Book: Encyclopedia of Language and Education

Encyclopedia of Language and Education

Published: 2007,  Springer  http://www.springer.com

 <http://www.springer.com/> 
Editor: Nancy H. Hornberger


Abstract:


*The Encyclopedia is a necessary reference set for every university

 and college library in the world that serves a faculty or school of

 education.


*The Encyclopedia has more than 250 contributors drawn from numerous

countries. Its reviews present information and authoritative insights

 that are relevant to every country and to every language.


*Each volume contains about 20-30 reviews. For some topics, teams of

contributors have worked to produce a single review.


*Each state-of-the-art review has about 4000 words of text and

 follows a similar structure.


*Most contributors give coverage of early developments in their

 topic, major contributions, work in progress, problems and difficulties, and

future directions


*The aim of the reviews is to give readers access to the

 international literature and research on each topic.


*The text of each review is followed by a reference list containing

 about 30 key references mentioned in the text.


This Encyclopedia is a necessary reference set for every university

 and college library in the world that serves a faculty or school of

 education.



The Encyclopedia aims to speak to a prospective readership that is

multinational, and to do so as unambiguously as possible. Because

 each book-size volume deals with a discrete and important subject in

 language and education, these state-of-the-art volumes also offer highly

authoritative course textbooks in the areas suggested by their titles.


The more than 250 scholars contributing to the Encyclopedia hail from

 all continents of our globe and from 41 countries; they represent a great

diversity of linguistic, cultural, and disciplinary traditions. For all

that, what is most impressive about the contributions gathered here is the

unity of purpose and outlook they express with regard to the central

 role of language as both vehicle and mediator of educational processes and

 to the need for continued and deepening research into the limits and

possibilities that implies.


http://linguistlist.org/issues/19/19-168.html

2008, International Year of Languages - Languages matter!

Posted by sociolingo on January 4, 2008

Source: UNESCO

2008, International Year of Languages

Languages matter !

On 16 May 2007, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 2008 to be the International Year of Languages. As language issues are central to UNESCO’s mandate in education, science, social and human sciences, culture, and communication and information, the Organization has been named the lead agency for this event.

To celebrate the International Year of Languages, UNESCO invites governments, United Nations organizations, civil society organizations, educational institutions, professional associations and all other stakeholders to increase their own activities to promote and protect all languages, particularly endangered languages, in all individual and collective contexts.

To facilitate partnership and monitoring, a communication tools kit is available, as well as a list of possible action fields and a list of the projects currently undertaken in the framework of the International Year of Languages. To submit your project to the list, please fill in the project outline form.

Nigeria: Teaching in mother tongue

Source: http://www.vanguardngr.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4260&Itemid=0
Written by Adekunle Aliyu

Thursday, 10 January 2008

The National Policy on Education (NPE) affirmed that Government
recognises the importance of language as means of promoting social
interaction, national cohesion and preserving our cultures. This
policy endorsed the need for every child to learn the language of the
immediate environment. Furthermore, in the interest of national
unity, it is expedient that every child shall be required to learn
one of the three major Nigerian languages - Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. Ever
since, not so much impetus was given to the policy which requires
Nigerian children to learn one of those three languages. It is not
surprising that many children and even adults can not speak any of
the
indigeneous languages including their mother tongue.

When children can not speak their native language in the first place,
how then can they learn and study in school with the mother tongue?
The challenge of teaching in mother tongue may remain unattainable
unless Nigeria’s education system is decolonised with English
language
de-emphasised gradually and systematically. But English is still the
official language of this country – a colonial heritage that may not
perish. In a society of language multiplicity, it would be difficult
to build a consensus for an all-embracing national language. Apart
from the three main languages of Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba, there are
over 300 linguistic dialects and mother tongues.

Ethnic loyalty and nationality won’t give way for adoption of any of
these languages as the national tongue or lingua franca. Regarded as
the exponent and father of mother tongue initiative, Professor
Babatunde Aliyu Fafunwa, a former Minister of Education attributed
the
continued retention of English as our official language to colonial
mentality.

