MULTILINGUALISMS AND DEVELOPMENT (original) (raw)
Related papers
FIRE: Forum for International Research in Education
, is a collection of 21 chapters (as well as a Preface and Appendix) that center on theories, policies, and pedagogies of multilingualism around the world. Specifically, chapters explore the roles of multilingualism in social practices as well as dominant languages such as English in connection to multilingualism, to highlight how in a multilingual world, "every language community in order to survive must create quality content through its own language, share that content internationally, regionally and locally, and receive feedback" (Pattanayak, pp. 12-13). This collection of papers, derived from conference proceedings of the 2015 Language and Development conference held in New Delhi, are categorized into four thematic groups. Chapters two through five center on "Multilingualism, marginalization and empowerment" while chapters six through 12 focus on "Mother-tongue-based multilingual education." Chapters 13 through 15 examine the role of multilingualism in the "metropolis," or largely populated urban areas, while the remainder of chapters (16 through 21), under a theme entitled "English in a multilingual world," highlight the expanding nature of English and its relationship to multilingual educational contexts. Overall, the diversity of geographical, linguistic, and educational contexts discussed in these chapters reveal the necessity of teachers, researchers, and policy makers to further explore the ever-changing nature of multilingualism in education and development worldwide. The preface of this book, written by Debi Pattanayak, senior scholar in multilingual education, is a curious way to commence as he contends, "There is no excellence in research, scholarship and education in language and linguistics in any university or institution in India" (p. 11). This statement is surely made as a means to spark debate on the further need for research on languages in India and globally, though it seems disconnected to the plethora of "excellent research" that ensues in the proceeding 21 chapters. Pattanayak also asserts that the world is linguistically divided into dominant monolingual and multilingual populations, leading to "many social problems" (p. 11). He exemplifies these divisions by noting that being in support of multilingualism is not synonymous to being anti-English. Pattanayak concludes by discussing the role of technology in the marginalization of many less-dominant languages as well as noting the multiple meanings of the term "development" in connection to language. To a degree, the somewhat disjointed nature of this preface exemplifies the larger point of
2012
Out of 3372 mother tongues in India only 22 have official status. There are 613 Tribal communities and they speak around 304 mother tongues. As the UNESCO records go, India has 196 endangered languages, most of them having tribal origin. During this presentation, we propose to concentrate on the decay and loss of tribal languages in India. This will be examined with reference to the existing models of multilingual education policies: three-language-formula (L1, L2 and English) and Mother-Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTBME). The official language policy of Indian Government – the three language formula-- is no less than a muddle because in any Indian society more than three languages coexist. Paradoxically, through the influence of so-called mother-tongue-medium teaching, a tribal child receives instructions only in the national or the dominant regional language instead of his/her mother tongue. MTBME, introduced in Orissa and Andhra Pradesh of India lately has shown considerable decrease in school dropouts among tribal children. It has also made schooling more comprehensible and relevant for them. Thus, it is my considered opinion that MTBME can provide a solution for India’s fractured language policy and can lead to the revitalization/maintenance of the tribal languages of India.
Linguistic Human Rights and Multilingual Education: Report from an Indian University
Decolonial Subversions, 2020
This paper will report on the designing and teaching of Masters-level courses on multilingual education and linguistic human rights. These courses are being offered at a private, not-for-profit Indian university which has an explicit social justice agenda. The deliberately diverse student body offers unique opportunities to explore multilingualism in the classroom and in society: a July 2019 class of 46 students had between them 35 language-names! The essay first sets out the somewhat unusual background of the University. It then gives an overview of some aspects of the University’s diversity. Thereafter, we describe a few of our courses on multilingualism, their objectives, and some pedagogic strategies. The university aims to create reflective practitioners for the social sector – especially, in education, development and public policy. There is therefore a discursive coherence between the various courses in the Masters programmes. Students are particularly receptive to arguments about discrimination, exclusion, equity, rights, and policies. However, while class, caste, gender and region are familiar axes of exclusion, there is much less awareness among students of the intersectionality of language as reflecting, constituting, and reproducing privilege, discrimination and exclusion. The courses on multilingual education and linguistic human rights thus build on the strengths that the programmes and the students already have. The courses then seek to go beyond, inviting students to critique existing linguistic inequalities, and devise innovative curriculum and pedagogy. The essay ends by sketching two initiatives of the University that will help to develop critical perspectives on India’s multilingualism, and design educational and policy interventions which strengthen mother-tongue based multilingualism and contribute to the building of a just, equitable, sustainable and humane society. This paper reviews the experience of teaching these courses, and suggests some possible future directions.
