INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
ON
FIRST AND SECOND LANGUAGES: EXPLORING
THE RELATIONSHIP IN PEDAGOGY-RELATED
CONTEXTS
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, ENGLAND
27-28 MARCH, 2009
Policy Shift, Inconsistency and the Reality of First and
Second Languages in Learning Contexts in the West
African Sub-Region
By
Professor Victor Benjie Owhotu
Department of Arts and Social Sciences Education
Faculty of Education
University of Lagos, Nigeria
Email:vowhotu@yahoo.com
POLICY SHIFT, INCONSISTENCY AND THE REALITY OF FIRST AND
SECOND LANGUAGES IN LEARNING CONTEXTS IN THE
WEST AFRICAN SUB-REGION
ABSTRACT
The West African sub-region presents a mosaic of languages in national education
systems, ranging from mother language, official colonial languages, language of the
immediate environment as well as other indigenous languages.
While the informal
learning contexts outside the school system promote considerable multilingualism
especially amongst internal migrant groups, problems may arise when a national language
policy inadvertently creates ‘artificial’ learning contexts and scenarios for most learners
in basic and post basic education. The questions that arise are: (a) Which languages in
the school system in multilingual and multicultural contexts of learning, and why? (b)
What specific problems do learners in such contexts encounter in L2 classes? (c) What
are the implications for the psychosocial and cultural identity of the learner? (d) How
should national language planning, the school curriculum and key stakeholders address
policy and learning inefficiencies? In order to provide answers to these questions, we
carried out a small-scale study of macro level policy trends and micro level realities of
first and second languages in basic education systems in selected countries in West
Africa, using both conventional and e-survey approaches. Results are discussed in
relation to macro and micro issues of language planning, learning inefficiencies and
curriculum reform, respectively.
1
INTRODUCTION
First and Second Languages in pedagogy-related contexts present issues and challenges at
two levels:
(a)
The macro system- wide policy design level and
(b)
The micro system- wide school-based, classroom level
Post-colonial countries of West Africa face significant challenges at both levels; all are
multilingual and multicultural contexts where the macro-level policy-related shifts and
inconsistencies affect expected outcomes of classroom instruction in first, second and
other languages which share a conflicting existence.
The 15 Member States of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)
created in May 1975, account for about 1000 languages, of which Nigeria has between
350 and 400 living, spoken languages. While estimates vary, the number of major African
languages – excluding dialects and other varieties is put at “some 1500 to 2000 that have
been differently classified” (SIL: Ethnologue 2000). In addition, the colonial languages,
English, French and Portuguese, still have a vital and dominant status in the national life
of all the former colonies, from governance and education to external relations and
external trade, over fifty years after political independence. Yet, as research has amply
demonstrated, the crucial educational and cultural importance of African languages in
post-colonial Africa cannot be overemphasized. Ouedraogo (2000) identifies at least
seven major transnational languages spoken by over 68 million people across several
countries: Hausa boasts 34 million speakers in 9 countries; Yoruba 12 million speakers in
3 countries; Fulfube (Fulfulde, Fulani), 11 million speakers in 13 countries; Mandika, 2.8
million speakers in 9 countries; Wolof, 3 million speakers in 3 countries; Ewe: 3.3 million
speakers in 3 countries, and Djula with 2 million speakers in 3 countries. More
importantly, the strong wave anti-colonial agitations of pre- and early post- independence
era would be the driving force of several major events that marked the evolution of
African language education policy and the first an second language relationships
between 1977 and 2007.
The Second Festival of African Cultures and Civilization (FESTAC) held in Nigeria in
1977 brought about the first post-colonial policy shift towards African Languages in
national education systems in Africa. Fifty–one countries from around the world
participated in the Colloquium on Black Civilization, History, Languages and Cultural
Heritage. It also attracted the active engagement of the United Nations Organization, and
2
UNESCO, whose advocacy had in fact begun in 1953 with the publication of The Use of
Vernacular Languages in Education. UNESCO’s subsequent roles in this regard would
be increasingly significant from the mid 1990s. The Colloquium made several important
recommendations to African governments, including:
(a)
Use and teaching of African language in education institutions in order to “ensure
harmonious and balanced training of African Youth”;
(b)
Delivery of literacy campaigns for the masses in African languages;
(c)
Publication and media dissemination of literary and scientific works and
development of information in African languages; and,
(d)
Collaboration in teaching and research in African languages (Amoda, 1998:209).
