Teacher trainee sociolinguistic backgrounds and attitudes to language-in-education policy in Ghana: a preliminary survey

Abstract

This paper explores, at the micro level, the sociolinguistic backgrounds of teacher trainees in a College of Education in Accra and their perceptions toward Ghana’s current language-in-education policy. It aims at finding how these micro-level sociolinguistic insights could provide suggestions for language-in-education policies at the macro level. This paper argues that the disparities between policy and practice that have occurred in language-in-education policy partly stem from the possible neglect of the multilingual realities of Ghana in the formulation and implementation of the policies. Being a multilingual country, the recognition of a need for a language (or languages) of communication, and a need to select one or more languages for official purposes are crucial in the language planning activities. The linguistic backgrounds of the teacher trainees and their repertoires illustrate the high level of bilingualism and multilingualism in the country. Although a preliminary survey, we propose a flexible bilingual language-in-education policy to address the linguistic complexities of Ghana. We suggest a bottom-up approach for soliciting inputs toward a macro-level policy.

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