My take on Franco-Tanzanian cultural co-operation

While under the tutelage of our academic staff at the department of foreign languages, they always reminded us to think global in our life and work choices. This is what fuelled my desire to work in an international type of setting. Culture is a very strong tool that influences the way learning is structured and received; therefore a multi-cultural teaching environment is very enriching especially for a teacher of languages.

I have taught both French and History at Isamilo international school in Mwanza, Tanzania for close to a year now. I have to remark that it is quite a different experience from what I’ve had while working under the same capacity back in Kenya. First of all a few quick facts about the country and region,

1. Tanzania is the largest country in East Africa and includes the islands of Zanzibar, Pemba, and Mafia. It also boasts Africa's highest point—Kilimanjaro, at 5,895 meters (19,340 feet).

2. Literacy levels stand at 67.2% as of 2012, with both Swahili and English being official languages. However, Swahili still takes precedence both as a medium of communication in administration and education. This has had adverse effects on the development and reception of English and other foreign languages in general.(discussed below in depth)

3. France and Tanzania have diplomatic bilateral relations evidenced by the French consulate in the capital Dar es Salaam. Cultural exchange and language learning is facilitated by the Alliance Française Dar es Salaam chapter, where French cultural events are held and short language courses offered in French and Swahili (mostly for expatriates). In the mainland, French presence can also be felt at Alliance Franco-Tanzanienne d'Arusha.

4. Mwanza is a port city and Tanzania’s second-largest city set on Lake Victoria’s shore and is surrounded by hills strewn with enormous boulders. It is notable for its strong Indian influences as well as being a favoured tourist destination.

As I had indicated earlier, teaching and learning French in Tanzania is quite different from what one would experience doing the same in Kenya. Overall, the French experience in Tanzania is still at it’s very initial stages so learning and teaching the language is not short of challenges.

Pre-dominance of Swahili and promotion of EnglishTanzania as a country has both English and Swahili as the official languages, but Swahili has been the predominant language of administration, commerce and education for a long time before efforts were made to make English an equally used medium of communication. A lot of effort has been put into the development of English literacy skills in government run schools where Swahili has remained the medium of instruction especially in the formative years of 3-12yrs. Private education service providers also run concurrent curriculums delivered solely in English in institutions dubbed English-medium schools. All this effort to uplift English in the socio-economic spheres of the country has been to the detriment of other foreign languages such as French. The promotion of French as a language in Tanzania has been solely the task of the French embassy and the too few language centres. It has been and is still an uphill task.

Lack of qualified instructors and teachersLack of qualified teachers of French is another challenge that I witnessed. Teaching of French as a foreign language has been relinquished to the few immigrants from the French speaking central and West African nations such as DRC who live in Tanzania most of whom are not even qualified to teach the language. This has unfortunately led to questionable standards of French language being taught in secondary schools offering Tanzanian O-level education and the too few language colleges in some urban settings. Contribution from expatriate teachers is not sufficient and if available it is not consistent since most expatriate teachers of the language don’t stay on in the country for the long term.

Deficiencies in ICT and ResearchThe incorporation of ICT into learning is inevitable in this day and age. A wealth of learning material and resources has been provided by the use of internet services in learning. Governments all over Africa are making small but significant steps in the use of ICT as a tool in learning. In Tanzania, the main cities and towns in the country may not be hubs of technology but ICT services are available though not as reliable and efficient to international standards. The ICT challenge still remains a hindrance to effective teaching of French in the country. Bearing in mind that few or no resources exist to enable teaching and learning of French, the internet becomes a key player in getting language teaching material. This has also had adverse effects in areas of research into the cultural aspects of the delivery and reception of the language in the Tanzania context. French is offered as a degree course in only five institutions of higher learning in the country. Plans are still underway to roll out masters programs in French.

As far as French is concerned, Tanzania is still at its infancy stages. Within the past two decades, a genuine demand for learning French has been emerging in universities, institutions and within the civil society. The development of tourism has led to government’s desire to reach beyond English-speaking frontiers. These have been some of the contributing factors to this growing interest for French. Efforts have also been made by external bodies such as Priority Solidarity Fund (FSP).The FSP allocates funding to countries in the Priority Solidarity Zone (ZSP), in the form of grants, projects and programmes of investment in equipment and training, in the institutional, social, cultural and research sectors. The programme focuses on three priorities:

Setting up an appropriate offer of French courses. Strengthening and expanding the group of French teachers all over the country; Professionalizing this group of French teachers through the development of initial and in-house

training.With such bold steps in the right direction, the future of French in Tanzania might just improve from its current glimmer to actually becoming an alternate medium of communication in all spheres of life.

Prepared by Evans Njoroge