L E A P n e w sNumber 14 – August 2007 • Newsletter of the lANguAge iN educAtioN iN AfricA Project

Thandeka

Editor’s noteA growing number of African researchers and linguists are recognizing the challenges involved in revitalizing and boosting indigenous African languages, identities and culture. Take a ride with us as we tell of the encouraging lessons to be learnt from the Ugandan and South African language curricula.

In this issue the focus is mainly on the DIY (Do-It-Yourself) attitude that seeks to demystify the misconception that little can be done to improve African language curricula. Language experts tend to complain that “there is not much oomph in the African languages although there is nothing that is holding them down”.

Grant Lilford of Makerere University takes us through the process of how the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) developed the new primary school curriculum in Uganda. He articulates ways of addressing mother-tongue based education in schools, and is adamant that “the seman-tics of the new language curriculum in Uganda could also be a learning example to other countries within Africa”. The new Ugandan curriculum provides for three years of mother-tongue instruction, with English introduced as a subject, before Eng-lish becomes the language of instruction. While three years of MTE may not yet be optimal, the Ugandan example is an af-firmation that Africa is moving forward with issues affecting it.

Similarly, in South Africa’s Western Cape, the provincial education department’s language transformation plan repre-sents a milestone on the road to mother-tongue based bilin-gual education in primary schools, according to Daryl Braam of Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa (PRAESA).

Pleas for intervention by African government departments, institutions of higher learning and other organizations have repeatedly been made by language experts, but seem to be ignored. And this becomes a burden and tends to frustrate those who deal with language problems on a daily basis. Commitment to the promotion of indigenous languages in most African countries needs vigour. Braam argues that it is only through the combined efforts of parents, language researchers, teachers and learners that the languages will develop and improve in status. Enthusiasm and spontaneous involvement shown by all parties involved is paying off and is beginning to yield results.

Thumbs up to countries such as Uganda and South Africa for leading the way to excellence by nurturing mother-tongue based education in schools.

Our readers are welcome to forward items of interest to LEAPnews for Snip-snap.

Kiswahili poster for the Little Hands series published by New Africa Books and PRAESA

In ThIS ISSUe ...Snip-Snap .........................................................3

Little Books for Little hands in African languages .........................................5

Pistes de réflexion concernant le problème de la langue .......................................6

Language transformation in Western Cape education ..................................................8

Interview with Maurice Tadadjeu ....................11

Book review: Kuberwoordeboek .....................13

Language and Curriculum Reform in Uganda ...........................................16

Xhosalising Kirstenbosch .................................18

• LEAPnews 14�

Thandeka

Lengolo ho tswa ho mohlophisiPalo e ntseng e eketseha ya ditsebi tsa maAfrika le ditsebi tsa puo, e elellwa mathata a ikamahanyang le ho phahamisa dipuo tsa selehae tsa seAfrika, boitsebo le setso. Nka leeto le rona ha re o qoqela ka se re ka ithutang sona se kgothatsang ho tswa kaleng la thuto tsa dipuo la Uganda le Afrika Borwa.

Kgatisong ena re lebahane haholo ka mokgwa wa DIY(kapa ho iketsetsa) oo o batlang o nyametsa kgopolo ya hore ho honyane ho ka etswang ho phahamisa maemo a dipuo tsa selehae tsa seAfrika.

Ditsebi tsa dipuo di e di bontshe pelaelo bakeng la hore dipuo tsa selehae tsa seAfrika ha di na sekgahla se lekaneng, le ha ho se letho le di hulelang fatshe.

Grant Lilford wa Sekolong sa thuto tse phahameng tsa Makerere o re hlalosetsa ka mokgwa oo National Curricullum Development Centre (NCDC) e hlahisitseng dithuto tse ntjha tsa thuto e tlase, Uganda. O bontsha mekgwa e fapaneng ya ho rarolla qaka ya thuto e rutwang ka puo ya selehae dikolong, mme o tshepa hore disemantiki tsa thuto tse ntjha tsa puo, tse rutwang Uganda, e ka ba mohlala naheng tse ding tsa Afrika.

Thuto tse ntjha tsa Uganda di fana ka sebaka sa lemo tse tharo, moo dithuto di etswang ka puo tsa selehae, moo Sekgowa (English) se etswang e le engwe ya dithuto, le pele thuto e ka etswa ka Sekgowa. Le ha lemo tse tharo tsa thuto ka puo ya selehae e so ka e eba maemong a matle, mohlala wa Uganda ke tshusumetso e bontshang hore Afrika e tswela pele ho rarolleng mathata a e amang.

Ka mokgwa o tshwanang, mo Afrika Borwa, porofentsheng ya Kapa Bophirima, leano la lefapha la thuto la diphetoho puong la porofentshe, le bontsha tswelopele tseleng e lebisang thutong ya puo tse pedi tsa selehae, dikolong tsa thuto tse tlase, ho ya ka Daryl Braam wa Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa (PRAESA).

Dikopo tsa hore mafapha a goromente a Afrika, dikolo tsa thuto tse phahameng le mekgatlo e meng, di itshunye hare, di entswe ka makgetlo ke ditsebi tsa dipuo, empa ho bonahala di sa kgathallwe. Sena se baka maima a imelang bao ba lekang ho rarolla mathata a dipuo ka tsatsi le letsatsi. Boitlamo ba ho phahamisa puo tsa selehae naheng tse ngata tsa Afrika, bo hloka maikemisetso. Braam o bontsha hore ke ha e le feela ka ho kopanya matla, pakeng tsa batswadi, ditsebi tsa dipuo, mesuwe le baithuti tse tla etsa hore dipuo di tswelliswe pele mme di phahamiswe maemo. Tjantjello le morolo tshebetsong-mmoho, e bontshwang ke mekga yohle e sebetsang mmoho e bontsha tswelopele le dipheto tse bohehang.

Dinaha tse ka reng Uganda le South Africa di tjhaelwe monwana hobane e le tsona tse etelletseng pele tsela e bokgabane ya ho hlokomela thuto ka puo ya selehae dikolong.

The crowd at the book launch (see page 5), a poster of the Xhosa hut at Kirstenbosch, and a double-col-lared Sunbird chick on a pincushion Protea (see pages 18–20) – images gathered for LEAPnews

�August 2007 •

Snip-snap short articles on African languages

Culture, language and identityThere have always been links between African language and culture but in 1994 after the first South African democratic elections this changed somewhat when African children started going to so-called Model C (suburban) schools.

African languages were compromised because some African children became English speakers and were no longer interested to speak languages other than English and lost interest in their culture. Lots of things changed, including language, culture, the way of talking and expression and even dress code. African children who attended schools in town were called names by other children in the township.

The term “coconut” (meaning black on the outside and white on the inside) emerged. All this time parents were and are still sitting with a problem of African children who are unable to speak their mother tongue. A twenty-one-year-old medical student at the University of Cape Town, Kopano Matlwa, is no different from this generation of youth associated with the “coconut” term. Kopano acknowledges the fact that she’s African above all, but also a product of a new system and generation. Kopano’s enthusiasm and curiosity led her to write a book that illustrates the reality of knowing who you are in terms of identity, culture and your mother tongue.

According to the UCT Monday Paper of 7 June 2007, in March Matlwa bagged the third annual European Union Liter-ary Award for a South African best first novel; on 6 June her book hit local shelves.

Matlwa’s book, Coconut, tackles the question of black youngsters growing up in formerly white neighbourhoods, attending Model C schools and taking on that well-modulated Model C accent. Their black identities are assailed and the narrator, Ofilwe, struggles to find herself, unsure of where she belongs.

“I started writing Coconut three years ago,” Matlwa says. Why, though? With a velvety Model C accent herself, Matlwa admits that she is a product of the new South Africa. “West-ernisation affects us all,” she says. “There are so many African boys and girls who know nothing about their culture. There is so much richness in what is African. Someone just had to write about it. And if it gets people thinking, then that’s a good place to start.”

But, one has to ask, doctor or writer? “I’ve managed to write in my spare time. I hope I wouldn’t have to choose,” she says. And all the better. She obviously has a double whammy of talent.

– by Daniella Pollock and Thandeka Teyise

Thumbs up to SA TV programmes for recognizing African languages

A friend visiting from Sierra Leone once nodded in agreement with a Nigerian colleague’s comment: “The great thing about South Africa is that you really value your languages.” She had asked me what lan-guage Generations or Isidingo characters speak to each other, finding it remarkable that national television used more than one language in this way, and seeing evidence of a linguistically complex democracy.

I cringed. If only this were the rule rather than the exception. The SABC has at least recognised that, in our homes, we like being spo-ken to as if we matter. The public broadcaster is not entirely alone in showing a little respect for the non-English-speaking millions. Now a non-profit group, Translate.org.za, with a decidedly smaller budget than most corporations, has translated an entire electronic office suite into the 11 (South African) official languages. Anybody can download which ones they want for free from their website and distribute them freely and legally at will. We speak English all day, conduct busi-ness exclusively in English, do most of our writing – even to relatives and those with whom we share African languages – in English, and sometimes speak to our children in English.

We say it just makes things easier. There are no easily accessible equivalent words in an indigenous African language we claim. But why do we leave it to overworked and under-appreciated translators and interpreters to create these words?

– by Professor Pumla Dineo Gqola, in Mail & Guardian March 9–15, 2007

Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom now available in African Languages Long Walk to Freedom, the autobiography of Nelson Mandela, the former president, could be taught in schools – that is if Macmillan publishers have their way. This has emerged at the launch of the book’s shortened version at Cape Town’s Book Fair.

