Language Use, Attitudes, Performance and Sociolinguistic Background

Language usage in everyday life and in education: current attitudes towards English in Tanzania

“…Especially in education, English remained strong even after the independence of Tanganyika in 1961 and is still an object of desire rather than an unpopular ex-colonial language. In the last study on attitudes towards English about 25 years ago, these were reported to be positive (Schmied, 1990, 1991) with English being a sign of modernity, success and upward mobility. Ochieng (2015: 26) refers to this as a ‘love attitude’ towards English.…”

“…However, English remains a minority language, spoken by approximately 5% of the population, most of whom are members of a higher social class (Tibategeza, 2010). This leads to English being an international rather than a second language as in other former British colonies (Schmied, 1990, 1991). Rubanza (2002: 45) goes so far as to argue that ‘the society Tanzanians work and live in does not demand the use of English’.…”

“…Our set of data was collected in June 2016 at the Open University of Tanzania (Arusha campus). A questionnaire in English consisting of three parts (socio-demographic questions, multiple choice questions on language usage 1 , and Likert-like rating tasks on language attitudes), modeled after Schmied (1990, 1991) and including additional questions, was distributed to and returned by 45 participants. Of these, 34 were male, 11 were female, and their mean age was 34 (standard deviation [SD] = 9.7).…”

Africa's conflictual mimesis

“…This move was also motivated by the rivalry of Bemba and Nyanja as national lingua francas and the negligible percentage of Swahili and the relatively high percentage of English native speakers. (p. 219) Based on the collections edited by Ohannessian and Kashoki (1978), Polomé and Hill (1980) and the overviews in Abdulaziz (1991), Chishimba (1991), Hancock and Angogo (1982) and Schmied (1990), Schmied (1996) ranked the level of knowledge of the English language in Zambia, Kenya and Tanzania according to this order of countries.…”

Recreating discourse and performance in Kenyan urban space throughMũgithi, Hip Hop andGĩcandĩ

“…Hip Hop often and deliberately violates normatively prescribed sociocultural and linguistic conventions of both 'Everyday American English Language (EAL)' and Standard American English (SAE) (Smitherman 2000: 272). Mũgithi, similarly, defies kawaida ('everyday'), polite Gĩkũyũ, and ridicules 'African English' (Schmied 1990) that is spoken in Kenya. Consequently in this language contact situation typical of Kenyan urban space, Mũgithi gains meaning within its specific social and dialogic context, while performing global discourses with a local content in its song-texts.…”