Background: This study explores how family language policies (FLPs) in multilingual homes where isiXhosa is the primary language influence caregiver choices regarding children's language development and education. Objectives: The study aims to give insight on how non-nuclear family structures in a selected sample of Western Cape families are…

In this paper we explore the nexus of language policy, ideology and power in the linguistic landscape of urban Rwanda. In post-genocide Rwanda, English has been promoted and gained status. This has led to an increased usage of English on shop signs in the streets of Kigali and other towns in Rwanda at the expense of both French and Kinyarwanda.…

Zambia is home to a complex set of language practices, which involve languages being used in different ways across social contexts. Historically written communication has typically been associated with English with African languages mainly associated with used spoken contexts. Recently, however, there has been a shift in this pattern with African…

This Case Study is based on research conducted in a higher-education institution in the United Kingdom. It examines the role of spoken language and how aspects of three different levels mediate learning: interpersonal (i.e., dialogue and personal information/interaction), sociohistorical (i.e., learning about the culture, traditions, and history…

South Africa immediately springs to mind as the epitome of multilingual language policies. In fact, its Constitution granted official status to 11 languages in 1996, and the Language Policy in Higher Education passed by the Ministry of Education in 2002 required universities to develop and use the indigenous official languages as academic…

This study proposes "grounding" as a theoretical approach to studying linguistic landscape (LL). Grounding is the positioning or sequencing of languages in a multilingual 'text' to reveal the languages' relevance or a community's association with the languages. The study explores language grounding in church names which constitute part…

Shiyeyi is one of the 28 languages spoken in Botswana. It is an endangered language because it is no longer being passed on to the children. This article describes micro language planning efforts to revive Shiyeyi over a period of 17 years. The classical and critical approaches to language planning are applied to this case to highlight the…

The global spread and hegemony of English as a medium of teaching, learning and research has come to be closely associated with neoliberalisation of higher education in the universities across the world, and has negatively impacted on epistemic issues, especially in Global South universities. No permanent solution has been found on challenges of…

The aim of this scoping review is to investigate the language policy's ideological basis which mandates the learning of English as a foreign language in secondary schools all over the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It also aims to reveal the current state of affairs with regard to English as a foreign language in the Congolese curriculum.…

Uganda's "early exit" language policy positions African languages ambiguously in public education provision. Runyoro-Rutooro and Runyankore-Rukiga are spoken in Western Uganda in public spaces where translanguaging happens as a matter of course. These languages are heard at pre-primary and lower primary levels but are superseded by…

Multilingualism in a multi-cultural setting could be a problem especially where there is a politics of winner takes all. It creates room for marginalisation especially where there is no functional system to check the excesses of the policy implementers. This study examines multilingualism and marginalisation in Nigeria politicisation. The specific…

Language-in-education policies in Africa are believed to be a factor of poor quality education on the continent as languages learners are not conversant with continue to take the lead as languages of teaching and learning. This paper explores the experience of teachers and learners in Rwanda transitioning from Kinyarwanda to English as a medium of…

The National Policy on Education (NPE) in Nigeria stipulates that every child should be taught in the language of its immediate environment in the first three years of elementary education. This paper examines the NPE as it affects elementary schools in Ogu-speaking communities in Southwestern Nigeria. Using the research instruments of interviews…

As part of a broader student campaign for 'free decolonized education', protests over language policies at select South African universities between 2015 and 2016 belied widespread positive appraisals of these policies, and revealed what is possibly an internal contradiction of the campaign. The discourse prior to the protests (e.g.…

Depending on different factors, aspects of human language such as orthography, lexicon, and pronunciation can change through bottom-up or top-down planning approaches. This article investigates Kinyarwanda language users' attitudes towards Kinyarwanda orthography change, which was implemented on 13 October 2014 in Rwanda. It also discusses the…