FYI - Fwd from lgpolicy-list. I'm still puzzled by high pronouncements about "bilingualism" in countries where people are commonly multilingual - the assumption being that only English & French count as languages? See also previous messages on this group, nos. 610 & 778.
Also there are some errors concerning Rwanda: it was never ruled by Britain and it has 3 official languages now since adding English (the other two are Kinyarwanda and French). Don Language policy will engender national development Research & Devt Council Boss Education Jul 28, 2010 Share | By Olubusuyi Adenipekun http://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/07/28/language-policy-will-engender-national -development-research-devt-council-boss/ Recently, a roundtable of stakeholders on the development of a National Language Policy for Nigeria (NLPN) was convened in Abuja by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council where a Technical Committee on the development of a NLPN was constituted after serious brainstorming. About six weeks after, on July 13th to be precise, the technical committee, made up of representatives from relevant miniseries, Language Institutes, French and Arabic Languages Villages, Department of Languages and Linguistic of tertiary institutions, parastatlas, the six geo-political zones, experts and other critical stakeholders, was inaugurated. Professor Haliru Amfani, President of the Linguistic Association of Nigeria and member of NERDC Governing Board is the chairman of the committee. Under its terms of reference, the committee is expected to study the synthesized report of the roundtable earlier held, consider other relevant information and materials, and develop a draft blueprint for the National Language Policy within three months from the date of inauguration. The Executive Secretary of NERDC, the parastatal which is spearheading the drive for a National Language Policy, Professor Godswill Obioma, in this interview, sheds more light on the rationale for the policy comprehensively citing instances of benefits which have accrued to countries that have adopted a national language policy. The rationale for a national language policy There are four institutions involved in language activities. The Nigeria French Language Village is involved in building the capacity of Nigerians, stakeholders, legislators, public servants and private individuals in French. You have the Nigeria Arabic Language Village: In Nigeria, we have Moslems and they convey their thoughts in Arabic, hence there is a need for Arabic language. And that will address the issue of Arabic language culture. Then, we have the Institute of Nigeria Languages in Aba. That has to do with teachers capacity building, to provide capacity for teachers to cope with teaching Nigeria languages in schools or to cope with teaching teacher educators. Finally, we have the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council and we have Language Development Centre which promotes the Nigerian languages. We also initiate action for language development in a generic sense. So you could see a concert of activities between and among these entities Ive mentioned. The NERDC provides the environment in which language development could thrive, whether its French, whether its Arabic or Nigerian languages and so on. And that is the issue on essence of national language policy. So, the fact that these language entities exist is not a contradiction. They work to converge to ensure that language activity is at the forefront of national development of Nigeria. Coming back to the issue of why do we need a national language policy, Ive always tried to tell people that the strive to have a national language policy needs not translate to having one national language. But it may and I will give you two examples. In Indonesia, for instance, it did translate into one national language Boha-Indonesia. Indonesia has 750 language nationalities. But Indonesia has, over the years, one national language for spoken strategy, for doing government business, communication in the National Assembly, for diplomacy, for University teaching. They adopted one national language out of 750 languages. That is their national language policy. South Africa, for example, has various language nationalities but they have adopted 12 for transaction of business, for teaching in Universities, for conducting business and government activities. That is their national language policy. In Nigeria, we have 500 language nationalities based on the last language delineation we did in the council. We should ask ourselves that: Out of these 500, what should be the focus of Nigeria in terms of national language policy? Can we evolve one? Which one can we say we want to treat nationally, the one to promote, to use to do government business so that we can cohere and understand ourselves as we see in other developed climes? I remember Rwanda for instance. Rwanda has passed through various colonial governments British, Germany, French and so on and they have gone through these in terms of language development but as soon as Rwanda became a Republic, they now said we want bi-lingual, they said we want to speak two languages French and English. And they made every effort to ensure that everybody is bi-lingual. Look at Cameroun for instance. The Western Cameroun is English speaking and Eastern Cameroun is French speaking. So, Cameroun is promoting bi-lingualism and that is their language policy. So, because of the importance of language development, because of the importance of language in economic and social development, in Nigeria must ask ourselves: What is our language policy? That is the essence of what we are doing by inaugurating the National Technical Committee on the development of a national language policy for Nigeria. This committee will make wide consultations, they will go to public hearing in the geo-political zones of the country, they will go to all kinds of stakeholders, they will have reports, there will be plenary at the national level and then work out a blueprint. At the end of the day, we may end up having a number of languages that we will adopt, we may end up saying lets have one language as it is in Indonesia. I recall my father told me when I was a kid before the civil war that it was being mooted that since Hausa was mostly spoken in the Northern Nigeria with the greater population and spoken across West Africa, why dont we adopt Hausa. There were discussions and that was how this issue of Yoruba, Hausa, Ibo came up. Yoruba language for the South-West and Mid-West at that time, Ibo for the South East and the whole of the South South and Hausa language for the whole of the North. But people are now saying that we need to also look at ethnic languages that we will now call language of nationalities. Do we allow them to go into extinction? Do we promote them? What is the policy? Even constitutionally, we say that state assemblies should promote the state language. But what is the policy to guide this? Should state that has many languages adopt just one? So, we need to ask ourselves, because of the importance of language in development, what kind of language policy do we require in Nigeria? And the chair of the National Technical Committee on the development of a national language policy, Prof. Haliru Amfani did say that this is something they have been yearning for in the last 20 years. Thank God that NERDC is now championing the cause. Benefits of having a national language policy. A national language policy in Nigeria will assist us in diplomacy, cohesion, conflict resolution, interaction among and between our neighbours. It will also assist us to increase learning in schools because if we have a national language policy, we can decide which one do we use to teach to convey knowledge in schools. I keep saying that knowledge acquisition and creation is cultural. I think better in the language I speak most as a first language. You can see me striving to translate my thoughts into English. So, having a national language policy will give us a focus like other countries and it will be a symbol of unity. On the existence of English as the official language in Nigeria We inherited English from our colonial background. Recently too because of the need to be bi-lingual, Nigeria had to adopt French as second national language and we are doing everything to promote that. But we are talking about a national language policy. Prof. Babs Fafunwa came up with a beautiful idea in the early 70s through an experiment in which some primary school pupils were taught in Yoruba and their counterparts were taught in English. It was found that those who were taught in Yoruba had an edge over their counterparts taught in English when a comparative analysis of their achievement was carried out. So, if you are taught in a particular language which is cultural to you, you are likely going to excel beyond translating your thoughts from your native language to a foreign language. Yes, English is our official language. But, is it possible to form a policy in which to promote our languages for instruction, transaction, diplomacy, and commerce. If you go to Indonesia, they speak English but everybody speaks Boha-Indonesia. Why cant we do the same in Nigeria. China is ruling the world because everything is done in Chinese language. Malaysia and Singapore are thriving because they create ideas in their native languages. The same thing goes for Japan and Russia. Im not saying that we should translate to one language in Nigeria. What we are saying is that we must create a platform in which we say these are the languages we want to promote. How the existing policy supports the national language policy The existing policy says pupils should be taught in their mother tongue in the first three years at primary schools. This policy supports and gives life to what we are doing. 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