Is tech killing African languages?

Is tech killing indigenous African languages?

September 13, 2017, Wits University

Is tech killing indigenous African languages? Prof. Leketi Makalela, Director of the Hub for Multilingual Education and Literacies in the Division of  Languages, Literacies and Literatures in the Wits School of Education talks back.

Discussions on the status of African languages portray a dim view. For centuries, African languages have been under threat as one conqueror after another has imposed their preferred language on various nations on the continent. Subsequently, African languages have low status in our institutions and continue to be marginalised in all spheres of power, including government quarters.

In South Africa, English continues as the lingua franca, despite government policies that protect and promote vernacular languages.

There have been warnings about the death of these languages. However, indigenous languages are far from extinct says Professor Leketi Makalela.

"Where government has failed, technology is bringing hope to the people," says Makalela. "African languages were probably going to die, were it not for technology, social media and popular culture. Technology is going to take African languages forward and these languages are going to evolve to fit into the digital age and any future world shift."

Ironically, this change is one of the major criticisms levelled against technology, and especially social media, where variations of spelling abound, and where the platforms are also implicated for contributing to the decline in literacy and writing standards.

"People are concerned about change and this has been an ongoing major debate in human language development. The great divide is about whether the change results in decay or progress. A conservative will say it is decay because there is nostalgia for the past and everything is being disorganised by modernity. This has to do with aging as well – the older you are, the more you want to keep things the same," says Makalela, who is also the editor-in-chief of the Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies Journal and Chairperson of Umalusi Council's Qualifications Standards Committee.

To put things into perspective, Makalela says the primary question that needs to be asked in such debates is: "What is the purpose of language?"

"We need to question what language is and why we have language as human beings before we look at the structure (syntax and spelling). People obsess about the aesthetics of the language and yet language is here for meaning-making. The 'net speak' and contraction of words are a natural evolution of language and a reflection of the time. The structure of language keeps changing because people are changing."

One of the significant, laudable changes brought about by social media is that they break down linguistic barriers. Makalela believes we should celebrate that communication technology is contributing to the decolonisation of languages.

"The Balkanisation of African states in 1884 in Berlin was attached to the languages. The Bantustan policy of apartheid architect H.F. Verwoerd was based on supposed linguistic differences," says Makalela. "African languages were separated intentionally, not because they were or are different, but because the strategy was to divide and conquer. Technology has now made it easy for linguistic groups to realise how similar they are than they were previously told."

Communities such as #BlackTwitter, mother-tongue appreciation groups on Facebook and blogs where young creatives share works in their languages and culture are defying institutions and moving languages into the 21st Century. Local television programmes are also playing their part in promoting multilingualism with many creative works moving between three and more languages, recreating and reinforcing the South African linguistic reality.

"We cannot talk about economic development and social cohesion without taking into account the issues of language because languages are central to social cohesion. You can't expect a Zulu and a Tswana person to socially cohere if there is no crossover of language," he adds. "One of the barriers that must be removed to drive this growth is for linguistic groups to be open to the influence of non-mother tongue speakers," explains Makalela.

"There seems to be a sacredness and unwillingness to allow others to learn African languages, which often makes it closed to outsiders. If we really want our languages to flourish, we have to open the doors to non-mother tongue speakers so that there is nothing like KZN isiZulu vs Gauteng isiZulu (which is seen as weak isiZulu). In fact, it's a time to redefine what we call standards.

English became a dominant language because it opened its doors to non-mother tongue users. The type of English used today is heavily multi-lingual with 80% of the words in the language not original English. In addition, 80% of users are not traditional mother tongue speakers. English thrives and lives on donations from other languages."

Another area where Makalela would like to see transformation is the use of technology in the classroom to promote multilingualism. "While technology is often seen as eroding African values, accelerating moral degeneration and the loss of ubuntu, practice is suggesting that it is having an opposite effect on languages. Let us focus on creating shared meaning and understanding through opening up our languages and using technology to contribute towards fostering social cohesion in our diverse society."

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-09-tech-indigenous-african-languages.html#jCp

Is tech killing indigenous African languages?

September 13, 2017, Wits University

Credit: Wits University

Is tech killing indigenous African languages? Prof. Leketi Makalela, head of Languages, Literacies and Literatures in the Wits School of Education talks back.

