Nkonko Mudipanu Kamwangamalu
Biographic Data
| ID | 649784 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nkonko Mudipanu Kamwangamalu |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nkonko Mudipanu |
| FAMILY NAME | Kamwangamalu |
| SIGNATURE | KAMWANGAMALU N M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Howard University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8300-7395 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 40 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 134 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 40 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1989 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
African Union
This entry reviews the language policy statements that the African continent has made, through its institutions such as the African Union, to promote Africa's indigenous languages in the educational system. This is done against the background of the ideologies that have informed language policies in Africa from the colonial era to the present, especially the ideology of development on the one hand, and the ideology of decolonization on the other.…
A tribute to Robert (Bob) Boris Kaplan (1929-2020): A distinguished scholar and supportive colleague
With the passing of Robert (Bob) B. Kaplan we have lost not only a distinguished scholar in the field of Applied Linguistics but also one of the founding editors of Current Issues in Language Planning. Inspired by the idea of establishing a journal that would contribute to the field of language planning research and also showcase language planning scholarship in new ways, Bob set up our journal in 1999 in collaboration with his close colleague, t…
Language ideologies and practices in Africa
Sociolinguistics in African Contexts is an edited collection of 18 chapters providing detailed accounts of language ideologies and urban youth language practices in Africa. Its overall twin-goal is 'to foreground work that places African languages, rather than European languages, at the center of sociolinguistic studies' in Africa, and to argue against 'the continued exclusion of African languages from many education networks.' In this review art…
English as a naturalized African language
Braj Kachru proposes a redefinition of the concept of 'nativeness' of English, and advanced this proposal by distinguishing between 'genetic nativeness' and 'functional nativeness.' Drawing on Kachru's framework, especially his concept of 'functional nativeness,' this article discusses the pragmatic realities of English in Anglophone Africa against the perennial debate on the medium of instruction in public schools in the region. It makes the cas…
The issue of the medium of instruction in Africa as an “inheritance situation”
One of the most crucial language planning decisions that a country can make is “the determination of a language to serve as the medium of instruction in school” (Fasold, 1984, p. 292). The issue of
English in language ideologies, attitudes, and educational practices in Kenya and South Africa
In this paper we discuss language-in-education practices, along with the ideologies and attitudes that undergird them, in the two countries. The focus is on the ideology of development, the essence of which is captured in the second epigraph: An education through the medium of English brings about employment, literacy, and development, personal success and upward social mobility. We discuss these presumed outcomes in the context of Kenya and Sout…
Medium of Instruction in Africa: Commentary
This special issue on the medium of instruction (MOI) in Africa is a sequel to a previous issue on the same topic on Asia published last year in this journal (vol. 14, no. 1). While we are aware that language boundaries do not correspond to political boundaries–either national or continental–we have been guided by our assumptions that the MOI situations were somewhat different in these two continents and therefore two separate issues would allow …
Rural-urban and south-north migrations and language maintenance and shift
Studies into language and migrations have traditionally focused on transnational migrations, with a view to determining what Borland (2006) has termed facilitating and motivating factors for language maintenance or shift in the destination country. Facilitating factors are aspects of the socio-political context that allow for language maintenance, among them, supportive government policies and frequent contacts with the migrants' homeland. Motiva…
Effects of policy on English-medium instruction in Africa
This study examines the effects of policy on English-medium instruction in public schools in Africa. The focus is on illiteracy and elite closure. It argues that policy on English-medium instruction has failed to achieve the key objectives around which it was adopted: spread literacy among and create opportunities for the populace to participate in the socioeconomic and political development of the continent. The paper calls for an inclusive lang…
