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- Title
Is "English-centric bilingualism" suffocating Namibian National and Indigenous Languages?
- Authors
Smit, Talita C.
- Abstract
Namibia is a multi-lingual country with thirteen national languages, as well as a number of other minority languages. A real concern is growing that the hegemonic position of English as official language, is having a detrimental effect on Namibian languages. According to Demont-Heinrich (2010, p. 282), "the global spread of English is having an impact on other languages in terms of the learning, or really, the not-learning, of ... other languages." English has also been adopted as the language of instruction in government schools. Although the language policy of Namibia allows Namibian children to receive their initial literacy training in the mother tongue, it appears that many schools opt for an English-only approach already from Grade One. English is, furthermore, increasingly seen by many of the Namibian population as the language of upward mobility. From the findings of this exploratory study it appears that the language preferences of the next generation of adults in Namibia have already shifted away from the Namibian languages towards English as the language of general communication. Demont-Heinrich (2010, p. 82) indicates that much of the world is investing in multilingualism, or, increasingly, in what he terms as "English-centric bilingualism" - a form of 'multi-lingualism' in which people, for whom English is not a first language, possess a high level of proficiency in English but not similar proficiency in another language - often their mother tongue. Posel and Zeller's study (2011) highlights the phenomenon that in a multi-lingual society, the language an individual usually speaks at home is not necessarily the individual's mother tongue. The Namibian language situation, therefore, is not unique.
- Subjects
NAMIBIA; LANGUAGE policy; HEGEMONY; MULTILINGUALISM -- Social aspects; ENGLISH language; NATIVE language; CULTURAL policy
- Publication
NAWA Journal of Language & Communication, 2012, Vol 6, Issue 2, p82
- ISSN
1993-3835
- Publication type
Article