UNESCO Register of Good Practices in Language Preservation

UNESCO Register of Good Practices in Language Preservation

UNESCO Register of Good Practices in Language Preservation

Basic Standardization of All Unwritten African Languages (BASAL)

(Cameroon)
Received: summer 2006; last update: summer 2008
Brief description:
The language development and documentation project ‘Basic Standardization of All Unwritten African Languages’ (BASAL) applies a methodology for developing a writing system for languages that have only oral forms, and in this way support and facilitate wider use of such languages in their communities. The essential steps involved in this are: documentation, alphabetization, preparation of language materials, literacy classes and training of local language workers.
The nine minority languages of Cameroon that have been covered so far by the project are Gbete (spoken in the Eastern Province), Bembele (spoken in the Eastern and Centre Provinces), Mada (spoken in the Far North Province), Bangolan (spoken in the North-Western Province), Bikele (spoken in the Eastern Province), Kwasio (spoken in the Southern Province), Tuki (spoken in the Centre Province), Bamali and Mfumte (both spoken in the North-Western Province).
BASAL was developed by the National Association for Cameroonian Language Committees (NACALCO) Centre for Applied Linguistics based in Yaoundé, Cameroon. Under this project, young volunteer linguists carry out documentation of languages in cooperation with members of speaker communities, who are subsequently trained as language workers and trainers in literacy. A set of basic materials (alphabet, orthography guide, teaching manuals, word lists, etc.) is developed to allow the communities to use their mother tongues in media, in local schools and adult literacy centres, and in everyday and public life.

Reader’s guide:

This project provides an example of a large-scale language development and safeguarding effort initiated by an academic institution and implemented with crucial volunteer and community involvement. The project is based upon the notion that creating literacy (including generating a standardized written form of a language that formerly had no written form) is nowadays a vital component in language survival. This report outlines the types of materials produced in view of this concept of ‘creation of literacy’. Further, a pay-it-forward-type capacity-building system is described, under which young volunteer linguists train community members in language teaching and documenting techniques in order to ensure the sustainability of language safeguarding and development efforts.

Contact information:
Project contact and author of the report:
Mr Etienne Sadembouo
NACALCO Centre for Applied Linguistics
PO Box 2905
Yaoundé
Cameroon

1.  INTRODUCTION

Background: current situation in the language community:

The official languages of Cameroon are English and French; however, language policy in Cameroon actually favours the development of ‘national’ (African) languages. Two recent laws on decentralization (Law No. 2004/018 and Law No. 2004/019 of July 2004) give power to regions and councils to promote national languages and literacy in their respective areas. The general idea is that these national languages will serve as media of instruction in early primary education and facilitate the transition to education in one of the official languages of Cameroon (French or English), deemed necessary for educational and economic advancement.

A concrete measure for integrating national languages into the school system was the nomination of a National Pedagogy Inspector for national cultures and languages in the Ministry of Secondary education in September 2006. In August 2007, the Ministry of Secondary Education appointed a second inspector for national cultures and languages as well as four provincial inspectors.

Impetus for the project:

When the BASAL project was started by the Centre for Applied Linguistics of the National Association for Cameroonian Language Committees (NACALCO) in 2000, fewer than 77 of the more than 250 local languages identified by researchers in Cameroon were able to be used conveniently in literacy programs.

Developing standardized writing systems for oral languages was found to be crucial in promoting the wider use of these languages, especially in mother tongue education and in literacy programs. Such education programs were found vital not only because they promote education by bringing people to literacy, but also because they help preserve the living heritage of the communities concerned. The goal of the project was furthermore to have speakers participate in the safeguarding of their own languages.

2. PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The project’s main goals and scope:

BASAL’s ultimate goal is to provide unwritten languages with a writing system and basic language materials in order to prepare and support their use in education, in other official domains of language use such as media and administration, as well as in everyday life in the communities.

As an additional part of the project, the materials produced are tested in a first set of literacy classes organized for community members. To sustain activities in the villages, community members are trained as language specialists and trainers for literacy classes. In addition, a local language committee is established for each language to coordinate activities. The language committee is in charge of regulating the promotion of the standard language model and promotion of literacy in the mother tongue in the entire community after the linguists’ departure.

The project’s strategies and activities:

Young linguists (postgraduates in applied linguistics from Cameroonian universities) work as volunteers with speaker communities of the targeted languages in order to :

(1) establish the writing principles of the languages based on scientific linguistic analysis;

(2) produce first reference materials for the languages: alphabets (lists of selected symbols to be used in writing for a particular language), orthography guides, transition manuals from literacy in French/English to literacy in the mother tongue, ‘big books’ (primers) and small dictionaries;

(3) teach first literacy classes;

(4) build capacities by training local people as future trainers.

Specifically, project activities start with an assessment of linguistic materials already existing for a given language, in particular descriptions of the sound system. Additional sociolinguistic research is then conducted by the volunteers with regard to inter-comprehension among local dialects, the choice of a ‘standard’ dialect and evaluation of overall language vitality.

On the basis of these components the alphabet and orthography guide are then produced. The alphabet is based on the principles of the Alphabet général des langues camerounaises proposed by Tadadjeu and Sadembouo (1984).

The orthography guide captures guidelines and rules for writing the respective language. It is a descriptive booklet of about 15-20 pages describing the sound and tonal system of the language as well as the combination of sounds in words and sentences.

The transition manuals are 70-100 pages and target community members who are already literate in an official language (commonly, French) and also have speaking competence in the local language. The manual is a didactic booklet providing practical instructions as well as exercises on reading and writing the local language. In a set of approximately twenty lessons, it explains articulation, use of letters (particularly in comparison to the official language), morphology (word formation), use of diacritics for tones and prosody, etc. A manual is tested and edited in collaboration with the community before printing the final version.