Discussions on the status of African languages portray a dim view. For centuries, African languages have been under threat as one conqueror after another has imposed their preferred language on various nations on the continent. Subsequently, African languages have low status in our institutions and continue to be marginalised in all spheres of power, including government quarters.
In South Africa, English continues as the lingua franca, despite government policies that protect and promote vernacular languages.
There have been warnings about the death of these languages. However, indigenous languages are far from extinct says Professor Leketi Makalela, Head of Languages, Literacies and Literatures in the Wits School of Education.
"Where government has failed, technology is bringing hope to the people," says Makalela. "African languages were probably going to die, were it not for technology, social media and popular culture. Technology is going to take African languages forward and these languages are going to evolve to fit into the digital age and any future world shift."
Ironically, this change is one of the major criticisms levelled against technology, and especially social media, where variations of spelling abound, and where the platforms are also implicated for contributing to the decline in literacy and writing standards.
"People are concerned about change and this has been an ongoing major debate in human language development. The great divide is about whether the change results in decay or progress. A conservative will say it is decay because there is nostalgia for the past and everything is being disorganised by modernity. This has to do with aging as well – the older you are, the more you want to keep things the same," says Makalela, who is also the editor-in-chief of the Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies Journal and Chairperson of Umalusi Council's Qualifications Standards Committee.
To put things into perspective, Makalela says the primary question that needs to be asked in such debates is: "What is the purpose of language?"

"We need to question what language is and why we have language as human beings before we look at the structure (syntax and spelling). People obsess about the aesthetics of the language and yet language is here for meaning-making. The 'net speak' and contraction of words are a natural evolution of language and a reflection of the time. The structure of language keeps changing because people are changing."
One of the significant, laudable changes brought about by social media is that they break down linguistic barriers. Makalela believes we should celebrate that communication technology is contributing to the decolonisation of languages.
"The Balkanisation of African states in 1884 in Berlin was attached to the languages. The Bantustan policy of apartheid architect H.F. Verwoerd was based on supposed linguistic differences," says Makalela. "African languages were separated intentionally, not because they were or are different, but because the strategy was to divide and conquer. Technology has now made it easy for linguistic groups to realise how similar they are than they were previously told."
Communities such as #BlackTwitter, mother-tongue appreciation groups on Facebook and blogs where young creatives share works in their languages and culture are defying institutions and moving languages into the 21st Century. Local television programmes are also playing their part in promoting multilingualism with many creative works moving between three and more languages, recreating and reinforcing the South African linguistic reality.
"We cannot talk about economic development and social cohesion without taking into account the issues of language because languages are central to social cohesion. You can't expect a Zulu and a Tswana person to socially cohere if there is no crossover of language," he adds. "One of the barriers that must be removed to drive this growth is for linguistic groups to be open to the influence of non-mother tongue speakers," explains Makalela.
"There seems to be a sacredness and unwillingness to allow others to learn African languages, which often makes it closed to outsiders. If we really want our languages to flourish, we have to open the doors to non-mother tongue speakers so that there is nothing like KZN isiZulu vs Gauteng isiZulu (which is seen as weak isiZulu). In fact, it's a time to redefine what we call standards.
English became a dominant language because it opened its doors to non-mother tongue users. The type of English used today is heavily multi-lingual with 80% of the words in the language not original English. In addition, 80% of users are not traditional mother tongue speakers. English thrives and lives on donations from other languages."
Another area where Makalela would like to see transformation is the use of technology in the classroom to promote multilingualism. "While technology is often seen as eroding African values, accelerating moral degeneration and the loss of ubuntu, practice is suggesting that it is having an opposite effect on languages. Let us focus on creating shared meaning and understanding through opening up our languages and using technology to contribute towards fostering social cohesion in our diverse society."

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-09-tech-indigenous-african-languages.html#jCp

Translanguaging: First school in the world adopts it as its official policy

Imagining a thriving multilingual world

Fourth International Conference on Language and Literacy Education

 

