Language Economics and Issues of Planning for Minority Languages in Africa

Abstract

This chapter addresses the perennial question of defining the role of Africa’s indigenous languages in juxtaposition with former colonial languages in education. Traditionally, African countries have addressed this question by focusing on the production but with no attention to the reception of language policy. Haarmann (Int J Sociol Lang 86:103–126, 1990) describes the former as legislation about the status of languages in a polity and the latter as the population’s attitude, negative or positive, toward the policy. This chapter considers both the production and reception of language policy in Africa. Drawing on theoretical developments in language economics (Grin et al. The economics of the multilingual workplace. Routledge, London/New York, 2010) and critical theory (Tollefson, Language policy in a time of crisis and transformation. In: Tollefson JW (ed) Language policies in education – critical issues, 2nd edition, Routledge, New York/London, pp 11–34, 2013; Bourdieu 1990), it argues that any language policy designed to promote Africa’s indigenous languages in education must demonstrate economic advantages if the intent is to succeed (Kamwangamalu, Lang Probl Lang Plann 34:1–23, 2010; Language policy and economics – the language question in Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2016).