This study investigated challenges faced by teachers when teaching by using a language unfamiliar to pupils in rural lower primary classes in Tanzania. The study employed a qualitative research approach and a case study design. Interview and observation methods were employed to obtain the data. The study involved 58 participants of which 8 were…

This article discusses the concept "ubuntu", an African worldview rooted in the communal character of African life. Some of the same thinking can, however, be found in various Eurasian and Latin-American philosophies. The concept "ubuntu" is also used in language planning: here, the question of language of instruction is…

The May 2013 Report of the High Level Panel, established by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2012 to advise on the global development framework beyond 2015 underscored that rising inequity is a growing worldwide concern. The high level panel refers to a study of 28 countries in Africa which found that more than one out of every three pupils…

Africans speak African languages in their everyday lives while lessons in school are delivered in an exogenous language. In many places adult education is also carried out in a language the majority of people do not speak. The exogenous languages, which are the languages of the former colonial powers and mastered just by a small African elite, are…

This article deals with the fact that most children in Africa are taught in a language neither they nor their teachers master, resulting in poor education outcomes. While there are also donor interests and donor competition involved in retaining ex-colonial languages, as well as an African elite that may profit from this system, one of the main…

This article is an abbreviated version of the BAICE Presidential Address held at the 11th UKFIET International Conference in Oxford on September 16, 2011. It discusses debates on the use of a foreign and ex-colonial language as a language of instruction (LOI) in African schools and argues that the quality of education cannot be seen as an issue…

Since 1995 I have been engaged in consultancies and since 2001 in research dealing with the language of instruction policies in Africa. To what extent are the policies being implemented? What is the role of research and consultancy when it comes to language policy? What happens when researchers or consultants come up with recommendations which do…

This article, drawing on a set of studies conducted in the framework of the Language of Instruction in Tanzania and South Africa (LOITASA) research project, shows how well African students express themselves if they are allowed to use a familiar African language, and conversely the difficulties they have when forced to use a foreign language, a…

This article examines some of the problems concerning the language of instruction in higher education within Europe and relates them to the African context. The author argues that there is reason to be worried about the spread of the use of English as a language of instruction in higher education, to the detriment of the smaller European languages…

This article builds on 30h of observations made in classrooms in secondary schools in Tanzania in the fall of 2004. The article presents an empirical study using an experimental group that was taught in Kiswahili and a control group taught the same topics in English. The author takes the reader straight into some of the classrooms and gives…

The authors of the present article are engaged in a research project funded by the Norwegian Research Council. In this project the language policies of Tanzania and South Africa, as well as the practices of these policies in the classroom are analyzed. The article gives some preliminary results from the project. While the language policies of…

Builds on a consultancy report dealing primarily with the status of the African languages in Namibian schools after Independence in 1990. Contains a description of the Namibian languages, the language policy, and the status of the languages in Namibian schools. (42 citations) (VWC)