Whereas it has exponentially become impossible to ignore the prevalence of many languages and their co-existence as a key phenomenon in the world of increased mobility within and between nation states, very few scholars have imagined a true official status of multilingualism both in the future and outside of the monolingual frame of thinking. The Hub for Multilingual Education and Literacies (HUMEL) is a thought leader that hosts annual conferences to highlight the importance of multilingual education and the value of multilingualism in the 21^st Century. In line with the Hub’s strategic concentration on two pillars of education: epistemic and ontological access, the annual conferences question the validity of language boundaries and global North conceptual frames such as ‘mother tongue’, ‘first language’ and ‘second languages’, ‘interlanguage’ and places multilingualism and its discursive resources at the centre of contemporary classroom practices. In what is described as ‘disruption of the orthodoxy’ in education systems, the Hub’s conferences have always agitated for increased epistemic access and affirmation of identity positions of multilingual learners (the majority in the world), without which education becomes imitative and marginalizing. Prompting delegates to think forward about an ideal multilingual world, the theme for the fourth international conference was “Imagining a thriving multilingual world” featuring subthemes that include:

• Translanguaging and multilanguaging
• Reading and writing literacies
• Multilingual assessments
• Multilingual materials
• Alternative and critical pedagogies for multilingual education
• Language policy, planning and management in education
• Multiliteracies 

Taken together, these themes pointed at the danger of monolingual bias as an invention of the Enlightenment period and colonial consequences of suppressing local languages in favour of the exogenous languages, which are still regarded  as the only means for guaranteeing civilization or success.  These themes were debated through 60 presentations from delegates representing 20 countries and more than 40 postgraduate students coming from the Southern African Development Community countries. In addition to the regular delegates to conferences, the uniqueness of this conference is that it also brought representative primary schools and members of the South African Literacy Teachers Association- a body that was founded by the HUMEL into one space of dialogue and sharing. Five teachers from primary schools presented lessons that demonstrated innovative applications of multilingual instruction in their classrooms. The conference also celebrated the first school in the world that recognized translanguaging as its official policy, Doornspruit Primary School, in Limpopo Province.  The point was made during the gala-dinner that translanguaging is a legitimate policy option for schools as entrenched in the Language in Education Policy of 1997 and that many schools and officials have read this policy document with monolingual lenses of additive bilingualism and subtractive medium of learning and teaching. That is, one language at a time and sequential introduction of languages, which are all indicators of monolingual orientation. More schools were encouraged to follow Doornspruit Primary School as a prime example of multilingual education imagined and to seek support of HUMEL’s advocacy and community engagement programmes.

The second highlight for the conference is the intellectual rigor that showed the global South taking more strides to own theories of multilingualism that both critique monolingual and epistemic biases often transferred from theories developed from the global North geopolitical context. It is envisaged that engaging with these new theories will lead to public awareness and policy reforms that are based on multilingualism as a norm to be cultivated rather than a problem to be solved. It was noted that this direction begins with valorizing the cultural competence and constructs from the global South as the premise for theory development. In this connection, translanguaging and multilanguaging, among others, are global South relevant while at the same time having a universal appeal.

The keynote speakers from Kenya, Mauritius and the USA delivered on point and relevant considerations for multilingual education imagined for the 21^st Century and extended opportunities for collaborative projects that raise awareness on the value of multilingualism in the first quarter of the 21^st C. Professor Martin Nyoroge from Kenya, Dr Pascal Nadal from Mauritius and Professor Maria Coady from University of Florida, USA presented on the need for paradigmatic shift towards complex plurality of contemporary classrooms and gave specific examples from their own contexts to make a case for multilingual education. The conference proceedings will be published into a book volume by Vernom Press: Imagining a thriving multilingual world: Language, education and society in the 21^st Century (2018), which will be disseminated globally to encourage more transformation in orthodox classrooms that still hold on to the ancient belief that using more than one language creates mental confusion.   

Overall, the conference allowed academics, teachers, and the communities to engage in  dialogues that were  specific enough to bring about deep reflections and uptake from the delegates. Yet it was also general enough to cater for different interest groups that included primary schools.  Departing from routines of other conferences between academics, the Hub’s view is that connections between universities and communities is a key transformative process in knowledge dissemination in a country that has historically created an “Ivory Tower curtain” that shielded university academics from the communities they should serve. This conference was a prime example to illustrate that an imagined multilingual world is inclusive, transformative and community-based.  In brief, this conference succeeded in having the delegates to tell the multilingual story of the future.

What is multilanguaging? Ubuntu or botho translanguaging?

Many questions arise as to what is multilanguaging. I introduced this concept in my recent articles and chapters not to discredit translanguaging, which has somehow taken the role of what was traditional termed 'codeswitching'.  A full appraisal appears in my latest book: Shifting lenses: Multilanguaging, decolonization and education in the global South. It is the first book volume to use the concept, "multilanguaging", but here are the points to explain how we arrive here. I used some  technical terms for non-linguists and educationists, but please ignore them and concentrate on the logic of the argument.

