Daily Archives: December 21, 2009
The Languages of Africa and the Diaspora
The Languages of Africa and the Diaspora: Educating for Language Awareness, (eds) Kleifgen, Jo Anne; Bond, George C. 2009, Multilingual New Perspectives on Language & Education Matters
Announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/20/20-521.html
Reviewed by Judith Buendgens-Kosten, Department of Linguistics, RWTH Aachen University
Summary
”The Languages of Africa and the Diaspora: Educating for language awareness” is a collection of essays on language and education in Africa, the Caribbean and North America. The volume grew out of a symposium on ”African & Diasporic Languages and Education” at Columbia University in 2006. It goes beyond a conference proceedings, though, by including relevant research not presented during the symposium. Articles cover the whole bandwidth from more theoretically oriented papers to applied, hands-on suggestions for dealing with language-related problems in specific educational settings.
The first part of the book discusses African and colonial languages within Africa and their roles in education and language policy. The second part addresses the use of languages from Africa or influenced by African languages outside of Africa. Articles in this section focus on creoles in the Caribbean, and on creoles and African American English (AAE) in the US in educational contexts. Both parts are held together by introductions that highlight the common ground between the contributions in each section. A general introduction to the whole volume, written by Jo Anne Kleifgen, provides the common framework within which these contributions can be seen.
After the section-introduction by George C. Bond, the first section starts off with a contribution by Sinfree Makoni and Barbara Trudell, who discuss African perspectives on linguistic diversity, followed by Casmir M. Rubagumya, who also looks at Africa at large, discussing whether monolingual polices can work in multilingual countries. The other authors in this section take a closer look at specific countries. Peter C.K. Mtesigwa discusses Kiswahili in Tanzanian education, Kate Parry looks at the role of libraries for literacy/ies in Liberia and Uganda, and Susan E. Cook discusses the role that different standard and non-standard varieties of Setswana play in South African classrooms.
The second part consists of nine contributions plus an introduction by Jo Anne Kleifgen. Kleifgen discusses the notion of ”Creole exceptionalism” as a concept that unifies many contributions from that section, and which is discussed in more detail in Michel DeGraff’s article on ”Creole exceptionalism and the (mis)education of the creole speaker”, the first contribution of this section.
Ellen M. Schnepel takes up the ”political and cultural dimensions of Creole as a regional language in the Antilles”, and Shondel Nero looks at the effect that language/social stratification has on the tracking/streaming of Anglophone Caribbean students in Jamaica. The other articles focus on populations within the US. Christa de Kleine writes about ”Sierra Leonean and Liberian students in
ESL programs in the US”, discussing language interference and the appropriateness of ESL programs for speakers of creole languages with English as the lexifier language. Doris S. Warriner looks at African refugee learners of English, discussing the beliefs African women refugees hold regarding their own language and English. Three articles in this section discuss AAE. First, John
Baugh discusses linguistic profiling in the US, focusing on discrimination in housing. Then, Arthur K. Spears argues that shallow grammatical description can foster ideas of exceptionalism. Finally, Walt Wolfram presents a language awareness program that embeds discussion of AAE within that of local varieties of English. Jon A. Yasin’s article on the use of Hip Hop as an educational tool closes this book.
Evaluation
The central ideas of this volume are language ideologies, the role of English and African languages in education, and the critique of creole exceptionalism. Since the book collects 14 contributions plus three introductory essays in less than 300 pages, none of these topics is discussed in great detail. Instead, the reader is introduced to a wide range of aspects involving these topics in a variety of different settings.
The book is relevant for researchers interested in language policy, language and education, English as second language/Standard English as second dialect, language attitudes and creolistics. It will also be interesting for teachers working with students with language backgrounds discussed in this book. Many articles are accessible to students as well, and might serve as reading assignments in (advanced) classes on language and education or on sociolinguistics, especially for students studying to become teachers.
About the Reviewer
Judith Buendgens-Kosten is a doctoral candidate at RWTH Aachen University. Her research focuses on teachers’ language attitudes and on folk beliefs about language and linguistics.
http://linguistlist.org/issues/20/20-4408.html
Africa Needs $93 Billion to Improve Infrastructure
A new report from the World Bank and African partners, Africa’s Infrastructure: A Time for Transformation, highlights the findings of a 24-country study and urges increased investment in four critical areas: energy, transport, water, and information and communications technology.
