Overview
This book addresses the perennial question of how to promote Africa’s indigenous languages as medium of instruction in educational systems. Breaking with the traditional approach to the continent’s language question by focusing on the often overlooked issue of the link between African languages and economic development, Language Policy and Economics argues that African languages are an integral part of a nation’s socio-political and economic development. Therefore, the book argues that any language policy designed to promote these languages in such higher domains as the educational system in particular must have economic advantages if the intent is to succeed, and proposes Prestige Planning as the way to address this issue. The proposition is a welcome break away from language policies which pay lip-service to the empowerment of African languages while, by default, strengthening the stranglehold of imported European languages.
Full Product Details
Author: Nkonko M. Kamwangamalu ,
Nkonko M. Kamwangamalu
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Imprint: Palgrave Macmillan
Edition: 1st ed. 2016
Dimensions:
Width: 14.80cm
, Height: 1.90cm
, Length: 21.00cm
Weight: 4.401kg
ISBN: 9780230251724
ISBN 10: 0230251722
Pages: 232
Publication Date: 03 May 2016
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Manufactured on demand
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.
Reviews
The book is well-written, comprehensive, and laudable in its unique focus on language policy and economics. It recognises the contributions, challenges, and solutions involved with language questions in Africa. It provides a new approach for language-policy-and-planning studies around the world by balancing former colonial languages and African varieties through the lens of the author's model. ... The book is key for continuing treatments of the interactions between policy and practice, with specific emphasis on socioeconomic value in the linguistic market. (Tianwei Zhang, Journal of Mutilingual and Multicultural Development, Vol. 38, 2017)
Author Information
Nkonko M. Kamwangamalu is Professor of Linguistics at Howard University, Washington, DC. He is co-Editor of Current Issues in Language Planning, author of The Language Situation in South Africa (2004), of articles in Chicago Linguistic Society, Georgetown Roundtable on Language and Linguistics, International Journal of the Sociology of Language, Multilingua, Applied Linguistics, World Englishes, Language Problems and Language Planning, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, Studies in the Linguistics Sciences, to name a few, and of chapters in edited collections.
