Language Practice and the Dilemma of a National Language Policy in Ghana: The Past, Present and Future

Abstract

In addressing language issues within the public domain, linguistic hegemonies and power relations are maintained by the roles of law, education and media. In Ghana, the Official Language Policy, Schools’ Language Policy and the languages promoted in the media are treated independently. This study attributes the lack of concord to the nonexistence of a law or a National Language Policy which gives a language direction. Though the effect of the nonexistence of a law may seem unfelt, its negative impact is weaving its way in the other areas of media and education. By interviewing and observing media professionals in their work contexts as well as content analyses of the Broadcasting Act and the Guidelines for Local Language Broadcasting, the current language situation in Ghana is discussed, driving home the idea that without a National Language Policy with an indigenous Ghanaian pride, efforts at developing indigenous languages will continue to dwindle into extinction.