Development's language barrier

[Harold F. Schiffman]

>>From the EducationGuardian.co.uk

Development's language barrier

Michael Moore explains why experts at a conference in Ethiopia last month
urged African countries to reinstate their local languages in education as
a key to achieving elusive economic and social growth

Friday November 18, 2005

Guardian Weekly

What became clear as the 7th Language and Development Conference held in
Addis Ababa last month moved from being a "conference" to a forum for
argument and critical analysis, was that a debate on the links between
language and development is well overdue. A better understanding of the
impact of language as a medium of instruction on development is a high
priority for governments, policy-makers, communities, teachers and many
others. Support from Britain's Department for International Development
(DfID) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID),
as well as access to leading African thinkers through the British Council
network in Africa, meant the sub-Saharan African experience was well
represented at the event.

The wider debate about development has already raised two important
concepts: that low rates of literacy make it hard for people to contribute
to and benefit from socio-economic development, and that development
activity is unhelpful if it destroys the environment. What now needs to be
brought to that debate is an awareness that it is harder to learn if you
don't understand lessons, and that it is harder to teach if you are not
confident in the language of learning.

The concern raised by education consultant John Clegg, that language
policies that promote the use of a non-mother-tongue or a second language
(often English) as the medium of instruction could be working against
education attainment in Africa, came as a surprise to some. The argument
that policies promoting second-language-medium education could be
constraining learning is a challenge to parents and policy makers who
believe that children who start learning in the global language of English
as early as possible, are inevitably advantaged nationally and globally
over those who stay longer with their mother tongue. Clegg's question
about whether African learners get a fair deal in schools where
English-medium policies operate, and the evidence that language policies
driven often by the best intentions may be having a very different effect,
caused quite a stir. He also argued that learners who do not have good
foundations in their mother tongue are disadvantaged if taught in a second
language and that this situation is compounded when teachers using the
second language themselves lack confidence in that language.

The argument that policy makers, development thinkers and parents who seek
to use a second or global language may be unwittingly limiting school
achievement and downgrading a child's mother tongue and culture suggests
there is an urgent need for a better understanding of the impact of
language policies in the development context, ideally through a number of
pilot projects to explore what is working and why. One sensible way
forward, as Clegg advocates, is to establish African pilots of bilingual
education to explore the available forms, their affordability and their
acceptability to parents and planners.

The use of language as a tool for national development in Africa drew on
work presented by Professor Herman Batibo, the Tanzanian linguist. He
argued that false starts made in adopting majority languages or global
languages in some countries have meant that the rich African resource of
languages had been allowed to languish. He advocated an approach to
national language policy that recognised the cultural and economic value
of many languages and policies, setting specific national roles for global
languages, national languages, and regional and community languages. The
conference also heard that the post-colonial imperative for language
policies driven by a need for unity, authenticity and modernity may have
contributed to the marginalisation of smaller language groups and to civil
conflict and this resonated with many. The idea was linked to the federal
or regional responses developed in Nigeria, Tanzania and Ethiopia and
regional arrangements developed as conflict prevention measures elsewhere
in Africa.

The need for effective language policies in post-conflict situations, such
as in Sudan, leads into the current debates on language policy where
language dominance and power are clearly connected. The list of those
concerned with language in development must be widened to include advisers
on conflict resolution and prevention, not just those concerned with
development. The changes to Africa's political make-up and cohesion since
the end of the cold war have led to renewed interest in decentralisation
and more devolved cross-border links for trade and influence. The idea of
centralisation as a force for unity and for national development is
challenged by examples, from all over the world, of emerging federal and
regional structures being made both within and across borders. Those
policy makers who are developing new federal and regional arrangements in
Africa need to learn from the experience of the false starts and the
lessons described by Professor Batibo. Practical and equitable language
policies can only be derived from looking at what is working and why.

One of the leading thinkers on language and development, professor Ayo
Bamgbose of Nigeria, has said: "For meaningful development to take place
emphasis needs to be placed on education and mass participation in
economic processes. If the majority of the population is to be reached,
the country's indigenous languages need to be used for learning and
teaching and in many other domains. While a global language such as
English is a useful tool for development, community development programmes
cannot be successfully implemented unless they are presented in a language
that people understand well."

 Michael Moore is director of the British Council in Ethiopia. These views
are personal and not those of British Council. The 7th Language and
Development Conference was held in Addis Ababa from October 26 to 28.
www.langdev.org


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