The SINS of CODE-SWITCHING

No one says there is no code-switching, but what we say is that it is conceptually flawed and very subservient to translanguaging. The former focuses on language codes and has a monolingual orientation. It assumes that there are actual codes- first felony. Second felony, it assumes that these codes operate in isolation- hence the switching on and off. Linguists will call this on and off complimentary distribution, which means one occurs in the place where one isn't to make a coherent whole. The fact that it speaks to one language at a time, I find it problematic and increasingly not a useful frame for thinking about multilingualism from the point of view of the user. Thirdly, we refute the view that the speaker is switching (but we are also not saying this is not happening in emergent bilingual situations where one is struggling with one of the named languages).  In other words, codeswitching is hearer oriented- that is, it is the opinion of the hearer based on what they hear as truncated and identifiable language units that are exchanged. Are we sure that speakers actually do this? Many multilingual speakers do not 'feel' themselves when languages are used in meaning making--why? becuase they focus on meaning not on the languages. It is for this reason and the ones above that I argue that code-switching is monolingual in orientation and that it is epistemologically different from translanguaging.

TRANSLANGUAGING

What about translanguaging? First we say there are no codes- we made this up for administration purposes. These codes we refer to as languages (named languages to be precise) are artificial. The boundaries are fuzzy; there is a contiuum of language use. Where is the border between isiZulu and isiXhosa? Sepedi and Sesotho? English and Afrikaans? Spanish and English? The features of each of the named languages leak into each other; they overlap in complex ways known to speaker who selects, organizes and speaks as and when it is necessary often without feeling these ' boundaries'. Then we say even if a speaker happens to utter words that seem to resemble one of the the named languages, it does not mean that the features of the other named language are off in the cognitive domain of the speaker (they are not switched off). The boundaries between languages known to multilingual speakers are not there in the phonological loop either (an organ where language is incubated). We then prefer the term repertoire, which is a blend of language features used strategically and simultaneously by a multilingual speaker. Instead of language use, speakers are languaging and between many names languages, they are translanguaging. Translanguaging is meaning oriented and speaker oriented. What people do with languages (they are languaging) rather than what langugeslook like (language codes). Simultaneity is judged in meaning segments rather than moments.

THEORY DISRUPTION AND RE-RECREATION

I have long counted myself as one of the global education distruptors advocating for recognition of languaging phenomemnon  and discredit monolingual bias where many people still hold on to the ancient myth that using more than one language creates mental confusion. Too old a myth, but still prevalent in our curriculum systems and in the 'mouths' of many parents who are not well-informed. They think being educated means speaking one language very well! As a social justice issue, we argue that monolingual bias fails multilingual learners in schools that are designed to educate an ideal monolingual speaker in various guises.  Global education distruptors like me use the SANKOFA  (Akan mythical birth)  approach to go back and fetch, but also strech forward to prepare the future.  The reality we live with now is that many children are exposed to more than 3 languages before age 6 (an optimal age for language acquisition). If they speak more than 3 languages  at age 6, what is their mother tongue? their first or second language? Irrelevant concepts, aren't they? I often ask kids in Soweto schools: What is your mother tongue? They look confused, but will eventually choose one [becuase they feel obliged to choose one]. The next day, when you ask the same question, they will give you a different language and you are assured of different mother tongues depending on the number of days you go and ask the question.  These kids give me a perspective that in fact the world is moving in this direction where boundaries are becoming fuzzy.  I changed my question to: which  languages do you speak? and generally prefer to see them performing their languages. Shouldn't we be ready for the next 50 years? So we move research and theory to reflect these 'new' realities to stay relevant in the future.

When we look for new theories, I found the logic of ubuntu-- no one language is complete without the other  and temporal fluidity of SANKOFA (past and future integrated) as Africal cultural  constructs that should define literacy and language theories and practices in the 21st century. From this point of view, multilingualism is a convenient concept, not as accuarte as MULTILANGUAGING is- where more than three named languages are used fluidly and normatively seen in the soap operas  (see Muvhango, the Generations, etc) and everyday communication practices in Sub-Saharan Africa and much of the global South communities. Here we go multilanguaging.
 