Journal of Sociolinguistics, 2008
Reviewed by CHRISTOF DEMONT-HENRICH Global Issues in Language, Education and Development delivers a thoughtprovoking and frequently sobering assessment of linguistic hegemony in multiple postcolonial contexts. It does so by melding macro-theoretical analysis and reflection with case study analysis. According to Naz Rassool and her co-authors Maggie Canvin (Mali), Kathleen Heugh (South Africa), and Sabiha Mansoor (Pakistan; Rassool co-authors the Pakistan case study with Mansoor), continued domination of excolonial languages in power domains such as law, business, and, especially, higher education, in postcolonial contexts has played an integral role in the reproduction of a hierarchical social order which generally favours comparatively few elites. In this account, too much focus placed on English in specific postcolonial contexts such as South Africa and Pakistan has slowed progress toward literacy, inhibited upward mobility, and led to a decidedly undemocratic situation in which crucial legal and political discourse is conducted in language(s) not readily understood by the majority of the population. Rassool's perspective is a refreshing one that challenges the notion that the spread of (ex)colonial languages has been, especially in the last 20 years or so, a mostly, if not wholly, positive development characterized almost exclusively by masses of people clamouring loudly and happily for English. Her use of terms such as linguistic hegemony, and, especially, 'linguistic imperialism', might meet with critique from those who have alleged the death of (linguistic) imperialism and prematurely banished the concept for its apparent lack of attention to individual agency. But Rassool-and Canvin, Heugh and Mansoor-deliver the empirical support to back up their claims, illustrating through systematic and concrete review the continued utility of a critical analytical framework to understanding complex sociolinguistic phenomena. The book is divided into three parts and eight chapters. Part 1, 'Language diversity in development discourse' contains four chapters: 'Language and the colonial state'; 'Postcolonial development, language and nationhood'; 'The global cultural economy: Issues of language, culture and politics'; and, 'Language in the global cultural economy: Implications for postcolonial societies'. In Chapter 1, Rassool emphasizes the ways in which a tapered, subtractivelanguage system with multiple languages used at the lower educational levels,
Development and multilingualism: An introduction
Context We live in a time of increasing intolerance of difference, of decreasing willingness to celebrate the diversity of humankind. We live in a time when public expressions of intolerance have become commonplace, when a presidential candidate can unabashedly describe immigrants from a country with which his nation shares a border in these words:
This report is the product of a research collaboration between Education Development Trust, the British Council and The Open University. Its starting point was to consider the complex field of English Medium Instruction (EMI) policies in low and middle income countries (LMICs). Its purpose is to provide insight and support to those responsible for setting policy or enacting it in complex language environments around the world. The work recognises the importance given to English language by governments in the future development of intellectual and economic capital, and to accessing opportunity in an increasingly global world. It also recognises and respects the strong argument calling for education and learning to be conducted in a language spoken by learners and teachers. Navigating these two influences can appear impossible at times as they can be unhelpfully positioned as opposites. This research study set out to do two things: • Look at the global literature and draw on the lessons from existing research. • Focus on illustrating the operational enactment and levels of understanding of EMI polices in schools in two primary school contexts – Ghana and Bihar, India. These very different contexts provide valuable lessons that will help policy makers, educators, teacher trainers and schools to navigate the complexities of multilingual EMI environments.
2005
The Centre for Intercultural Communication (SIK) was commissioned by the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research (KD) to present an overview of the field relevant to bilingual/ multilingual education and the use of local languages, upon request by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad). The first part of this report discusses the key terms and expressions in use and suggests a division in three main categories to facilitate the reading. The three categories are terms and expressions describing the complex reality of language as a social and individual phenomenon, terms/expressions describing the use and function of languages in societies, and terms/expressions describing the use and function of languages in education. The following chapters present an overview of publications by governmental and non-governmental organizations concerning education and language in developing countries, and of related work focusing on politics and political initiatives and gives an outline of the main themes in the discourse on language of instruction in multilingual communities of cooperation. Finally the document presents an overview of resources, knowledge and scientific environments relevant to education and language, as well as networks and conferences relevant to this discussion in Norway and internationally with a special focus on Sub-Saharan Africa.