Sociolinguistically oriented language surveys: Reflections on the survey of language use and language teaching in Eastern Africa (Review Article)

Abstract

Though a number of sociolinguistically oriented language surveys have been conducted elsewhere in the world-from the Philippines to Belize-none is comparable in size, scope, impact, financial support, and manpower input to the Survey of Language Use and Language Teaching in Eastern Africa conducted in 1968-1971 with a generous grant from the Ford Foundation under the sponsorship of the African institutions of higher learning in the countries surveyed: Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. The complex administrative procedures, which included preliminary meetings of an Advisory Committee, the establishment of a central office in Nairobi with a Field Director and staff, regular meetings of a Survey Council with representatives of the various countries involved, backstopping operations by the University of California at Los Angeles and the Center for Applied Linguistics, need not be discussed here. • More important are the aims assigned to the Survey and the methods used to attain them, because they throw a particular light on the theoretical background of the techniques of sociolinguistic surveys and may allow certain interesting generalizations. Actually, the aims of the Survey of Language Use and Language Teaching in Eastern Africa, as agreed upon by representatives of the