The book has now been translated into all South African languages and also into Portuguese and German. It traces Madiba’s rise from his birthplace in Mvelo, in the Eastern Cape, to occupying the highest office in the land.

Kopano Matlwa signs copies of her book Coconutcontinued over ...

• LEAPnews 144

It was launched by Mandla Mandela, Madiba’s grandson, who was recently installed as the head of the Mvezo Traditional Council.

It has taken nearly 10 years to translate the book from English into other languages. Its publishers say they have just concluded a deal with Little & Brown, the book’s UK-based original publishers, which paved the way for it to be translated into other languages. They say this will make it accessible to schools. This book could become the first political biography to be taught in schools.

– SABCnews.com

Uthelawayeka wamabhayisikobhe amahhala kwi-diff

I-Durban International Film Festival isipha ithuba lokunambitha izindaba eziphuma emajukujukwini omhlaba ngamafilimu akhiqizwe emazweni angaphezu kwangu-77. Kulefestivali kuzoboniswa imibukiso engu-�00 yamafilimu ezindaweni ezingu-24 ezehlukene kwelaseThekwini kusukela ku-June 20 kuya ku-July 1.

Eminye yemigomo yalefestivali ukwakha isasasa lokubukela amafilimu ezindaweni lapho izindawo zokukhombisa ama-filimu (phecelezi cinema) zingekho khona. Ngakho, ifestivali iletha amafilimu ezindaweni zomphakathi nasemalokishini ukuze abukelwe mahhala.

Leli akulona nje kuphela ithuba lokuzijabulisa, kodwa futhi yithuba lokufunda okwengeziwe ngawe imbala, umndeni wesintu nezwe elikuzungezile.

Lefestivali iqukethe amafilimu azinhlobonhlobo, amanye awo adingida izindaba ezingathi

Kunomtapo wamafilimu amahhala azodlala e-Ekhaya Multi-Arts Centre KwaMashu nase-Bat Centre ku-Victoria sina njengobubha, ubugqila, ukucwaswa ngokobuzwe, izinselele zezombangazwe kanye nenhlalakahle yabantu jikelele esib-hekene nayo lapha eNingizimu Afrika nasemhlabeni wonke. Kodwa futhi, sinendathane yamafilimu ahlekisayo … indlela

Upcoming events ...

International Pragmatics/ LSSA/SAALA

January �008 events• 3rd International Symposium on Intercultural

Communication and Pragmatics (14–16 January �008)

• The annual joint conference of the Linguistics Society of Southern Africa and the Southern African Applied Linguistics Association (17–19 January �008), and

• a graduate workshop on Linguistics and Culture (�1–�3 January �008).

Location: University of Stellenbosch, South Africahttp://academic.sun.ac.za/iccling/index.htmle-mail contact: linguis@sun.ac.zaAddress: Department of General Linguistics, Stellenbosch University, Private bag X1, Matieland 760�, South Africa

An international LASU conference to be held at the Universidade eduardo Mondlane, in Maputo,

Mozambique with focus on

Linguistics, Cultural diversity and Regional Integration

Linguistic, Diversidade Cultural e Integratio Regional Linguitique, Diverit Culturelle et In Regionale

Date �7–�9 november �007Conference organisers: Gregorio Firmino, executive Secretary, Universidade eduardo MondlaneFaculdade de Letras e Cincias SociaisDepartmento de Linguistic e LiteraturaMaputo, Mozambiqueemail: gregorio.firmino@uem.mz, gregoriofirmino@tvcabo.co.mz

ekahle ngempela yokuchitha isizungu. Embakment ngezinsuku zefestivali.

On 18 June �007, a press release advertising the Durban International Film Festival was issued by the Centre for Creative Arts, University of KwaZulu-natal cca-world@lists.ukzn.ac.za – in isiZulu. The extract above was followed by details of dates and venues.

– forwarded by Carolize Jansen

SA government info online from Afrikaans to isiZulu

Pretoria: Information on government services is now available in all 11 official languages, from Afrikaans to isiZulu on http://www.services.gov.za/.

The new website has information on government services for citizens, foreigners, individuals and organizations on issues ranging from registering births and companies, to finding a place to live and making travel arrangements.

So far, the most popular queries accessed are transport related and include how one goes about registering for learners’ and drivers’ licences and registering motor vehicles.

Boasting a clean design and hundreds of pages of informa-tion, the site allows users to select the language of their choice from a drop-down menu on the left hand side of the main page, just under the national coat of arms.

South Africa’s Constitution recognises 11 official languages, namely Afrikaans, English, isiNdebele, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Sesotho sa Leboa, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda and Xitsonga.

Recognising the historically diminished use and status of the indigenous languages, the Constitution expects government to implement positive measures to elevate the status and advance the use of these languages.

– by Lavinia Mahlangu for BuaNews (extract)

�August 2007 •

Little Books for Little Hands in African languages

The most talked about Cape Town Book Fair has come and gone. In mid-June thousands of book lovers from around the world gathered at the Cape Town International Convention Centre to exhibit and promote innumerable books, including those written in African languages.

One of the special launches was that of a Pan African set of Little Hands Books, created for very young children by Stories Across Africa (StAAf), a core project of the African Union’s language organisation, the African Academy of Languages (ACALAN) in celebration of the AU Year of African Languages 2006–2007. These books have been published by New Africa Books, who arranged the launch. Co-publications are being entered into with other regional African publishers to make the books available in as many African languages as possi-ble. One of the intentions of the StAAf project is to enable children to read the same body of stories in languages that they know, to encourage all children to feel that they belong to the same continent, as well as to support reading for enjoyment.

The books were launched in Kiswahili, French, isiXhosa Afrikaans and English, and further lan-guages (Cinyanja, Mandingo, Twi, Amharic, Arabic, Portuguese, Makone, Makua, Kimwane and Yao) are planned for a September print run. Included in these is an order of books in the AU official languages and Amharic, sponsored by the AU – to be launched in Addis Ababa later in 2007 and distributed to children in Ethiopia.

Left to right: Carole Bloch of the Little Hands Books Project, Neville Alexander of PRAESA and Minister for Arts and Culture, Pallo Jordan at the Little Hands Books launch in Cape Town

From left: Neville Alexander, Kenyan writer and translator Wanguri waGoro, and Veronique Tadjo, a writer and translator, at the book launch

Carole Bloch from PRAESA’s Early Literacy Unit, and central co-ordinator of the StAAf project, says, “In addition to publishers in Gha-na, Rwanda and Ethiopia joining us, it is wonder-ful that the Progresso Project in Mozambique has requested books in Cinyanja and Portuguese and they’re also translating the books into five local languages.” She praised efforts made by all of the African literary artists for working together to make this set of books possible, and called for support from donors, government departments and language institutions to help get these to as many children as possible.

Publishers interested in co-publications can contact Isabel at New Africa Books and any-one interested in further details about Stories Across Africa or in supporting the project can contact Carole Bloch carole.bloch@uct.ac.za or Michael Ambatchew mambatchew@yahoo.com or Suzana Mukobwajana (Central Africa) smu-kobwajana@yahoo.com or Joshua Madumulla (East Africa) madumulla@yahoo.com or Jakalia Abdula (West Africa) jakaliaa@yahoo.com or Nadia El Kholy (North Africa) nkholy@aucegypt.edu.

– by Thandeka Teyise

• LEAPnews 146

Pistes de réflexion concernant le problème de la langue

Lors d’un récent colloque sur les langues africaines tenu à l’Université du Cap en Afrique du Sud, Dr neville Alexander, spécialiste des questions linguistiques, Directeur du PRAeSA et ancien conseiller du Ministre sud-africain de la culture et arts, nous a présenté les points saillants du débat concernant les langues Africaines.

Tout élève peut être enseigné dans n’importe quelle langue s’il/elle une maitrise suffisante de la langue d’enseignement.

Il n’y a rien de mystique au sujet de la « langue mater-nelle », bien qu’on ne doive pas sous-estimer l’importance de l’amour-propre, l’assurance individuelle et les capacités créatrices qui résultent de l’attachement à la langue d’une communauté donnée.

Les enfants vivant dans les sociétés ou communautés où beaucoup de langues sont largement utilisées ont souvent deux ou plusieurs « langues maternelles ».

« Maitriser » une langue ne signifie pas seulement être ca-pable de la parler et de la comprendre. Dans le monde mod-erne, cela implique aussi la capacité de la lire et de l’écrire correctement. Dans les sociétés plurilingues, une cinquième dimension s’y ajoute, c’est-à-dire, la compétence de traduire et d’interpréter d’une langue à une autre aisément.

Un système éducatif basé sur une deuxième ou troisième langue, produira (avec quelques exceptions habituelles) des produits de deuxième ou troisième classe. Au contraire, bien qu’un système d’enseignement basé sur la/les langue(s) maternelle(s) des élèves ne peut pas garantir une réussite totale; il n’y a pas de doute que si toutes les autres choses restent égales, les chances de réussite vont augmenteront de manière significative pour la vaste majorité des élèves. L’exemple de l’Afrikaans en Afrique du Sud est une preuve éloquente de cette déclaration.

