Translanguaging as an Effective Communication Tool to Embrace Speakers of Minority Languages in Zambian Courts
Keywords:
Courts, effective communication, minority languages, multilingualism, translanguaging, Zambia.Abstract
The paper evaluates the effectiveness of implementing translanguaging as a communication tool for speakers of minority languages. Due to a multiplicity of languages in Zambia, seven Regional Official Languages (ROLs) were adopted by the government to be used in offices, including courts. These languages are Bemba, Lozi, Tonga, Nyanja, Kaonde, Lunda, and Luvale. However, the Zambian courts hardly take into account the presence of minority languages, which are often ground-level languages for communities where complainants and defendants belong, instead promoting the use of the ROLs during court sessions. The paper adopted qualitative, descriptive, and phenomenological approaches, elicitation, and document analysis methods to collect and analyse the results. It was undergirded by translanguaging, a key theoretical concept that appreciates the role of multiple languages in different situations. The results show that seven (7) major languages and sixty-five (65) minority languages are used in Zambia. Speakers in different social spaces of communication, including courts, due to the multilingual nature of Zambia, often use minority languages as amalgams. Translanguaging can enhance self-expression and effective communication in courts when both complainants and defendants are allowed to use minority languages. Embracing translanguaging as an effective communication tool for speakers of minority languages in Zambian courts can enhance multilingualism, effective communication, self-expression, and preservation of linguistic heritage, preservation of language shift and subsequent death, as well as upholding social justice for speakers of minority languages.
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