The future of English in Africa

In his forward to Graddol?s 2006 book, Neil Kinnock, a retired UK politician, made the following prediction about the future of English in the world:
The growth of the use of English as the world?s primary language for international communication has obviously been continuing for several decades. But even as the number of English speakers expands further there are signs that the global predominance of the language may fade within the foreseeable future. (Kinnock 2006:3)
English is not the only foreign language in Africa; governments have to share their budgets between the teaching of English, indigenous languages and other foreign languages. English therefore is competing for resources and status with indigenous languages (estimated at 1,000) and foreign languages such as Portuguese, still used in several African countries, and Italian, which has a relatively minor role in Eritrea and Ethiopia. Though not so dominant as English, French is also a European language which competes with it in Africa. It is used as an official language in the former French colonies in West Africa and North Africa. It is one of the AU?s working languages, in parallel with English, Arabic and Portuguese.

An interesting phenomenon identified by Martin Plout, is that just as French speakers in the Francophone countries of Africa are keen to learn English so that they can communicate with their English-speaking neighbours, so some traditionally Anglophone countries are starting to show interest in learning another European language for international communication.
Many Ethiopians (teachers, students, experts in different fields) have a very positive attitude towards English. One of the reasons for this is that English is associated with modernisation and development.

Although many teachers and students feel that they have still not mastered English, they believe that the driving force behind the growing importance of English is economic and political interdependence.

Conclusion

Although it is often argued that English is the language of the African elite, it actually has many roles in development in Africa, the effects of which can trickle down to the masses. With good language planning, English is going to be the major international language for some time to come, which will help Africa and Africans to get connected within and beyond their national and regional boundaries.

It is definitely unhelpful for Africa to continue viewing English or any other international language as the language of colonisation or imperialism. Africans need to go beyond this and see the usefulness of English without it dominating or deterring the development of our indigenous cultures and languages.
What Africa needs is an optimisation (Batibo 2007) of linguistic resources (including national, local and international languages), in the continent as a whole and in each individual country. This requires an effective language policy to manage multilingualism and the competition for resources and status between the indigenous languages themselves and between English and the indigenous languages or other international languages.

There also needs to be some solid research on Africans? perceptions of the value of English, so that the debate on language planning can move beyond the whim of the elites. English is going to be even more important as Africa, its member states and its citizens engage with the rest of the world more meaningfully. As governments and people become more confident to have their say in global economic, social and political matters, the demand for English will increase.

References

1. H. Coleman (ed.), Language and Development in Africa and Beyond: Proceedings of the 7th International Language and Development Conference.

2. Apia, K.D. 2010. Contribution to ?Ambitions for English in Francophone West Africa? Project.

3. BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation). 2005. African success in UK highlighted.
4. BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation). 2010. Brain gain: African migrants returning home.

5. Bogale, B. 2009. Language determination in Ethiopia

6. Chimhundu, H. 2002. Language Policies in Africa: Final Report of Intergovernmental Conference on Language Policies in Africa, Harare, Zimbabwe etc.

7. Clegg, J. 2007. Moving towards bilingual education in Africa.

8. Graddol, D. 1997. The Future of English. London

9. Idris, H.F., Legère, K. and Rosendal, T. 2007. Language policy in selected African countries: Achievements and constraints.

10. Williams, E. 2011. Language policy, politics and development in Africa.

11. Phillipson, R. 1996. Linguistic imperialism: African perspectives.

Date: 2016-06-12; view: 160