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The Dynamics of English in Namibia: Perspectives on an emerging variety
Edited by Anne Schröder
[Varieties of English Around the World G65] 2021
► pp. 45–62

Chapter 3
Voices from the post-independence classroom

Language use and attitudes towards English in Namibia

With its implementation as Namibia’s sole official language, English also became the only medium of instruction after mother tongue education during the first school years. This generated advantages as well as disadvantages, particularly in the educational sector, as English had – except in the northern regions – hardly been used in Namibia until 1990. This article discusses Namibia’s educational policy, assessing both quantitative and qualitative data on the use of English and home languages in the Namibian classroom. In this context, the results of a quantitative questionnaire study are triangulated with the analysis of qualitative interviews providing a more comprehensive view on the linguistic situation in (English) classrooms in post-Independence Namibia.

Keywords: educational policy, English as medium of instruction, language attitudes, home languages, post-Independence Namibia
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Namibia’s educational policy
  • 3.Data collection and methodology
    • 3.1Questionnaires and interviews
    • 3.2Participants
    • 3.3Settings
    • 3.4Data collection and analysis
  • 4.Language use and attitudes
    • 4.1Learning English
    • 4.2Medium of instruction
    • 4.3Problems with English
    • 4.4Proposed solutions?
    • 4.5Summary and discussion
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 10 September 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/veaw.g65.03ste
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Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Stell, Gerald
2022. Review of Steigertahl (2019): Englishes in Post-Independence Namibia. An Investigation of Variety Status and its Implications for English Language Teaching. English World-Wide. A Journal of Varieties of English 43:3 ► pp. 382 ff. DOI logo

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