The ‘big books’ contain stories with pictures, presented in book form and created in collaboration with the community. Each book tells one short story in fifteen to twenty short sentences, each accompanied by an illustration. The books are produced for literacy classes and targeted especially towards children. The big size of the characters used confers to them the name of ‘big books’ and facilitates group reading, e.g. in the classroom.

Capacity building is carried out via workshops conducted by volunteer linguists from the NACALCO Centre for Applied Linguistics. Three workshops are commonly organized in each community. The first workshop is oriented towards the presentation of the new alphabet using the alphabet chart and booklet; the second provides training in orthographic principles and the use of the orthography guide and transition manual; and the third, limited to three or four selected people, is pedagogically-oriented. This latter workshop provides training for future trainers in literacy classes in the respective community and for future authors of practical materials for non-formal education in the community.

Approximately two years are needed to complete all activities for a particular language if an analysis of the sound system already exists. If not, about six more months should be considered to provide for the initial phonological study.

Project organizers:

The BASAL project is carried out by the NACALCO Centre for Applied Linguistics in Yaoundé, Cameroon, which serves as the technical branch of the local language academies association. The main staff of the centre is made up of university professors and senior lecturers. Its mission is to provide scientific assistance to local language academies in language documentation and training and to reinforce capacities of local language practitioners in the fields of material design, literacy and formal education.

So far, nine volunteer students and five professors have been involved in the BASAL program. For the Bembele and Gbete languages, six local community members have been trained to promote language development and literacy implementation. For the other seven languages covered by the project, literacy classes have been going on for three to five years. Today, as a result of the project, a good portion of people in the communities concerned are able to read and write their own local languages and support their own language development.

Mobilization of resources:

At the beginning of the project, NACALCO benefited from financial support provided by SIL International, then by UNESCO (for two new languages). The project has also received tremendous help from people in local communities via provision of lodging and cooperation during researchers’ stays in the field.

3. OUTCOMES

Achievements and positive results:

(1) Reference materials:

In the course of the project, alphabets, orthography guides, transition manuals and big books were developed for each of the nine languages covered so far, enabling local speakers to achieve literacy in their mother tongues and to use their languages as efficient media of written communication. A total of 28 titles were produced, with 12 additional booklets in early stages of production.

In addition, four dictionaries have been published, and four more are close to the printing phase. The dictionaries were produced on the basis of word lists that had been collected by the student volunteers using a reference list; these lists were compiled using ‘Toolbox’ and ‘Shoebox’, two computer programs that facilitate the production of dictionaries.

The materials produced so far have been successfully introduced into the communities for literacy development purposes. Some materials such as transition manuals, primers and wall alphabet charts are used in teaching and self-training by literates, neo-literates and even illiterates. Certain materials are distributed free of charge, while others such as dictionaries are sold.

Some community members were reportedly surprised to see that their language could be transformed into print; however, it is now more typically the case that efforts are going on in all active endangered language sectors to produce written materials such as short stories and other texts for language documentation and preservation.

(2) Capacity-building:

As mentioned before, capacity-building in this project involved training community members in reading and writing their mother tongue as well as teaching them some basic principles of conducting adult literacy activities on their own, in their own area, taking into account the needs of learners.

The community members trained early on are now local literacy supervisors. Having this status, they train other community members and organize literacy activities. Workshops are conducted by local people according to their local arrangements and schedule.

Overall, the positive attitude generated by the project activities is now motivating language communities to collect whatever information pertains to their culture, primarily for language documentation and for generational transmission.

The Gbete language in particular is now being used on the community radio station in Képéré.

Capacity-building in this project furthermore took place with the involvement of volunteer-linguists, who benefited greatly from the hands-on experience and training in their fieldwork.

Overall, activities begun under the BASAL program, especially literacy classes are currently thriving in the communities under the auspices of the local language committees founded during the project. Local and external elites are now more aware of their role and ownership in the development of their language.

Problems encountered:

(1) Selection of volunteers can be a challenge: volunteer work for the project is based upon the personal commitment of young linguists who devote the time they can to assist a language community. The idea of volunteer work is at times difficult to pass on to subsequent collaborators, who mostly consist of people who need to work for remuneration. In addition, volunteer work is not always adequately valued by communities and the government.

(2) Language documentation work does not provide immediate financial rewards for the community. This type of project may thus, in the beginning, need to be accompanied or preceded by awareness-raising activities in the community that can show the long-term benefits of such initiatives. A few committed speakers, for instance, can soon attract and bring others to the project.

(3) Lack of adequate means to support the volunteers and mentors (equipment, transportation and allowance, communication) can be another challenge, as are the tough working and travelling conditions in very remote areas.

Future prospects:

The NACALCO centre wants to continue in its endeavour to provide all Cameroonian languages with writing systems. Substantial financial assistance is needed to carry out this work. In this regard, it would be desirable for the government to adopt a clearer, more concrete linguistic policy encouraging the protection and development of minority languages.

NACALCO would furthermore like to carry the BASAL program over to other African countries. The Academy of African languages (ACALAN) is on its way to implement a new ‘African linguistic plan’, and the BASAL programme methodology is a resource for this plan.

Linguapax Africa, a new organization working in collaboration with UNESCOCAT in Barcelona, Spain, and whose activities are coordinated in Africa by the NACALCO Centre for Applied Linguistics, has been planning to apply the BASAL program to two endangered Ethiopian languages and two endangered Cameroonian trans-border languages. Currently, organizers are trying to secure initial funds for this project.