L’un de nos objectifs stratégiques sur le plan culturel et politique de la nouvelle Afrique du Sud, pour ce qui est de la citoyen-neté linguistique, c’est d’avoir une nation des personnes bilingues équilibrées. C’est-à-dire les gens qui sont équilingues ou ambilingues avec leur langue maternelle d’une part, et l’anglais d’autre part. L’idéal est que tous les sud-africains puissent bien connaître une troisième langue principale du pays.

Alors que nous devons être vigilants concernant le problème de l’ethnicisation de la langue en Afrique du Sud, nous ne devons pas non plus tomber dans la tentation de confondre le système d’enseignement base sur la langue maternelle avec les institutions monolingues, sauf en cas de viabilité économique ou technologique. Les institu-tions monolingues ne sont pas nécessairement tribales ou ethnocentriques. Si c’en était le cas, alors toutes les institu-tions d’expression anglaise pouvaient être remises en ques-

tion par cette définition. Tout dépend de la philosophie et de l’idéologie de l’institution concernée.

Pour des raisons économiques et parce qu’il faut faciliter l’intégration sociale et développer un sens d’identité nation-ale, le système d’écoles bilingues et d’autres institutions édu-catives basées sur ce modèle seront probablement la norme pour la prochaine ou les deux prochaines générations, surtout dans les milieux urbains et métropolitains.

Contrairement à ce qui est communément admis, ce n’est pas « le monolinguisme » qui explique la progrès économique de la plupart des pays industriellement avancés. Pour ce qui est du problème de la langue, il convient de préciser qu’outre les facteurs historiques, c’est niveau élevé d’alphabétisation qui explique la réussite économique quel que soit le nombre de langues parlées dans un pays donné. Aussi il est difficile aujourd’hui de trouver un pays dit « monolingue”.

En général, le système enseignement base sur la langue maternelle conduit à un bon apprentissage et constitue une plate-forme solide pour améliorer le niveau général de l’éducation et propager une culture vivace de la lecture.

Les universités restent par définition des institutions d’élites dans la plupart des pays, simplement parce que c’est un privilège d’y étudier même là où en principe il y a des bar-rières d’accès. C’est pour dire que les universités ne sont nécessairement élitistes. La philosophie de l’université est déterminée par sa principale constituante. Dans tous les pays africains, cette constituante doit ou devra inclure le pauvre du milieu urbain et rural. Dans le contexte d’une discussion sur le problème de la langue, cela a aussi une implication capi-tale dans l’approche de l’université concernant les langues

d’enseignement, l’apprentissage des langues et leur développement.

L’anglais est au 21ème siècle la langue principale du monde. Cela résulte de la politique mondiale de l’économie et qui ne peut changer que si et seulement s’il y a des changements importants de politique et/ou d’économie sur le plan international.

Ainsi donc, le problème n’est pas la su-prématie de l’anglais mais c’est plutôt l’effet du rapport de force résultant de l’hégémonie de l’anglais. Et cela doit nous préoccuper en tant qu’africain. En d’autres termes, nous ne devons pas résister ce qui est complètement compréhensible et justifiable comme le désir de l’africain et d’autres peuples de bien connaître l’anglais. Cependant, nous ne

devons pas non plus laisser ce désir ébranler la valeur et les capacités de croissance des langues indigènes. Nous devons formuler et appliquer des stratégies contre l’hégémonie à tous les niveaux de nos sociétés.

Entre autres choses, cela signifie que nous devons lutter

Un système éducatif basé sur une deux-ième ou troisième langue, produira (avec quelques

exceptions habitu-elles) des produits de deuxième ou troisième classe

continued on page 1�

7August 2007 •

At a recent African Languages Col-loquium, held in the Senate Room of the Lower Campus at the University of Cape Town, Dr. Neville Alexander, a language specialist, director of PRAE-SA, and a former language advisor to the SA Minister of Arts and Culture, put forward the following “fundamental propositions about the language issue”.

Any learner can be taught in any lan-guage if s/he has a good enough grasp of the language of teaching.

There is nothing mystical about “the mother tongue”, although the importance of self-esteem, self-confidence and creative potential that come with being grounded in a community’s tongue(s) should not be under-esti-mated.

Children who live in societies or communities where more than one language are widely used often have two or more “mother tongues”.

“Knowing” a language well does not simply mean ability to speak and understand. In the modern world, it also implies being able to read and write it with facility. In multilingual societies, it includes a fifth dimension, i.e., ability to translate or to interpret from one language into the other with more or less facility.

An educational system that is based on a second or third language will produce – with the usual individual exceptions – second or third-class products. Con-versely, although a system that is based on the mother tongue(s) of the learn-ers cannot guarantee general success, there is no doubt that, all other things being equal, the chances of success are increased many times for the vast majority of the learners. The example of Afrikaans in South Africa is eloquent proof of this assertion.

One of our strategic cultural-po-litical goals in the new South Africa in respect of linguistic citizenship is a nation of balanced bilinguals, i.e., people who are equilingual or ambi-lingual in their mother tongue, how-ever defined, and English. Ideally, all South Africans ought to know a third important South African language well.

While we need to be vigilant against the eth-nicisation of the language issue in South Africa, we should not fall into the temptation of equating mother tongue based education with single-medium institutions, except where this makes economic or technological sense. Single-medium institutions are

not necessarily tribalistic. If this were the case, all our English-medium institu-tions would be condemned by definition. Everything depends on the ethos and the ideology of the relevant institution.

For economic reasons and because of the need to facilitate social integration and a sense of national identity, paral-lel- and dual-medium schools and other educational institutions are likely to be the norm for the next generation or two, especially in the urban and metropolitan centres.

Contrary to the conventional wisdom, it is not “monolingualism” that explains the economic success of the most ad-

vanced industrialised countries. In respect of the language issue, next to historical factors, it is high literacy levels that are causally related to economic success, regardless of the number of languages in the given country. Hardly any country in the world today can be said to be “monolingual”.

Mother tongue based educational systems, gen-erally speaking, lead to good literacy learning and constitute a solid platform for enhancing the general level of education and, in the best of all possible worlds, for spreading a vibrant culture of reading.

Universities are still by definition elite institutions in most countries simply because it continues to be a privilege to study at them even where there is no

barrier to access in principle. This does not imply, though, that universities are necessarily elitist. The ethos of the university is determined by its main constituency. In all African countries, that constituency is – or should be – the urban and the rural poor. In the context of a discussion of the language issue, this has decisive importance for the approach of the university to the language(s) of tuition, language learn-ing and language development.

English is the dominant global language of the 21st century. This is a fact of the global political economy and will only be changed, if it does change, as the result of decisive in-ternational political and/or economic

shifts. It is, therefore, not this dominance of English that is the issue; it is, instead, the disempowering effect of the hegemony of English that should concern us in the African context. To put it differently, we should not resist the completely understandable – and justifi-

An educational sys-tem that is based

on a second or third language will pro-

duce – with the usual

individual excep-tions – second or

third-class products

Neville Alexander

continued on page 1�

Some thoughts on the language issue

• LEAPnews 148

A new development in South Africa’s Western Cape province is designed to persuade school communities to value the languages that children bring to school. This initiative is called the language transformation plan (LTP) and sets out to support the use of the child’s mother tongue for learning and teaching in the first six years of school. Since its launch in February this year the LTP has enjoyed a high profile. It is driven from provincial education minister Cameron Dugmore’s office by Ms Anne Schlebusch, senior curriculum planner, with the assistance of a language consultative committee.

English, despite being only the third most widely spoken home language in the province after Afrikaans and isiXhosa, is the first-choice language of learning and teaching (medium of instruction) in most urban schools, universities and in public domains. In most contexts, im-mersing learners in a second (L2) or foreign language im-pedes learning. Apart from poor results and a consequent low self image for the child, L2 submersion contributes to high repeater and drop-out rates.

The preference for English is related to its socio-economic power in the world today, and is felt across Africa’s former British colonies. A recent study focus-ing on the language factor in optimising learning in sub-Saharan African educa-tion systems by the Association for the De-velopment of Education in Africa finds that learning through the medium of the mother tongue yields higher test scores and lower repetition and drop-out rates.

Currently the LTP fits into a language policy environment that favours the use of home languages. It is in keeping with the national language-in-education policy for public schools (1997), and should be seen as an attempt to implement the latter. Key to the 1997 policy is the notion of addi-tive bilingualism, or maintaining the home language while adding on other languages to the learner’s repertoire.

The LTP prefers the term mother tongue-based bilingual education (MTBBE), which refers to a situation where the child’s mother tongue is used for learning and an addi-tional language is added on incrementally over a period of at least six years to the point where it could become a language of teaching.

Late in 2006, the Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa (PRAE-SA) was contracted to service the first phase of the LTP. It entailed conducting five-day orientation workshops for education officials in each of the province’s seven education districts, and running half-day advocacy sessions – at � per district – for representatives of school governing bodies. The overall aim was to sensitise educational personnel and school communities on school language policy, literacy development and the chal-lenges of implementing mother-tongue based learning and teaching.

This task was complex, given the sensitiv-ity of the subject. Workshops focused on the

theoretical and practical issues of implementing MTBBE and on district-specific challenges. Workshops also strategised around how to build an advocacy campaign at community level. Advocacy materials were developed, translated into Afrikaans and isiXhosa, and distributed. These included a course manual for officials, a series of pamphlets for school governing bodies, and videos (“Sink or Swim”, amongst others). Materials are being made available to school communities through the district office.