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@leketimakalela
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Translanguaging: Not European concept in Africa, but a decolonizing agent

This is the first in a series of dialogues I want to engage on why decolonization or thinking outside of the colonial invasion is a worthy cause for language and literacy education. We live in an era where literacy rates, levels, skills, practices are considered low- a very basic form of human existence. As a result, many African children are surviving through a harsh educational pathway, believing that they are stupid, unintelligent and not worthy. The ultimate result is not only being excluded from opportunity mobility in the capitalist world [eat or be eaten], they are removed gradually from a sense of who they truly are; they pose and live a false life until they hate themselves. Fathers are economically emasculated and there are no models to raise the future generation of boys and girls. Schools wane them down through the myths that one needs only one language to learn and that their own languages are useless! Self hatred is guaranteed. The colonizer can relax at a beach, knowing that the cursing has happened and will continue until 'minds are decolonized' and 'consciousness' kicks in their souls so they unmask the shades of falsehood. 

As for me, it was accidental that I became acutely aware of the relationship between language, literacy and ways of knowing that are indigenous to speakers of African languages. Growing up in a remote rural village under the care of a mother who was not able to make sense of the Roman Alphabets and what they represented, I struggled to come to terms with the literacy programmes used in schools. I went through learning programmes where teachers used to drill us into singing letters, memorizing and regurgitating without real content of what these stood for and what reference they had for our lived experiences. Many friend-children struggled to connect dots of knowledge at school and failed dismally at every examinations opportunity. While the one language  schooling system [yes it is one language posing falsely as 11) pushed many learners out, I had the resilience to stay on and take on the literacy journey while asking myself the question: Why is there so much gap between school and our lived community experience? But even Plato said those who master the curriculum master themselves- why is this not so obvious in the so-called post-colonial world?

I decided to study languages not only to understand how languages do not only represent ideas, but also how they embody ways of knowing. On this account, I questioned learning in a foreign language before one had at least 6 years on induction in familiar languages and considered alternatives. My scholarship looked at the possibility of valorizing the African cultural competence where there is a fluid intersection of languages as a normal linguistic behavior, a way of being and making sense of the world. When I started work on translanguaging as an alternative pedagogy for multilingual learners, I was responding to the well- researched, but obvious  fact that learners do not understand what teachers are saying in most African classrooms. This is the one and the real challenge for African education systems. Stop talking about anything else fancy and deal with this foundational problem. In this way I found translanguaging, defined as a pedagogical strategy where there is complex alternation of languages of input and output in the process of meaning making close to my the type of communication I experienced in my village, which is situated at the border of two provinces in South Africa, Limpopo and Mpumalanga. In other words, my journey of questioning monolingual (aka colonial) bias  found resonance with my own lived experiences. I am connected to the subject and thus my research makes sense first and foremost to me. It took a long journey of being lost and found until I understood that "charity begins at home", but also learning how to move away from being a village chief to a global education disruptor, taking leadership roles and making world education systems and lives of people better!

 website: www.leketimakalela.co.za

Tiwitter: @leketimakalela

 

Matric exams underway and congratulations

That time for myths and fears has started as the grade 12 started with their exams yesterday. I was asked to comment on the questions around grade 12 examinations by a media representative and I wanted to share my views as follows:

Question 1

What advice can be given to those sitting for their first NSC examination?

Answer: Because there is a definite process of standardization and moderation of the papers for quality assurance, my advice in the 11th hour would be to study model papers in the past 3 years. Here one sees different options in which content knowledge can be assessed. Attempts at answering these would give a good feel for the real exam, which prepares one mentally and emotionally.

Question 2:

How can learners sitting for their language examination prepare for them?

Answer: There are key areas for language papers that are examinable, depending on whether it is paper 1, 2 or 3. Like maths, science and other content subjects, language examination needs practice and rehearsal. For example, summary, short and long transactional texts, and grammar items like direct/indirect speech are obviously going to be part of the exam. For evaluative questions, which are usually a challenge for the learners, it is important to note that a "yes" or "no" answer is insufficient and they need to know that there is no wrong or right answer here. Examiners/markers are interested in the reason/s of the "yes" or "no" and they judge reasoning rather than a correct answer. For comprehension texts, they should follow the old advice to read questions first so their reading of the text is intentional. It is advisable for the learners to have a good handle of these and other parts through practice, practice and practice. Examples of old papers and memoranda are all available on the DBE website.

