Introduction: multilingualism and education: the critical nexus
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Date
2014-08-19
Authors
Njoroge, Martin C.
Mwangi, Phyllis W
Ndung’u, Ruth W
Orwenjo, Daniel O
Journal Title
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Publisher
Multilingual Education
Abstract
This article focuses on practices and challenges that relate to multilingualism and education in the African continent. It represents an array of selected but representative international scholarly discourse on the twin issues of multilingualism and education in Africa. The contributions are based on empirical studies, theoretical postulations and policy interrogations. Language is just one of the many factors that can contribute to the delivery of quality education. It is also a linguistic and societal reality that many developing countries are characterized by individual as well as societal multilingualism, yet a majority of multilingual societies in Africa continue to experience and even propagate a paradoxical situation in which a single foreign language is allowed to dominate in the education sector. In Kenya, for instance, the newly independent nation asserted the hegemony of English over other local languages in her first post-independence education commission (Republic of Kenya, 1964, p.24). For most African countries and other post-colonies all over the world, this has always been (ridiculously) blamed on the colonial legacy. The situation described above has often led to instruction through a language that learners do not speak. Compounded by chronic difficulties such as low levels of teacher education, poorly designed, inappropriate curricula and lack of adequate school facilities, submersion makes both learning and teaching extremely difficult, particularly when the language of instruction is also foreign to the teacher.
This article therefore, presents a valuable resource for best practices. This is because the twin issues of multilingualism and education, especially with regard to basic and primary education, are so central to the development of the child that they transcend the educational context to other spheres of life, such as human rights.
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Journal article
Keywords
multilingual education, African Nations, Human rights
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