Building Capacity: Using TEFL and African Languages as Development-oriented Literacy Tools

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" ""Building Capacity promotes the vision that the teaching of African languages can best achieve its aim of boosting the economic and cultural development of the Africans if they are made to work in synergy with a revamping of the course contents of international languages that will be taught within the frame of a development-oriented literacy curriculum. Great emphasis is put on the oral skills in the use of African languages as they are to serve as a link between the community and the school for the ultimate revitalization of the positive aspects of African cultures in a world beset by globalization. The book is supplemented with a sample of texts in the appendix that are meant to be a bridge between formal texts taught in classrooms and literacy texts that can raise the genuine interests of the local populations in that they address their immediate needs. Among the possible topics language teachers are encouraged to explore in their classes are those concerning economic development, but also such issues as health, education, the environment, food security, and conflict resolution. """"In the face of the growing interest in the use of African Languages by Africans as symbols of personal and cultural identity and as means of empowering the rural communities in the entreprise of national development,the need for a methodologically appropriate manual to guide the teaching and learning of African languages becomes urgent.This book is a timely response, predicated on a policy of the symbiotic use of African languages along with partner (foreign-official) languages, to attain a balanced level of economic and socio-cultural development.It is based on a compendium of well- thought-out principles geared towards a rapid acquisition of written and oral language skills that are congruent with and reflect the socio-cultural and economic concerns of the linguistic community."""" Beban Sammy Chumbow, Professor of Linguistics, University of Yaounde I """"Among the numerous proposals in this book is the necessity for Africans, and I would add, for the communities of Asia and Latin America, to re-think the contents of their language courses and assign them an objective which aims at the integral development of their communities. It is indeed imperative that these courses reflect clear objectives of seeking social, cultural, and economic developments that harmonize with African, Asian, and Latin American values that are deep rooted in their respective various cultures."""" Jean-Pierre Angenot Professor of Linguistics, Federal University of Rond?nia, Porto Velho, Brazil."""

Informations

• Publié par: Langaa RPCIG
• Date de parution: 15 février 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789956715374
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Building Capacity

Using TEFL and African Languages as DevelopmentOriented Literacy Tools

Edited by Negessimo M. Mutaka

Other Titles by Publisher

FRANCIS B NYAMNJOH Stories from Abakwa Mind Searching The Disillusioned African The Convert Souls Forgotten

DIBUSSI TANDE No Turning Back. Poems of Freedom 19901993

KANGSEN FEKA WAKAI Fragmented Melodies

NTEMFAC OFEGE Namondo. Child of the Water Spirit

EMMANUEL FRU DOH Not Yet Damascus

THOMAS JING Tale of an African Woman

PETER WUTEH VAKUNTA Grassfields Stories from Cameroon

BA'BILA MUTIA Coils of Mortal Flesh

KEHBUMA LANGMIA Titabet and The Takumbeng

MILTON KRIEGER Cameroon's Social Democratic Front: Its History and Prospects as an Opposition Political party, 19902011

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B u i l d i n g Capa c i ty: U s i n g T E F L an d A f r i can l an g uag e s a s d e v e l o pme ntor i e n te d l i te r acy t o o l s

Edited by Ngessimo M. Mutaka

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Langaa Research & Publishing CIG Mankon, Bamenda Publisher: LangaaResearchandPublishing CommonInitiativeGroup P.O. Box 902 Mankon Bamenda North West Province Cameroon [e-mail] www.langaapublisher.com

ISBN:9956-558-08-7

© Ngessimo M. Mutaka 2008 First Published 2008

DISCLAIMER All views expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Langaa RPCIG.

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Preface

Contents

Introduction Chapter One: Issues in the teaching of languages as a prop to a development-oriented literacyN. M. Mutaka&L.M. Attia

Part One: on Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL)

Chapter Two: Revival of classroom activities through exercisesN.M. Mutaka

Chapter Three: Practical suggestions for teaching English as a foreign languageN.M. Mutaka

Part Two: African languages and literacy

Chapter Four: Enhancing the role of African languages in local development projectsM. Tadadjeu

Chapter Five: Literacy in cultures of Oral traditionCathy Davison

Chapter Six: Perspectives de revitalisation d’une langue en danger: le cas du NyemnyemP. Mutaka & L. Voutsa

Chapter Seven: Perspectives for the revitalization of an endangered language: the case of Vute-BanyoP. Mutaka, L. Attia, & L. Voutsa

Chapter Eight: Vers une production du matériel destiné à l’enseignement des langues maternelles: extraits de Jules Assoumou (2005)J. Assoumou & P. Mutaka

Chapter Nine: Overpowering the anti-African values ghost in us: Reflections on the introduction of African languages in the school system P. Mutaka

Chapter Ten: Growing seeds of peace in an African war-torn world P. Mutaka & L.M. Attia

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Appendix: Literacy texts

Help from traditional medicineP. Mutaka, L. Attia & N. Kimbi

Getting involved in the fight against the spread of AIDS: brief comments on excerpts from Wish I had knownP. Mutaka

