ABSTRACT
Until the 1990s Portuguese was the sole language of formal education in Mozambique, while African languages, the first languages of the overwhelming majority of the population, were proscribed in schools, being confined to informal domains. However, the situation has been changing as, from 2003, in addition to Portuguese, African languages are now being used as media of learning and teaching in a number of selected primary schools. This chapter explores how different agents have been participating in language planning activities in the context of bilingual education provision in Mozambique. The analysis takes an ethnographically oriented approach and focuses on the role of local communities and non-government organizations (NGOs) in these processes, including the way these stakeholders have been enacting and influencing macro-level policies. Based on cases from my ongoing research, I argue that micro language planning work and local agency are the most effective in responding to the linguistic diversity in Mozambique and overcoming the technical, financial and logistical limitations of the state in provision for multilingual education. Drawing on critical, micro language planning approaches, my analysis of language planning processes in bilingual education is embedded in the historical and sociopolitical contexts in which they unfold.
