6 research outputs found
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 yearâs 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 studentsâ 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 studentsâ 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
Evidence for Foot Structure in Hausa
McCarthy and Prince (1986, 1990) have put forward the Prosodic Morphology Hypothesis to account for morphological processes (such as reduplication and truncation) that typically require that their output conform to a particular shape of template. This hypothesis claims that morphological templates are analyzable in terms of prosodic units. In this paper I will show that Hausa nominal reduplication and nickname formation are best analyzed as involving the specification of a foot template. Thus, these two processes provide supporting evidence for McCarthy and Prince's Prosodic Morphology Hypothesis
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Reflections. Are We Global Yet? Africa and the Future of Early Modern Studies
For the past twenty years, early modern scholars have called for more scholarly attention to people and places outside of Europe. An impressive increase in literary research on non-European texts has resulted, and I describe positive aspects of this trend, using the MLA International Bibliography database. However, research on African-language literatures has declined since 2003 or has continued to flatline at nothing. A radical antiracist solution is needed, for no field can succeed with Africa as a lacuna. I call on all early modern scholars, regardless of their language knowledge, to cite at least one early modern African-language text in their next publication. I describe five such in this article, a tiny sample of the thousands of written texts that Black Africans across the continent composed in African languages before 1830. Asking early modern scholars to embrace the uncomfortable practice of âtoken citationâ will enable these texts to circulate in the realm of knowledge and further efforts to diversify and broaden the field