Dissertation: Benchmarking Language Policies in West Africa

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Benchmarking Language Policies in West Africa Through Reassessment,
Networked Technologies and Continuing Involvement with Other Learning
Communities

Institution: Purdue University
Program: Linguistics Program
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2005

Author: Anatole Balma

Dissertation Title: Benchmarking Language Policies in West Africa Through
Reassessment, Networked Technologies and Continuing Involvement with Other
Learning Communities

Dissertation Director:
Michael Brzezinski
Alan Garfinkel
James Greenan
Venetria Patton
Victor Raskin

Dissertation Abstract:

Whether our concerns are about the everyday lives of people and their
social interaction, or about social change and education, the issue of
language is as vital as it is complex. Language performs different
functions including a means of communication, expression and
conceptualization. Therefore, language should be seen as a resource rather
than a problem. In a multilingual society, knowledge of more than one
language is an asset both in an immediate economic sense, at the
workplace, for instance, and in the larger social sense of opening many
worlds or cultures and as a nation-building and pro-democracy practice. In
the 21st century, multilingualism is the norm, not the exception, and
Africa is well endowed in this respect. We work with, not against, the
grain of our societal multilingualism. The purpose of this study is to
attempt to articulate language policies in West Africa from the field of
benchmarking with the goal of improving educational outcomes. In so doing,
this study has elected to describe, compare and contrast existing language
policies in Burkina Faso and Ghana, it will also explore whether
benchmarking offers genuine promise for improvement in teaching and
learning and ask what approaches to policy and Benchmarking hold the most
promise.

http://linguistlist.org/issues/18/18-1563.html

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