The second event took place in March 1997, when UNESCO, in collaboration with the
OAU (now African Union), the Francophone Agency (ACCT) and the Republic of
Zimbabwe, organized the Intergovernmental Conference of Ministers on Language Policy
in Africa during which over 50 Ministers and official experts adopted The Zimbabwe
Declaration, urging African Governments to:
(a)
Make clear policy statements, programme of tasks and time-tables for
implementation;
(b)
“Train language practitioners in the various professions and produce teaching and
learning resources including those required for second languages teaching and
learning; and
(c)
Give economic and other practical forms value to the languages by specifying
language requirements for specific domains such as education, training,
employment and citizenship. (www.google.org).
In 2000, the third policy event was the First International Conference on African
Languages and Literatures to be held in Africa, at the end of which, the conference
adopted The Asmara Declaration on African Languages and Literature. While the
Declaration was the informed position of an international community of concerned
African academics and scholars of Africans studies- therefore not binding on African
governments- its provisions were, nonetheless, relevant to the post-colonial policy reform
process at several levels: the linguistic and cultural rights issues and the development of
the capacity of African languages to cope with the evolution of Western science and
technology. The Declaration reiterated the fact that:
a)
African languages are essential for the decolonization of African minds and
African Renaissance;
3
b)
All African children have the unalienable right to attend school and learn in their
mother tongue; and,
c)
The effective and rapid development of science and technology in Africa depends
on the use of African languages, and modern technology must be used for the
development of African languages.
The fourth and fifth events/ reform strategies were the creation of African Academy of
Languages (ACALAN) in Mali, in 2001, followed in June 2006, by the launch by the
African Union of the Year of African Languages (YOAL) to commemorate the 20th
anniversary of the Language Plan of Action for Africa (ILPAA) in order “to provide
renewed impetus and commitment of African governments to take practical steps to
increase the use of African Languages in…domains, particularly education” and the
establishment of ACALAN’s structures (www.acalan.org/).
Despite the policy shift and reform strategies adopted by Member Countries since 1977,
implementation at the macro and micro-levels remains generally inconsistent. Ndoye
(2003: 4) illustrates the three dominant trends in African counties:
a)
Countries that have opted to maintain the status quo, avoiding any initiative
that questioned the existing order. The western language remains the language of
instruction and the only official language used to government institutions and the
public sector.
b)
Countries which underwent slow, step-by-step change using African
languages in non-formal education and adult literacy programmes and
experimenting with them in the formal education system, taking policy
measures to promote African languages, opening up new, broader contexts for the
use of so-called national languages-without challenging the status of the
Western language.
c)
Countries that have embarked on a policy of in-depth change curtailing the
official use of the Western language to the benefits of African languages,
using the latter as the medium for learning in both formal and non-formal
education, promoting bilingualism and multilingualism.
In post-colonial multilingual countries, the macro-level policy trends provide a better
understanding of the micro-level school-based contexts of teaching and learning first,
second and other languages . A major question that arises, therefore, is: why the
campaign and the need for African/first/mother language in learning contexts in which
second colonial languages -English, French, Portuguese dominate? The brief review of
4
relevant literature which follows provides solid empirical insights into the relationship
between first and second languages and learner achievement at the micro or school-based
learning contexts.
Learning, but in which Languages? Empirical insights.
Ouedraogo (2000:47) points out that the prevailing language policy trends in African
countries, particularly in the so-called francophone countries, practically excludes the use
of African languages’…; the recurrent argument being that since there are too many
languages to contend with “it could be counter-productive to use them in education (and)
that since knowledge, science and technology are transmitted in English, and
French…,children would acquire them better and faster if they are taught English and
French early….” Bamgbose’s (1991:71) comments add an interesting perspective:
When the role of the language of wider communication as a language of
science and technology is added to the picture, historical constraint is
further reinforced by the argument that a language that is going to be
needed in any case for higher education, science and technology might as
well begin to feature in the educational process as soon as possible.
