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Drawing on an ethnographic study of academic literacy practices in the applied social sciences, this paper builds on research which seeks to make visible the increasingly complex linguistic diversity in English-dominant universities (Universities in the Anglophone Centre: Sites of multilingualism. In L. Wei (Ed.). Applied linguistics review (Vol. 2, pp. 121-145). Berlin/New York: De Gruyter Mouton) by offering a detailed reading of the multilingual repertoires reported by students who identify with London's African migrant communities. The paper analyses data selected from in-depth interviews with under-graduate students who identify as speakers of English, but also Swahili and the other non-prestige language varieties comprising their complex repertoires (Blommaert, J., & Backus, A. (2011). Repertoires revisited: "Knowing language". In Superdiversity (Working papers in urban language and literacies 67). London, England: King's College). These repertoires are intertwined with life experiences and we argue that there is a need for a more nuanced faculty understanding of this. While the scope of multilingual repertoires poses some challenges for employing plurilingual pedagogies in curriculum spaces separate from linguistically-oriented programmes, namely the applied social sciences, we suggest that faculty initiatives such as teacher training courses could have a role in raising awareness of hidden repertoires.

The paper revisits the debate on the new forms of English and proposes a curricular reform that would make the teaching of English in Africa effective and profitable. The discussion is based on sample texts from Kenyan users of English and relates the linguistic form to the sociocultural contexts in which the language is used. The paper argues for the identification and codification of a local standard English anchored on the performance of "educated and articulate" Kenyans and not on the native-speaker model. The paper then recommends a curriculum reform that focuses on language use and function and that situates language teaching in the social-cultural and historical context of the learners and teachers. Doing this would make English language learning and teaching relevant to the aspirations of the people. Finally, the paper also argues that multiple standards of English around the world will not necessarily foster intercultural misunderstanding, but on the contrary, it would enhance mutual respect and increase intercultural interaction.

The paper reports the results of a survey of parents (n=12), teachers (n=8) and pupils (n=20) in primary schools in rural Kenya. The sample was divided equally between multilingual and monolingual schools, the former using English or Kiswahili only, right through primary school, the latter using the mother tongue (in this case, Kalenjin) Kalenjin in primary classes 1-3, and English or Kiswahili from primary class 4 on, where the children are on average 9 years old. Virtually all the respondents preferred using English or Kiswahili instead of their mother tongue as the language of instruction in primary classes 1-3. The paper discusses the findings and their implications for further research and policy-making.

This paper discusses the potentiality of Kiswahili in accelerating social, political, economic and cultural integration within the Great Lakes Region. Presently, Kiswahili is a "de facto" lingua franca spoken by almost 100 million people in the world (Ntakirutimana, 2000). This is an indication of its viability in promoting unity among people with different linguistic backgrounds. In fact, the recommendation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) to adopt Kiswahili as a working language of the organisation in 1986 was motivated by this linguistic and cultural ability of the language. The paper discusses the reasons for the failure to implement these recommendations, and argues that the development of trade within and across borders will be hindered where communication is based on different ethnic languages, or on foreign languages that are not understood by all. The logical basis for making Kiswahili the appropriate tool in facilitating unity and motivating socioeconomic integration in the Great Lakes region is outlined, and recommendations are made for the empowerment of Kiswahili adequately to meet this challenge.

This paper reports on an ethnographic case study which was carried out in a Kenyan first-grade classroom. The classroom had 89 students with their 2 teachers who taught at different times. The classroom was very crowded and had a high paucity of literacy materials. The study was guided by sociocultural and dialogic frameworks which maintain that social and dialogic interactions have important roles to play in a child's literacy and language development. Thus, the social life of the observed classroom was central to the children's literacy and language learning. Although there were a shortage of literacy materials and space limitations in this classroom, the Kiswahili teacher's mediating role and children's agency in this classroom were paramount. Through the teacher's dialogic instruction and mediation, the children's voices were recognised and acknowledged. There were dynamic classroom interactions and dialogues which involved different practices such as storytelling, peer-guided reading, play, and classroom talk. The study concluded that meaningful instruction and dialogue are important for meaningful language learning to occur. Also, oral and written language develop simultaneously in a classroom setting. Finally, classroom contexts play a major role in language learning.

Primary school enrolment in low-income countries has increased in recent years. The quality of education is, however, still a cause for concern. Better measurement of early reading progress has been suggested as a means of improving education quality. Benchmarks based on the number of 'words per minute' (WPM) students are able to read correctly have been proposed as a basis for assessment and comparison, even where languages and orthographies differ. This paper explores the extent to which WPM benchmarks, based mainly on research with native English speakers, are appropriate for cross-language comparisons. A quantitative study of early grade reading in two European (English and Dutch) and two African languages (Sabaot and Pokomo) analysed WPM and comprehension scores of over 300 children in three countries. Results indicate that similar comprehension scores were associated with diverse WPM rates. This suggests that WPM is not a reliable comparative measure of reading development since linguistic and orthographic features can differ considerably and are likely to influence the reading acquisition process. We argue that a good understanding of the languages of literacy (L1 and/or other) and their effects on reading acquisition are essential to the quest for quality education.

The present paper investigates students' experiences of being multilingual. Qualitative data have been collected during observation, focus groups, interviews and text writing in a public primary school in rural Kenya. The informants are students in standards one, three and eight whose mother tongue is the indigenous language called Nandi, which all these students use at home and with friends. The school languages are Swahili and English, and the use of Nandi is forbidden in school except in mother-tongue lessons in standards one to three. The aim of the study is to explore the students' experiences of being multilingual, and to analyse how the prohibition against the use of the mother tongue in school may influence their identity. The data are interpreted in the light of research and theory concerned with the influence of the colonisation of education in Africa and the effect of languages on identity. Results indicated that the students are proud of their vernacular language and culture, but also see the importance of being multilingual in a global world. The students agree with the prohibition against the use of their mother tongue in school, and understand that English and Swahili are important for education. The conclusion constitutes a critical contribution to add to earlier research about multilingualism and education in Africa. (Contains 4 notes.)

With reference to Kenya, the paper shows that although linguistic rights have been eloquently articulated in various charters and declarations, their implementation has been problematic. In Africa this has led to an imbalance of status between the former colonial languages and the indigenous ones. This imbalance is evident in the educational systems and in media practice. This state of affairs is attributed to lack of clear-cut democratic language policies, lack of programmes of policy implementation, negative attitudes towards indigenous languages and the complex language situation that obtains in many African countries. It is recommended that a guiding vision and a plan of action for implementing linguistic rights are necessary if linguistic justice is to prevail in Africa.