It emerged during workshops that several areas require attention if the LTP is to be realised in practice. These in-clude, firstly, entrenched attitudes based on the status and power of languages in society. People’s attitudes tend to per-petuate a language hierarchy that has English at the top, with African languag-es lower down. Such attitudes reinforce, and are reinforced by, practices that accord English high-status functions in business, the universities, the courts, arts and culture, and in government. The LTP acknowledges the desire to learn English, the language of power – but tries to persuade schools that this should happen by building on the language of the home and of the heart. In this way access to the symbols of prestige in soci-

ety is possible whilst maintaining a healthy self-image, which is closely tied to the mother tongue.

A second area of concern is resourcing. Most school communities will need a range of additional human and material resources to make the LTP work. Schools are look-ing to the education authorities to make provision for this.

LANGUAGE TRANSFORMATION IN WESTERN CAPE EdUCATION

The overall aim was to sensitise educational personnel and school communities on school

language policy, lit-eracy development

and the challenges of implementing mother-tongue based learning

and teaching

... continued on page 14

daryl Braam

9August 2007 •

Um novo desenvolvimento na província do Cabo Ocidental (Western Cape) é desenhado para persuadir comunidades escolares a darem valor às línguas que as crianças trazem para a escola. esta iniciativa é chamada o plano para transformação da língua (PTL) e empenha-se em apoiar o uso da língua materna da criança para aprender e ensinar nos primeiros seis anos de escola. Desde que foi lançado em Fevereiro deste ano, o PTL tem desfrutado dum alto profil. É impulsionado a partir do gabinete do ministro provincial de educação, Cameron Dugmore, pela Senhora Anne Schlebusch, a planeadora “senior” de currículo, com a assistência dum comité consultativo de língua.

O inglês, embora seja somente a terceira língua mais falada em casa na província depois do afrikaans e do isixhosa, é a primeira língua de escolha para se aprender e ensinar (médio de instrução) na maioria das escola urbanas, nas universidades e nos domínios públicos. Na maioria dos contextos, imersendo estudantes numa segunda língua (L2) ou numa língua estrangeira impede a aprendi-zagem. Além de resultados fracos e duma pobre auto-imagem consequente para a criança, submerção na L2 contribui para altas taxas de repetição e de desistência das escolas.

A preferência do inglês está relacion-ada com o seu poder socio-econômico no mundo hoje em dia, e manifesta-se através das ex-colónias Britânicas em África. Um estudo recente feito pela Associação de Educadores Democráticos em África focando-se no factor

linguístico para optimizar a aprendizagem nos sistemas educa-cionais da África sub-Sara, acha que a aprendizagem através do médio da língua materna resulta em resultados mais altos e taxas mais baixas de repetição e de desistência.

Correntemente o PTL encaixa-se dentro dum ambiente de política linguística que favorece o uso das línguas maternas. Isto alinha-se com a política nacional de língua-em-educação para escolas públicas (1997) e deve ser visto como uma tenta-tiva de implementer a última. Uma noção chave da política de 1997 é a de bilinguismo aditivo, ou manter a língua materna enquanto se adicionam outras línguas ao repertório do/a estudante.

O PTL prefere o termo de educação bilingue baseada-na-língua-materna (EBBLM), que se refere à situação onde a língua materna da criança é usada para aprender e uma língua adicional é introduzida incrementalmente durante um periodo de pelo menos seis anos até ao ponto em que se poderia tornar uma língua de ensino.

Nos fins de 2006, o Projecto para o Estudo de Educação Alternativa na África do Sul (Project for the Study of Alternative Education – PRAESA) foi contratado para prestar assistência à primeira fase do PTL. Into requereu conduzir oficinas de orientaçõ com a duração de cinco dias, para oficiais de educação em cada um dos sete distritos educacionais da província, e conduzir ses-sões de advocacia com a duração de meio-dia – � por distrito– para representantes dos organismos escolares governantes. O fim era de sensibilizar o pessoal educacional e as comunidades escolares sobre a política da língua escolar, o desenvolvimento da al-

fabetização e os desfaios de implementer o estudo e a intrução baseados na língua materna.

Esta tarefa foi complexa, dada a sensibilidade da matéria. As oficinas tiveram como foco questões teóricas e práticas de implementar EBBLM e desafios específicos a distritos. Também se planearam estratégias de como construir uma campanha de advocacia a nível comunitário. Desenvolveram-se mate-riais para advocacia, traduzidos em afrikaans e isixhosa e foram distribuidos. Estes incluíam um manual de curso para os oficiais, uma série de panfletos para organismos escolares governantes e videos (“Nada ou Afunda-te”, entre outros). Ma-teriais estão a ser postos ao dispôr das comunidades escolares através dos gabinetes dos distritos.

Durante as oficinas evidenciou-se que há várias áreas que requerem atenção para o PTL se realizar em prática. Estas incluem primeiramente atitudes entrinchadas baseadas no “status” (condição social) e poder das línguas na sociedade. As atitudes das pessoas tendem a perpetuar a hierarquia das

A TRANSFORMAÇÃO dA LÍNGUA NA EdUCAÇÃO NO CABO OCIdENTAL

Learners in action

O fim era de sen-sibilizar o pessoal educacional e as

comunidades esco-lares sobre a política da língua escolar, o desenvolvimento da alfabetização e os desfaios de imple-

menter o estudo e a intrução baseados na

língua materna

... continued on page 14

• LEAPnews 1410

« Le développement des langues africaines néces-site la participation du gouvernement et de toutes les

communautés de base »

Personne ne devra nous dire

que le dével-oppement ne

peut se réaliser qu’avec l’usage

de l’anglais ou le français

Quels sont les défis à relever pour la promotion, la protection et le développement des langues afric-aines?Le défi majeur est psychologique. Les dirigeants et décideurs africains ont longtemps marginalisé nos langues, pensant qu’ils pouvaient développer le continent et la plupart des pays afric-ains sans nécessairement utiliser les langues africaines. Je pense qu’aujourd’hui et surtout avec l’attention que l’Union Africaine porte sur l’Année des Langues Africaines, ils viennent de réaliser qu’il n’est pas possible de développer l’Afrique sans les langues africaines. Il n’y a pas d’exemples d’un pays au monde qui s’est développé en utilisant uniquement les langues étrangères. Les gens doivent penser au développement dans leurs propres langues. Et le développement dont nous parlons, c’est le développement culturel.

Quelle est l’importance des langues africaines par rapport aux langues étrangères comme le français, l’anglais et le portugais qui sont largement par-lés en Afrique?Nous utiliserons toujours ces langues étrangères sur le continent mais pas au risque de perdre nos propres langues. Nous allons développer et in-tensifier l’usage de nos langues dans l’éducation, l’administration, dans la politique et dans les relations internationales. Par exemple, depuis 2004 le Kiswahili est devenu en réalité l’une des langues officielles et de travail de l’Union Africaine (UA). L’Union Africaine a aussi mis en place l’ACALAN (Académie Africaine des Langues) qui est une institution scientifique visant à aider l’Union Africaine dans ses effort de formulation d’une politique linguistique africaine ainsi qu’au développer les langues afric-aines à travers l’éducation, la communication et bien d’autres voies. Il existe un rapport de complémentarité entre ces langues étrangères et les langues africaines. Personne ne devra nous dire que le développement ne peut se réaliser qu’avec l’usage de l’anglais ou le français. Nous allons réellement nous dévelop-per à travers les langues africaines en collaboration avec ces langues étrangères qui sont utilisées en Afrique.

Comment la langue affecte-t-elle la survie des cul-tures africaines?Nous ne pouvons pas dissocier notre culture de nos langues. Lors du Sommet de l’Union Africaine tenu à Khartoum au Soudan en 200�, une décision importante avait été prise concernant le lien entre l’éducation et la culture. Les dirigeants africains avaient dès lors déclaré que l’éducation devra être bien enracinée dans notre culture, parce que dans le passé nous avions tendance à marginaliser notre culture, pensant que c’est

la culture occidentale qui allait nous apporter la civilisation. Nous avions tendance à produire des personnes instruites mais qui sont souvent complètement détachées des réalités africaines et incapables de contribuer efficacement au développement afri-cain. La survie de notre culture est liée à celle de nos langues.

Que pensez-vous des tabous, comme celui qui veut que les femmes ne soient pas autorisées à utiliser certains vocables lorsqu’elles s’adressent à leurs partenaires ?Les tabous se retrouvent dans chaque culture du monde, ainsi donc je ne vois pas réellement d’obstacles à cela. Certaines pratiques peuvent être discriminatoires, mais tout dépend du

contexte, tandis que d’autres peuvent être des normes protocolaires. Par exemple, quand je suis allé au Japon pour rencontrer une personnalité, la femme qui servait de guide m’avait demandé de lui fournir des informations sur mon profil et mon arrière plan pour que cette personnalité sache comment me saluer ou m’adresser.

Il y a certaines paroles que vous pouvez uti-liser seulement si vous connaissez le rang social de la personne que vous rencontrez; ce qui fait partie des normes honorifiques ou des règles de courtoisie. Vous ne pouvez pas saluer un homme comme vous le feriez avec une femme. Vous ne pouvez vous adresser à un enfant de la même manière qu’à un adulte. Il existe probable-ment certains mots dans certaines cultures que

les femmes utilisent lorsqu’elles s’adressent aux hommes, ou vice-versa. Vous devez aller en profondeur de la culture pour comprendre ces paroles et les placer dans un contexte donné pour d’en estimer la juste valeur.

