiteracy and lack of access to basic education among these groups. While there are discernible, emerging trends in the area of language policy, we make considerable effort to point out that the evolution of such policy in the past has often been the product of an unpredictable confluence of national and international politics, economics (at all levels), social, cultural, and religious differences, intrigue, historical accident, human perversity, and serendipitous circumstances. Copyright 1994 by The Policy Studies Organization.
... Adegbija's (2001) work on the 50,000 strong Oko community is one of the most known studies in sub-Saharan Africa, yet there are hundreds of minority language groups whose stake in the geopolitical federation they belong to is probably more tenuous than the Oko's for the simple reason that they are not aligned or closely linked to a majority ethnolinguistic group like the Oko are to the Yoruba in Nigeria (cf. Walter and Ringenberg 2007). Another aspect of the sociolinguistics of colonisation is down to accessing English through missionary texts with the result that early users of English exhibited an ethnoreligious flavour. ...
In this chapter I want to propose an alternative paradigm for understanding the dynamics of multilingualism, language competition and politics in the complex sociolinguistic terrain of sub-Saharan Africa. Particularly for the purpose of explaining language shift, it is important to note that African states had fought wars of expansion and taken vassal states in a 'colonial' era before European colonialists arrived in the region.
L'ecole communautaire a deux avantages : elle permet d'augmenter les populations touchees par l'enseignement primaire malgre les restrictions budgetaires gouvernementales ; le transfert des responsabilites a un niveau local est un facteur de democratisation. Dans le cas du Mali, l'ecole gouvernementale se trouvant souvent en ville, les parents habitant les villages hesitent a y envoyer leurs enfants, les ecoles communautaires se sont donc developpees grâce a des fonds prives internationaux comme l'Organisation non gouvernementale americaine Save the children. L'evaluation de la qualite de l'enseignement dans ce contexte devient plus complexe puisque deux sortes de mesures doivent etre prises en compte : 1) les objectifs specifiques de l'ecole communautaire (Entretiens dans les foyers et test de connaissances utilisees par les enfants dans la vie locale) ; 2) les performances scolaires (test en lecture et en mathematiques) et l'efficacite interne de l'ecole (effectifs, abandons, redoublements, echecs et absences). Le site de Kolondieba a ete choisi pour l'evaluation de la qualite scolaire rapportee ici.
Un poco más de un tercio de los peruanos habla una lengua indígena. Sin embargo, las distintas políticas educativas han ignorado este hecho. Recién durante la década de los setenta se dieron algunos pasos hacia una educación bilingüe. En 1987 se crea la Dirección General de Educación Bilingüe (DICEBIL) para trabajar hacia una nueva orientación en la educación, bilingüe e intercultural, dirigida a los pcoplcs que hablan un lenguaje nativo y tienen una cultura nativa. Este modelo se está poniendo en práctica principalmente a nivel primario
Aunque a menudo se califica al Perú como un país multilingüe y pluricultural, la situación real muestra que, en general, esta es una frase vacía. La discriminación étnico-cultural es especialmente notoria en el campo de la educación escolar. La enseñanza oficial realmente no considera más de una lengua materna, el español. Las otras lenguas maternas se dejan de lado constantemente y sus hablantes reciben compulsivamente su educación inicial en español. Del mismo modo, las tradiciones culturales de las minorías lingüísticas no se integran en el proceso educativo, sino que se rechazan.
La participación del Instituto Lingüístico de Verano (ILV) en la educación bilingüe en la Amazonía Peruana ha tenido siempre el carácter de un esfuerzo mancomunado con el Ministerio de Educación. El primer convenio entre dicho ministerio y el ILV, firmado en 1945, comprometía a las dos entidades signatarias a "desarrollar un programa de cooperación para la investigación de las lenguas indígenas de la República" (Convenio Ministerio de Educación/Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, 1945). Desde ese entonces, el ILV ha continuado colaborando con diferentes gobiernos en lo que se refiere a la investigación lingüística, la implementación de programas educativos y la revaloración de las lenguas y las culturas indígenas.
Tanzania’s national literacy campaign merits the attention of both scholars and practitioners of adult education. On the one hand, as indicated in the overview section of this chapter, it is a special case among literacy efforts in the Third World nations: Tanzania’s leadership and adult educators have succeeded in mobilizing and sustaining a very large-scale campaign for nearly fifteen years; as a result, Tanzania now has one of the highest literacy rates in Africa, and its campaign has often been suggested as a model for other underdeveloped nations. On the other hand, as indicated in the subsequent section on the campaign’s impact, the Tanzanian case is perhaps typical of many other Third World nations: little is really known about the outcomes at the level of the individual, and even less is known about the level of general national development. I argue that more complete impact assessments cannot be made without an understanding of the structural relations of production and power in the Third World and in the relations between the Third World and the First World. As these relations are the product of history, the final sections of the chapter trace the origins and development of Tanzania’s national literacy campaign within this historical-structural context. The result is a series of working conclusions, subject to further refinement as subsequent research pursues their implications.
