2024/2025 HARMATTAN

EGL 307 LECTURES

PROF. WALE ADEGBITE

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH OBAFEMI
AWOLOWO UNIVERSITY, ILE-IFE
08034840633 aadegbit@[Link]
COURSE OUTLINE 2024/2025 SESSION: HARMATTAN
EGL 307: Multilingualism and National Development

Course Description
The relationship between English and the indigenous languages in
national development; language and policies and nationalism/nationism;
language policies and the evolution of a local standard English variety;
language policies and the development of national literatures; language
policies and language teaching; language policies and national
economic, scientific and technological development in Africa
MODULE 1: UNIT 4

TOPIC: Challenges, Opportunities and Constraints of Multilingualism in African Nations

Objectives
At the end of this unit, students should be able to
a. identify some challenges of multilingualism in African nations;
b. mention opportunities of multilingualism; and
c. examine the constraints of multilingualism as a policy.
Main Reference Sources
Adegbite, W. (2020) Sociolinguistics and the Sociology of English in Nigeria. Ile-Ife: Obafemi
Awolowo University Press (Chapters 6 & 7).

Bamgbose, A. (2017) Beyond Linguistics and Multilingualism in Nigeria. Ibadan: DB Martoy Books
(Chapter 15).
Challenges of Multilingualism in African Nations

National Communication
A nation requires one or more languages of national communication. Our concern is how to resolve this issue in the context of
multilingualism.
In the quest for language(s) of inter-ethnic communication and national integration, can we discuss the relevance of the following
provisions?
1. The business of the National Assembly shall be conducted in English, and in Hausa, Ibo (sic) and Yoruba when adequate
arrangements have been made therefor. (The Constitution, Para.55)
(Constitution (1999, Amended 2011) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Section 55)
2. Every child shall be taught in the mother tongue or the language of immediate community for the first four years of
basic education. In addition, it is expected that every child shall learn one Nigerian language. (National Policy on Education,
Revised 2013, Para. 8g, p. 4)
In the quest for language(s) for foreign relations and of global communication, we can consider, in the case of Nigeria, the roles of
English, and French in relation to Nigerian neighbours.
Educational Development
The challenge of education is for bi-/multi-lingualism to be utilised to enable and enhance cognitive development and communicative
competence. Consider and discuss the following provisions:
3. ensure that the medium of instruction is principally the mother tongue or the language of the immediate community;
and to this end will … (National Policy on Education, Revised 2013, Early Child Care Development and Education, Para. 16j, p. 8)
4. the medium of instruction in the Primary School shall be the language of immediate environment for the first three years in
monolingual communities. During this period, English shall be taught as a subject; from the fourth year, English shall progressively
be used as a medium of instruction and the language of immediate environment and French and Arabic shall be taught as subjects…
(National Policy on Education, Revised 2013, Primary Education, Para. 20d, p.11)
Democracy
The challenge here is to evolve language(s) for (i) sovereignty, (ii) social mobilisation and (iii) equality and justice from the mother
tongues,
indigenous languages and second language
Opportunities of Multilingualism
Bilingualism /Multilingualism as a resource/blessing
The knowledge of more than a language is a blessing for the individual and the nation. The more, the merrier. The bilingual or
polyglot is more mobile than a monolingual.
The fact that nations and the world are multilingual presents an opportunity for people to aspire to learn more than one language.
Availability of Resources
There are abundant human, financial and material resources to encourage harnessing multilingualism for development. Quite a
substantial number of Nigerians are or would like to be bilingual or polyglots.
There are language experts, educationists, teachers and other relevant stakeholders to participate in the multilingual agenda.
Nigeria has sufficient financial resources to fund language development programmes, if there is the political will.
Opportunities exist in several language provisions in the Constitution and other national policy documents such as the National Policy
on Education that have not been implemented or abandoned midway during implementation or poorly executed. In addition to the
provisions in the previous slide, here is another provision that could have engender planned bi-/multi-lingualism in states in Nigeria.
5. The business of a House of Assembly shall conducted in English but the House may in addition to English
conduct the business of the House in one or more other languages spoken' in the state as the House may by
resolution approve. (Constitution (1999, Amended 2011) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Section 97)
Some other provisions that support multilingualism abound in the Nigerian cultural and media policies (Adegbite 2020, Chapters 6 &
7)
The enthusiasm that has attended to the creation of such institutions and programmes the National Language Centre in 1971, National
Literacy Campaign launched in 1976 and the National Institute of Nigerian Languages (NINLAN) in 1993 has been dampened by
non-implementation.
Opportunities of Multilingualism contd
Also, Nigeria has not taken serious advantage of the numerous recommendations of the African Union and
UNESCO of which it is a major signatory, for example:
6. Encourage any policy which is in favour of the development of African languages, and especially
their use in education, and improve communication and the participation of all in cultural
life, in accordance with the requirements of a democratic society. (Conference of African Union
Ministers of Culture’s (AUCMC, 2005), trans. from French by Djite, 2008 – See Adegbite 2020, p. 171)
Representatives of governments attend conferences, participate in the proceedings, bring back
recommendations, but there is hardly any meaningful follow-up action.
Position and Status of Nigeria
Nigeria used to pride itself with various appellations as ‘the Giant of Africa’, ‘the country with the largest black
population’ and ‘a country flowing with milk and honey’. It has played major roles in African development in
terms of politics, economics and scholarship.
Yet it has not been able to utilise the opportunities provided by its enhanced status to initiate and implement a
viable multilingual policy, like Tanzania and South Africa have done.
Constraints of Multilingualism in African Nations