Si “la charité bien ordonnée commence par soi-même”, comment expliquer que certains de nos en-fants ne cherchent pas à parler les locales ou langues maternelles ?Je ne suis pas d’accord. Je ne pense pas que les enfants se désintéressent ou qu’ils ne cherchent pas à parler leurs langues maternelles. Les enfants n’établissent pas aucune discrimination quelconque envers les langues. Les enfants ne prennent que ce que les parents et leur environnement leur offrent. Le problème est institutionnel: aussi longtemps que nous n’aurons pas nos langues dans les écoles, on ne pourra pas s’attendre à ce que les enfants eux-mêmes décident d’opter pour une langue qui ne leur a pas été présentée? Nos institutions éducatives devront incorporer les langues locales dans le programme scolaire, alors il n’y aura plus de problème. Les enfants peuvent apprendre

Maurice Tadadjeu est Professeur de linguistique à l’Université de Yaoundé 1. Il est aussi Directeur de l’Association nationale des Comités Linguistiques du Cameroun (nACALCO). Dans cet article, il parle du besoin d’intensifier le développement des langues africaines sur le continent. Il explique pourquoi il est

« impossible de développer l’Afrique sans les langues africaines ».

... continued over

11August 2007 •

What are the challenges facing the promotion, preser-vation and development of African languages?The major challenge is a psychological one. African leaders and African decision makers have for long marginalised our languages, thinking that they could foster the development of the African continent and of various African countries with-out necessarily using African languages. I think that today, and especially with the focus on the [African Union’s] Year of African Languages, they have come to realise that it is not possible to de-velop Africa without African languages. The world does not have an illustration of a coun-try that has developed using foreign languages exclusively. People have to think development in their own languages. And development is cultural development.

What is the significance of African lan-guages compared to foreign languages like French, English and Portuguese that are widely spoken in Africa?We will always use these foreign languages on the continent, but no longer at the ex-pense of our own languages. We are going to develop and increase the use of our languages in education, administration, in politics and in international relations. For example, since 2004 Kiswahili has effectively become one of the official and working languages of the African Union (AU). The AU has also set up ACALAN (African Academy of Languages) which is the scientific institution helping the African Union to develop African language policy and to help in developing African languages through education,

communication and otherwise. There is a relationship of complementarity between these foreign languages and Af-rican languages. Nobody should tell us that we can develop only through English or French. We will really develop through African languages, to which we will add these foreign languages that are used in Africa.

How does language affect the survival of African cul-tures?We cannot dissociate our culture from our languages. In 2005 during the AU Summit in Khartoum, Sudan, an important decision was taken on the link between education and culture. African leaders were saying that henceforth African educa-tion should be well rooted in our culture because in the past we have tend to marginalise our culture, thinking that it is the Western culture that’s going to bring us civilization. We tend to produced educated people who are cut off from African reality and African culture and are unable to effectively con-tribute to African development. The survival of our culture is linked to the survival of our languages.

What about taboos, for example when women are not allowed to use certain words in addressing their partners? Taboos are things that are found in every culture in the world, so really I don’t see this as an obstacle. Some [prac-

tices] could be discriminatory, but depend-ing on the context, others may be honorific codes. For example, when I went to Japan somebody was to meet me. A guide asked me to give her my profile and background so that that person would be able to greet me. There are certain words that you may use only when you know the status of the person you are fac-ing, and these are honorific codes. You don’t greet a man as you greet a woman, you don’t greet a child as you greet a grown-up. Prob-ably there are certain words in certain cultures that women have to use when they talk to men, or vice versa. You have to go deep into the culture to understand these words and place them within the context in which they are used before you can assess their value.

If “charity begins at home”, how come some of our children are not interested in speaking their home languages or mother tongues?I would disagree. I don’t think that children are uninterested in speaking their mother tongues; children do not discrimi-nate against languages. Children take what parents and

“developing African languages requires government and grassroots support”

Maurice Tadadjeu, Professor of Linguistics at University of Yaoundé 1 and director of the national Association of Cameroonian Language Committees (nACALCO) Centre for Applied Linguistics, addresses the need to intensify the development of African languages across the continent. he explains why “it is

not possible to develop Africa without African languages.”

We are going to develop and increase the use of our languages

in education, administration, in politics and in

international rela-tions

Maurice Tadadjeu

... continued over

• LEAPnews 141�

« Le développement des langues africaines ... »deux, trois ou quatre langues en même temps sans problème. Il appartient donc à nos gouvernements d’investir dans la revitalisation de ces langues dans le système éducatif; alors les enfants n’auront plus de problèmes pour apprendre et parler ces langues.

Quelles sont les grandes leçons que vous avez ap-prises à propos de l’expansion des langues afric-aines?Les africains devront mobiliser beaucoup plus de ressources pour développer leurs langues. Les municipalités locales, les départements gouvernementaux, les communautés économiques régionales et l’Union Africaine devront tous promouvoir les langues africaines à tous les niveaux. Il sera très difficile de réaliser ces projets sans argent ou sans ressources. L’un des objectifs de l’Union Africaine pour cette Année des Langues Africaines est de promouvoir le fonds de dévelop-pement des langues africaines. Ce fonds sera éventuellement disponible pour aider aussi les langues minoritaires dans leur développement. De ce fait, nous avons besoin de renforcer les capacités de nos ressources humaines. Le programme Panafri-cain de Maîtrise et de Doctorat pour les Langues Africaines et la Linguistique Appliquée (PANMADLA) que nous mettons en place, nous permettra de former un personnel de haute portée intellectuelle qui aura un rôle crucial dans le développement des langues africaines. Nous devons officialiser les langues africaines suivant leurs lieux d’origine ou d’usage pour que celles-ci soient utilisées en complémentarité avec les langues non officielles dont la plupart sont étrangères.

Pourrait-il y avoir une langue africaine commune pouvant nous aider à promouvoir l’unité africaine?L’Union Européenne possède 20 langues officielles. Elle a une population d’environ �00 millions d’habitants et 2� états membres et le nombre pourra bientôt atteindre 27. L’Union Africaine possède �� pays et l’Afrique a une popu-lation de 8�0 millions d’habitants. Selon mon estimation, l’Union Africaine pourra se stabiliser avec un maximum de 10 langues officielles et c’est cela qui est à la portée de l’Afrique comme moyen de communication au niveau continental. Nous aurons un certain nombre de langues de communication au niveau continental. L’Afrique comprend cinq régions: l’Afrique de l’Ouest, l’Afrique du Nord, l’Afrique Centrale, l’Afrique de l’Est et l’Afrique Australe. Chaque région aura une langue officielle de communica-tion. Chaque région possède un Parlement, une Cour de Justice et une Communauté Économique. Ce sont là les éléments de base de l’Union Africaine qui sont stables et permanents. La hiérarchie dans l’usage de la langue sera un facteur unificateur. Nous n’avons pas besoin d’une seule langue pour unifier les gens, cela n’est pas néces-saire. L’Afrique possède plus de 2000 langues et il n’y a pas de raison de s’en débarrasser. Chacune d’entre-elles est utile pour le peuple. Nous ne pouvons pas les détruire ou les abandonner. Cette hiérarchie de complémentarité pour l’usage de la langue va assurer l’unité et la stabilité du continent comme une entité politique à part entière, au moment où l’Union Africaine évolue vers la formation des États-Unis d’Afrique.

– Entretien avec Thandeka Teyise

their environments offer them. The problem is institutional: as long as we don’t have our languages in schools, how can you expect children to decide on their own to go for a language that was not presented to them? Our educational institutions should bring local languages into the school curriculum, then there would be no problem. Children can learn two, three or four languages simultaneously without a problem. It’s our governments that should really put re-sources into revitalizating these languages in the education system; then children will have no problem in speaking these languages.

What key lessons have you learnt about how to broad-en the use of African languages?Africans should put a lot more resources into developing their languages. Local councils, government departments, regional economic communities and the AU should all promote African languages at all levels. Without money, without resources, there’s not much you can do. One of the objectives of this [the AU’s] Year of African Languages is to promote the African Languages Development Fund. This fund will eventually be available to assist even minority languages in their development. What we need is to develop personnel. The Pan African Master’s and PhD Programme on African Languages and Applied Linguistics (PAN-MAPAL) that we are setting up is there to develop high-level personnel in the development of African languages. We should officialize African languages in the respective areas of origin or use, so that they can be used in compli-mentarity with languages that are not official languages, many of which are foreign.

Could there be a unifying African language to assist in developing African unity?There are 20 official languages in the European Union. The EU has about 300 million people and 25 member states that could soon become 27. The African Union has 53 countries and Africa has 850 million people. My estimation is that the AU is going to stabilize at maximally 10 official languages, which is what Africa can afford as media of communication at the continental level. At the continental level we will have a set of languages for communication. At regional level, Africa has five regions – West Africa, North Africa, Central Africa, East Africa and Southern Africa. Each region will have an official language for communication purposes. Each region has a parliament, a court of justice and an economic community. These are stable, permanent building blocks of the African Union. The hierarchy of language use will be a unifying factor. You don’t need one language to unify people, it’s not necessary. Africa has over 2000 languages – there is no way that we can do away with them. Each of these lan-guages are useful to people; we cannot destroy or eliminate them. This complimentary hierarchy of language use will ensure unity and stability of the continent as a single po-litical entity at a time when the African Union is moving towards the United States of Africa.

