Is Tanzania diglossic? The status and role of ethnic community languages

Mekacha, Rugatiri D.K.

doi:10.1080/01434632.1993.9994537

Cited by 9 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…And not only in Pakistan but in all ex-colonial countries, the local languages are devalued vis-aÁ -vis the language of the former masters. In Nigeria (Oladejo 1993), India (Agnihotri & Khanna 1997), and Tanzania (Mekacha 1993) English continues to be the language in which the elite is educated and through which one climbs into positions of power, auence, and cultural signi®cance. In India, even in Varanasi, which is the heart of the Hindi movement (the movement to promote the use of Sanskritized Hindi, which is a symbol of the Hindu identity and part of Hindu nationalism), the citizens``vote for Hindi education, yet send their own children to English-medium schools'' (Laitin 1992: 69).…”

Section: Empowerment Through Acceptancementioning

confidence: 97%

Language-learning and power: a theoretical approach

Rahman¹

2001

International Journal of the Sociology of Language

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This article calls language-learning the demand for a language in a certain social situation, while teaching refers to its supply. Both learning and teaching policies and strategies, whether of individuals, groups, or organized bodies like the state and dissident language activists, are ultimately connected with power. Individuals and groups generally learn the language of the domains of power because they want to empower themselves through employment. Sometimes, however, groups (ethnic, nationalistic etc.) may challenge the dominant language and teach the one they regard as a group identity symbol in a bid to change the prevalent power relations in a society. This is called resistance or ethnic language-teaching. Then there is ideological language-teaching by the state. Its purpose is to create legitimacy for the ruling elite and its ideology within the country so as to reduce resistance and to disseminate that ideology abroad as part of the projection of state power. These three major motivations for learning and teaching languages are predominantly rational, though extrarational elements are part of the motivation of actors in undeterminable ways. Learning a language for pleasure or other emotional reasons, not apparently connected with power, falls into the realm of the predominantly extrarational realm, which is not explored in this article.

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Section: Empowerment Through Acceptancementioning

confidence: 97%

Language-learning and power: a theoretical approach

Rahman¹

2001

International Journal of the Sociology of Language

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“…Previously ruled by the Germans, Tanzania (then Tanganyika) was handed over to the British in 1919 as a mandate territory under the League of Nations. English became the medium of instruction in secondary and tertiary education, as well as a language of parliament, high courts, and other contexts such as hospitals (Mekacha 1993). In practice, though, English was accessible to only a minority of Tanzanians because of limited resources: fewer than 1,000 students were enrolled in secondary schools in 1950, and by 1959, only 245 Tanzanians held secondary school diplomas (Roy-Campbell 2001:47-49).…”

Section: T a N Z A N I A P A S T A N D P R E S E N Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, it remains to be seen whether or to what degree the humor directly results from the juxtaposition of these languages. T A N Z A N I A , P A S T A N D P R E S E N T hospitals (Mekacha 1993). In practice, though, English was accessible to only a minority of Tanzanians because of limited resources: fewer than 1,000 students were enrolled in secondary schools in 1950, and by 1959, only 245 Tanzanians held secondary school diplomas (Roy-Campbell 2001:47-49).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Shifting tactics of intersubjectivity to align indexicalities: A case of joking around in Swahinglish

Higgins¹

2007

Lang. Soc.

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In postcolonial 2 contexts such as Tanzania, there is great potential for language mixing to illuminate the current symbolic value of English and Swahili. Tanzania provides a particularly interesting case because of drastic changes in official policy and in public attitudes toward English and the West in the past 30 years. Since gaining independence from Britain in 1961, Tanzania has shifted from socialism, economic autonomy, and what can be broadly characterized as an antiEnglish language policy to capitalism, economic liberalization, and institutionalized Swahili-English bilingualism (Blommaert 1999:93-98). These economic, political, and linguistic shifts have significantly altered the sociopolitical context in which language mixing is produced and interpreted.

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“…In other words, language planning has been dominated-inevitably, in view of the legacy of colonial state boundaries-by an instrumental goal of social and political uni cation. Fear of the divisive potential of linguistic and cultural heterogeneity has been an implicit but dominant theme of language planning in both Botswana and Tanzania to date (Mekacha, 1993;Arthur, 1995). One result has been the marginalization of indigenous languages other than the national language.…”

Section: Language Policy and Planningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perspectives on Educational Language Policy and its Implementation in African Classrooms: A comparative study of Botswana and Tanzania

Arthur¹

2001

Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education

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In these two African societies the role played in education by English, the ex-colonial language, is challenged by a national lingua franca: Setswana in the case of Botswana, and Kiswahili in the case of Tanzania. In examining debate over educational language policy in the two countries, I take into account political and economic differences, but I also identify parallels in the hierarchical evaluation of languages. In relation to the likely future direction of policy change, and in considering particularly the viability of English as a teaching medium, I argue that descriptions of classroom practice are necessary to inform effective educational language planning and I draw attention to two interactional patterns which are salient in classrooms in both Botswana and Tanzania, namely the use of bilingual codeswitching and reliance on teacher-centred recitation routines. My discussion links these patterns to the communicative needs of teachers and learners, in classrooms where English is a foreign language for the participants, and also to constraints on opportunities for teaching and learning. In my conclusion I argue that more creative and effective teaching and learning will be facilitated in Botswana and Tanzanian classrooms by pedagogies which are explicitly bilingual, and that this has implications for the of cial separation of languages which is the basis of present policy in both countries.

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Is Tanzania diglossic? The status and role of ethnic community languages

Cited by 9 publications

References 12 publications

Language-learning and power: a theoretical approach

Language-learning and power: a theoretical approach

Shifting tactics of intersubjectivity to align indexicalities: A case of joking around in Swahinglish

Perspectives on Educational Language Policy and its Implementation in African Classrooms: A comparative study of Botswana and Tanzania

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