However, contrary to this widely held misconception, African researchers had first
convincingly demonstrated, empirically, some thirty-five years ago, that children taught
mathematics and other curriculum subjects using an African language as medium of
instruction over a six year experimental period significantly out- performed their control
group peers in all related aspects of the school curriculum (Fafunwa, et al. 1989). Several
other studies of the relationship of first/mother and second languages in learning contexts
carried out in Botswana, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, South Africa, and Tanzania have arrived
at similar findings. Recent experiments carried out in Mali and Burkina Faso between
1994 and 2000 showed significant improvements in learning outcomes and the reduction
of class repetition and dropout rates in basic education. Similarly, between 1994 and
2000, it was found that end-of-primary pass rates among Malian children who
transitioned gradually from a local language to French were on average 32% higher than
for children in French-only programmes (…..)”. In Burkina Faso, “Children with initial
literacy in Moore language before beginning instruction in French achieved better results
in French and mathematics than students who had only participated in French-language
schooling.
The use of local languages also ensures that the knowledge brought to
schooling is used as a basis for further learning” (ADEA 2006).
5
Beyond the African continent, similar results were also obtained in the United States of
America (University of California) between 1981 and 1991; and the United Kingdom –
University of Bradford between 1978 and 1981. The overwhelming evidence clearly
established by these investigations is summarized by The Association for the
Development of Education in Africa, as follows:
L’utilisation de la langue maternelle comme langue d’instruction dans les
premières années d’apprentissage comporte des avantages certains,
particulièrement au niveau du développement des facultés cognitives. Par
contre, lorsque la langue d’instruction utilisée, en classe est différente de
celle déjà parlee par l’enfant, il en résulte des difficultés pédagogiques et
cognitives démontrées. (ADEA, 2008).
The implications of these recurrent and convergent findings go beyond the immediate
context of learning; it is a global challenge that UNESCO consistently reiterates:
Fifty percent of the world’s out-of-school children live in
communities where the language of schooling is rarely, if ever,
used at home. This underscores the biggest challenge to achieving
Education for All (EFA): a legacy of non-productive practices that
lead to low levels of learning and high levels of dropout and
repletion. In these circumstances, and increase in resources,
although necessary, would not be sufficient to produce universal
completion of a good-quality primary school program” (UNESCO
2005)
Since research has consistently shown that the use of the first language of the
learner in formal and non-formal learning contexts results in (i) increased access
and equity, (ii) improved learning outcomes, (iii) reduced repetition and drop out
rates; (iv) social-cultural benefits (of identity) and (v) lower overall costs, a
second related question about the policy inconsistencies is: “If it works so well,
why isn’t everyone doing it?” (UNESCO, 2005).
The general conclusion is that only a balanced approach to the use of first and second
languages in the curriculum would produce better results in learners’ cognitive
achievement and a balanced socio- cultural identity. We shall return to such related
issues.
6
Stakeholder inconsistencies and learning inefficiencies in first and
second language learning contexts.
There is a growing body of literature that shows that while national governments in
general have paid lip- service to the various policy statements, declarations and normative
instruments they have been parties to, ironically, learners and parents often prefer second
(colonial) languages as medium of instruction to their first or mother language as medium
of instruction, often seen as an impediment to social status and mobility. Success in
business, industry and the top professions such as medicine, and engineering is closely
related to the mastery of the second official/colonial languages (English, French,
Portuguese), and a key question often asked is about what lucrative and respectable jobs a
graduate of Yoruba or Igbo languages can aspire to beyond teaching? One serious
consequence of such attitudes is apparent in the large population of school age children
who neither speak nor understand their mother language. In most cases, both parents
speak the same mother tongue. The global policy shifts towards mother language
education, though slow-paced and inconsistent, is in recognition of the mother tongue as
the strongest foundation for academic achievement and further language learning and
multilingual education in basic, post basic education and beyond In other words, there is
an inverse movement amongst stakeholders towards different goals and the adoption of an
unstable second language identity on the part of learners.
