Language-in-education planning in Tanzania: a sociolinguistic analysis

The study presents a sociolinguistic analysis of the current language-in-education policy implementation in Tanzania. The current sociolinguistic thinking on bilingual education and language-in-education planning informs this evaluation. The analysis is presented against the background of the sociolinguistic principles of bilingual education as developed by García (1997). The challenges regarding implementation of bilingual education policy have been identified. The study indicates that there is no link between the envisioned ideals of the state to promote bilingual education and what obtains in the Education and Training Policy (1995), the document currently relied upon as far as language policy in the Tanzanian educational set-up is concerned. Chapter 1 provides the background of language-in-education planning and policy in Africa, where the advocacy for the use of African languages is high on the agenda. The obstacles, regarding the use of African languages alongside “imported” languages, are pointed out. The common obstacles range from the perseverance of the elite to maintain the status quo, the problem of language attitudes people have towards foreign languages such as English, French and Portuguese and more importantly lack of understanding of the concept of bilingual education and how it operates. Chapter 2 discusses bilingual education programmes with the view of monolingual education, weak and strong bilingual education. Sociolinguistic principles of bilingual education and theoretical considerations related to bilingualism also form part of this chapter. The theories explain some myths which people have regarding how the brain works when it comes to having two languages in education. In addition, language planning and policy concepts have been described to avoid the misconception held in some sociolinguistic literature that they are synonyms and aspects of the same activity. Language planning is seen as the activity that leads to the promulgation of a lan
St Augustine University of Tanzania (SAUT)