– interview by Thandeka Teyise

continued from page 10 & 11

1�August 2007 •

This good-looking dictionary sets itself a difficult task: nigh on every Afrikaans-speaking computer user learned computer terms in english so the goal of a dictionary such as this is to convince them to rather use the Afrikaans equivalents of these terms. In order to achieve this and not produce a merely academic experiment, the translated term should be catchy, concise, practical.

Furthermore, such a dictionary caters for various computer users – from more or less casual computer users wanting to know the Afrikaans for “search engine” and “drop down menu” to computer programmers looking for a translation of “bus load resistance’.

This distinction carries a number of implications. The computer user uses these terms verbally, whilst the programmer communicates with the computer which is unwielding in its language comprehension. All of these computer languages – like Cobol (the oldest computer language), Fortran, Java, Visual Basic – are based on English. In fact, computer languages have become more “English” through the increased use of full phrases. This means that a computer programmer just cannot “speak” a compu-ter language using Afrikaans, or any other non-English, phrases. The real use of such a dictionary therefore lies at the level of the computer’s interface with programme users as opposed to programmers and technicians.

So, how useful is this dictionary at that level? I have used the two examples of “search engine” and “drop down menu” with reason – they represent the two extremes. For “search engine” the book suggests “spoorsnyer” (tracker) – an idiomatic, succinct term that suggests its function. However, the translation for “drop down menu” is atrociously clumsy – “aftuimelkieslys”. Not only is “aftuimel” far from the snappi-est Afrikaans word for “drop down” but at quick glance the Afrikaans eye picks out the word “melk” (milk) or “melkies” or other nonsensical combinations. It is highly doubtful whether such a translation stands any chance of being accepted into common parlance.

The translation of well-known acronyms presents further difficulties. ROM (read-only memory) becomes LAG (leesal-leengeheue) while the dictionary toys with KS (kompakskyf) for CD. Therefore a CD ROM could be a KS LAG – a combi-

nation of letters no-one would find intelligible – but, according to the dictionary, also a CD LAG, which is a part-English, part-Afrikaans acronym, an equally unsatisfactory solution. As a last – and pragmatic – resort, the dictionary suggests that the Afrikaans of CD ROM is … CD ROM.

Furthermore, a nifty acronym easily embeds itself in different languages until its root as an acronym is forgotten – laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) is an excel-lent example. Perhaps there were some dogged lexicographers who attempted to devise translations for laser, but for some translations

there is no need. Ditto for DOS (disk operating system). It could perhaps pose a problem in French where “dos” means “back” but in Afrikaans the dictionary’s suggestion of “SBS” (skyfgebaseerde bedryfstelsel) will sink into oblivion.

The tension between direct and descriptive translations is evident throughout the dictionary and in some places it seems the compilers couldn’t quite decide which is the best

route. A programme wizard, a guide or advisor to the user, is a “slimmerd” in the dictionary. At least they didn’t choose “to-wenaar”, but “slimmerd” carries, despite itself, a derogatory whiff. Like in the case of “spoorsnyer”, a more function-descrip-tive term would’ve been better. However, the opposite is true in the following case: bus load resistance refers to the correction of resistance balance within a circuit and, although the word “bus” seems odd in this context, it makes instant sense to computer technicians. But instead of sticking to the word “bus” (which is, fortuitously enough, the same in Afrikaans and English), and instead of translating “load” to something similarly brief like “las”, the translators de-

cided on “belasting” (although, strangely enough, elsewhere the single word “load” is translated as “las”). This results in a monstrosity: stamlynbelastingweerstand.

In itself it is a laudable sentiment to carve a space for Afri-kaans computer terms but perhaps some of the concepts need time to become idiomatic, easily-digestable bi(y)tes.

– by Carolize Jansen

Kuberwoordeboek Afrikaans-English, English-Afrikaans by Prof hC Viljoen (editor) in collaboration with Prof nF du Plooy and S Murray, is published by Protea Boekhuis (�006).

The tension between direct and descrip-tive translations is evident throughout

the dictionary and in some places it seems the compilers couldn’t quite decide which is

the best route

Book Review Kuberwoordeboek

Afrikaans-English, English-Afrikaans Cyber dictionary

Carolize Jansen

• LEAPnews 1414

Ms Schlebusch reports that her department has been suc-cessful in getting educational publishing houses to agree to producing materials in African languages.

Teacher training is a third crucial area that requires a radical overhaul if it is to meet the challenges of mother-tongue based teaching within new multilingual and mul-ticultural realities. A new accredited course for in-service primary school teachers, offered through the University of the Western Cape, is designed to fulfil this role. In the longer term such a course would hopefully be integrated more widely into teacher development programmes nationally. With the help of major educational publishers, the training component is set to be accompanied by text-books and other learning materials in isiXhosa especially.

As a follow-up to the orientation process, schools are required to submit revised and LTP-aligned language plans to the department by October 2007. The department has undertaken to provide feedback and support to the schools within two months in a process that is expected to be cyclical and long-term. Representatives f rom school communities feel that support should extend beyond rhetoric to extra fund-ing for new learning materials and additional person-nel, and to training programmes that would enhance teachers’ abilities to base their teaching on mother-tongue based bilingual principles.

The WCED’s Language Transformation Plan is pioneering and has already drawn the attention of the national Minister of Education as well as a neighbouring province, the Northern Cape, which is now considering following a similar process. Mother-tongue based bilingual education is the key concept driving the plan. Apart from seeking to operationalise a human right that is built into the constitution, it could serve to liberate the human spirit in our classrooms.

– by Daryl Braam

línguas que põe o inglês acima de todas, com as línguas africanas mais abaixo. Tais atitudes reforçam, e são reforça-das por práticas que conferem funções de alto “status” ao inglês em negócios, nas universidades, nos tribunais, nas artes e na cultura, e no governo. O PTL reconhece o desejo de aprender inglês, a língua do poder – mas tenta persuadir as escolas que isto deveria acontecer baseando-se na língua da casa e do coração. Deste modo, acesso aos símbolos de prestígio sociais é possível mantendo ao mesmo tempo uma auto-imagem saudável, que é intimamente ligada à língua materna.

Uma segunda área que necessita consideração é a de recursos. A maioria das comunidades escolares precisará duma série de recursos humanos e materiais adicionais para que o PTL possa ser realizado. As escolas olham para as au-toridades educacionais para que estas façam provisões para tal. A Senhora Schlebusch relata que o seu departamento foi bem sucedido em conseguir que as casas editoras concordem com produzir materiais em línguas africanas.

A terceira área crítica que requere uma revisão radical é a de treino de professoras/es, para satisfazer os desafios de ensino baseado na língua materna dentro de novas realidades multilíngue e multiculturais. Um curso acredi-tado novo para professoras/es de escola primária já em serviço, oferecido pela universidade de Western Cape, é desenhado para preencher este papel. Há esperança que a longo termo tal curso seja mais extensamente integrado em programas para desenvolvimento de professoras/es a nível nacional. Com o apoio das editoras educacionais maiores o componente de treino irá ser acompanhado por livros e outros materiais de ensino especialmenet em isixhosa.

Como seguimento reforçante do processo de orientação as escolas são exigidas a submeter ao departamento planos revistos de língua alinhados ao PTL, até �1 Agosto 2007. O departamanento comprometeu-se fazer comentários e dar apoio às escolas dentro de dois meses, num processo que se espera ser cíclico e longo termo. Representantes das comunidades escolares pensam que tal apoio deve ir para além da rétorica e deve incluir financiamento para materiais novos de ensino e funcionários adicionais, e programas de treino que aumentariam as capacidades das/os profes-soras/es ensinarem na língua materna baseando-se em princípios bilíngue.

O PTL do Departamento de Educação da provincia de Western Cape está a ser pioneiro e já chamou a atenção da Ministro Nacional de Educação assim como a da provín-cia vizinha, Northern Cape, que está a considerar seguir um processo semelhante. Educação bilíngue baseada na lín-gua materna é o conceito chave que guia o plano. Além de tentar pôr em acção um direito humano que é assegurado na constituição, pode servir para libertar o espírito humano nas nossas aulas.

– por Daryl Braam

LANGUAGE TRANSFORMATION IN WESTERN CAPE ... continued from page 8 & 9

A typical classroom scene in a primary school in the Western Cape

1�August 2007 •

Some thoughts on the language issue ... contre la pétrification des langues locales en les considérant simplement comme un « héri tage intangible ». Nous devons insister sur le fai t qu’i ls sont des facteurs in-dispensables au « développement » de l’Afrique. En d’autres termes, i ls font plus part ie de l’avenir de l’Afrique que de son passé.

Au niveau universi taire, la question principale que l’on doit se poser et pour laquel le i l faudra trouver des réponses adéquates, est la suivante: Pourquoi devons-nous « développer » une ou plusieurs langues africaines comme langues d’enseignement dans les insti tutions d’enseignement supérieur et universi-taire alors que nous avons déjà des langues « très développées » comme l’anglais, et dans le contexte sud-af-ricain l’afrikaans qui peuvent remplir ces fonctions?

La réponse à cette question est complexe et nous avions des pion-niers comme: les Professeurs Kwesi Prah et Paulin Djité qui ont ouver t ce domaine de recherche en sociologie politique de la langue. En dehors de l’Afrique, les spécialistes tels que Florian Coulmas, Joseph Lo Bianco, François Grin et François Vaillancour t ont entrepris des études dans d’autres parties du monde mais qui sont très uti les pour la direction de notre travail.

