Continue to The colonial Linguistic

Inheritance
 The Commonwealth Conference in 1959.
- The first conference was the Commonwealth conference conducted in Oxford •
1959. They provide several suggestions to improve the English teaching in the
periphery-English countries. The conference points out to the difference between
the English as a subject and English as a medium. it also addressed the fact that as a
second language the topic of English was still unexplored.
-The experts of the Commonwealth conference notice that the field of English as a •
second language “ still a field inadequately cultivated, imperfectly understood, and…
insufficiently financed” (Makerere Report 1961:3)
- They addressed another problem which is Teaching African languages •
 Elliot and Asquith
The two commissions Elliot and Asquith noticed that the English scholars faced •
problems in teaching English as a foreign language. They recommended that the
colonial university should study the comparison between the English and the
vernacular languages to understand the difference in patterns thinking between
someone who speaks English as a native speaker and others.
 Continue…

The London university examination neglect the need for developing the Africans •
institutions and gave priority to make sure that the degrees of the colleges are up
to an international standard which is the British standard.
 Ashby’s report (policymaker in Africa)
In his report that was produced in 1960 about the higher education in Nigerian. He •
failed to mention anything about the local languages or the vernacular languages, the
Nigerian language was irrelevant and not worthy to be mentioned in his reports.
This was considered as a clear support from the linguicism towards the English
linguistic imperialism.
Several reports recommended building a school of African languages. George Perren
reports that:” it was impossible to get students to take any serious interest in their
language, they seemed to think it a bit infra dig”
After the independence the only language that was taught was English, and there •
were no actions towards establishing a department for the Ugandan languages and
other languages.
 The UNESCO conference 1952
-In 1952 a second conference the UNESCO conference was held at Jos, •
Nigeria on the " African languages and English in Education". They were
concern about the amount of priority that was given to the English language
and the neglection of the African languages.
The Leverhulme conference 1961 •
-Another conference held in Ibadan in 1961, predicts that dismissing the study •
of vernacular in secondary school will cause of creating "millions of
culturally displaced persons in Africa" (ibid, 109). (Let’s discuss)
To make sure that the higher standard of English is advanced, they decided to use it as a
means in Education. “ unlike the French, the British had encouraged the extensive use of
local languages in the early years of primary schooling ” However, the numbers for
languages they used in education was considered unreliable. WHY ??

• In Nigeria 1946 there were: 1,910 Roman Catholic mission schools, 1,654 run by
Anglican churches and the church Missionary society, 365 by Methodist, 175 by
Presbyterian Church and the Church of Scotland.
• "The international African Institute estimate that nearly 400 languages in British tropical
Africa...nearly 100 were in use in education in British Africa" (ibid, 1953, p17).

• They didn’t have a complete number for the language in her territories
These figures can answer another question which is
why the British decided to replace the African
languages with English???
The British colonial noticed the importance of these languages.
Therefore, they start taking actions regarding these languages they
asked Missionaries to work on alphabetizing the African languages,
and to write descriptions to them. However, there was a limitation
on the African languages. There were only few reading materials to
read in their language. Moreover, English was considered the high
prestige language.
 The French policy:

If we compare the French policy against the British policy we find that the French ignored the
indigenous languages completely. However, they may still have the same effects on their subjects like
the British had.
French and British had some structures in common which are, they both had low status of dominated
languages, both had small ratio of the population in formal education, both ignored the local
traditions and educational practices, both gave unsuitable education to Africans, both had a clear plan
which is "civilizing the natives", and finally the master language of both was consider a civilizing
properties.

What do you think these colonial countries have inherited ?????

 What do you think these colonial countries have inherited ?????

The dominance of French and British on the independent

African countries indicate that the colonized countries have
inherited their master’s language and attitudes. They inherited
the same legacy which is a linguicism legacy.
The importance of the English
as a colonial inheritance:
* The importance of English in the colonial country rely on how
they defined success.
- In the colonial education system, the primer goal of success is to learn English.
In the schools of Tanganyika (which has become an independent nation in 1960),
English was the real key to success.

- In West Africa, their view of success relies on the ability to read and write in English.
According to a Zambian schooler, the secondary school students view success as "the
ability to transpose one's mind from the immediate environment to the European's
one" (Chishimba, 1981, 171).

- English has influenced the elite in Africa and Asia, the way the learned and used
English has influenced their forms of nationalism and Extract the political
independence from them.
Competence in English was considered as a step to contradict the racist myth of
Negro's "retarded mentality".

Some African and Indian writers were successful in writing in English. Whose work is
intended for international English readership aim to decolonize the literature written
in English. However, this decision may have implications on the readership and of a
broader political type.
 (Lets discuss)

Do you think that we have the same view as the

African regarding English in our society?
 Conclusion.

To sum up, we can conclude this analysis of the colonial linguistic inheritance with two points:
First, the important role of the mother tongue was addressed in many reports, however, no
actions were taken towards such phenomena. Second, Teaching English language was influenced
by the core- English countries. The British council annual reports in 1960 that, America is
participating to make the English language a common world language.
REFERENCE:
Phillipson, R. (1992). The linguistic colonial inheritance. In Linguistic imperialism (pp 109-133). New
York, Oxford University press.
Thank you all
The end