He stated:

“Teaching can be done in Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Nupe, Itsekiri, I
pioneered it in science at Nsukka. I got the proceedings of a
conference translated into Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa. I believe everyone
can learn in their own native language.” Revealing an experiment he
made to know the acceptability of mother tongue for teaching, the
renowned educationist said pupils preferred to learn in their own
language instead of English, as they can express themselves better in
their mother tongue. Children should be given early education in
mother tongue, because investigation has shown that it will last long
er in their cognitive domain than any alien tongue.

The United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organisation
(UNESCO) after assessing the use of the child’s native language in
teaching and found it successful, recommended the approach. Children
will excel more when taught in local language. Fafunwa believes
science and mathematics can be taught in Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa or any
other indigenous language. He has published books on science and
mathematics in Yoruba for primary education which have been
translated
into Igbo, Nupe, etc. Fafunwa faulted those who argued that Yoruba or
other native languages have no numerals, nor scientific terms, words
of formula.

“English used Arabic numerals. If English can borrow, we also can
borrow. There are a number of ways to treat a language: borrow,
convert, invent, add.” All great, highly developed countries in the
world speak their own languages, including the newly emerging
economic
and industrial powers of South East Asia, even though they were
colonised by Britain. The time has come for Nigeria to shrug off
Colonial mentality by discarding English and develop a national
indigenous language out of the motley of native tongues in the
country. This may not be easy due to our cultural, ethnic and
linguistic diversity. But the nation can start thinking about it,
especially in using mother tongue to teach pupils in primary
education. The Lagos State Hoiuse of Assembly is setting the pace by
adopting Yoruba as official language in conducting proceedings.

The Language Question in Cameroon

Source:Linguistik online 18, 1/04

The Language Question in Cameroon

George Echu (Yaounde/Bloomington)

Abstract

In multilingual Cameroon, 247 indigenous languages live side by side with English and French (the two official languages) and Cameroon Pidgin English (the main lingua franca). While the two official languages of colonial heritage dominate public life in the areas of education, administration, politics, mass media, publicity and literature, both the indigenous languages and Cameroon Pidgin English are relegated to the background.

This paper is a critique of language policy in Cameroon revealing that mother tongue education in the early years of primary education remains a distant cry, as the possible introduction of an indigenous language in the school system is not only considered unwanted by educational authorities but equally combated against by parents who believe that the future of their children lies in the mastery of the official languages. This persistent disregard of indigenous languages does not only alienate the Cameroonian child culturally, but further alienates the vast majority of Cameroonians who are illiterate (in English and French) since important State business is carried out in the official languages. As regards the implementation of the policy of official language bilingualism, there is clear imbalance in the use of the two official languages as French continues to be the dominant official language while English is relegated to a second place within the State. The frustration that ensues within the Anglophone community has led in recent years to the birth of Anglophone nationalism, a situation that seems to be widening the rift between the two main components of the society (Anglophones and Francophones), thereby compromising national unity.

The paper is divided into five major parts. After a brief presentation of the country, the author dwells on multilingualism and language policy since the colonial period. The third, fourth and last parts of the paper focus on the critique of language policy in Cameroon with emphasis first on the policy of official language bilingualism and bilingual education, then on the place of indigenous languages, and finally on the national language debate.

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full text

Cameroon: Orthography and Identity

Posted by sociolingo on January 2, 2008

Source: Cogprints

Orthography and Identity in Cameroon

Bird, Steven (2001) Orthography and Identity in Cameroon. [Journal (Paginated)] (In Press)

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Abstract

The tone languages of sub-Saharan Africa raise challenging questions for the design of new writing systems. Marking too much or too little tone can have grave consequences for the usability of an orthography. Orthography development, past and present, rests on a raft of sociolinguistic issues having little to do with the technical phonological concerns that usually preoccupy orthographers. Some of these issues are familiar from the spelling reforms which have taken place in European languages. However, many of the issues faced in sub-Saharan Africa are different, being concerned with the creation of new writing systems in a multi-ethnic context: residual colonial influences, the construction of new nation-states, detribalization versus culture preservation and language reclamation, and so on. Language development projects which crucially rely on creating or revising orthographies may founder if they do not attend to the various layers of identity that are indexed by orthography: whether colonial, national, ethnic, local or individual identity. In this study, I review the history and politics of orthography in Cameroon, with a focus on tone marking. The paper concludes by calling present-day orthographers to a deeper and broader understanding of orthographic issues.