"Hey, Teacher, Speak Black Please": The Educational Effectiveness of Bilingual Education in Burkina Faso

Africa's educational systems are undergoing a quiet revolution. As these systems move away from working exclusively in the old colonial languages, usually English or French, bilingual schools which use local indigenous languages are springing up in many regions of Africa. This paper points out...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational journal of bilingual education and bilingualism Vol. 11; no. 6; pp. 661 - 677
Main Author Lavoie, Constance
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Multilingual Matters 2008
Subjects
Africa
African Languages
Bilingual Education
Bilingual Schools
Bilingualism
Burkina Faso
Classroom Communication
Cultural Activities
Foreign Countries
French
History
Instructional Effectiveness
Language Maintenance
Language of Instruction
Native Language Instruction
Second Language Learning
Teaching Methods
Burkina Faso
Africa
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Summary:Africa's educational systems are undergoing a quiet revolution. As these systems move away from working exclusively in the old colonial languages, usually English or French, bilingual schools which use local indigenous languages are springing up in many regions of Africa. This paper points out the historical processes driving the bilingual education movement in Burkina Faso. Since 1997, a school's parent association has been able transform the unilingual school in their community to a bilingual school. Bilingual education means a transitional system starting with the children's first language and gradually transferring to French. Another characteristic of bilingual schools is that they add cultural activities (story telling, songs, dance, music) and productive activities (agriculture, cattle rearing, woodworking) to the basic curriculum. This paper analyses the impact of this emerging new pedagogy on the teachers and students. The analysis is based on the author's experience teaching in Burkina Faso in 2003 and her fieldwork in 2006. The data is collected from two months of descriptive-analytical classroom observations. This paper argues that bilingual education improves student and community participation. The paper also looks at teacher practices and how bilingual education affects their relation with their pupils.
ISSN:1367-0050
DOI:10.2167/beb475.0