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<h1 class="">Role of language in climate policy awareness</h1>
<div class=""><abbr class="" title="2016-02-15T05:42:55+0200">February 15, 2016</abbr> <span class="">in</span> <span class=""><a href="https://www.newsday.co.zw/opinion/columnists/" title="View all items in Columnists">Columnists</a></span> </div>
<p>THE use of local language in local communities by speakers
of that speech community, for climate change awareness is essentially
fundamental in development work. Many NGOs, the government and
implementing partners alike always find their development programmes
failing simply because they would want to sound sophisticated and
knowledgeable — to the detriment of achieving results. <span id="more-3096224743928345"></span></p>
<p>Our local communities cannot cope up with the vices of technically
related discourse of climate science yet they are expected to be
important stakeholders in this case.</p>
<p>For climate change awareness and adaptation to succeed, the language
of local people becomes critical, therefore it needs to be carefully
harnessed and utilised for effective climate change mainstreaming
activities. Due to the living fact that local communities are quite
diverse, ethnically and religiously, there is need to reach out to them
in the medium they all understand better. African communities are not a
homogenous group like their European counterparts but they are
linguistically and culturally diverse. As such, a linguistically-gifted
polyglot may be introduced or utilised to make the local people feel
wanted, accommodated and accepted as well as feeling at home. In the
development literature crafted for them to implement, there is need for
it to be harmonised in terms of being sustainably user-friendly.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.newsday.co.zw/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/climate-change.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-3096224743905024"><img src="https://www.newsday.co.zw/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/climate-change.jpg" alt="climate change" class="" height="400" width="668"></a></p>
<p>Cross-cultural linguistic competence is the current missing link as
we speak. Missing link in attempts to integrate the locals into
meaningful development work. This nature of competence is critical for
successful communication to take place between the development
practitioners and the often despised locals. Climate science discourse
is not even a favourite with the educated laypersons, who can hardly
interpret it, what more, the downtrodden and vulnerable local people who
face the challenges of hunger, discrimination, neglect and failure to
read.</p><div class="" style="margin:8px 0px">
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<p>The local person is forced to exercise the split-personality syndrome
through reading or listening to the technical discourse, think in
vernacular whilst at the same time trying to translate as well as
struggling to make sense in English, without any marked form of success.
Usually, as is always the case, the local person, achieves none of the
above and as a result development work and adaptation initiatives
suffer. </p>
<p>If language use consists of the expression and communication of
thoughts, then surely the mind-set of the local communities is already
affected. For they are forced to think in a particular way against the
background that climate change adaptation need the local voices for
sustainable development and resilience purposes. </p>
<p>It is also quite clear, that the constituency of language is an
adaptation phenomenon in that, it enables the acquisition of linguistic
competence, which translates to verbal communication techniques. As
such, verbal communication can be used in many ways possible, climate
change adaptation included. </p>
<p>Language use, especially vernacular is regarded as being in the great
interest of the local knowledge of knowing, which some people refer to
as indigenous knowledge systems or rather traditional or scientific
knowledge deeply rooted in culture. Therefore, for comprehension to take
place, there should be a recognition by the hearer- connected to the
speaker’s frame of reference and meaning. As such, listening is not just
decoding, but an essentially active process.<br>
This would also act as sustainable evidence from which the audience can
make generalisations as well as inferences. To that effect, the local
language of knowing has such intrinsic and assertive illocutionary force
of reason that also contribute to unmasking ambiguities. </p>
<p>This indeed, is not about language acquisition but critical thought
and application. Through the role playing of life experiences, fellow
members of the communities will be able to relate that to climate change
scenarios. This kind of role-playing appeals to the values that
communities cherish so much and as a result this kind of communication
becomes potentially empowering. In this regard, everyone takes part in
communication as compared to passive and unproductive hearing, which can
be safely described as climate noise. </p>
<p>All in all, local languages afford people a chance to be involved in
dialogues which facilitate long lasting understanding. By conversing in
the language they all know and understand, we can the safely say people
will exhibit a permanent change of behaviour, otherwise known as
eco-consciousness. </p>
<p>lPeter Makwanya is a climate change communicator. He writes in his own capacity and can be contacted on: <a href="mailto:petrovmoyt@gmail.com">petrovmoyt@gmail.com</a> <br></p><p><a href="https://www.newsday.co.zw/2016/02/15/role-of-language-in-climate-policy-awareness/">https://www.newsday.co.zw/2016/02/15/role-of-language-in-climate-policy-awareness/</a><br></p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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