[Book Review of]: Peter J. Wilson's "The Domestication of the Human Species". Yale University Press, 1989. xvi + 201 pp., references, index.
From the review:
"Wilson’s insightful and engaging volume poses the question: What are the social consequences of sedentary life? The trail of discussion down which this question leads him and down which he in turn leads the reader is both fascinating and productive. . . . Wilson’s study is both concise and far-reaching and will provide an important new stimulus to anthropologists interested in the origins and evolution of houses and house-life and their implications for the understanding of human society."
—Michael Blake, Anthropologica
The Mayans of Guatemala, who outnumber the Spanish of that country, have maintained their distinct linguistic and cultural identity despite more than four centuries of Spanish domination. Recognising the ineffectiveness of trying to assimilate these Mayan Indians, the Government of Guatemala and, in particular, the Ministry of Education initiated an experimental bilingual curriculum for the first three years of school which it hoped would be more relevant to the Mayans and therefore encourage them to greater participation in the public education offered them. This paper describes the process of developing the bilingual curriculum for Guatemala's four largest Mayan language groups. It includes a discussion of the results and the direction bilingual education is taking today among the Mayans of Guatemala.
Encouragement de l'Etat du Kenya, par des financements a l'essor de l'enseignement « Harambee », symbole d'une autoresponsabilite et d'un developpement plus actif meme si la qualite de l'enseignement reste en deca de celle des ecoles officielles
This paper discusses the question of whether, in a multilingual society, the child's first or second language is best as a language of instruction in primary school. Reviewing eight case studies from seven countries in which initial primary schooling was given either in the second or first language, the discussion compares achievement in reading and language in both languages and describes achievement in content subjects, especially arithmetic. Case studies from the Philippines, Ireland, and Canada report the use of a second language as the language of instruction, while studies from Mexico, Nigeria, Sweden, and the United States report use of the first language. It is concluded that, depending on the interrelated characteristics of each situation, answers must be found on a case-by-case basis. Such characteristics include the linguistic and cognitive development of the child in his or her first language, the attitudes of parents toward the language chosen for the school, and the status of the languages in the wider community. In terms of these characteristics, situations are described in which the best choice for initial instruction might be either the child's first or second language. These descriptions are followed by a discussion of issues raised in a paper (1980) devoted to education sector policy and by a series of recommendations for World Bank staff. (Author/RH)
Discusses the changing views amongst anthropologists and social scientists on the nature of hierarchies and so-called egalitarian societies. Reviews work by leading anthropologists in the field, calling into question prevailing notions about the hierarchical, the egalitarian and the simple, maintaining that few, if any, societies are without some form of domination. Is particularly concerned with gender relations, age hierarchy and interpersonal politics. -M.Amos
Typescript. Thesis (Ed. D.)--Florida State University. Includes bibliographical references. Microfilm. s
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Language in Tanzania
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The development of language policy in Kenya with particular reference to the educational system
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Challenge of Uhuru: The progress of Kenya, 2968 to 1970
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Bilingual education curriculum development in Guatemala Report on adult literacy programmes in Tanzania. Language and media supports for non-formal adult basic education
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La discriminacih ethno-cultural en la escuela Peruana. Amazonia Peruana, 9(18), I X , 9-28
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Tanzania's literacy campaign in historical-structural perspective National literacy campaigns: Historical and comparative perspectives (pp. 219-244) Educaci6n biling6e en el Per6: Una perspectiva
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Literacy in an emergent society: Papua New Guinea . A paper presented to the International Literacy Year Colloquium
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Peoplesfile index, 2986 edition
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Filipino values: Towards a new interpretation(Using local language as a resource)
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The future of literacy and literacies of the future. Literacy lessons (International Literacy Year UNESCO document)
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El nirio guahibo y la educacion bilingue
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Bilingual education: An experience in Peruvian Amazonia
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Orthographies, language planning and politics: Reflections of an SIL literacy muse. Notes On Literacy Sector review
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First language component: A brief summary
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Three types of cultural systems
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Cognitive development and literacy in Papua New Guinea: A study of the appropriateness of the Gudschinsky method for teaching young children to read
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Stringer, M. D. (1983). Cognitive development and literacy in Papua New Guinea: A study of the appropriateness of the Gudschinsky method for teaching young children to read. (Master's thesis, Macquarie University, Sidney, Australia). Notes on Literacy, 28(2), 53.
Literacy in revolution and reform: Experiences in the SADCC region of Southern Africa . A paper
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Indigenous languages and their major dialects: Criteria and applications to the Guatemalan context. A report to The Commission for Indigenous Communities of the Congress of the Republic of Guatemala
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Peruvian bilingual education; evaluation report. Hull Quebec :Canadian International Development Agency
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and reprinted with permission in Technical Memo #154
- Robert Beaugrande