La quête d’une eau potable: le cas du village BafouN.M.T. Hermine

How to raise rabbits D.D. Béatrice

Projet pour l’élevage des poules pondeusesL.Voutsa

L’industrie d’oeufs & des poussinsK. Constantine

La culture des champignonsB. Djoupee

Goat rearingL. Lenaka

Fish farming (“pisciculture)L. Lenaka

Bee keeping or apicultureL. Lenaka

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Preface

When Philip Mutaka asked me to write a preface to this book, I must confess that I was at first reluctant because it is a book on literacy, and I felt that I may not be the right person to write such a preface as I have not specifically published materials on functional literacy. However, as he explained to me the main reason why he believed I was his perfect choice to write such a preface, I felt flattered as I realized that my academic life is somehow the crystallization of what Mutaka hopes linguists should accomplish in terms of propelling the communities they work with into valuing their languages and cultures. It is true that, in my case, I have pursued this objective through a different route. I started my academic career in the 1970’s at the University of Lubumbashi, DRC, where I trained a number of linguists and collaborated with African colleagues. Some of these have now become authorities in their field in various African countries. I think of such people as Vincent Musamba Chanda of the University of Zambia, Kabengele Munanga of the University of São Paulo, Brazil, Daniel Mutombo Huta Mukana of the University of Mbujimayi, DRC, Nkiko Munya Rugero of the University of Lubumbashi, DRC, Vatomene Kukanda of the Institute of National Languages in Luanda, Angola, Salikoko S. Mufwene of the University of Chicago, etc. I then went to India where, among other things, I started the African Diaspora in Asia (TADIA) which is an international academic network of which I am presently the coordinator since 2003. My interest for the native cultures of Latin America has led me to Brazil where, besides being a full professor at the Federal University of Rondônia, I have been the coordinator of a research project called Arawakan Languages of Rio Negro, an adviser to the Indigenous Linguistics Sector in Brasilia, Director of the Centre of Amazonian Linguistic Research, Director of Nucleus of Amerindian Languages Studies at the Federal University of Santa Catarina and I am intimately involved with TADIAM Society (Society for Research, Culture, Education and Development of the African Diaspora in Amazonia). I have recently renewed with my first love of Bantuisms in Portuguese and Spanish spoken in Latin America that I started with Professor Luis Beltrán (ofUniversidad de Alcalá and UNESCO Chair on Afro-Ibero-American Studies, Spain)in Lubumbashi in the 1970s. We indeed noticed that remnants of Bantu languages can still be identified in these languages. Luis Beltrán and I have thus recently initiated a big project on Bantuisms, and naturally, we thought of soliciting some of our past collaborators in the DRC. I have been nicely surprised to find a lot of them and learn that they have fared very well as researchers and authorities in their fields in their respective countries. vi

Now, if one looks at the number of students these researchers have trained, one immediately realizes that we can form a network of researchers that can influence the future of Africa and other continents. This is why Mutaka has asked me to write this preface, notably, in hammering into us the importance of not doing linguistics only for its own sake, but to also look at the needs of the people we work with and propose them functional literacy as a way to help them find their way through the consequences of globalization which, if not adequately handled, may prove detrimental to the African languages and cultures. It is important that, despite the globalization phenomenon and with the help of the technology of information and communication, the positive aspects of African cultures and their languages be maintained and revived, and if they cannot, that they be archived properly as they constitute an intangible heritage to mankind as has been stressed by UNESCO. Among the numerous proposals in this book is the necessity for Africans, and I would add, for the communities of Asia and Latin America, to re-think the contents of their language courses and assign them an objective which aims at the integral development of their communities. It is indeed imperative that these courses reflect clear objectives of seeking social, cultural, and economic developments that harmonize with African, Asian, and Latin American values that are deep rooted in their respective various cultures. To any researcher genuinely concerned with helping the local African communities develop, this book is a necessity in that it clearly defines the challenges that the educational system must meet in order to adequately reform its programs and build a bridge between school and the communities with respect to their daily cultural, social, and economic activities.

Jean-Pierre Angenot Professor of Linguistics, Federal University of Rondônia, Porto Velho, Brazil.

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CHAPTER ONE

Introduction: Issues in the teaching of languages as a prop to a development-oriented literacy

NGESSIMO M. MUTAKA & LILIAN M. ATTIA

As a way of introducing this paper and the present volume, we wish to point out that the title of the volume, “Building capacity: using TEFL and African languages as development-oriented literacy tools” is the unifying theme that runs throughout the different papers that have been selected to make it up. Two papers are on TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and the other papers expose the vision of using African languages as a literacy tool. This paper seeks to make explicit the types of actions we wish the various participants in the language teaching profession to undertake as a consequence of reading this book. The paper is organized as follows.§1 dwells on the place of English as well as other international languages and African languages in the education system;§2 elaborates on the insights from TEFL to help African languages reach their development-oriented literacy goals;§the necessity of molding TEFL3 exposes and other international languages into a development-oriented literacy package;§ 4 introduces further papers that expose a wider vision of a development-oriented literacy such as the necessity of promoting a culture of peace among Africans, and also samples of papers that can be directly used in classrooms as reading materials but also that can be readily translated in various mother tongues as they would prove useful to the local populations.

The place of English (and other international languages) and African languages in the education system As is well-known, most teaching systems in Africa are a perpetuation of the education system inherited from colonial powers. This can be seen for example in the types of courses taught in schools. Language classes typically refer to the languages of the “civilized” world, that is, English, French, German, and Spanish, which are the languages of the former colonial masters. When someone is referred to as an intellectual, this often means that he got his formal education in such a language, and most probably, it may mean that he can handle one or two of such languages very well. Conspicuously lacking from this picture of languages taught as school subjects are African languages. Swahili is one of the rare languages that feature in the curriculum of certain schools, mostly of those in Eastern Africa. However, recently, more and more voices are calling for a re- valorization of our African languages. A conference was for example held in South Africa calling for the use of African languages as a tool of instruction just like English or French (Szanton 2005). The question now is: would most governments adhere to the idea of spending money to initiate programs of imparting knowledge through African languages in addition to the official languages that are used for that purpose? Most importantly, would parents who have adopted the international languages such as English and French as their 1