African Union
The year 2010 marked a milestone for the majority of African nations, as most of them celebrated the 50th anniversary of political independence and liberation from former Western colonial powers. However, as Fishman (1996, p. 5) remarks, “although the lowering of one flag and the raising of another may indicate the end of colonial status, these acts do not necessarily indicate the end of imperialist privilege in neo‐colonial disguise.” In Africa,…
Why educational language plans sometimes fail
Language-in-education policy (decision taking) and planning (decision implementation) are complex processes requiring a number of decisions to be taken and implemented if they are to be successful. While there is research that suggests the factors that lead to successful outcomes, these are often either ignored or too difficult for polities to implement, given their resources. This insufficiency can lead to a waste of resources and a failure to m…
Success or failure of primary second/foreign language programmes in Asia: What do the data tell us
Primary school second/foreign language (SL/FL) programmes in Asia, as well as in other parts of the world, are becoming more common, with many targeting English as the SL or FL. The pressures for such English language programmes come from top-down notions that in a globalised world English is required for societies to be competitive, especially with Asian neighbours, and bottom-up pressures from parents who see English as the key to educational s…
African American Vernacular English, Religion and Ethnicity
African American Vernacular English (AAVE), which is defined by Geneva Smitherman (1977: 32) as ‘European-American speech with Afro-American meaning, nuance, tone, and gesture’, has been investigated from various perspectives. Some scholars have focused on the status of AAVE, whether it is a(n African) language or a variety of American English (e.g. Baldwin 2002); others have concentrated on its origins, whether AAVE is derived from a prior Creol…
Language planning and its problems
There is a growing tendency in Asia, as well as elsewhere in the world, for English as a foreign/second language (EFL/ESL) programs to be implemented in the early years of primary schooling. Vigoro
Vernacularization, globalization, and language economics in non-English-speaking countries in Africa
Research into language policy in Africa has addressed the impact of colonial language policies on efforts to formulate and implement post-colonial language policies aimed at vernacularization, defined as the use of indigenous African languages in higher domains such as education. What seems to have received very little attention to date, however, is the effect of globalization, through the medium of English, on vernacularization not only in Anglo…
Postcolonial English: Varieties around the World by Edgar W. Schneider
Reflections on the language policy balance sheet in Africa
This article reflects on the state of language policies in post-colonial Africa at the time of the millennium, with a focus on efforts to promote the use of African languages in higher domains such as education. The evidence gleaned supports the argument that language policies in most African countries have succeeded only in creating space, on paper at least, for the promotion of the indigenous languages in higher domains. However, they have fail…
Forum Colingualism 1 Comment 6
One language, multi-layered identities: English in a society in transition, South Africa
Studies of language and identity have traditionally focused on how individuals or groups use language to negotiate, construct, manage or project their social identities. What seems to have attracted very little attention, though, is how, in a given society, a language is assigned not one but multiple identities at various times in its social history. In this paper I examine the latter issue, with a focus on English in a society in transition, Sou…
Religion, social history, and language maintenance: African languages in post-apartheid South Africa
Mother Tongues and Language Planning in Africa
proposed earlier. The informal sites of production that youths explore and exploit in the making of fusion music provide alternatives to the conventional classroom. These alternative sites potentially have implications for issues such as social exclusion and participation because of their open and inclusive nature. In addition, the code of practice in such alternative sites of knowledge production and language teaching and learning is likely to b…
The language policy / language economics interface and mother-tongue education in post-apartheid South Africa
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Language, social history, and identity in post-apartheid South Africa: A case study of the "Colored" community of Wentworth
