The effect of language attitudes on Kenyan stakeholder involvement in mother tongue policy implementation

Abstract

This paper studies the relationship between language attitudes and the involvement of Sabaot stakeholders in the implementation of the Kenyan language-in-education policy (mother tongue [MT] as subject). Attitudes were vitally important for how the policy was interpreted, the extent to which stakeholders invested their time and the way in which the implementation was actually practiced. While some stakeholders seemed to have an inherent belief in the vital place of the MT and its use in education, others became convinced of it through micro-language planning activities which focused on raising the prestige and image of the Sabaot language. An ethnographic research approach was used to observe the actual language practices of stakeholders and interview participants. Implications from the study reveal that fostering favourable attitudes towards MT should be made a priority in any minority language planning initiative, since attitudes play such a key role in determining stakeholder involvement in implementation.

Keywords:

• language attitudes
• mother tongue
• Sabaot
• Africa
• language-in-education planning

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the Mt Elgon Ministry of Education and BTL staff for their participation, and BTL staff who assisted with translation and transcription of data. I also wish to appreciate the valuable feedback that Gary Barkhuizen and the anonymous reviewers gave me about this paper.

Notes

1. ‘Sumaneet’ the Sabaot word for ‘learning’ and ‘education’ is a pseudonym, as are the names of all participants.

2. Incomplete data on the tables mean that I was not able to collect it.