About the project

This international, interdisciplinary project seeks to investigate language use and language attitudes in the informal labour market in Malawi. It focuses on language practices in urban and semi-urban marketplaces in each region of Malawi. The project adopts a mixed methods approach, consisting of qualitative ethnography and a quantitative skills survey examining background, economic activity, and language use.  The research team includes: Dr Colin Reilly from the University of Stirling, Dr Gift Kayira, Dr Ahmmardouh Mjaya and Prof Winford Masanjala from the University of Malawi, and, Prof Kristinn Hermannsson and Dr. Elysha Ramage from the University of Glasgow.

In multilingual countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) there is a risk of linguistic mismatch hindering engagement with educational and economic systems. This study will investigate language use in informal employment, where the majority of workers in SSA obtain their livelihood. The aim is to identify which languages and language combinations are most effective for facilitating informal employment, in order to inform policies on language-skills formation in education. For this we will conduct a mixed-methods study of market traders in Malawi, deploying in-depth ethnographic observation in conjunction with a survey of background, economic activity and language use. This is important as language policies emphasising English as a common language are widely implemented in SSA based on the perception that English is most valuable for employment opportunities. Yet, these perceptions are not underlined by substantial evidence and do not consider the multilingual reality of countries or their labour markets. The project is funded by the British Academy as part of their ODA International Interdisciplinary Research Projects and will run from 2024-2026