Speakers in multilingual societies have access at any given time to a wide range of different languages and language varieties to meet their communicative needs. This access presents them with at least three dilemmas each time they open their mouths: (a) Who am I? (b) How do others perceive me? (c) How would I actually want to be perceived (Kamwangamalu 1992: 33)? A related dilemma, one might add, is (d) what linguistic means one should use to ex…
Globalization of English, and language maintenance and shift in South Africa
Article Globalization of English, and language maintenance and shift in South Africa was published on November 13, 2003 in the journal International Journal of the Sociology of Language (volume 2003, issue 164)
English in South Africa at the millennium: Challenges and prospects
Ubuntu in South Africa: A sociolinguistic perspective to a pan-African concept
(1999). Ubuntu in South Africa: a sociolinguistic perspective to a pan-African concept. Critical Arts: Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 24-41
Multilingualism and Education Policy in Post-Apartheid South Africa
MU CIKOSO Miakulu ne Politike wa Tulasa kunyima kwa apateide mu Afrike wa Kwinshi Afrike wa Kwinshi pakadipikulaye ku bupika bwa apateide mu 1994, lukonko lunene luvwa pa moyo wa bamfumu ba ditunga luvwa lwa ne ncini civwabo ne bwa kwenza ne miakulu ya batoke bavwa bakwata ditunga ku bupika, Angele ne Afrikanse. Mu dibeji edi ndi ngakula bwa politike udi bamfumu ba ditunga benza bwa kwandamuna lukonko elu, ne nangananga politike wa kulongesha ban…
The language policy / language economics interface and mother-tongue education in post-apartheid South Africa
Preview this article: The language policy / language economics interface and mother-tongue education in post-apartheid South Africa, Page 1 of 1 /docserver/preview/fulltext/lplp.28.2.03kam-1.gif
Code-mixing and modernization
Current studies of code-mixing (CM) have been limited to analyzing CM only in individual bilingual communities. This paper focuses on the neglected dimension of CM: the treatment of CM as a cross-cultural phenomenon. Three points are presented which show that CM has characteristic features one can witness in every bilingual community. First it is shown that from a sociofunctional perspective, the bilingual may use CM for expressing modernization.…
Why educational language plans sometimes fail
Language-in-education policy (decision taking) and planning (decision implementation) are complex processes requiring a number of decisions to be taken and implemented if they are to be successful. While there is research that suggests the factors that lead to successful outcomes, these are often either ignored or too difficult for polities to implement, given their resources. This insufficiency can lead to a waste of resources and a failure to m…
Vernacularization, globalization, and language economics in non-English-speaking countries in Africa
Research into language policy in Africa has addressed the impact of colonial language policies on efforts to formulate and implement post-colonial language policies aimed at vernacularization, defined as the use of indigenous African languages in higher domains such as education. What seems to have received very little attention to date, however, is the effect of globalization, through the medium of English, on vernacularization not only in Anglo…
The social history of English in South Africa
The Language Planning Situation in South Africa
This monograph examines the language planning situation in South Africa, where language has been instrumental in the country's transition from colonialism to apartheid to democracy. In particular, it addresses, diachronically and synchronically, the issues of language spread and use, language policy and planning, and language maintenance and shift. The monograph is divided into four parts. The first part presents the language profile of South Afr…
Success or failure of primary second/foreign language programmes in Asia: What do the data tell us
Primary school second/foreign language (SL/FL) programmes in Asia, as well as in other parts of the world, are becoming more common, with many targeting English as the SL or FL. The pressures for such English language programmes come from top-down notions that in a globalised world English is required for societies to be competitive, especially with Asian neighbours, and bottom-up pressures from parents who see English as the key to educational s…
Language planning and its problems
There is a growing tendency in Asia, as well as elsewhere in the world, for English as a foreign/second language (EFL/ESL) programs to be implemented in the early years of primary schooling. Vigoro
One language, multi-layered identities: English in a society in transition, South Africa
