Multilingual Education and Literacy in Ghana: Bridging Language Ideologies, Policy and Practice

Abstract

Ghana has a very rich linguistic environment that currently includes over 70 languages. While we have policies that support the use of the mother tongue in the classroom, we see the dominance of English, which is a legacy of the colonial past and a result of social expectation. We examined this issue through a review of 14 peer-reviewed studies and policy documents from 2015 to 2024, which we examined in terms of language beliefs, policy implementation, and real-time classroom experience.

What we found is a large-scale and consistent gap between what is put forth in policy and what is actually playing out in schools. English is going to language right from the start of a child’s school life. In addition, we see that this preference for a single language in the classroom, which we term monolingual teaching, is a factor in lower literacy levels, particularly among rural and under-served communities. Also, only 20% of our teachers are reported to be using what we term translanguaging, which is a practice of switching between languages to support learning.

At the same time, we see that in the few settings where we do have bilingual classrooms, we see that students report higher cultural identity, greater self-confidence, and better academic performance. Our study puts forth the idea that we should extend native language instruction past the primary level, make indigenous languages a requirement, and at the same time we put forth the idea that we should greatly increase support for teacher training in issues of translanguaging and culturally responsive teaching..