Abstract

The language used in school represents a crucial and polemic question in multilingual societies. Sub-Saharan Africa represents a world region with a significant linguistic diversity. Until recently, most of these countries were European colonies. During colonial times, the colonizer language generally dominated in schools. After their independence, many countries have continued using that language as the instructional language. It is observed that quite often, children are schooled in a second language, and teachers must teach in a foreign language. This situation results in potentially negative consequences affecting school learning. The specific example of Ghana is examined. It is pointed out that in Ghana during recent years frequent changes have been introduced in school language. Commonly, English is used as the primary school language. Because this association between language and school learning, speaking English provides not only significant social prestige, but also results in better working opportunities. The question of so-called “international schools” in Ghana is also examined; most of these schools do not teach any of the Ghanaian languages, but a foreign language, such as French, Spanish, or Portuguese. It is argued that these international schools may have adverse consequences on Ghanaian children who attend them. Ghana, however, has been a strong advocate of the so-called “African personality” and the use of English as the medium of instruction is in overt opposition to this ideology. It is concluded that children schooled in a second language, and teachers teaching in language that they do not master well enough may represent a potential barrier for the social, scientific, and economic development of sub-Saharan African countries, such as Ghana.

Highlights

  • Worldwide, there are close to 7,000 different languages (Ethnologue, 2020)

  • Only English is the official language, there are eleven government-sponsered languages supported by the Bureau of Ghana Languages

  • There exists a language controversy concerning which language should be used as a medium of instruction in African schools, especially at the lower basic level dates back to the so-called “castle schools” and missionary era

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Summary

Introduction

There are close to 7,000 different languages (Ethnologue, 2020). In some countries of the former Soviet Union, as another example, Russian continues being used as the lingua franca. In India, where about 447 different languages are spoken (Ethnologue, 2020), English has the status of “subsidiary official language” and frequently is used in education, and governmental activities. In India only 0.02% of the population speaks English as a native language. Northern African countries (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt), are mostly Arabic speaking areas, and are not in conflict with the language used for instructional purposes. In most of the sub-Saharan countries, a significant diversity of national languages is spoken. Table presents the languages spoken in the 20 largest African sub-Saharan countries

Central African Republic
Language situation in Ghana
The history of language policies in Ghanaian schools
What about international schools in Ghana?
Conclusion
Findings
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