Browsing by Subject "English"
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Kamwendo, G. (Taylor & Francis, http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals, December NaN, 2010)[more][less]
Abstract: Malawi's Vision 2020 document, a national document that serves as a vehicle to project a future for a more developed, secure and democratically mature nation, laments the tendency of Malawians to denigrade local products and glorify all things foreign. Yet, paradoxically, the document does not address the important issue of promoting Malawi's indegenous languages. This silence can be interpreted as reflective of the population's inclination to ascribe greater value to forign culture. In Malawi, as in many other African countries, indigenous languages are not considered worthy as media of education, subjects of advanced study or critical vehicles for national development. They are still victim to a discrimination rooted in Africa's 500 plus years of European enslavement and colonialisation. Against the backdrop of the pursuit of an African Renaissance, this article looks at Malawi's language policies since independence in 1964, and at how, ten years short of an idyllic national vision, Malawi measures up on the important issue of language. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10311/1041 Files in this item: 1
Kamwendo_IJARS_2010.pdf (1.393Mb) -
Kamwendo, G.H. (Routledge. http://www.informaworld.com, August NaN, 2008)[more][less]
Abstract: According to the Medical Council of Malawi, one of the conditions for a licence to be granted to an individual who wants to practise medicine in Malawi is the practitioner's ability to speak and write English fluently. This means that the expatriate medical practitioner is not required by law to demonstrate fluency in Chichewa (the national language) or any other relevant indigenous language(s). On the basis of a sociolinguistic study that was conducted at a major referral hospital in a predominantly Chitumbuka-speaking town, this paper argues that the Medical Council of Malawi erroneously assumes that English is the main language of doctor-patient communication in Malawian hospitals since the country is linguistically categorised as an English speaking African country. Yet only a minority of the population is competent in English. The national language (Chichewa), and other indigenous languages remain the main medium through which much of the health service provider-patient communication takes place. A more realistic and comprehensive language proficiency testing should cover English (the main international language of medicine) and at least one indigenous language (the lingua franca of the area in which a particular hospital is located). URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10311/540 Files in this item: 1
Kamwendo_CILP_2008.pdf (633.9Kb)
Now showing items 1-2 of 2