When official colonisation was started in 1848, monolingualism was a twin ideological strategy to 'civilize' the new colonies. One of the moves was thus to provide monolingualism in highly multilingual spaces (multilingualism/culturalism was perceived as backwardness). Necessarily, the European languages were used as tools for civilizing the natives. This move became clearer in the Berlin Convention of 1884 where most African countries were formally balkanized to avoid potential conflict between the colonizers. However monolingualism and nation statism did not work for Europe beyond the 20th century. I attribute the first world war and the second world war to extreme forms of nation statism. Indeed after the second world war, the colonies were freed so that the colonizing countries could not potentially fight again over the colonized land. It was also a freedom of movement from the point of view of the colonizing countries.
What are the effects of decolonisation? Movement is possible and foreigners matter; especially with the US coming into power on the basis of immigration. Learning a foreign/second language became so important that approaches such as audio-lingual method (1950's) and Communicative approach (1970's) were entrenched.
We are now in the post-modern (nation-statism) era; globalization and movement have taken a toll to the extent that knowledge of more than one language is more prestigious than having the highest proficiency in one. Multilingualism is no longer an option, but a 21st century regime that all students and teachers should uphold for survival. Yet, our orthodox classrooms are still trapped in the one-ness ideology of one nation, one language, one classroom, one language under the false pretext that using more than one language creates mental confusion. My research proves the contrary that using more than one language enhances epistemic access and provides a safe space for identity development. It is fuelled by an ancient African value system of Ubuntu: one language is incomplete without the other. One can download my latest article on ubuntu translanguaging at the following link:
http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/7XgE8VzNys3TdwePvcZG/full
Abstract:
This paper reports on an investigation into the efficacy of a teacher preparation
programme that introduced the teaching of African languages to speakers of other
African languages in order to produce multi-competent and multi-vocal teachers. A
mixed method approach was used to elicit from a pool of 60 (30 experimental;
30 control group) multilingual pre-service teachers the participants’ storied reflections
and their reading and vocabulary achievement scores. The results of the study show
that translanguaging techniques used in the experimental class afforded the
participants affective and social advantages as well as a deep understanding of the
content. Similarly, a paired t-test has shown a statistically significant differential
performance in favour of the experimental group after three months of a
translanguaging intervention programme. Using the translanguaging approach, and
comparing it to an ‘ubuntu’ lens of viewing the world from an amorphous and
continuous cultural space, I argue for development of a multilingual teaching
pedagogy that is premised on this worldview to advance theory and practices of
translanguaging as a teachable strategy. Future research possibilities are highlighted
and pedagogical implications for multilingual classrooms are considered for
adaptations in comparable contexts.