I think this is a very interesting study into the use of African languages as medium of instruction since Ethiopia is the African country with the longest number of years of study in African languages by the children at this point. Also, different language policy used in Ethiopia allow the comparison of the different level of imported languages used (or not).
The text is written with the objective of being a valuable source of information for policy makers and people interested in the effectiveness of the use of African languages in education in any country. Bacically, the conclusion is that the best model is the multilingual/trilingual model where the number of years the children are taught in their own mother tongue is maximized. The trilingual model is one that use: 1 - African languages (mother tongue/closest familiar local languages) as language of instructions 2 - Another local/national language as a second language 3 - International (english, french) language as a second language So children learn in their mother tongue and learn 2 other languages as subjects. In my opinion such policy should be used at all level from primary to university. This study, among others, shows considerable advantage of using it for at least 8 years (then use one international imported language for teaching while the other 2 stays subjects). http://www.hsrc.ac.za/research/output/outputDocuments/4379_Heugh_Studyonmediumofinstruction.pdf ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AfricanLanguages/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AfricanLanguages/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: africanlanguages-dig...@yahoogroups.com africanlanguages-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: africanlanguages-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
