International Journal of Bilingual
Education and Bilingualism
Editor: Colin Baker, University of Wales, Bangor
Review Editor: Aneta Pavlenko, Temple University, Philadelpia
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Volume: 6 Number: 1 Page: 17–36
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Postmodernist Perspectives on Local Languages: African Mother-tongue Education in Times of Globalisation
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Christopher Stroud
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Globalisation carries a number of implications for developing communities. Although the extended use of African vernaculars would be one way for these communities to counteract some of the more negative
effects of globalisation, educational uses of local languages are not the panacea they are thought to be. In fact, the way that local languages are managed and provided for in education tends more to reinforce
the negative effects of globalisation than facilitate the promotion of local values, often directly contributing to a marginalisation of these languages and their speakers. The paper analyses some of the
ways in which language-in-education policies have attempted to come to grips with this problem, employing Bourdieu's notion of legitimate language to provide a theoretical perspective. An analysis of how
communities use language shows that indigenous languages coexist with metropolitan languages in complex configurations of speech practices. The paper argues that these practices should suggest a rethinking
of the purpose, function and methodology of teaching languages in developing African contexts, building on the ways that local communities themselves use multilingualism to address power relationships inherent
in the local–global configuration. The paper concludes with some implications that this stance holds for selected issues related to schooling.
© Multilingual Matters 2003
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