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Language education policy in post-colonial Africa 193 7.3.1 Ameliorating a difficult situation 7.3.1.1 Bilingual education The medium of instruction issue in sub-Saharan Africa is sometimes presented, in political circles at least, as if it were a matter of a binary choice between either English/French/Portuguese or some indigenous language. But, of course, as previously discussed, this is not the case at all. Bilingual education, the use of two languages as media of instruction – whether for different subjects or at different times of day (see Jacobsen and Faltis 1990 for a full range of language alternation possibilities) – is an obvious alternative option with merits applied linguists could usefully draw to the attention of policy-makers. Aside from the educational ones, already discussed in Chapter 3, it may allow the popular demand for English to be reconciled with the continued development of pupils’ skills in a language more closely related to their home language, skills that will positively impact on the acquisition of English as a second language. It is a strategy that makes sense, too, in a sociolinguistic environment where speakers are already accustomed to using different languages for different purposes. And it accords well with Laitin’s (1992) useful 3 ± 1 language ‘rationalisation’ formula for language-in-education planning, which proposes that – for optimal functioning in a multilingual African society – an individual’s language repertoire should include between two and four languages: four if they are members of a linguistic minority and two if their mother tongue happens to be also the national language. The three base languages in the formula are (1) a former colonial language as language of wider communication (LWC), (2) an indigenous national language and (3) a local or regional official language. This is not to deny that the implementation of a bilingual education strategy will be formidably difficult, or feasible on any other than a gradual, piecemeal basis (see Benson 2002: 313). But at least experimental bilingual programmes (in Mozambique, for example) show that it can – even if imperfectly executed – deliver educational benefits, which may be why the Mozambique government is considering extending the experimental scheme to further primary schools on a voluntary basis (Benson 2004: 307). Their very existence suggests, meanwhile, that official discourses in which indigenous languages were viewed as inevitably and necessarily in opposition to former colonial languages may be giving way to greater policy flexibility. Nor is to deny that bilingual education already has an unofficial existence, taking the form of widespread classroom code-switching (CS) by teachers who feel instinctively that it is necessary for pupils to learn through an imperfectly understood foreign language. And, significantly, the evidence suggests (Ferguson, 2003, Martin- Jones 1995) that they are right, that CS is a useful resource for mitigating the difficulties of learning through a foreign language. There is a good case, then, for moderating official hostility to CS, for acknowledging its prevalence and, indeed, for incorporating awareness of CS as a resource into teacher education curricula. 13
194 Language Planning and Education 7.3.1.2 Transitioning between media Remaining at the level of policy, another matter calls out for closer attention: the transition from one language medium to another, a switch that in Africa usually takes place at the end, or in the middle years, of primary education, and one that is typically not as well managed as it might be. Reform efforts here could potentially focus on (1) the timing of the switch, (2) the phasing of the switch or (3) preparation for the switch. As regards timing, there is a good educational case for delaying the switch to a foreign language medium for one or two years so that in Botswana, for example, English medium would be officially introduced in grade 5 or 6, not 4, and in Tanzania in, say, year 3 of secondary school rather than year 1. The advantages of such delay have already been made clear: it allows more time for the consolidation of vital L1 literacy skills, facilitates subject content learning in the middle years of primary school and enhances the status of indigenous languages. A further benefit is that it may allow more efficient use to be made of the limited numbers of primary school teachers with sufficient English language proficiency to teach effectively through the language, a common problem being (and not just in Africa) that there are too few such individuals to cover many primary grades (see Davies 1999a: 70). Standing in the way of such a reform, however, looms the familiar obstacle of public and political reluctance to embrace any circumscription of the educational role of English. In which case greater weight may need to fall not on timing but on the preparation for, and phasing of, the switch to English medium. Phasing refers to the gradual implementation of the switch of medium over a number of years subject by subject, starting first, as Clegg (1995: 16) suggests, with contextually supportive subjects. The rationale, of course, is that this alleviates some of the stress many pupils suffer when the switch is made more abruptly. Helpful here would be the devolution of some decision-making powers to school level so that headteachers and their staff can decide – in the light of locally available teaching resources – which subjects should make the switch first. As regards preparation, meanwhile, a variety of potentially helpful measures come to mind. One is the reintroduction of the intensive crash courses of L2 instruction that once immediately preceded the switch of medium – for example in the Tanzania of the late 1960s and early 1970s, where there used to operate a six-week intensive course based around Isaac’s textbook Learning Through Language. Of note, too, though not necessarily feasible in the African context, is the former practice in Malaysia of the so-called one year ‘remove’, whereby pupils moving from Tamil or Chinese medium primary schools to a Bahasa Malaysia medium secondary school would undergo a one-year period of intensive language preparation in a ‘remove’ class. 7.3.1.3 Curriculum innovation Another potentially helpful measure might be the introduction, or reintroduction
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