Language, education and development : a review of Norad’s support to the Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society (CASAS)

In June/July 2006, Norad commissioned a review of its support to the Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society (CASAS), which is a non-profit making trust established in 1997 in Cape Town South Africa. CASAS sets out to promote the use of indigenous African languages as the mother tongue or familiar language in education, cultural empowerment and scientific and technological development in Africa. The purpose of the review was, among other tings, to assess the relevance and impact of CASAS’ work and look into the role CASAS is playing in the field of language of instruction on the African continent. The general impression of the review is a very positive one. In terms of output, impact and relevance, the review team has concluded that CASAS’ activities, in particular its production of scientific and academic materials, have so far been very impressive and indeed significant on the promotion of the use of African languages in education, science and technological development in the continent. Significantly, CASAS has developed a scientific methodology of the harmonization of indigenous African languages; a methodology which is currently being used to produce harmonized orthographies for the cluster of languages and dialects which share a high degree of mutual intelligibility. To date, CASAS has published harmonized orthographies for 9 languages in Africa. Moreover, the harmonization approach employed by CASAS was also observed to be effective in preserving smaller and lesser-used languages from extinction. Furthermore, through its networks of linguists and language specialists CASAS has also stimulated and encouraged academic work in terms of research in African languages. In brief, CASAS activities have laid a foundation whose impact and relevance in Africa is both multidimensional and long term. It represents an indispensable necessary first step towards the implementation of the ADEA and AU policies for the improvement of the quality of education in Africa through the use of African languages. Last, but not least, the technical expertise developed by CASAS will also be useful and needed by ACALAN in its agenda to pursue the promotion of cross border languages in Africa. The main area of concern from the review was the dissemination of the harmonized orthographies and other materials produced by CASAS. In this regard, the report calls on CASAS to develop an effective strategy to reach out to the end users; mainly to identify and work in collaboration with all organisations – public and private, secular and religious, as well as organisations at the local, national and regional/continental level, that have been involved in the promotion of African languages

Multilingual examinations: towards a schema of politicization of language in end of high school examinations in sub-Saharan Africa

In many countries of sub-Saharan Africa, the release of each year’s results for the end of high school examinations heralds an annual ritual of public commentary on the poor state of national education systems. However, the exoglossic/monolingual language regime for these examinations is infrequently acknowledged as contributing to the dismal performance of students. Even less attended to is the manner in which the language of examinations, through shaping students’ performances, may be exacerbating social inequalities. This article politicizes the language of examinations in the region in the hope of generating policy and research interest in what is arguably an insidious source of inequality. The article makes three arguments. Firstly, it is argued that current exoglossic/monolingual practices in these examinations constitute a set of sociolinguistic aberrations, with demonstrable negative effects on students’ performance. Secondly, it is argued that the gravity of these paradoxical sociolinguistic disarticulations is better appreciated when their social ramifications are viewed in terms of structural violence and social inequality. Thirdly, in considering how to evolve a more socially equitable examination language regime, it is argued that the notion of consequential validity in testing positions translanguaging as a more ecologically valid model of language use in examinations

Education Language Policy and Bilingual Education: The Impact of French Language Policy in Primary Education in Niger

174 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1997.Using our research findings and taking into account Niger' sociopolitical profile and its organizational context, we recommend a careful implementation of a bilingual education program which advocates the use of regional languages (Hausa, Zarma-Songhai, Fulfulde, Kanuri and Tamajeq) along with French in primary education. The regional languages must serve first as means of instruction from first up to fourth grade, while French is taught as a subject; and in fifth and sixth grade French must become the language of instruction and the regional languages must be taught as subjects. The promotion of French and national languages throughout the primary education system is argued to be more advantageous pedagogically than a transitional bilingual education program which ends the use of mother tongue in the child's education. It is suggested that such proposal be implemented progressively while the extensive teacher training and language development activities are undertaken by government and private institutions which are in favor of the use of national languages in education and the finding of long-term solutions to the education language problems in Niger.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD

Action research to improve youth and adult literacy : Empowering learners in a multilingual world

The present action research has identified five guiding principles for youth and adult literacy programmes: (1) inclusion; (2) lifelong learning; (3) literacy perceived from a multilingual and multicultural perspective and as an essential aspect of the human right to education; (4) a multilingual and multicultural ethos; and (5) sustainability. These guiding principles are the pillars of the quality framework for youth and adult literacy education and learning which is proposed in this book. Youth and adult literacy programmes improve their quality substantially when applying participatory and collaborative action research. Action research is an inclusive way to expand knowledge that is at the direct and immediate service of practice. In action research, the knowledge of professionals, facilitators and learners is treated as equally important. It promotes a democratic and equitable approach to learning and helps to develop learning environments that empower adult learners to take part in shaping their education and learning. Good participatory action research benefits and connects people working at all levels in the learning and educational process, including services and policies

Systèmes éducatifs et multilinguisme en Afrique subsaharienne

Synthèse disponible en ligne à l'adresse : http://www.ciep.fr/sources/conferences/reussir-leducation-afrique-lenjeu-langues/synthese-conference/index.html#2International audienc

Language, education and development : a review of Norad’s support to the Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society (CASAS)

In June/July 2006, Norad commissioned a review of its support to the Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society (CASAS), which is a non-profit making trust established in 1997 in Cape Town South Africa. CASAS sets out to promote the use of indigenous African languages as the mother tongue or familiar language in education, cultural empowerment and scientific and technological development in Africa. The purpose of the review was, among other tings, to assess the relevance and impact of CASAS’ work and look into the role CASAS is playing in the field of language of instruction on the African continent. The general impression of the review is a very positive one. In terms of output, impact and relevance, the review team has concluded that CASAS’ activities, in particular its production of scientific and academic materials, have so far been very impressive and indeed significant on the promotion of the use of African languages in education, science and technological development in the continent. Significantly, CASAS has developed a scientific methodology of the harmonization of indigenous African languages; a methodology which is currently being used to produce harmonized orthographies for the cluster of languages and dialects which share a high degree of mutual intelligibility. To date, CASAS has published harmonized orthographies for 9 languages in Africa. Moreover, the harmonization approach employed by CASAS was also observed to be effective in preserving smaller and lesser-used languages from extinction. Furthermore, through its networks of linguists and language specialists CASAS has also stimulated and encouraged academic work in terms of research in African languages. In brief, CASAS activities have laid a foundation whose impact and relevance in Africa is both multidimensional and long term. It represents an indispensable necessary first step towards the implementation of the ADEA and AU policies for the improvement of the quality of education in Africa through the use of African languages. Last, but not least, the technical expertise developed by CASAS will also be useful and needed by ACALAN in its agenda to pursue the promotion of cross border languages in Africa. The main area of concern from the review was the dissemination of the harmonized orthographies and other materials produced by CASAS. In this regard, the report calls on CASAS to develop an effective strategy to reach out to the end users; mainly to identify and work in collaboration with all organisations – public and private, secular and religious, as well as organisations at the local, national and regional/continental level, that have been involved in the promotion of African languages