Linguistic diversity, language rights and linguistic planning in Mozambique: problems and challenges in the adoption of the language of instruction in teaching and learning process

Abstract

Mozambique is a multilingual, plurilingual and multicultural country, where around twenty languages are classified as Bantu, with their specific characteristics but correlated. Between these languages, the most spoken is used by 26.1% of the population, which is one of the reasons why Mozambique is among the twenty-five African countries with high linguistic diversity. In this context, the question for our study is: what language to adopt for teaching to respect the linguistic rights of each individual to receive education in his mother tongue. To answer this question, (1) we discuss the adoption of Portuguese as the only language of teaching and subject since the post-independence period; (2) we analyzed critically the two models of education (monolingual and bilingual) that has being used in Mozambique and; also (3) we propose the strategy to improve the teaching and learning process of the country. Bibliographical research and introspection was the method we used to support the study, based in the position that Mozambique needs a model that promotes an initial bilingualism from the first years of schooling, prevising the continuity of the use of Bantu languages in the subsequent primary classes of education. In this perspective, it is necessary to instill a strong or concrete knowledge in the trainees of the Institutes of Teacher Training in matter of bilingual education, without forget to train the actual teacher in the same field, to guarante to the Mozambican citizen, to enjoy part of the linguistic rights established in 1996 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22409/gragoata.2017n42a906