Unit One: Why Study Africa?

Module Five: Looking Back

Teacher's Edition

Activity Five: Language Activity - Expand

The map of African languages below shows up to four of the most widely spoken languages in each African country in alphabetical order. Remember that most countries have many more languages than this. In all, Africa has over 1000 languages that are spoken every day! Look through the languages listed below to answer the following instructions:

To view a map of Africa with the name of countries, click here.

1. Find an example of two separate countries that have people who speak the same language in both countries.
2. Go through the list and write down any names of languages you have heard of before.
3. Count how many different countries have Arabic listed as a language that its people speak. What about Fulfulde?

Teacher Discussion

This activity should give the students an idea of the great linguistic diversity of Africa as a continent. It should be emphasized that only the most widely spoken languages in each country in Africa are listed here. There exist many other smaller language groups that could be added to this list, making a total of more than 1,000 languages spoken in Africa. The student should look through the list to answer the questions above, realizing that there are many languages spoken in a single country as well as some countries that share a common language. The teacher may wish to discuss with the students how it would be to live in a country where many people do not speak the same language. How would you communicate? What benefits and difficulties could this present?

Note: This information is based on a more comprehensive list found at http://www.sil.org/ethnologue/countries/Africa.html

Go on to activity six or choose from one of the other activities in this lesson plan:

Activities 1-6

1. Correspondence Activity
2. Writing Exercise using the internet
3. Graphic Organizer
4. Map Activity
5. Internet Activity
6. Homework