Anglo-Nigerian Pidgin (ANP), the principal lingua franca of intercultural communication in multiethnic Nigeria, has no recognition as an official language but has penetrated the print and electronic media, especially in southern Nigeria. A survey in six urban centers in southern Nigeria, part of a larger study, investigated the status,…

Discusses the importance of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) education in the multicultural country of South Africa, where for the majority of residents, English is the second language. Examines the variety of languages of South Africa, the language-education crisis in South Africa, and the country's need for language teachers. (SM)

This paper provides a background to recent developments in language planning in South Africa. Following a historical review, it focuses on a Bill of Rights in the new constitution which has, since 1993, demanded a shift towards rights-based language policy within a liberal framework. Debates within the Pan South African Language Board (PANSALB)…

The main assumption in this article is that the pragmatics of the variety of South African English commonly referred to as black South African English (BSAE) have been shaped, over time, by educated bilinguals, through a transfer of features from African languages. Transfer of syntactic forms, now firmly established in the variety, is evidenced…

This study describes the effect of enlightenment on attitudes of the Nigerian elite to the roles assigned to English and indigenous languages in Nigeria. From the results of a preliminary investigation into the attitudes of undergraduate students in a Nigerian University, it was presumed that enlightenment of citizens on the importance of…

This paper examines recent attempts by the Malawi government to introduce local languages into the primary school system and other secondary domains of national life, breaking more than 30 years of Chichewa/English monopoly. In a country where the language policy has essentially established the hegemony of English over indigenous languages, the…

The process of embedding, a term used in generative grammar to refer to a construction in which a sentence is included within another sentence, is examined as it occurs in Yoruba literature. Examples are drawn from Yoruba praise poetry, in both written and oral form and within Yoruba novels. Forms of embedding identified include those to draw…

Three interdependent components--content, context, and methodology--are discussed as they relate to the teaching of African languages to non-native speakers. Content depends on type and availability of instructional materials, which may be quite limited. If textbooks are not available, the teacher must select from varied authentic materials and…

This instructional guide for Fulani (Fulfulde), an African language, is designed for the language training of Peace Corps volunteers and focuses on daily interactions and activities in that context. A series of 32 lessons, each based on a single language competence, are presented in ten broad theme-based units. Themes include: greetings and…

Since the enactment of the 1958 National Defense Education Act, funded universities have provided African language instruction at the postsecondary level. With an increased interest in the less commonly taught languages (LCT) demonstrated by the 1988 Foreign Language Assistance Act, several African Studies Center universities provide instruction…

This study compares the English and Swahili language texts used in the primary grades in Kenya and Tanzania in order to ascertain the role of language in determining the content of instruction and to relate the content of these texts to significant characteristics of governmental educational policy and the values underlying them. The introductory…

A collection of papers on the use of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Proficiency Guidelines for instruction and testing in less commonly taught languages includes: the 1986 ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines; "Testing Speaking Proficiency: The Oral Interview" (Pardee Lowe, Jr., Judith E. Liskin-Gasparro); a…

This textbook presents the essential structural features of Djerma as it is currently spoken in the western region of Niger. The course is organized into 30 units which constitute instructional material for from 300 to 400 hours of classroom instruction. It is specifically designed for intensive training programs of approximately 4 to 5 hours per…

Criticism has been directed at a growing body of literature broadly referred to as ethnoscience, ethnosemantics, folk science, ethnographic semantics, and cognitive anthropology. Criticisms concern methodological and analytic aspects of ethnoscientific procedure, and the directions of ethnosemantic research from a theoretical point of view. The…

This Kabiye handbook presents a number of situations in Togo in which a person would need certain words and phrases; it fulfills a function like that of a traveler's handbook. It provides classroom activities that require the student to communicate in a way that is appropriate to the cultural context. Each lesson contains objectives, indications…