Tag: #multilingual

Africentric Alternative School

Di Niu

According to Asante (1991), Afrocentricity is linked to education “from an African worldview.” In language instruction, this concept corresponds to the concept of ethnicity (Van Herk, 2018). However, the black community includes not only African communities, but also communities with African ancestry from the Caribbean, Canada, and the United States. When it comes to the “sense” of this sociolinguistic phenomenon, more actions in the real educational system may be required – Africentric Alternative School is one example.

Clearly, Africentric Alternative School is an innovative educational sociolinguistics model in Canada. In a multilingual context, it reshapes traditional understandings of African heritage. Despite some challenges, the active participation of the local African heritage-based community demonstrates the success of this model. In general, this school model reconstructs the identity of local people involved in this heritage. It turns out that the community-emphasized aspect of Canadian multilingualism is demonstrated in this case. Furthermore, various communities have pledged their support for the construction of this new school model. Similar educational innovation may be required not only for African heritage communities but also for other ethnic communities. Crump (2014) also claims that the introduction of LangCrit represents the recent success of critical language and race theory research. Because it comes from a critical perspective, the LangCrit helps to structure the design of the school curriculum as well as the sociolinguistic vision. This reconstructed vision should, indeed, be double-counted.

Moreover, Giddings (2001) discovers that incorporating Afrocentric content into the school curriculum is effective. African heritage-centered education contributes to the multicultural context in Canada through the useful critiques of these scholars. This innovative educational institution has the potential to redefine the power of communal culture in the pursuit of educational justice. There appears to be an emphasis on “common value” in Canadian multilingualism. The Africentric Alternative School is a brilliant example of educational inclusivity, particularly in the curriculum that conceptualizes this vision. That being said, what matters is not only the knowledge of African heritage but also the process of legitimizing African sociocultural production.

In my opinion, the construction of such an educational institution is a “communal request.” This request formalizes the integration of African heritage into the mainstream of Canadian education. Naturally, I think about the various Chinese cultural centers in Canada. In comparison to the Africentric Alternative School’s initiative, Chinese heritage-based centers may need a little more courage to initiate this type of “communal request” – to preserve minority culture (other than English and French languages in Canada). This request should be regarded as an urgent need to be incorporated into the scope of Canadian multilingual culture. Nonetheless, cultural conflicts (or misunderstandings) remain along this path to a relatively optimal state in multilingualism – a critical vision should be emphasized.

Finally, the Africentric Alternative School represents a novel perspective on conceptualizing African heritage-based communal culture in the context of Canadian multilingualism. This insight – about respect and common value – is embedded in the “mainstream” of Canadian educational reform.

Question: What is your own opinion about the Africentric Alternative School?

Reference

Akua, C. (2020). Standards of Afrocentric education for school leaders and teachers. Journal of black studies, 51(2), 107-127.

Asante, M. K. (1991). The Afrocentric idea in education. The journal of negro education, 60(2), 170-180.

Giddings, G. J. (2001). Infusion of Afrocentric content into the school curriculum: Toward an effective movement. Journal of black Studies, 31(4), 462-482.

Multilingual South Africa and ESL

Di Niu

“Permeable walls” are installed in the classroom (Pennycook, 2021). Permeability can be seen in the transmission of information between classrooms and the outside world. What is transmissible is not only information but also the consequences of these interconnections between inside and outside classrooms, particularly from the perspective of educational sociolinguistics. As a result, language policies and their implementations should be linked between the scenarios of permeable classrooms and the world outside. This “from the top down”—or, more precisely, local classroom-based vision—helps to establish effective language policy (Pennycook, 2021).


South Africa, with its multilingualism, can serve as an example. Historically speaking, Afrikaans, like English, is an imposed language spoken by millions of South Africans, and its influence can be seen in daily life. In this case, bilingualism may not be sufficient to depict the linguistic environment in South Africa because other local languages exist. That is why multilingualism helps to explain the South African language environment.


In order to gain a better understanding of South Africa’s multilingual context, it is necessary to put Afrikaans and English in a sociocultural context. There could be a special platform of daily life that reflects interactions between English and other languages (Kamwangamalu, 2007). When deciding whether to use English or Afrikaans, this model can be helpful. Local language policy, it could be argued, is also attempting to strike a delicate balance between the two, and a number of policies correspond with South Africa’s cultural background.


Classrooms, according to Pennycook (2021), are “dynamic spaces” that are linked to what happens in the outside world. From this perspective, South Africa’s social transformation resonates with the “Afrikaans-ESL” context. It means that the importance of English has been emphasized since the country’s globalization. Young people, in particular, may have discovered a new balance in South Africa’s multilingual context. Meanwhile, economic development promotes the use of English on a regular basis. As a result, there is a generation gap in the way Afrikaans and English are used. This phenomenon is miraculous because there is such harmony in the coexistence of English and its multilingual setting. The challenge for teachers, however, is to convey to students the message of “Afrikaans-ESL balance.” This task is not easy, and it is accompanied by multiple answers as well as student feedback. How can local governments in South Africa identify the key points in conflicts between English and other languages and then design a language policy to address these issues?


Furthermore, we must also mention South Africa’s ongoing racial and ethnic conflicts. Similarly, Pennycook has interpreted Canagarajah’s context in Sri Lanka to mean that classrooms should have “relative autonomy.” Despite social instability, classrooms continue to provide students with educational opportunities. This context also creates a new platform for local language policymakers to rethink how to improve existing language policies. If the language policy is successful in assisting people in finding a balance between English and other languages, it will also contribute to social and economic stability. Language is mobile, so it can integrate at different levels of society, effectively addressing language issues. Hence, I believe that South Africa is an excellent case study for studying the interactions between English and the multilingual environment. It may not be easy to address all of these issues at first, but it must eventually find a viable solution in the face of these conflicts.


In conclusion, the example of ESL and multilingual South Africa provides a new platform for rethinking the issue of English and the local multilingual context. Conflicts and beneficial interactions will continue. However, it is through this investigation that local language policymakers should be able to find better solutions, with a particular emphasis on this “from top to bottom” model—or, more precisely, this local sociolinguistics-based insight (Pennycook, 2021). The classroom is not an isolated place, but sufficiently permeable to absorb interactions from the world outside.

Question:
Can you think of any other examples similar to “multilingual South Africa and ESL”?

Reference

Barkhuizen, G. P., & Gough, D. (1996). Language curriculum development in South Africa: What place for English?. TESOL quarterly, 30(3), 453-471.

Kamwangamalu, N. M. (2007). One language, multi‐layered identities: English in a society in transition, South Africa. World Englishes, 26(3), 263-275.

Pennycook, A. (2021). The politics of language pedagogy (Chapter 6). In A. Pennycook (author). Critical Applied Linguistics: A Critical Re-introduction. Routledge.

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