Language development: Progress and challenges in a multilingual Zimbabwe

Abstract

Monolingual communities are an extremely rare phenomenon. Instead, most communities are multilingual in that there is usually more than one language spoken. Although multilingualism has been viewed in some circles as an asset in that different languages can be assigned different functions, it sometimes poses a multiplicity of challenges to language planners and researchers. Taking the Zimbabwean situation as a case study, this article highlights some of the problems and challenges that language researchers face in their bid to develop the country's languages. It specifically focuses on issues of language development that came as a challenge to language researchers involved in lexicographic and other language-related research in the African Languages Lexical (ALLEX) Project as well as in the African Languages Research Institute (ALRI). Some such challenges discussed include issues like language selection for development, absence of clear language policy and the important issue of attitudes of respective language communities towards language research programmes. The article also looks at how the project and the institute have managed to make meaningful contributions within the context of the research-unfriendly environment that the researchers found themselves in. The article is based on the writer's experiences as a researcher of both the ALLEX Project and ALRI.

Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 2008, 26(1): 13–26