Ohiri-Aniche’s (1999: 106-114) study drew the attention of language policy makers and
planners to the low esteem in which Nigerian languages were held among secondary
school students in five States of Nigeria underscored by their overwhelming preference
for English and French over and above their mother language. Whereas, most students
(76%) still communicated with their parents using a Nigerian language, only 58% used it
with their siblings at home. Furthermore, only 19% of Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba students
mentioned a Nigerian language as one of their favourite languages”. In another study,
Ohiri-Aniche (2007: 127-140) found similar results in a survey of parents’ opinions,
drawn from the three major and other minority Nigerian languages:
Among children under 5 years of age, 76.32 percent understand their
parents’ indigenous language (L1) but only 56.58 percent can speak it. In
the age group 6 – 11 years, 87.50 percent understand parent’s L1, while
only 68.05 percent can speak it. Parents who bring up their children to
speak their L1 do so mainly because they feel the children ought to know
the language and culture of their people. Parents who choose to bring up
their children to speak English say it is because the children need English
for school.
7
Nwige’s (2008) findings present a graphic picture of the interface between first language
or L1 and English as a second language among students of Igbo origin in selected Junior
Secondary schools in Lagos State of Nigeria. Some critical findings include:
a)
that a considerable number of children of Igbo parents cannot communicate in
their mother –tongue;
b)
that the Igbo language instructional materials were unsuitable, difficult and
therefore of little use to this category of students;
c)
that the Igbo students studying Igbo as second Nigerian language were at or even
below par with their peers- speakers of other mother languages who were studying
Igbo as a second Nigerian language.
A remarkable situation of double jeopardy in terms of chronically poor learning
achievements has been the grim realty for over three decades now. In spite of the general
preference for English and the matching social identity, the performances of students
across languages in the secondary school public examinations over the past three decades,
have been generally poor. For instance, the results of the West African Senior Secondary
School Examinations (WASSCE) in the past three years (Tables 1 and 2) are typical of
the trend and challenges of the conflicting co-existence of first and second languages in
the curriculum. The statistics for the mean failure rate (excluding non-credit level pass,
worthless for matriculation) for all languages from 1976 and 1984 was a mere 55.54%.
Owhotu’s (1987: 46-59) response to the statistics was to suggest a rationalized/functional
language curriculum in order to, among others, significantly reduce the overload of 5
languages that between them accounted for about 40% of the Junior Secondary School
subjects learners had to cope with. The idea of the rational/functional option is illustrated
by the string of questions we raised: it was not so much who needs French or English or
Yoruba? But a question of for what purpose? What functions in the school- based
learning contexts should each language in the curriculum assume? What should be the
expectancy parameters of basic language skills that learners should attain in each
language studied?
8
Recent WASSCE statistics for 2002 to 2008 underscore the chronic problems of poor
achievement of L1 students in the West African Secondary School Examination
(WASSCE) across the language curriculum.
TABLE 1: WAEC NON-CREDIT PASS + FAIL RATES: 2002, 2003, 2004
Languages
Arabic
English
French
Hausa
Igbo
Yoruba
Total No. Sat
(A)
16,633
2,672,363
3,916
342,541
381,306
861,181
Non-Credit
Pass
(B)
3,761
875,801
565
95,857
66,548
386,181
Fail
(C)
Percentage
(B + C)
6,800
1,025,861
1,332
80,797
66,160
172,440
63.49
71.16
48.44
51.57
34.80
64.94
Source: Computed from West African Examinations Council May/June 2005.
