Reading Methodologies for African Languages: Avoiding Linguistic and Pedagogical Imperialism

Abstract

Learning to read and write is a psycholinguistic and social process. That is why mother-tongue speakers of minority African languages find learning to read in the language they speak is a qualitatively better learning experience than learning to read in a language they are unfamiliar with. However, reading methodologies used for teaching reading in sub-Saharan Africa are usually borrowed from other linguistic environments. Having been developed and tested on learners in the West, in European languages, these methodologies reflect their linguistic origins in a way that disadvantages Africans who attempt to use them for mother-tongue literacy learning. This paper argues for matching reading methodologies in Africa to the linguistic characteristics of the learners’ languages. Particular language families have linguistic distinctives that need to be taken into consideration; orthographic distinctives of the various languages must also be considered for the most effective choice of literacy learning methods. These complexities are often ignored in the formal school environment, where the influence of European languages and traditional Western reading methods is strong. For those Africans who cannot read or write, literacy instruction in their mother tongue is immensely advantageous to the learning process.