For more on the report, visit http://go.worldbank.org/NGTDDHDDB0
For the full report in PDF, visit http://www.infrastructureafrica.org/aicd/
How to get a copy
World Development Report 2010, Development and Climate Change
Today’s enormous development challenges are complicated by the reality of climate change—the two are inextricably linked and together demand immediate attention. Climate change threatens all countries, but particularly developing ones. Understanding what climate change means for development policy is the central aim of the World Development Report 2010. It explores how public policy can change to better help people cope with new or worsened risks, how land and water management must adapt to better protect a threatened natural environment while feeding an expanding and more prosperous population, and how energy systems will need to be transformed.
The report is an urgent call for action, both for developing countries who are striving to ensure policies are adapted to the realities and dangers of a hotter planet, and for high-income countries who need to undertake ambitious mitigation while supporting developing countries efforts. A climate-smart world is within reach if we act now to tackle the substantial inertia in the climate, in infrastructure, and in behaviors and institutions; if we act together to reconcile needed growth with prudent and affordable development choices; and if we act differently by investing in the needed energy revolution and taking the steps required to adapt to a rapidly changing planet.
In the crowded field of climate change reports, WDR 2010 uniquely:
- emphasizes development
- takes an integrated look at adaptation and mitigation
- highlights opportunities in the changing competitive landscape and how to seize them
- proposes policy solutions grounded in analytic work and in the context of the political economy of reform
How to get a copy
World Bank : Climate Change and Africa
Climate Change and Africa
Climate change is threatening to reverse recent gains made in economic growth and poverty reduction, two of Africa’s greatest challenges.
Slideshow
Climate Change a Development Challenge for Africa
http://digitalmedia.worldbank.org/SSP/africa/climatechange/
Video
Hear from World Bank experts on the Impacts of Climate Change on Africa, Africa’s Energy Needs and the World Bank’s Climate Change Strategy.
Video about the impacts of climate change in Africa
Suggested Books
Report: The World in 2009, ICT Facts and Figures
You’ll find references to ICT in Africa throughout the report.
International Telecommunications Union’s report The World in 2009: ICT facts and figures points out that mobile technologies and broadband are making major inroads in developing countries. It argues that even though cellular technology is becoming widely popular, there are regional discrepancies in mobile broadband penetration. The report points out rapid growth of information and communication technologies (ICT) in many parts of the world. The latest statistics indicate the growth in several areas, including use of mobile phones, broadband, televisions and computers. It states that mobile technology is the key driver to ICT growth with global mobile subscriptions expected to reach 4.6 billion by the end of the year. The broadband subscriptions are expected to top 600 million this year having overtaken fixed broadband subscribers in 2008. According to the statistics, more than a quarter of the world’s population is online and using the Internet, as of 2009.
(Source:ITU,2009)
How to get a copy
Download a PDF of The World in 2009, ICT Facts and Figures
Angola : Education reform covers 80 percent of students
2008 education reform
In 2004 Angola started to implement new education reforms and in 2008 almost 80% of students are enrolled in the programme.The reforms are part of the UNICEF Schools for Africa initiative and were supported by the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Hamburg society through UNICEF Germany. You can find an up to date assessment of Angola education in this Revised country programme document for Angola UNICEF report.
According to official sources the latest results are looking good and school performance and drop-out rates have improved.A recent report states that failure rates have dropped from 32% to 22%. I found it interesting that in the same report they associate reduction in drop-out rates from 26 to 24% with the introduction of school meals. The rise in pupil enrollments has put pressure on the infrastructure and there is still a lack of teachers and classrooms. With the introduction of teaching in 7 of the indigenous languages, Kikongo, Cokwe, Umbundu, Kimbundu, Ngaguela, Nhaneka, and Oshikwanyama, for the first year of primary school there is also a need for local language textbooks to be developed and printed. The Chalkboard has a good critique of the Angola education reform programme which you may be interested in.
Suggested Book (US)
- Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2010: Reaching the marginalized
- Education For All: Critical Issues in the Education of Children and Youth with Disabilities