TABLE 2: WAEC NON-CREDIT PASS + FAIL RATES: 2005, 2006, 2007
Languages
Arabic
English
French
Hausa
Igbo
Yoruba
Total No. Sat
(A)
30,098
3,471,423
6,997
542,577
508,498
932,167
Non-Credit
Pass
(B)
10,375
814,518
1,714
147,279
140,899
152,573
Fail
(C)
Percentage
(B + C)
11,756
2,345,985
3,017
323,465
252,746
487,782
73.52
91.04
67.67
86.76
77.41
61.09
Source: Computed from West African Examinations Council (WAEC), May/June 2008.
The major lesson here is that despite the preference of learners and parents for second
language identity, their poor mastery of both languages, given the statistics, remains
among the greatest challenges for the school curriculum.
A SURVEY OF STAKEHOLDERS’ OPINIONS
Purpose of the Survey.
Against the backdrop of the literature and the need to investigate the current state and
related issues of first and second languages at the school -based level, we conducted a
small scale questionnaire survey of key stakeholders’ opinions in selected countries in
West Africa with a view to evaluate the prevalence or otherwise of the micro level
learning shifts and inefficiencies in schools.
9
Research Questions (RQ)
Four research questions guided the study. They were reflected in each of the three
questionnaires administered:
1.
Which languages in the school system in multilingual learning contexts?
2.
What specific problems do learners encounter in L2 (Official) classes?
3.
What are the psychosocial and cultural implications for children who cannot speak
their mother tongue?
4.
How should the school curriculum and key stakeholders address shifts,
inconsistencies and learner inefficiencies?
METHOD
Three sets of questionnaire were prepared and administered between August 2008 and
January 2009:
1.
A 21- item paper questionnaire for university language teachers and language
student teachers in the University of Lagos;
2.
An 8- item paper questionnaire for teachers across the language curriculum in
selected secondary public and private school in Lagos Metropolis;
3.
A 3- item electronic questionnaire for stakeholders/applied linguists and language
educators in Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Mali.
RESULTS
Only the responses from Nigeria are reflected here as there was only 1 response from the
Ivory Coast to our e-questionnaire sending us a document on the latest plan of action of
the African Academy of Languages (ACALAN) rather than address the questionnaire
items directly. Both the direct and related responses to each questionnaire item are
presented for each research question (RQ).
Paper Questionnaire I (University language teachers and language student teachers,
N = 96)
Research Question 1
The frequencies of respondents’ opinions about which language(s) to be learned in school
are as follows:
Children have a fundamental human right to be educated, first, in their mother tongue
(76.04% Yes; 10.40% undecided; 15.62% No).
10
Maintain official (colonial languages) and encourage use of African languages in schools
(79.16%: yes; No: 8.33%; undecided: 7.29%).
Each country should produce a policy for each language to find its place in the education
system (yes: 85.41%; No: 5.20%; undecided: 5.20%).
Paper Questionnaire II (Secondary school language teachers = 55)
Research Question 1:
The majority of language teachers thought that Children should master their mother
tongue before English (72.72%, Yes; 9.09%, No).
Research Question 2:
The following problems were highlighted:
Poor mastery of both English and mother tongue (81.81%);
Listening comprehension (16.36%);
Speaking (69.09%);
Reading (43.63%);
Writing (63.63%);
Pronunciation (50.90%);
Intonation (36.36%);
Linguistic/Language interference (38.18%);
Poor attitude of learners to L1 (67.27%).
Research Question 3:
The respondents highlighted the following implications for children who do not know
their mother language: Loss of identity since having a local L1 name does not in
itself confer L1 linguistic and cultural identity, only mastery of language and
culture does. Such an unstable identity creates psychological and cultural
embarrassment, social deficiency and inferiority complex, alienation, poor
cognitive development, ostracism and cultural stigma.
Research Question 4:
In terms of respondents’ suggestions for reform, respondents reiterated the following : the
need to teach children phonics and speaking skill; government and school
management should install a well -equipped language laboratory in every school;
mother tongue education should be a compulsory subject to be studied before
English; that parents should teach their children their mother language and
culture; school authority and government should demonstrate more political will,
while teachers should adopt motivating teaching and learning activities in the
language classroom.