Failure to Accord Priority to Language Matters

Government does not pay much attention to language on matters of national development. In Nigeria and most developing countries, planning is generally considered to be crucial in
economic matters. National problems are often relatable to concrete issues such as economics, politics, ethnic agitations, corruption, education without examination of the remote causes.
Lack of planning of languages is generally one of the remote causes of national problems, yet attention is not paid to it because the connection is often deep and abstract and not easily
perceived.
Negative Attitudes
One of the consequences of the use of English in virtually all official domains is the resulting dominance of the language over other languages and the negative attitude to indigenous
Nigerian languages. Nigerian languages are often perceived to be limited in value when English is the medium of secondary and tertiary education and a required language for gainful
employment. Parents strive to make their children proficient in English and send them to English medium schools. Sometimes, both parents and the schools prevent them from speaking
their mother tongues. Unfortunately, the romance with English is not matched by efficient performance in English. Thus children lack competence in both English and their mother
tongues.
But there is something of a contradiction in attitudes, as Nigerians are proud to identify themselves with their ethnic groups when seeking political offices or shield themselves with ethnic
garbs in the face of marginalisation, for which the mother tongue is a powerful symbol, while at the same time taking advantage of all benefits that proficiency in English confers.
Absence of Implementation Strategies
A major constraint of multilingualism in African nations is ineffective implementation of language policies. There are well formulated and articulated policies in place which, however, are
not implemented but often remain ‘paper policies’.
Policies are not implemented for several reasons such as flawed planning process, lack of implementation procedures, incompetent personnel or bureaucratic bottlenecks or inadequate
funding.

