Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences - Institute of Asian and African Studies

This presentation is given in the context of a PhD thesis on the planned introduction of mother-tongue education in the multidialectal Taa language complex. The objective of my PhD thesis is to work out strategies and guidances for the introduction of primary education and the creation of teaching materials in Taa. Given that Taa has different dialects and no standard variety, a key question is how to create a primer that takes the dialectal diversity of Taa into account without forcing a standard. This presentation mainly provides an overview of linguistic, geographic and social circumstances of introducing education in Taa. It also gives a preliminary overview over options for a primer as well as over comparative cases of literacy education in other minority languages, which are planned to be analysed in the next months. The presentation is mainly addressed to people who are yet not familiar with Taa and the topic of my dissertation. Taa is a highly endangered dialect cluster spoken in Botswana and Namibia. It is the last vital member of the Tuu language family. The government of Botswana has launched an initiative to introduce mother-tongue education at lower primary levels. Mother-tongue education has been launched in a number of languages in 2023 and is planned to be introduced for more languages, including Taa, in the future.