The Languages of Africa and the Diaspora Educating for Language Awareness

by Kleifgen, Jo Anne; Bond, George C.

• ISBN13: 9781847691330
• ISBN10: 1847691331
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-02-17
• Publisher: Multilingual Matters

Summary

This book takes a fresh look at subordinated vernacular languages in the context of African, Caribbean, and US educational landscapes, highlighting the social cost of linguistic exceptionalism for speakers of these languages. Chapters describe contravening movements toward various forms of linguistic diversity and offer a comprehensive approach to language awareness in educative settings.

Author Biography

Jo Anne Kleifgen is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, USA. Her publications include Educating Emergent Bilinguals: Policies, Programs, and Practices for English Language Learners (with Ofelia García; Teachers College Press, 2010) and Languages of Africa and the Diaspora: Educating for Language Awareness (with George C. Bond; Multilingual Matters, 2009).George Clement Bond is the Director of the Center for African Education and William F. Russell Professor for Anthropology and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. His interests include education and elite formation in the United States and Africa, African studies, African religions and politics, agrarian transformations and cultural dimensions of urban and minority populations.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Discourses of Linguistic Exceptionalism and Linguistic Diversity in Education

Language and Education in Africa - Introduction to Part 1

African perspectives on linguistic diversity

Language in education in Africa

Perspectives, challenges and prospects of African languages in education

Languages, literacies, and libraries

Street Setswana vs. School Setswana

Language and Education in the Diaspora - Introduction to Part 2

Creole Exceptionalism and the (mis-)education of the Creole speaker

Political and cultural dimensions of Creole as a regional language in the French Antilles

Success or failure? Language, tracking, and social stratification of Anglophone Caribbean students

Sierra Leonean and Liberian students in ESL programs in the US

Continued marginalization

Linguistic profiling, education, and the law within and beyond the African diaspora

On shallow grammar

African American English and the public interest

Rockin+ the classroom

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