Question 3

In comparison to last years examination, do you think this years examination will be easier or difficult?

Answer: We have seen an increase in the level of difficulty in the past three years as the CAPS started maturing. This is however not matched by improvements in the quality of teaching. Most learners are caught in this tension as teacher education institutions and a generation of retiring teachers have equally not been helpful in decoding the CAPS as they have serially proven underprepared. Yet the public eyes are narrowly focusing on the easiness/difficulty of the papers. It is delicate matter, not simple in black and white.

Standardization of papers by Umalusi ensures that cohorts of learners are not unfairly advantaged or disadvantaged by reasons other than their own capabilities. Although the quality of papers are gradually improved, the level of change cannot be so drastic to lower or raise a pass significantly. The public often decries marks going down or up ( especially if the results at face value show an upward trend) without understanding how standardization works (e.g., why a historical average is important to assure steady growth/decline- something normal with general population growth dynamics). In short, the exams will not be either difficult or easy as this will be unfair to either the previous or current cohort. Any suggestion to either way should be dismissed as sensational.

Question 4:

Efforts made by the department and schools, do you think the provincial rates will be higher than last year?

Catch up programmes at provincial levels are commendable. But recall that these are geared mainly at lower performing schools and in particular targeting the "progressed" learners. The idea is to mitigate overall pass rates, which stand to be low due to progressed learners who usually come to grade 12 underprepared. If anything, we can learn from the impact of these programmes in 2016. Because the overall number of progressed learners were slightly above 60000, the efforts did not have a significant impact on the overall national performance. The number will most certainly rise to about 90000 this year, but this will still be insignificant relative to approximately 700000 learners in total. At a very micro level, yes to see more learners passing due these efforts is encouraging and we are likely to see a repeat of urban provinces like Gauteng doing better than rural provinces where these efforts are not as effective. For example, Gauteng, in a bid to reclaim its position as the number 1 province, has introduced an unfair and discriminatory system called "targeting the talented" to boost results while leaving the weaker even weaker. They noticed that focusing on low performers was not in the end showing statistical change in the overall provincial results. Rural provinces, in the other hand, do not have this leverage as they have more underperforming schools. It seems in my view an uncoordinated intervention that is based on competition instead of a cohesive system managed to stem out deeply unequal outcomes.

Question 5:

What could be the reasons for the high number of drop outs, learners not making it to sit for their NSC exam?

 

Answer: A large number of drop outs occur in grade 10, counting up to 50%. There are as many reasons as these learners including transitional and structural factors I prefer to call "push outs". Beyond grade 10, drop out/push out rate is so negligible to cause any alarms. I am not sure why this is raising concerns. The assumption of this statement is categorically incorrect as there is no mark for one to obtain to qualify to sit for the exams. Even the SBA's would not disqualify any learner.

Congratulations to the 2017 cohort!

Professor Leketi Makalela

Founding Director: Hub for Multilingual Education and Literacies

Twitter: @LeketiMakalela

www.leketimakalela.co.za

Latest Book: Shifting Lenses: Multilanguaging, Decolonization and Education in the Global South

De-education through syllabic reading: The horrors of literacy teaching in African languages

This article is adapted from Balang Foundation (www.balangfoundation.org) during the 2017 Africa Day (May 22)

Teaching literacy is incomplete without full involvement of the early readers’ parents, caregivers and siblings. To change the reading literacy direction of the country and celebrate Africa Day, Balang Foundation held an arms length session with about 50 parents in Attridgeville on 25 May 2017. How do we make literacy African? This was the question.

A delegation of the Foundation sent four important messages for improving reading in the homes. First, parents understood how reading words at syllable levels can be a dangerous precedence for reading development in future. While these are good building blocks for words in English, syllables are not particularly important for meaning making in African languages.  The problem is that most of the teaching in African languages version the logic of syllables from English and as a result create the so called ‘ba-be-bi-bo-bu’ methodology where children put these sounds to memory when they are not useful at a later stage. This method also treats African languages as ‘miniature English languages’ rather than independent languages in their own rights. To respect African languages and their internal structure, syllabic reading should be avoided at all costs as it breeds bad reading habits that hamper comprehension at a later stage. Negative reading behaviours were identified as: head movement, regression, finger pointing and verbalization. Parents got the message straight that when syllables are used as units of reading, the parents need to help the child to close these into a full meaningful word. For example: I-n-vu-la should be closed as ‘invula’ once. 

