A lifetime of language experience at each click!

Native speakers learn their mother tongue slowly, from birth, by the constant repetition of common words and phrases in a variety of contexts and situations, within the language community. As foreign language learners, we face considerable disadvantages when compared to children learning their mother tongue. Foreign language learners start later in life, have less time, have fewer opportunities to experience the language, and learn in the restricted environment of the classroom. Teachers and books give us information about many words and phrases, but it is difficult for us to know what we need to focus on and learn thoroughly, and what is less important. The rules and explanations are often difficult for us to understand. A large language corpus represents roughly the amount and variety of language that a native-speaker experiences in a whole lifetime. Learners can now access language corpora. We can check which words and phrases are important, and quickly discover their common meanings, collocations, and structural patterns. It is easier to remember things that we find out ourselves, rather than things that teachers or books tell us. Each click on the computer keyboard can show us the same information in different ways, so we can understand it more easily. We can also get many more examples from a corpus. Teachers and native-speakers can also use corpora, to confirm and enhance their own knowledge of a language, and prepare exercises to guide their students. Each of us can learn at our own level and at our own speed.

The role of the English language in the context of national development vision 2025 with specific reference to agriculture in Tanzania

After thirty years of vacillation, the Tanzanian government has made a firm decision to Swahilize its secondary education system. It has also embarked on an ambitious economic and social development programme (Vision 2025) to transform its peasant society into a modern agricultural community. However, there is a faction in Tanzania opposed to Kiswahili as the medium of education. Already many members of the middle and upper class their children to English medium primary schools to avoid the Kiswahili medium public schools and to prepare their children for the English medium secondary system presently in place. Within the education system, particularly at university level, there is a desire to maintain English as the medium of education. English is seen to provide access to the international scientific community, to cutting edge technology and to the global economy. My interest in this conflict of interests stems from several years' experience teaching English to students at Sokoine University of Agriculture. Students specialise in agriculture and are expected to work with the peasant population on graduation. The students experience difficulties studying in English and then find their Kiswahili skills insufficient to explain to farmers the new techniques and technologies that they have studied in English. They are hampered by a complex triglossic situation in which they use their mother tongue with family and friends, Kiswahili, the national language for early education and most public communication within Tanzania, and English for advanced studies. My aim in this thesis was - to study the language policy in Tanzania and see how it is understood and implemented; - to examine the attitudes towards the various languages and their various roles; - to investigate actual language behaviour in Tanzanian higher education. My conclusion is that the dysfunctionality of the present study has to be addressed. Diglossic public life in Tanzania has to be accommodated. The only solution appears to be a compromise, namely a bilingual education system which supports from all cases of society by using Kiswahili, together with an early introduction of English and its promotion as a privileged foreign language, so that Tanzania can continue to develop internally through Kiswahili and at the same time retain access to the globalising world through the medium of English.

Latin Americans in London:language, integration and ethnic identity

This thesis studies the links between language, migration and integration in the context of the 'new migrant' group of Latin Americans in London. It reviews the many ways in which language impacts the integration processes of migrants by influencing people's access to jobs, services, social contacts and information. By focusing on migrants' experiences this research also investigates the ways in which language and identity articulate, as well as the affective variables that are at play in the acquisition of the local language. With a large sector trapped in a cycle of poor command of English and labour market disadvantage, many Latin Americans experience exclusion and poverty. In reaction to this, a sector of the community is campaigning for ethnic minority recognition. This work reviews the debates for recognition and the strategy of organising around ethnicity, paying special attention to the role language plays in the process. The study is based on over two and half years of qualitative research, which included interviews, surveys, and long-term participant observation within a community organisation and a recognition campaign. Its interdisciplinary perspective allows the recognition of both the intimate links between language and identity, as well as the social and structural forces that influence migrants' linguistic integration. It unveils the practical and symbolic value that the mother tongue has for Latin American migrants and provides a broader account of their experiences. This research calls attention to the need for a more comprehensive approach to the study of language and migration in order to acknowledge the affective and social factors involved in the linguistic practices of migrants. By studying the community's struggles for recognition, this work evidences both the importance of visibility for minority groups in London and the intrinsic methodological limitations of monitoring through ethnic categorisation.