Implementing Nigeria's language education policy: The gap between theory and practice

Charles C. Mann

College

Br. Andrew Gonzalez FSC College of Education

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Source Title

2nd Linguapax Asia International Symposium & Exhibition

Publication Date

8-2005

Abstract

Like many young African nations that gained independence from various colonial powers in the 1960s and 70s, Nigeria has since been grappling with issues related to the spirit, content and orientations of its language and language education policies. Like many such countries, which have to manage both tense multiethnicity and dense multilingualism against a backdrop of desperate underdevelopment, Nigeria harbours more than 250 ethnic groups and over 500 languages(and dialects) within its borders.
This paper takes a critical look at the implementation of Nigeria'slanguage education policy, using a review of the literature, a questionnaire survey of primary school language teachers, available government agency data, interviews of relevant government functionaries, and participant observation. The paper also assesses what may or may not have been achieved in language eduction matters in this developing country since the 1963 Leverhulme Conference in Ibadan, Nigeria made numerous recommendations, regarding language policy, language planning and language education in tropical Africa, in direct relation to issues of education, literacy, identity, modernization, development and nation-building.

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Disciplines

African Languages and Societies

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