Language and Development in Africa: Perceptions, Ideologies and Challenges - Hardcover

Wolff, H. Ekkehard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1107088550 ISBN 13: 9781107088559

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2016

Synopsis

Development is based on communication through language. With more than two thousand languages being used in Africa, language becomes a highly relevant factor in all sectors of political, social, cultural and economic life. This important sociolinguistic dimension hitherto remains underrated and under-researched in 'Western' mainstream development studies. The book discusses the resourcefulness of languages, both local and global, in view of the ongoing transformation of African societies as much as for economic development. From a novel 'applied African sociolinguistics' perspective it analyses the continuing effects of linguistic imperialism on postcolonial African societies, in particular regarding the educational sector, through imposed hegemonic languages such as Arabic and the ex-colonial languages of European provenance. It offers a broad interdisciplinary scientific approach to the linguistic dimensions of sociocultural modernisation and economic development in Africa, written for both the non-linguistically trained reader as much as for the linguistically trained researcher and language practitioner.

About this title

About the Author

H. Ekkehard Wolff has taught at universities in Germany, Finland, Nigeria, Niger, Ethiopia and South Africa. His research encompasses both major African languages and endangered languages, and he was awarded the traditional title Midala Lamang by the Emir of Gwoza in 1992. He has written extensively on language policies and their implementation in Africa, in particular with regard to the politics of language in education.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1107088550
• ISBN 13: 9781107088559
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 376