Studies of language and identity have traditionally focused on how individuals or groups use language to negotiate, construct, manage or project their social identities. What seems to have attracted very little attention, though, is how, in a given society, a language is assigned not one but multiple identities at various times in its social history. In this paper I examine the latter issue, with a focus on English in a society in transition, Sou…
Globalization of English, and language maintenance and shift in South Africa
Article Globalization of English, and language maintenance and shift in South Africa was published on November 13, 2003 in the journal International Journal of the Sociology of Language (volume 2003, issue 164)
A selected bibliography of studies on code-mixing and code-switching (1970-1988)
World Englishes
English as a naturalized African language
Braj Kachru proposes a redefinition of the concept of 'nativeness' of English, and advanced this proposal by distinguishing between 'genetic nativeness' and 'functional nativeness.' Drawing on Kachru's framework, especially his concept of 'functional nativeness,' this article discusses the pragmatic realities of English in Anglophone Africa against the perennial debate on the medium of instruction in public schools in the region. It makes the cas…
Chinese-English code-mixing: A Case of Matrix Language Assignment
While it has been shown that bilingual code-mixing (CM) is not random and that there exist rules that determine what code-mixes are or are not allowed in bilingual speech, it has not been established yet whether the rules in question 'come' predominantly from one language, the matrix language, or whether they are evenly contributed by each of the languages participating in CM. More specifically, the issue has been whether there exists a matrix la…
English in language ideologies, attitudes, and educational practices in Kenya and South Africa
In this paper we discuss language-in-education practices, along with the ideologies and attitudes that undergird them, in the two countries. The focus is on the ideology of development, the essence of which is captured in the second epigraph: An education through the medium of English brings about employment, literacy, and development, personal success and upward social mobility. We discuss these presumed outcomes in the context of Kenya and Sout…
Effects of policy on English-medium instruction in Africa
This study examines the effects of policy on English-medium instruction in public schools in Africa. The focus is on illiteracy and elite closure. It argues that policy on English-medium instruction has failed to achieve the key objectives around which it was adopted: spread literacy among and create opportunities for the populace to participate in the socioeconomic and political development of the continent. The paper calls for an inclusive lang…
Sociolinguistic aspects of siSwati-English bilingualism
This paper is a pilot study of bilingualism in siSwati and English in Swaziland. Swaziland has been the site of contact between siSwati and English since long before it became a British colony in 1903. As a result, there has naturally been a great deal of what Haugen (1972) has termed 'interlingual contagion' in both directions. The study describes some aspects of this interlingual contagion, with a focus on borrowing and code-switching on the on…
Language ideologies and practices in Africa
Sociolinguistics in African Contexts is an edited collection of 18 chapters providing detailed accounts of language ideologies and urban youth language practices in Africa. Its overall twin-goal is 'to foreground work that places African languages, rather than European languages, at the center of sociolinguistic studies' in Africa, and to argue against 'the continued exclusion of African languages from many education networks.' In this review art…
The issue of the medium of instruction in Africa as an “inheritance situation”
One of the most crucial language planning decisions that a country can make is “the determination of a language to serve as the medium of instruction in school” (Fasold, 1984, p. 292). The issue of
Postcolonial English: Varieties around the World by Edgar W. Schneider
Mother Tongues and Language Planning in Africa
proposed earlier. The informal sites of production that youths explore and exploit in the making of fusion music provide alternatives to the conventional classroom. These alternative sites potentially have implications for issues such as social exclusion and participation because of their open and inclusive nature. In addition, the code of practice in such alternative sites of knowledge production and language teaching and learning is likely to b…
Language, social history, and identity in post-apartheid South Africa: A case study of the "Colored" community of Wentworth
Speakers in multilingual societies have access at any given time to a wide range of different languages and language varieties to meet their communicative needs. This access presents them with at least three dilemmas each time they open their mouths: (a) Who am I? (b) How do others perceive me? (c) How would I actually want to be perceived (Kamwangamalu 1992: 33)? A related dilemma, one might add, is (d) what linguistic means one should use to ex…