The next issue that impedes comprehension is read aloud. While this skill is practiced in many schools nationally, we find that an over-emphasis at the expense of silent reading robs the readers of the opportunity to read for meaning and enjoyment. At worse, many readers at grade 6 are conditioned to believe that this is the only way to approach a text. And they ‘bark’ at texts.  It is very important to let children have opportunities for silent reading. Again this skill is based on the English logic of phonological awareness. While this is necessary for teaching English, African languages teaching does not benefit a lot from repetition of sounds and rhymes because they rely on tone. They are however very rich in their word conjugations (Morphology), which is sadly neglected in the education system. “Literacy in African languages is incomplete without a focus on morphological awareness. Phonological awareness emphasis in the curriculum is an indication of the symptoms of versioning”, asserted Leketi Makalela. Understood from this candid conversation with parents, there is no Africa day without African literacy. While the concepts are complex, they were presented in an easy to follow steps, using isiZulu, Sepedi and English.

Finally, when it comes to habits formation, it was stressed that parents should be involved in the reading process for the children. Parents should model reading to the extent that a reading time should be given a ‘sacred’ space without competition with television. Parents cannot watch television programmes while their kids are reading in another room. Moreover, in the process of reading for (scaffolded reading) and reading with (shared reading), parents and caregivers need to spend at least 15 minutes daily with children on reading. This is more effective if it is happening just before bedtime.

Prognostication and literacy education: cave humans in the 21st C

The power of education lies is its grand ability to skill the mind to project and reflect experiences.  Outside of these twin-goals for education, it is apparent that the classrooms can only serve to re-create the dark ages 'caves' suitable to arrest human development. One's ability to look into the past in order to see the future- prognostication- is assumed to be a trait that comes naturally to all human beings, not a specialized skill reserved for a few. Literacy education is best suited to harnesses this skill and to bring it to live! We increasingly find that bad education based on oppressive-one-language norm, on the other hand, teaches multilingual people to stay in 'the here and the now' mental state--a trait well-known among children and other animal species.This assisted oblivion  also happens when we ask learners/students to regurgitate information and memorize answers in ONE  language  (information is stored in the short term memory space).  

There is no doubt in my view that prognostication is a strong feature among human beings. In Ghana, for example, there is a saying called "Sankofa", meaning you go back and fetch! Not only are we able to predict what is coming, we are also able to 'create' the future provided we have a glimpse of what it might look like. That is why there is a conventional wisdom that history is a good teacher. Yet, it only teaches some people as others  are not able to learn from it. Here's a question and answer session:

Q:  Is it possible to develop highest levels of foresight and hindsight if a language is taken away from you in schools?

A: Impossible. Language is the enabler of deeper levels of thinking. It enables our infinite intelligence  to be at work.

Q: So what happens to students/learners who don't understand the language the teacher uses? 

A: I and my Norwegian language education scholar believe that this is  a 'stupification' exercise for the children. The real education challenge facing Sub-Saharan Africa (more than any another region in the world) is that children do not understand what teachers are saying. Neither do most teachers understand deeply what they say to the learners.

Q: So there won't be reflection in this situation?

A:You are right. Education here creates an assisted oblivion.

Q: What about their foresight?

A: Impossible in the same way that  prognostication is?

Q: Are these children then made to be like animals? 
A:  I leave this to your imagination.
Q:  But are  you saying that students  taught for 12 years in schools are made to be like cave men and women trapped in the moment?

A: Language damage is more than that of armed  forces. I leave that question for you to answer.

An education that fails to ignite this power of imagination only creates cave men and women as the case was in the dark ages. The good news is that we can work to change the situation. 

As a student of life, it would serve one better  to sit back at the end of the day and visualize how the day has been. Taking some time once a week to flash back offers unmatched advantages on self engagement, knowing oneself, and reflecting on one's growth path. All great people in the world do this and then develop better insights on what is next and take charge of the next. Simply put, they are always intentional about tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year--some even go to the next 20 years. When one flashes back for the same amount of  the foresight time, the magic sparks! When you habitually do this (even when you don't feel like it), you become unstoppable and stay on your way to earning a life of prognostication! Not moment paralysis and procrastination. Every parent should know that the language, literacy and prognostication are related and interdependent. And see the argument for literacy as both a cognitive trait and social practice beyond the ink and paper.

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