Page 88 - Discover Botswana 2022 ONLINE

CULTURE
A good level of fluency in the language of instruction in higher education is essential to a learner’s access to that facility, both for general communication, and for readily understanding the non-language courses such as maths and science. The prescribed level of competence in such a language needed to pursue a university education is currently lacking in all Botswana languages except English.
Economic value means that a language must be needed for a citizen to participate in the economic life of a country. A language is considered important if it is used in official forums such as law, trade and governance, as this demonstrates evidence of its economic value. It is hoped that with more languages entering the curriculum, and thus gaining attention, this may in time be achieved with those other than English in Botswana.
Above and previous pages: Although the majority of people in Botswana speak Setswana as the National language and English as the business language, Botswana is still linguistically rich with more than 20 smaller languages being spoken.
PROFESSOR THAPELO J. OTLOGETSWE
A linguist and lexicographer. He works on the interface between language, culture, and technology. He has written Setswana and English-Setswana dictionaries, spellcheckers and developed Setswana Google Search. He is the current Deputy Dean of Humanities at the University of Botswana.
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