The result has been a consistent infringement on the linguistic rights of children, with its corresponding denial of the right to equal educational opportunities as enshrined in our Constitution.īeyond the educational sector, not much is heard about language policies in other domains of our nation. The successful implementation of these policies has however been hampered by inadequate preparation, uncooperative attitudes and insufficient supervision. Even so, it has been a checkered history of either using indigenous languages or English, or sometimes both, in the first few years of basic education (Amfo 2013 Ansah 2014). The education sector appears to be the only sector of the economy which has received long-standing attention when it comes to legislating on which language should be used as medium of instruction in basic schools. Language policy in Ghana is almost synonymous to language-in-education policy. In addition to the role of English in governance, commerce and external affairs, it is used as a medium of instruction in education. This appeared to have been done as a matter of course rather than by any legislative instrument. It chose English which was the colonial language already in use in the territory. Immediately following independence, Ghana like most other African countries, had to settle on the language(s) to be used for transaction of governance, commerce and external affairs. The above situation notwithstanding, these languages are expected to play critical roles in providing access to education and essential public services such as justice and health. Languages with limited communication functions, which largely include minority languages are placed on the third level. 2020 describe as the “de facto working national language” of Ghana. It is followed by Akan, which Ebehard et al. English occupies the highest level in that pattern. These languages have distinct and complementary roles (Babito 2005). The language model in Ghana is a triglossic one with at least three languages being spoken in a particular speech community. Its use for this purpose can be found in slum communities in the South as well, where the residents are of northern descent. In some Northern parts of the country, Hausa, even though non-indigenous to Ghana, plays a significant role as a lingua franca. It is native to 9 out of the 16 regions in the country. Akan is considered as a major lingua franca, especially in the Southern part of the country. That gives it a privileged place in the nation’s communication interactions, associating it with social prestige and power (Guerini 2008). English is the de facto official language, resulting from our British colonial history. (2020) mention Akan and English as the principal languages used in the country. In spite of the above-mentioned number of languages present in the country, Eberhard et al. 6 are in trouble, and 2 are dying (Eberhard et al. 14 are considered as vigorous, since they are used for cross generational face-to-face communication in a sustainable way. 46 are developing these languages are in active use, with limited standardized literature. 13 of these languages are institutional, as they are used as languages of wider communication, and enjoy both governmental and non-governmental support. 73 of these languages are indigenous while 8 are non-indigenous. It has 81 living languages for a population of approximately 29 million people. Ghana, like most African countries, is a truly multilingual country. In the following, I outline the multilingual situation of Ghana (West Africa), while examining policies and practices in education, governance and health. At the same time, the quest to communicate with each other across borders has led to the rise of English as a world lingua franca, with over 1.2 billion native and second language speakers globally (Eberhard et al 2020). With migration and mobility, communities, previously thought to be monolingual, are gradually increasing their language repertoires. By and large, many communities around the world can be considered as multilingual. Multilingualism, the ability to communicate in more than one language, could be a personal or national attribute.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |