Abstract

In many countries, policymakers suspect that the use of local languages in education can result in excessive ethnicization, which may lead to conflicts and divide nations. The objectives of the study are to assess the basic cause that stays Ethiopia to not have its own language policy and to investigate opportunities that leads Ethiopian to have language policy. The subjects of this study are language experts, policy makers and politicians, and target speech community. The major data collection instrument was questionnaire. Interviews with key informants and document analysis were supplementary tools to achieve the objective of the research. To mention some of the findings, a development plan of a country in all aspects should primarily deal with the concrete study of the language issues. There is statistical relationship between measurement and evaluation made by policy makers and opportunities in current trends of Afaan Oromoo (p-0.001). The case of Oromo language is not far from this general perception. Unless this Linguistic right is gained by the Oromo language speakers, these people hardly feel the full citizenship in the entire country, Ethiopia, because they can feel discrimination due to their lack of real participation in the country’s overall activities. Such discrimination can even cause conflict at different occasions. As from the general principles of language use is argued, the question of the Oromo language use as a national language is realized, Ethiopia’s overall development remain only a wish for the prime reason of lack of Oromo people’s motivation in the involvement of political, economic, social activities. Value linguistic and cultural pluralism practically, as demonstrated in the constitution. Currently Ethiopia is in the refolution (reform and revolution) which means education policy, Health policy, foreign relation policy, public service policy, and other major pillars of policies and declarations are changed and/or modified. Therefore, possible to design an independent language policy. Amend the issue of Afaan Oromoo as federal alternative working language in the constitution.

Highlights

  • According to Aman (2014), those who argue against the mother tongue use in education claim that since English is used as a medium of instruction in secondary and higher education in Ethiopia, teaching children through their language in primary schools may weaken their proficiency development in English

  • General Objective The general objective of this study is to investigate the challenges and opportunities in Current Trends of Afaan Oromoo from language policy and implementation perspectives

  • The findings was noteworthy for the reasons: they are imperative to outline policy recommendations that are relevant to Ethiopian language policy or African language policy, the policy implications was drawn from the findings of this study, they can provide the need for reliable information on which the language policy development must be based and lastly, they can provide some information to other researchers who need to conduct further research in the area

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Summary

Introduction

It can provide bridges to new opportunities, or build barriers to equality. In multilingual country like Ethiopia multiple official language is advantageous. In Ethiopia “more than 80” languages are spoken. It very tough to know the exact number of languages spoken in Ethiopia that is why most linguist says “more than 80”. The other reason is that the number of languages spoken globally are decreasing dynamically. Among the many people living within the borders of present day of Ethiopia the Oromo constitute the most numerous (Bartels 1983: 13). As several sources indicate and the reality exhibits, Oromia is the biggest region in Ethiopia. Afaan Oromoo is one of the Cushiticspeaking groups of the people living in north east and east

Samuel Leykun and Tamiru Gari: “Language Policy” in Ethiopia
Research Problem
Specific Objectives of the Study The specific objectives of this study are
Rationale of the Study
Materials and Methods
The Study Subject
Techniques of Sampling
Document Analysis
Techniques of Data Analysis
Questionnaire
Analysis of Students’ Response to the Questionnaire
Conclusion and Recommendation
Full Text
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