This article analyses the labour and social trajectories of seven multilingual and well-educated young men from Africa in the Barcelona area (Catalonia, Spain) over a 5-year period. Our data consist of life history interviews combined with ethnographic observations in a settlement non-governmental organisation (NGO). We adopt a critical…

Most academic discussion on the role of language in education in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) supports the extended use of African languages as media of instruction (MoI), while most practice preserves a monolingual role for European languages. Many ministries of education maintain the belief that African languages are not appropriate as MoIs beyond…

In this article, the authors briefly describe key issues central to what Spring (2007) refers to as the "industrial-consumer paradigm" and the role of English as the global language characterized by what Harvey (1990) called "time and space compression." The authors also comment and provide a critique of some of its primary…

The theme of this book cuts across disciplines. Contributors to this volume are specialized in education and especially classroom research as well as in linguistics, most being transdisciplinary themselves. Around 65 sub-Saharan languages figure in this volume as research objects: as means of instruction, in connection with teacher training,…

Discusses the role of the English language in postcolonial African literature, focusing on the politics of language, "Africanized" English, and the social languages used in Chinua Achebe's novels and concludes that English today is as much an African language as a British or American one. (Contains 37 references.) (MDM)

Reviewing the situation of literacy in the mother tongue, the article reports on projects in: (1) Africa--Mali and Nigeria, (2) the Amazonian jungle of Peru in Latin America, and (3) Papua, New Guinea. Psychological, sociological, and educational advantages of the mother tongue are discussed. (MW)

A study of language attitudes in Sub-Saharan Africa, an area of 45 countries and over 1,700 languages, attempts to: (1) pinpoint attitudinal patterns towards European and indigenous languages; (2) give these attitudes historical perspective; (3) identify attitudes toward language use in education; (4) encourage language research on attitudes in…

This is a reflection on certain aspects of sociolinguistic and linguistic problems of French in West Africa, particularly in Senegal and the Ivory Coast. The sociolinguistic section discusses the role French has played in Africa and still plays vis-a-vis African languages and English. Conditions in which French is used and attitudes both of…

This book examines the phenomenon of multilingualism in West Africa from a historical, social, and environmental perspective. Chapter 1 explains why the catalogue of African languages established by linguists is not reliable for assessing the linguistic diversity of the region. It also discusses studies that show that the linguistic behavior in…

Examines the role that Yoruba greetings play in understanding the culture of the speakers. Illustrates that these greetings not only establish an atmosphere of sociability, but also communicate cultural information and serve as value reinforcement for participants and observers. Also emphasizes that teaching greetings in Yoruba involves teaching…

This book contains 22 studies relating to the social implications of multilingualism in Eastern Africa. The first section, "General and Theoretical Studies," contains papers on national languages and languages of wider communication in developing nations; the communication roles of languages in multilingual societies; the social and…

The Ljubljana seminar, whose background and working papers are presented in this volume, was an outcome of the United Nations' consideration of the problems of ethnic and linguistic minorities. The twenty-five papers cover topics such as the study of multinational societies; the protection of minorities and minority rights in Yugoslavia,…

This volume contains the papers given at the first Eastern Africa Conference on Language and Linguistics, held in Dar es Salaam in December 1968, under the auspices of the Survey of Language Use and Language Teaching in Eastern Africa. The chief aim of the Conference was to bring together scholars and teachers working in Eastern Africa interested…