This selective bibliography lists 8 books and 19 journal articles dealing with contrastive studies of African languages and English. The entries range in date from 1953 to 1972 with the majority published since 1965. The books cited are African and British publications and the articles appeared in well-known African, European or American…

The three papers contained in this document cover particular issues in diverse languages. The first concerns the distribution and function of postpositions in Awutu, an African language; the main function of such morphemes is marking case. The second paper discusses the unusual phonology system of Wichita; this American Indian language is…

In the rapidly changing political, economic, and social life of West Africa, there is a renewed interest in cultural identity. This book describes the developments and the difficulties experienced by different West African countries in the use of mother tongues in multi-lingual society. The book was commissioned to give scholars, educators, and…

The medium of instruction in schools in most African countries is a second language (L2); less attention is focused on the first language (L1) at each successive level of formal schooling. Little attention, however, has been given in curriculum development and in research to the building up of the bilingual reading skills of children whose…

This glossary gives brief, non-technical explanations of the following kinds of terms: (1) names of all important languages now spoken in the Middle East, or known to have been spoken in the area; (2) names of language families represented in the area; (3) descriptive terms used with reference to the writing systems of the area; (4) names of…

Examines language practices in rural and urban schools in Burundi, looking at specific episodes in two classrooms that show how Kirundi/French code contrasts contribute to the marginalization of Kirundi to the status of village language and reinforce the dominance of French as a vehicle for knowledge of the larger world outside school. (eight…

In this paper, we present the findings of a study of attitude changes of entry-level University students towards computers conducted at two South African Universities. Analysis comprised "t" tests to discover differences between the perceptions/attitudes of male and female respondents, English/Afrikaans speakers and those speaking the…

This paper examines the status and use of language in the Nuba Mountains, Sudan. It is based on responses to 1496 questionnaires administered to people belonging to 37 different ethnic groups. Subjects were asked about language proficiency, language use in different domains and language attitudes. Factors such as sex, generation, intermarriage,…

Using a framework from cultural studies and focusing on theories put forward by Pierre Bourdieu, the goal in this paper is to consider how some West Africans interact with foreign languages and cultures in an era of global capital, especially when it comes to the activities of migrants venturing into overseas labour markets and to the production…

This monograph focuses on the development of colonial and post-colonial language policies and practices in Zimbabwe, attributing changes to evolving philosophies and politics in colonial and post-colonial Zimbabwe. In colonial Zimbabwe, we argue that the language policies had as one of their key objectives the development of a bilingual white…

This book presents an outline of the historical development of English in Africa. The book covers all the major aspects of English in separate chapters, but aims at demonstrating how closely these aspects are intertwined. The differences in the historical impact of the English language in different regions are reflected in present sociolinguistic…

A handbook and directory of resources for teaching and learning the 82 African languages selected as the highest priority for course offerings in the United States consists primarily of profiles for each language. Each profile contains information on the language's classification, distribution, number of speakers, usage status, dialects,…

Eighteen papers from the University of South Africa's Conference on Distance Education are presented. They include: "Effective Second Language Reading in a Cross-Cultural Society" (Irma Zaslansky); "A BA Degree in Social Sciences at the Israel Open University" (Ruth Beyth-Marom); "Establishing a Theological Education by…

This introduction to elementary Yoruba is divided into two parts. The first section is on sound drills, and the second section concerns Yoruba greetings. The first part includes exercises to enable the student to master the Yoruba sound system. Emphasis is on pronunciation and recognition of the sounds and tones, but not memorization. A tape is…

Lwo is the name given to a group of dialects spoken by Northern Ugandans. This Lwo textbook contains 95 lessons, and was designed for Peace Corps volunteers. Lessons include pattern drills, conversations and some notes on grammar and usage. Eight model conversations are distributed throughout the text at regular intervals. The lessons are followed…