Language Planning and Policy in the Silt’e Zone
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Date
2015-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Ethiopia is endowed with various ethno-linguistic groups with their own languages. In the past, Amharic and foreign languages were given a high prestige. As a result, most people had a low esteem for other local languages. Recently, however, the constitution and the language-in-education policy of Ethiopia encourage the use of local languages. But the inquiry is, are the language planning and policy efforts effective enough to meet the needs of the local language development goals? This study examined language planning and policy issues in the Silt’e Zone, Ethiopia. It assessed the perspectives of the Silt’e people towards the language planning and policy effects on equality and development, challenges in the use of Silt’e in education, ways to improve functions, status and standardization of Silt’e, and the optimum conditions for the use of Silt’e along with Amharic and English in various public domains such as in administration, the mass media and education. Mixed research methods were used in this study. The participants were drawn from teachers, students, parents and officers. The quantitative data were obtained through questionnaires from 360 participants in the Silt’e Zone. These data were analyzed by using frequencies and percentages. The qualitative data encompass 25 interviews and 10 focus group discussions. Moreover, observation and document analysis were used to obtain additional data. They were segmented, codified and then analyzed thematically.
The findings revealed that the vast majority of the participants have a positive attitude towards Silt’e but practically they need to use Amharic in public domains. Although Silt’e is used as medium of instruction, its use is dilapidated for personal and public communication. It is associated with limited mobility and job opportunities outside the community. Besides, it is viewed as a sign of lack in education, especially if a person is a Silt’e monolingual. The main challenges in the use of Silt’e in education are dialect variation, lack of terminology development, low quality of language teaching materials, inadequate time allocation and lack of trained teachers. As the linguistic variations in Silt’e do not limit verbal communication, not much attention was given for standardization. Consequently, there is no uniform standard variety of Silt’e to date. In addition, Silt’e has not yet achieved an adequate status to be used in legislation, administration and in the media. There are also constraints for a wider use of Silt’e
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for business and education. The absence of a standard limited the use of Silt’e as official language. As a result, the Silt’e people do not write in their language. For this, they insist on shifting to Amharic – the language of wider communication in the country. The Silt’e language is a cultural resource that should be maintained and promoted in its status and functions in multiple domains. In the family and in the community, Silt’e should be utilized deliberately to enhance its function and pass it to the next generation. For this, education in Silt’e should be expanded and its use should be extended to official spheres such as written communication within the Silt’e Zone. Besides, in the mass media, Silt’e should be used for its internal development.
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Planning and Policy