Ethnicity and language crossing in post-apartheid South Africa
This study examines some of the linguistic mechanisms that multilingual speakers in the new South Africa use to construct, maintain, manage, or negotiate their social identities, with a focus on language crossing and its derivatives, refusal and passing (Rampton 1992, 1994). It attempts to determine the social meanings of these phenomena against the backdrop of the political changes that have taken place in the country. For instance, to what exte…
The New South Africa, Language, and Ethnicity: Prognoses
De la societe complexe d'Afrique du Sud post-apartheid, de nombreux aspects sont abordes concernant les corollaires linguistiques et socioculturels existant entre l'identite ethnique, le nationalisme linguistique, les marqueurs linguistiques de l'identite ethnique, les changements de code, le maintien de la langue et de l'identite ethnique dans les minorites linguistiques et la construction de nouvelles identites ethnolinguistiques. L'ouvrage mon…
A selected bibliography of studies on code-mixing and code-switching (1970-1988)
World Englishes
Code-mixing and modernization
Current studies of code-mixing (CM) have been limited to analyzing CM only in individual bilingual communities. This paper focuses on the neglected dimension of CM: the treatment of CM as a cross-cultural phenomenon. Three points are presented which show that CM has characteristic features one can witness in every bilingual community. First it is shown that from a sociofunctional perspective, the bilingual may use CM for expressing modernization.…
Chinese-English code-mixing: A Case of Matrix Language Assignment
While it has been shown that bilingual code-mixing (CM) is not random and that there exist rules that determine what code-mixes are or are not allowed in bilingual speech, it has not been established yet whether the rules in question 'come' predominantly from one language, the matrix language, or whether they are evenly contributed by each of the languages participating in CM. More specifically, the issue has been whether there exists a matrix la…
Mixers' and 'mixing: English across cultures
World Englishes
Sociolinguistic aspects of siSwati-English bilingualism
This paper is a pilot study of bilingualism in siSwati and English in Swaziland. Swaziland has been the site of contact between siSwati and English since long before it became a British colony in 1903. As a result, there has naturally been a great deal of what Haugen (1972) has termed 'interlingual contagion' in both directions. The study describes some aspects of this interlingual contagion, with a focus on borrowing and code-switching on the on…
The Colonial Legacy and Language Planning in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Case of Zaire1
This paper is concerned with Zaire's perennial issue of choosing an indigenous language for official use It attempts to determine why Zaire, one of the highly multilingual countries in the African continent, has not succeeded yet in choosing an indigenous language for official use The factors which have impededprogress on this issue are discussed Recommendations are made which call for the revalorization of these languages through status re-plani…
Multilingualism and Education Policy in Post-Apartheid South Africa
MU CIKOSO Miakulu ne Politike wa Tulasa kunyima kwa apateide mu Afrike wa Kwinshi Afrike wa Kwinshi pakadipikulaye ku bupika bwa apateide mu 1994, lukonko lunene luvwa pa moyo wa bamfumu ba ditunga luvwa lwa ne ncini civwabo ne bwa kwenza ne miakulu ya batoke bavwa bakwata ditunga ku bupika, Angele ne Afrikanse. Mu dibeji edi ndi ngakula bwa politike udi bamfumu ba ditunga benza bwa kwandamuna lukonko elu, ne nangananga politike wa kulongesha ban…
Preface: Multilingualism in South Africa
We-codes, ‘they-codes’, and ‘codes-in-between’: Identities of English and codeswitching in post-apartheid South Africa
Article ‘We-codes, ‘they-codes’, and ‘codes-in-between’: Identities of English and codeswitching in post-apartheid South Africa was published on January 1, 1998 in the journal Multilingua (volume 17, issue 2-3)
Ubuntu in South Africa: A sociolinguistic perspective to a pan-African concept
(1999). Ubuntu in South Africa: a sociolinguistic perspective to a pan-African concept. Critical Arts: Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 24-41
Apartheid and ethnicity: Introductory remarks
The New South Africa, Language, and Ethnicity: Prognoses
De la societe complexe d'Afrique du Sud post-apartheid, de nombreux aspects sont abordes concernant les corollaires linguistiques et socioculturels existant entre l'identite ethnique, le nationalisme linguistique, les marqueurs linguistiques de l'identite ethnique, les changements de code, le maintien de la langue et de l'identite ethnique dans les minorites linguistiques et la construction de nouvelles identites ethnolinguistiques. L'ouvrage mon…