Cependant il doit être évident qu’à moins d’avoir une approche irrémédiablement éli -t iste, alors il est important que les conclusions concernant toutes les con-naissances soient mises à la disposi-t ion des masses de la population dans leurs propres langues et i ls doivent les comprendre afin de bénéficier de la science moderne et par ticiper ainsi à la création du projet scientifique lui-même.

Ceci signifie simplement que cer taines langues indigènes dev-ront être promues comme langues d’enseignement au niveau supérieur et universitaire. Ainsi donc, nous devons formuler une stratégie sur les méth-odes d’aménagement linguistique à la lumière des initiatives qui commencent à prendre forme au sein de l’Académie Africaine des Langues. Nous devons analyser le problème de la langue dans une perspective entièrement afric-aine ou panafricaine.

able – desire of African, and other, people, to become proficient in English, but we should not let this desire undermine the value and the potential of the indig-

enous languages. We should formulate and implement counter-hegemonic strategies at all levels of our societies.

Among other things, this means that we have to guard against the petrification of the local languages into mere “intangible heritage” and insist on seeing them as essential factors of Africa’s “development”. In other words they are as much part of the future of Africa as they are of its past.

At the level of the university, the central question we have to ask and find valid answers for is the follow-ing: why should we “develop” one or more African languages as languages of tuition in tertiary education institu-tions when we already have “highly developed” languages such as English and, in the South African context, also Afrikaans, that can and do perform these functions?

The answer to this question is complex and we have had many pioneers, among others, Professors Kwesi Prah and Paulin Djite, who have opened up this area of research in the political sociology of language. Be-yond Africa, scholars such as Florian Coulmas, Joseph Lo Bianco, Francois Grin and Francois Vaillancourt have undertaken studies of other areas of the world

that are very helpful in guiding our own work.

However we approach this matter, it ought to be obvious that unless we have an irremediably elitist approach, it is essential that the findings of all scholarship be made available to the masses of the people in their own languages, both because they have to understand them in order to benefit from modern science and so that they can participate in the genesis of the scientific project itself.

This means quite simply that at least some of the indigenous lan-guages will have to be promoted for use as languages of tuition at tertiary level. It also means that we have to formulate strategy in the light of the language planning approaches and initiatives that are now beginning to take shape in the African Academy of Languages. We have to approach the language issue from an All-Afri-can or Pan-African perspective.

from page 6 & 7

Why should we “de-velop” one or more

African languages as languages of tuition in tertiary education institutions when we already have “highly developed” languages such as English and, in the South African con-text, also Afrikaans, that can and do per-form these functions?

Pourquoi devons-nous « développer » une ou plusieurs langues afri-caines comme langues

d’enseignement dans les institutions

d’enseignement supérieur et uni-

versitaire alors que nous avons déjà des langues « très dével-

oppées » comme l’anglais, et dans le

contexte sud-africain l’afrikaans qui peuvent remplir ces fonctions?

• LEAPnews 1416

Language and Curriculum Reform in Uganda

In �007, Uganda launched a new curriculum for students starting Primary 1. The curriculum is thematic, in that it is structured around themes, rather than content areas.

It is also student-centred, rather than teacher-centred, and follows a competence-based approach. The new curriculum emphasises mother-tongue instruction during the first three years, introducing English as a subject, which becomes the medium of instruction in Primary 4. The language policy reflects the view that students learn best when exposed to themes in a familiar language, particularly the mother tongue. In particular, the thematic curriculum is attempting to address shortcomings in the previous curriculum, in which students, particularly from disadvantaged backgrounds, struggle to master literacy, mathematics and science. The curriculum incorporates research suggesting that students master new concepts more easily when they encounter them in the mother tongue.

In addition, a group of academics from Makerere Univer-sity, Kyambogo University and Uganda Christian University, are working with the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC), as well as teachers from selected schools, to pilot the teaching of Ugandan languages in secondary school. Currently, only Luganda and Kiswahili are taught at secondary level.

Historical BackgroundUganda contains four distinct major language families, as well as several smaller languages which belong to other fami-lies. Ugandan Bantu languages share the noun class structure, related vocabulary and other features with all Bantu lan-guages. For example, the Luganda sentence: “Abantu bonna bafuna ennyama” (all the people are getting meat) is similar to the isiZulu and isiXhosa sentences “Abantu bonke bafuna inyama” (all the people want meat). The northern language families are entirely distinctive from one another and from Bantu, using gender as an organising principle rather than noun class.

The name “Uganda” is the Kiswahili rendering of “Bu-ganda,” since the Swahili “u-” noun class corresponds to the Luganda “bu-” class. Civilians communicate in the local Ugan-dan language and use English to communicate with speakers of other languages.

In the competition between Luganda and Kiswahili, English has quietly emerged as the default national language. English was the universal medium of instruction, although Luganda and Kiswahili were offered as subjects. English is as-sociated with upward mobility and many parents pay for their children to attend English medium pre-schools to prepare them for regular schooling.

The Thematic CurriculumThe Thematic Curriculum, introduced in Primary 1 in 2007, builds upon what the students know already. Each year has a set of themes. Theme 1, “Our School,” introduces students to the school environment and people. As with all subsequent themes, students participate in activities to build their compe-

tence in the areas of news, mathematics, literacy, English and creative performing arts. The curriculum focuses upon compe-tence, rather than outcomes, as part of its “child-centred ap-proach.” Ugandan languages are a key part of the thematic curriculum, since linguistic knowledge is a key building block for all of the competences. Mathematics employs traditional counting games and skills-based activities. Literacy begins with mother-tongue literacy. The teachers’ guide to the curricu-lum acknowledges the role of the mother tongue in teaching English, but sees it only as a bridge to the latter.

The guide makes some credible statements about the im-portance of English in education and in wider communication. It is only partially correct in its assumption that “English will provide them with access to jobs.” Certain jobs, especially in tourism, require mastery of English. Others would benefit from mastery of local languages. The promotion and devel-opment of Ugandan languages will generate employment in publishing, translation and teaching. Professionals, artisans and service workers, in both the public and private sector, will be more effective in serving Ugandans if they are able to do so in a Ugandan language. Science and technology are largely language neutral. Japan and South Korea have be-come technological superpowers without abandoning Asian languages. In some areas, such as pharmaceutical research, deep knowledge of a local language, combined with respect for indigenous culture and knowledge may be a distinct asset.

While English is important and useful, Ugandan languag-es are valuable in themselves, rather than mere paths to the mastery of English. Language is intertwined with history, cul-ture and values and, by mediating learning through a foreign language, we deny students the opportunity to understand their communities and themselves. Nevertheless, the curricu-lum builds upon well-established research, that mastery of one language is a key to learning subsequent languages.

In both mathematics and literacy, the curriculum aims at a holistic knowledge. Mathematics includes such concepts as

Grant Lilford

17August 2007 •

“probability, shape, size, measurement and data handling”1

as well as numeracy. Literacy involves “cognitive and social abilities,” and integration into other subject areas, as well as reading and writing skills.2 Combined with these broader definitions of the specific skills of numeracy and literacy, the curriculum encourages students to take an interest in the world around them. Counting exercises send children out into the schoolyard to collect a specific number of objects. The cur-riculum employs songs, proverbs and rhymes to make learn-ing enjoyable and to assist memory. Such exercises have the potential to instil an excitement about learning and a curios-ity about the world that makes for passionate scientists and researchers. They are a break with the old rule of rote and recitation that has marked education in Africa since the co-lonial period. They indicate a return to the African tradition, in which songs, proverbs and stories were the textbooks for an integrated understanding of the world and human society. The inclusion of African languages also means that there is no longer a rupture between community and school, where the latter attempts to denigrate the language, values and reality present in the former. In fact, the early themes incorporate family and community, and children can gather resources at home and ask their elders for assistance with their homework.

Ugandan Languages in Secondary SchoolIn March 2007 Uganda Christian University hosted a group of secondary school teachers along with experts from other universities, the NCDC and the Ministry of Education for a workshop in teaching Ugandan languages in second-ary school. This initiative is commencing as a pilot project in selected schools, beginning with S1 in 2007. Speakers presented the new curriculum for Ugandan languages, along with tips for African language teaching. Two Luganda teach-ers made an impromptu presentation on their experiences and offered advice. The teachers, most of whom are cur-rently employed teachers of English language and literature, responded positively. The greatest challenge is a shortage of resources, since there are few books available in Ugandan languages; Lugbara has no texts at all. The oral tradition provides material and the curriculum provides for the teaching of orthography, linguistics and culture, as well as literature. Fountain Publishers in Kampala has already produced pri-mary readers, and the workshop recommended that teachers

write texts and gather material from the oral tradition.The Ministry of Education has also launched an initiative

called Integrated Production Skills (IPS), which aims to make vocational training available at all levels, since Uganda is short of skilled artisans. Students write a Primary Leaving Exam-ination (PLE) in P7 and so students who do not demonstrate an aptitude for academic studies will receive access to vocational training, rather than dropping out completely from the educa-tion system. The IPS programme would benefit from the devel-opment in materials in Ugandan languages, since students’ success in vocational subjects would depend on their mastery of English. Artisans would then be more competent in commu-nicating with customers, employees, employers and colleagues and could apply the combination of technical and language skills towards training apprentices and mature students in order to raise the general level of technical expertise throughout Uganda. Even if English continues to be the primary medium of instruction for IPS, the development of parallel textbooks, reference guides, building codes and instruction manuals in local languages would assist the students in developing further competence and in passing on their knowledge.