DISCUSSION
11
It should be clear from this result that mastery of both English and mother tongue leaves
much to be desired even though parents and learners themselves generally prefer English
to their mother language. Poor attitude to learning has been highlighted by 67.27% of
respondents. The problems of speaking, writing and pronunciation skills development are
still very much a challenge in the first and second language learning contexts. Language
interference is equally worthy of note in both second official language (English) and
second Nigerian language, and foreign language, notably French. In the case of French as
a foreign language, the types of problems of interference typical of the Nigerian learner at
the crossroad of mother tongue and English, are similar to those investigated elsewhere
by Handcock and Kirchmeyer (2005: 17-35) on the relative clause; Schlyter (2005: 3662) on adverbs and functional categories; Antrim (2008: 42-45) on prepositions and
verbal expressions; Howard, M. (2005: 63-87) on the emergence and use of the plus-queparfait; Myles, F. (2005: 88-113) on the emergence of morpho-syntactic structure in
French L2, and gender and number (Prodeau: 2005: 135-163). Learners of English in the
multi linguistic contexts of former colonies have their fair share of learning inefficiencies
due the influence of the first or mother language. The realities of varieties of English have
finally led to the recognition of World Englishes. Today, one accepts readily the
existence of Nigerian English, Ghanaian English, Ivorian and Togolese French etc.
An important issue for the macro and micro levels of language learning are those of
language rights, the psychosocial and cultural implications for children who cannot speak
their mother language, and the perceived order in which languages should be learned. On
those issues, 72% of respondents believed that children should master their mother
language before English or French or second Nigerian Language; b) 76.04% agreed that it
was a fundamental human and cultural rights issue for children to be educated in their
mother language, and c) the psycho cultural implications for children who lack mastery of
their L1 were said to be far reaching, ranging from inferiority complex to cultural
ostracism. First or mother language was appreciated for what it is: a vital and life long
vector of self-esteem, cultural identity and informed understanding of multiculturalism
and multilingual education. It is within this context of learning that a harmonious,
relationship between first and second and other languages and cultures can be further
nurtured and institutionalized through national language policy design and planning in
African countries.
Tong’s (1997: 43-60) study of L1-L2 relationship beyond the native culture and country
reveals, for instance
the existence of some cultural tensions Chinese bilingual and bicultural
youngsters experience as they seek to understand the American culture
and learn English as a second language. The Chinese language represented
a way of maintaining their own identity while adapting socially to the
majority culture by developing a cross cultural identity they are able to
maintain their ethnic loyalties as they struggle to find a cultural voice in
America.
Alexander and Busch (2007: 9-22) also advocate the solid grounding of the learner in
his/her indigenous language. Mother tongue education, they hold, promotes indigenous
12
knowledge and cultural identity while multiculturalism promotes relativity, comparative
insight into linguistic diversity and balanced global citizenship. They rightly suggest that:
Without a democratic language policy involving the use of first or home
languages as widely as possible in all spheres of society and economy,
democracy remains a dead letter (…).we know that children can learn to
read and write two (and in individual cases, even more), languages at the
same time (…) research on biliteracy is one of the most urgent priorities
for enhancing the possibility of realizing the goals of promoting and
maintaining linguistic diversity and spreading literacy skills as widely as
possible.
Last, despite their reservations, 79.16 % of respondents’ views on macro level
policy/language planning were in favour of maintaining the official language and
encouraging the use of African languages in schools, while 85.41% also agreed that there
was a need for each African country to have a policy that would ensure a place for each
African language in the school curriculum.
CONCLUSION
Shifts, inconsistencies and inefficiencies have been examined at the macro policy design
and micro school-based levels respectively. In developing countries with a colonial
heritage-linguistic and political, both levels have to be considered together becaues they
provide a holistic basis for understanding the key sources and challenges of pedagogyrelated contexts of first and second languages. If the overwhelming pieces of empirical
evidence from several countries around the world, discussed earlier, attest to the critical
role of first/mother language in enhancing cognitive and balanced psycho-cultural
learning achievements, it has also characterized and delineated the real relationship of
first and second official/colonial languages in pedagogy-related context in multilingual
countries of sub-Saharan Africa.
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