Book contents
- The Cambridge Handbook of Multilingual Education
- Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics
- The Cambridge Handbook of Multilingual Education
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Prologue
- Acknowledgement
- Part I Introduction
- Part II Content and Language Integrated Learning:
- Part III Teaching Academic Subjects through English Medium Instruction
- Part IV Dual Language Learning, Immersion Programmes, and Learner Agency
- 23 Dual Language Education in the USA
- 24 Dual Language Instruction in Africa
- 25 Helping Learners to Use All Their Languages to Learn Subjects in School
- 26 Child’s Language-Based Agency in Early Language Education
- 27 CLIL, Immersion, and Bilingual Education Programmes in Australia
- Part V Heritage Language Education
- Part VI Minority Language Education
- Part VII A Critical Look at Multilingual Pedagogies
- Index
- References
24 - Dual Language Instruction in Africa
from Part IV - Dual Language Learning, Immersion Programmes, and Learner Agency
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 December 2025
Edited by
Book contents
- The Cambridge Handbook of Multilingual Education
- Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics
- The Cambridge Handbook of Multilingual Education
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Prologue
- Acknowledgement
- Part I Introduction
- Part II Content and Language Integrated Learning:
- Part III Teaching Academic Subjects through English Medium Instruction
- Part IV Dual Language Learning, Immersion Programmes, and Learner Agency
- 23 Dual Language Education in the USA
- 24 Dual Language Instruction in Africa
- 25 Helping Learners to Use All Their Languages to Learn Subjects in School
- 26 Child’s Language-Based Agency in Early Language Education
- 27 CLIL, Immersion, and Bilingual Education Programmes in Australia
- Part V Heritage Language Education
- Part VI Minority Language Education
- Part VII A Critical Look at Multilingual Pedagogies
- Index
- References
Summary
This chapter discusses the issue of dual-language instruction in Cameroon and South Africa, the only African countries where dual-language instruction, involving French and English in the former and Afrikaans and English in the latter, is practised beyond the 3rd grade. The chapter discusses the issue in light of theoretical developments in language economics, a field of study that analyses the interplay between linguistic and economic variables in the success or failure of language policies. It argues that Africa’s Indigenous languages are not used in schools because, unlike former colonial languages, they are not associated with economic returns on the formal labuor market. Drawing on language economics, the chapter suggests ways in which dual-language instruction involving an African language and a former colonial language can succeed so that both languages are used throughout the entire educational system one in addition to rather than at the expense of the other.
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- Information
- The Cambridge Handbook of Multilingual Education , pp. 467 - 482Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
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