Possibilities for CollaborationThe renewed interest in African Languages in Uganda coincides with a renaissance in African language teaching and learning in South Africa and elsewhere. It also imple-ments UNESCO’s contention that children, particularly in the early grades, learn best in their mother tongue. South Africa has a longer history of development in local languages, especially with recent initiatives in teaching science and technology in the mother tongue. In Tanzania and Kenya, Kiswahili has developed detailed terminology in such areas as law, biology, medicine and mathematics, and specialised technical dictionaries are widely available. We can pool research, knowledge and resources and collaborate in the following ways:• Compare initiatives in mother-tongue teaching in different

countries. • Publicise the reasons for mother-tongue instruction, using

radio and other forms of mass media. • Co-ordinate publishing between African countries. • Create a database of scientific and technical terminology

in African languages. Where possible, use cognate words from languages with a more extensive vocabulary.

• Compare initiatives in teaching citizenship and legal rights through the medium of local languages throughout Africa.

• Expand current initiatives to make technology more acces-sible to speakers of African languages.

• Look into parallel printing of technical handbooks, con-struction guides and other technical resources in African languages.

• Encourage comparative research in African languages and literature.

– by Grant Lilford Uganda Christian University, Mokono

Footnotes1. Teacher’s Guide 1� 2. Ibid 2�

• LEAPnews 1418

Xhosalising KirstenboschMultilingualism and biodiversity go together in the new South Africa. This is the message you get when visiting Kirstenbosch botani-cal garden, a public space of breathtaking beauty on the eastern slopes of Table Moun-tain in Cape Town.Kirstenbosch is the best-known of South Africa’s eight botanical gardens, and the flagship project of the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI, http://www.sanbi.org/). The institute sets out to conserve, study and promote indigenous flora. In the Western Cape this means, essentially, focusing on fynbos (“fine bush” in Afrikaans), which flourishes in the shallow, sandy soils of the region. Fynbos is a unique combination of three main plant families – proteas, ericas, and Cape reeds or restios – amid several smaller families. Fynbos forms the largest section of flora making up the Cape Floristic Region, which stretches from Nieuwoudtville on the West Coast to Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape. About three-quarters of the plants are endemic, meaning they occur nowhere else in the world. Kirstenbosch is situated in the heart of this area of unmatched floral diversity that has been declared a World Heritage Site. The garden cultivates over 4,500 species of plants and trees from all over the country.

Kirstenbosch has its origins in the Cape’s colonial settler his-tory. As most places in the region, the garden gets its name from a descendant of European settlers – probably from one J. Kirsten, who bought the place in 1780. For many thousands of years until the mid-17th century the area had been inhabited by Khoi pas-toralists. The first Dutch governor, Van Riebeeck, in 1660 erected a bitter almond hedge to keep the Khoi people at arms length, prefiguring apartheid by 300 years. Sections of Van Riebeeck’s hedge remain one of the features of Kirstenbosch today – as does Colonel Bird’s bath in The Dell, testimony to the British occupa-tion in later times. The estate was bequeathed to the Cape colony by the British imperialist Cecil John Rhodes in 1902, and the botanical garden was established in 1913.

Throughout the eight decades of Union and apartheid, lan-guage use on signage at Kirstenbosch was largely determined by the dual legacy of Dutch and British settler-colonialism and the country’s official language policy. There were some concessions to other languages: German and French visitors’ brochures, the wonderful Braille Trail (see below), and Latin plant names. But by and large, guided tours and signage were limited to English and Afrikaans. During this period, access was officially limited to classified whites.

It is only in the post-apartheid era of official multilingual-ism and the opening up of public spaces that the main African language of the region has come into its own. IsiXhosa is the province’s second biggest home language (after Afrikaans), and is spoken by over a quarter of its estimated 4,8 million people. The use of isiXhosa in print at Kirstenbosch is an acknowledgment of this fact and a commitment to people formerly excluded on the basis of “racial” classification. Unavoidably, that commitment is more symbolic than real at present. For one of the results of the under-utilisation of African languages in education and society is that most people who can read isiXhosa well can also read Eng-lish, and may even prefer to read in English. But such attitudes may soon change, if current moves to strengthen isiXhosa in the

schooling system are realized and supported at all levels.

Kirstenbosch has consciously gone the mul-tilingual route. John Roff, SANBI Interpretation Coordinator, says on the website that the institute “is trying to make biodiversity accessible through developing interpretive signs in three languages”. The purpose of interpretive signs is to make links between people, the plants and even the animals found in the garden. Good multilingual signs, says Roff, have the right amount of reader-friendly text, illustrations to support the text, and clear titles in the different languages. Bad multilingual signs, on the other hand, have too much text in relation to illustrations, and do not differenti-ate clearly enough between languages. And the

translations may not be up to scratch. A stroll through the sculpted lower garden shows that isiXho-

sa features widely on information boards and plant labels, mostly in combination with English and Afrikaans. A rich variety of bi-/multilingual print combinations can be found. Some storyboards or interpretive signs strive for full equality between Afrikaans, English and isiXhosa by providing all information in the three languages, as in the “People and Plants/Mense en Plante/Abantu nezityalo” example found in the Useful Plants section.

This represents a much-needed and welcome boost for African languages. There are a few blemishes, however: Ncedo Jabe, a lecturer of isiXhosa at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, points out that the isiXhosa translation contains some unidiomatic expressions, uncomfortable word choices and punctuation errors, and omits the last sentence. Minor inac-curacies similarly detract from the “Plants from the past/Plante uit die oertyd” example. It is one of several trilingual boards that for layout reasons are headlined in Afrikaans and English only. Overall, the plaque works well and features an attractive illustration which supports the text. Even here, though, it’s clear that translation is a tricky business. The Afrikaans equivalent of billion is usually given as “miljard”, not “biljoen”. According to a PRAESA colleague, Ntombizanele Mahobe, the figure of 3,5 billion has not been accurately translated into isiXhosa, and the last sentence is a little vague.

Some labels have an English-mainly text (with keywords also in Afrikaans and isiXhosa) headed by a trilingual sign, as the “Serving Spoon/Uphini/Skeplepel” example in the well-con-structed Xhosa/Mpondo hut.

There are a number of successful English-headed multi-lingual information boards in which the plant’s most widely-known popular name is used in the header. Here the name is also written in the other two languages plus in Latin, as in the igqwanitsha example. Finally, there are the plant labels that feature only the name of the tree or plant, in Latin, Afrikaans, English, and isiXhosa (the latter sometimes indicated by an X), making for a truly multilingual mix of languages both dead and very much alive.

Commendably, a marginalized group such as the blind and the visually impaired have long been catered for. Braille is used on information boards in the fragrance garden and, famously, on the Braille Trail, a 450m walk along a guide rope through indigenous Afromontane forest. Plaques have English in large

Peter Plüddemann

19August 2007 •

print on the front and Braille (in English) embossed on the back, allowing the unsighted visitor to read the text at a comfortable height.

Some residues of the bilingual order of the apartheid past remain. The main welcome sign as well as the otherwise attractive direction markers dotted around the garden are in the bilingual Afrikaans/English combination only. The Kirstenbosch informa-tion brochure is not yet available in isiXhosa. And, rather oddly, the Constructing the Xhosa Hut poster and the The Useful Plants Garden poster are in English only. Poignantly, the notice on the stump of an old oak tree near the main entrance appears in Afrikaans and English, and reads,

This European Oak, dating from the 1800s, blew down during a storm on 27 June 1994. One half of the tree fell over a few years before.

Is it coincidence that the old bilingual oak died at almost the exact moment that the new multilingual South Africa was born?

Kirstenbosch today is one of around 130 botanical gardens in Africa. It remains a veritable treasure trove of indigenous floral diversity. And while the indigenous languages of the Cape have long since disappeared with the decimation of the Khoi people, the introduction of isiXhosa into the print environment indicates a commitment to what’s local – a fitting goal in this the African Union’s Year of African Languages 2006/7. The garden has made huge strides towards a fully-fledged multilingualism. The chal-lenge remains to correct errors and to fine-tune the isiXhosa text until it “sounds right” to mother-tongue speakers.

– by Peter Plüddemann

Multilingual and braille signs in Kirstenbosch

CreditsWe acknowledge the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) for funding LEAPnewseditor: Thandeka Teyise (thandi.teyise@uct.ac.za) Assistant editor: Peter Plüddeman (Peter.Pluddemann@uct.ac.za) Translations: Dominique Mwepu (French), Paula Cardoso (Portuguese) and Mashilo Mogongoa (Sesotho)Photographs: Daryl Braam, pp. 9, 14; Peter Plüddemann, pp. 2, 19, 20; Thandeka Teyise, pp. 2, �; Stephany Tadadjeu, p. 11; and UCT Daily News online, p. � Published by the Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa (PRAESA), Private Bag, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa Phone: +27 (0)21 6�0 401�, fax: +27 (0)21 6�0 �027 Website: http://web.uct.ac.za/depts/praesa

DTP: Andy Thesen • Printing: Salty Print, Methodist Inner City Mission

Anti-clockwise from top: the Xhosa hut, an English-mainly sign in the Useful Plants section, Mandela’s wisdom, a trilin-gual no-smoking sign and bilingual direction signs guide you through the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens

Xhosalising KirstenboschXhosalising Kirstenbosch