Intertextuality across Angolan medium of instruction policy texts, discourses, and practices

ABSTRACT

Portuguese is the mother tongue for many Angolans yet a majority continue to use African languages in everyday interactions and schools struggle to provide equal educational opportunities for students whose first language is not Portuguese. Recognizing this challenge, the Angolan government has created a language policy that will introduce six African languages into the school system. For a country that has maintained a monolingual education system for over 32 years, the new policy is perhaps a milestone achievement. This study examines the historical and ideological processes that gave rise to new medium of instruction policies in Angola. Then, interview data collected from policymakers, educators, and students are examined to illuminate how these language policies are interpreted and appropriated in schools and communities. We argue that, while recent language policies create ideological spaces for multilingual education, the hegemonic status of Portuguese, and the growing influence of English, are formidable obstacles.

KEYWORDS:

• Language policy
• medium of instruction
• Angola
• intertextuality
• ideology

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Nicolau Nkiawete Manuel received a Master degree in education from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale and a PhD in teaching and learning with specialization in cultural studies from Washington State University, Pullman. He is an assistant professor in the English Language and Literature department and Director for scientific affairs and post-graduate studies at the Faculty of Arts at Agostinho Neto University in Luanda, Angola. His primary research interests are in the fields of language education policy and language planning, critical sociolinguistics, cross-linguistic research in English as Foreign Language (EFL) contexts and bilingual education. He is also interested in social and cultural foundation of education with emphasis on social justice. He teaches sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, and research methodology at both undergraduate and graduate levels. He is also affiliated with the Language Teacher Education Institute where he teaches teaching and learning evaluations in the graduate teacher education program

David Cassels Johnson is Associate Professor of Foreign Language and ESL Education at the University of Iowa, Iowa City. He holds a PhD (with distinction) in Educational Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania. His research, teaching, and service focus on how language policies impact educational opportunities for linguistically diverse students, in both bilingual education and English language education programs. Before joining the University of Iowa in 2013, he held faculty positions in education and linguistics at Washington State University and Texas A&M University and was a visiting lecturer at the University of Equatorial Guinea and the University of Costa Rica. He is the author of Language policy (2013, Palgrave Macmillan) and co-editor of Research methods in language policy and planning: A practical guide (2015, Wiley-Blackwell, with Francis M. Hult).