The Language Planning Situation in South Africa
This monograph examines the language planning situation in South Africa, where language has been instrumental in the country's transition from colonialism to apartheid to democracy. In particular, it addresses, diachronically and synchronically, the issues of language spread and use, language policy and planning, and language maintenance and shift. The monograph is divided into four parts. The first part presents the language profile of South Afr…
Ethnicity and language crossing in post-apartheid South Africa
This study examines some of the linguistic mechanisms that multilingual speakers in the new South Africa use to construct, maintain, manage, or negotiate their social identities, with a focus on language crossing and its derivatives, refusal and passing (Rampton 1992, 1994). It attempts to determine the social meanings of these phenomena against the backdrop of the political changes that have taken place in the country. For instance, to what exte…
English in South Africa at the millennium: Challenges and prospects
The social history of English in South Africa
Globalization of English, and language maintenance and shift in South Africa
Article Globalization of English, and language maintenance and shift in South Africa was published on November 13, 2003 in the journal International Journal of the Sociology of Language (volume 2003, issue 164)
The language policy / language economics interface and mother-tongue education in post-apartheid South Africa
Preview this article: The language policy / language economics interface and mother-tongue education in post-apartheid South Africa, Page 1 of 1 /docserver/preview/fulltext/lplp.28.2.03kam-1.gif
Language, social history, and identity in post-apartheid South Africa: A case study of the "Colored" community of Wentworth
Speakers in multilingual societies have access at any given time to a wide range of different languages and language varieties to meet their communicative needs. This access presents them with at least three dilemmas each time they open their mouths: (a) Who am I? (b) How do others perceive me? (c) How would I actually want to be perceived (Kamwangamalu 1992: 33)? A related dilemma, one might add, is (d) what linguistic means one should use to ex…
Mother Tongues and Language Planning in Africa
proposed earlier. The informal sites of production that youths explore and exploit in the making of fusion music provide alternatives to the conventional classroom. These alternative sites potentially have implications for issues such as social exclusion and participation because of their open and inclusive nature. In addition, the code of practice in such alternative sites of knowledge production and language teaching and learning is likely to b…
Religion, social history, and language maintenance: African languages in post-apartheid South Africa
One language, multi-layered identities: English in a society in transition, South Africa
Studies of language and identity have traditionally focused on how individuals or groups use language to negotiate, construct, manage or project their social identities. What seems to have attracted very little attention, though, is how, in a given society, a language is assigned not one but multiple identities at various times in its social history. In this paper I examine the latter issue, with a focus on English in a society in transition, Sou…
Forum Colingualism 1 Comment 6
Reflections on the language policy balance sheet in Africa
This article reflects on the state of language policies in post-colonial Africa at the time of the millennium, with a focus on efforts to promote the use of African languages in higher domains such as education. The evidence gleaned supports the argument that language policies in most African countries have succeeded only in creating space, on paper at least, for the promotion of the indigenous languages in higher domains. However, they have fail…
African American Vernacular English, Religion and Ethnicity
African American Vernacular English (AAVE), which is defined by Geneva Smitherman (1977: 32) as ‘European-American speech with Afro-American meaning, nuance, tone, and gesture’, has been investigated from various perspectives. Some scholars have focused on the status of AAVE, whether it is a(n African) language or a variety of American English (e.g. Baldwin 2002); others have concentrated on its origins, whether AAVE is derived from a prior Creol…
Multilingual Education and Policy (37 works) · Sociology (31 works) · Linguistics (28 works) · Political science (25 works) · Second Language Learning and Teaching (25 works) · Computer Science (14 works) · History (14 works) · Linguistic Variation and Morphology (14 works) · Law (12 works) · Philosophy (12 works)