Language in Zambia

Book excerpt: Originally published in 1978, this volume is divided into 3 parts. Part 1 presents an overview of the linguistic situation in Zambia: who speaks which languages, where they are spoken, what these languages are like. Special emphasis is given to the extensive survey of the languages of the Kafue basin, where extensive changes and relocations have taken place. Part 2 is on language use: patterns of competence and of extension for certain languages in urban settings, configurations of comprehension across language boundaries, how selected groups of multilinguals employ each of their languages and for what purposes, what languages are used in radio and television broadcasting and how decisions to use or not use a language are made. Part 3 involves language and formal education: what languages, Zambian and foreign, are used at various levels int he schools, which are taught, with what curricula, methods, how teachers are trained, how issues such as adult literacy are approached and with what success.