Exercises
8.
Constraints of Multilingualism in African Nations contd
Administrative and Political Instability
Administrative and political instability have often led to frequent changes in policies of planned
bi-/multilingualism.
Frequent changes of government in Nigeria, especially during the military era, led to sudden changes or
abandonment of policies. Sometimes, policies implemented halfway were stalled by unexpected and
unnecessary changes in the core personnel involved in the action.
Failure to Use Language Experts
Policies on planned multilingualism do not often get implemented because they are entrusted to those who are
not competent to implement them. This raises the issue of the use or non-use of language experts.
Quite often, language experts and educationists are not consulted before and during the process of policy
formulation. Occasionally they are brought in at the implementation stage, by which time modification to the
policy may be difficult.
Language experts and scholars often spend a lot of time at seminars and conferences trying to point out what is
wrong with certain policies that have already been passed and earmarked for implementation.
Unless and until language experts are involved in providing technical information to guide language policies
and the implications, so long will there continue to be a failure of policy initiatives.
Goals, Problems and Prospects of Multilingualism in African Nations
Goals
The goal of every nation is national development and the focus here is to connect multilingualism with national development.
It makes the point that the issue of language is vital and complex because of its inextricable links with areas of national development such as politics, culture,
education, economy, health, law, religion, literature and the media.
Political issues that are of major concern, for example, are national unity, nationalism, national language question and national communication. As regards
national unity, federalism seems preferable to unitarism. Unity must be born out of deep-seated determination and conviction arising from education and
enlightenment. There must be purposeful and honest leadership complemented by committed followership with goodwill and determination to succeed. On the
national language question, a common expectation (i.e. a symbol) of an independent sovereign nation, endoglossia is preferable to exoglossia, but both qptions
can be merged. The policies in Nigeria at present reflect both endoglossia and exoglossia (see Sections 55 and 97 of The Constitution).
Considering the sociological issues, the focus is on the multicultural and multi-ethnic nature of Nigeria and the goal is that of creating a Nigerian
megaculture. Obstacles to this effort are nepotism and ethnicism and attempts at solution involve such principles as ‘Federal character’ in appointments and
allocation of national benefits. This requires the positive channeling of nationalism in the country into the cultivation of Nigerian nationism and this involves
the utilisation of indigenous and non-indigenous languages. Two processes of cultivation become available, the ‘additive’ process which sums up different
component ethnic cultures to form a whole and the ‘integrative’ process which adopts a particular ethnic culture as the culture of the nation. The former option
looks more appropriate for Nigeria.
The economic issues of concern pertain to the cultivation of national economic activities. Free movement and interactions of traders and employees across the
nation require multilingual facilities. So also do indigenous trade and entrepreneurship which operate in the indigenous languages need to complement the
operations of English medium corporate marketing in their relation to the global economy, as observed in the creation of rural development projects (e.g.
Better Life for Rural Women) and mass-oriented programmes (e.g. People’s Bank, Cooperative Societies, Federal Economic Advancement Programme and
‘TraderMoni’ Federal Government Empowerment Scheme)

8
Goals contd
On education, for example, the greatest issues are those of acquisition of education and medium of instruction in schools.
Functional education is education for life; and a component of this is both childhood and adult literacy. The language of
instruction in early education is a controversial issue which is tied to the national language question. On language, the main
issue about the language situation in Nigeria is the planning of over 500 languages in existence in the country in such a way
that indigenous and non-indigenous languages are functional and none are allowed to die.

Problems
In a multilingual community like Nigeria an uncoordinated linguistic diversity may result in the creation of
many problems like educational underdevelopment, ethno-linguistic agitation, breakdown of information and communication
gap between the government and the people. There is abundant evidence in the occurrences of the above that need not occupy
our space here.

Problems such as the above permeate all areas of national life earlier mentioned and the goal of governance is to coordinate the
linguistic resources of the nation in order to tackle and check them. There is an elaboration of these in Module 4 of this course.

Prospects
There is the tendency to view multilingualism as a negative feature for development. Yet multilingualism can be a blessing
if the rich linguistic and cultural resources of diverse groups are pooled together and utilised for development. While Nigeria
may be a society of uncoordinated multilingualism, it could be a nation of coordinated societal bilingualism whereby all
languages, English, indigenous, Nigerian Pidgin English, religious and other foreign languages play complementary roles and
none are marginalised.
Prospects

Multingualism is a blessing for individuals and nations.

For the individual, it enhances mobility, vertical and horizontal.
Vertical, in terms of personal advancement, gainful employment, access to education and political offices.
Horizontal, in terms of free access to communities across the nation and the world.
For the nation, it encourages smooth interaction with neighbouring countries and enhanced external relations
and affiliations with international communities.
Can you add to the prospects above?
Exercises
8. Describe the challenges, opportunities and constraints of multilingualism, using an African nation as a case study.
9. What are the goals, problems and prospects of multilingualism in an African nation of your choice?
10. Explain how multilingualism can be a curse or blessing in a nation.