EdData II: Data for Education Research and Programming (derp) in Africa

bilingual communities
, often found in semi-urban or market areas, but also in rural 
environments with nomadic or other minority groups, children may be bilingual, or they 
may come to school proficient in only one of the main languages, or they may need 
support to gain academic-level proficiency. Conducting a language mapping exercise can 
help to clarify what approach to instruction is needed. For example, instruction may need 
to be provided in two different languages within a school, in multi-grade arrangements, 
or by different teachers to accommodate different learners’ L1s. In contexts where 
teachers have limited proficiency in learners’ L1s, trained, bilingual community members 
may work side-by-side with certified teachers to support bilingual instruction.
•
In 
linguistically heterogeneous communities, 
residents may come from many different 
language, cultural, and/or ethnic backgrounds. At least two situations are common in 
these communities, which are often found in urban environments: Adults and perhaps 
children have a common language of wider communication that can be used in school, or 
they speak each other’s languages in varying levels of proficiency but lack a single 
common language. In both cases, the traditional “solution” has often been to select a 
medium of instruction not familiar to any group—e.g., an official, foreign, ex-colonial 
language, believing it is “neutral” and prevents favoritism. 
 
Evidence and experience, however, indicate several more effective approaches to 
providing instruction in environments where several languages are spoken. Where a 
LWC is prevalent, using a widely spoken regional language as the LOI prior to 
introducing national and international languages can be most helpful in facilitating both 
academic content learning and acquisition of additional languages. In these situations, 
care should be taken to ensure that use of a language of wider communication for 
instruction is acceptable to all learners and their families, and that instruction is 
appropriate based on children’s proficiency if they speak other languages at home. 
(Moreover, while use of a common language may be preferable or more feasible than 
using multiple L1 in the short term, a country can still explore long-term plans that would 
provide education in additional L1 languages as materials and teachers become available 
to support instruction.) Even in situations where no language is widely shared (such as in 
Cameroon in Guinea-Bissau), the linguistic and cultural proximity of a regional language, 
even if it is not the learners’ L1, is likely to provide better access to initial literacy and 
content learning than a foreign language like French or Portuguese, which are more likely 

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to prevent learners from gaining the foundational knowledge they need to be successful 
in school (Benson, 2003; Walter & Chuo, 2012).
While a less common situation, in schools where children speak distinct L1s and more than one 
language may be needed for instruction, less traditional approaches need to be explored in 
consultation with local education authorities, teachers, parents, and children. For example, 
students can be grouped by language and each group managed as a multi-grade classroom, with 
learning and teaching materials in each language and support from L1-speaking parents. In 
Ethiopia, for example, classes are often divided into two streams, one for Amharic and another 
for a different L1 language. Parents can choose when and in which class they want the children 
to learn. While these bilingual classroom language environments may exist, it is important to 
emphasize during the planning process that the majority of schools in a country are likely to be 
monolingual.
Decisions regarding which languages to use for instruction in any given environment should be 
based on a given context—both nationally and at a regional level. This includes an accurate 
understanding of the languages spoken in an area and the proficiency of children in particular 
(which may different from that of adults). As such, a language mapping exercise—and in 
particular a school language mapping exercise—needs to be conducted to identify which 
languages are spoken, and to what levels of fluency, for the children, adults, and teachers; and to 
identify schools where a more nuanced approach to instruction may need to be employed. A 
process for mapping the language context in a given country, region, or school is outlined in