May DRC Shift Into An English-Speaking Country Someday? – A Brief Sketch Of Favourable Justificative Factors

Camille MANUEL KUNG'KINTEY

Abstract


The Democratic Republic of the Congo, DR Congo or DRC counts nearly 400 tribal tongues or dialects, by origin. In addition to four prominent Kikongo, Lingala, Swahili, and Tshiluba regional or vernacular languages inherent to large ethnic community entities and the official French language, these tribal tongues or dialects make of DRC a great multilingual country.

However, the present tendency is to raise English to the point to hold its own against French and of even overtaking it, given that the Congolese people currently use English more and more in many real life situations. 

This article attempts to unveil some of the factors that are favourable to DRC to shift really into a furthermore multilingual country someday by adopting English as official language, on par with the French language.


Keywords


DRC, shift, English-speaking, multilingual.

Full Text:

PDF

References


. -COMMISSION DES REFORMES INSTITUTIONNELLES (1998): Projet de Constitution de la République Démocratique du Congo, Présidence de la République, Kinshasa.

. -DAVIES, Peter et all (1976): The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 17th Edition, Dell Publishing Company, Inc., New York.

. -Doty, G. G. & Boos, J., 1968: Language and Life in the U.S.A., Harper and Row Publishers, New York;

. -EPSP (1988): Programme National d’Anglais, EDIDEPS, Kinshasa.

. -FOWLER, H. W. & FOWLER, F. G. (1995): The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

. -HORNBY, A. S. (1990): Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, O.U.P., 4th Edition, Oxford.

. -MANWEL KUNG’KINTEY, Camille (1999): The Educational Implications of the Congolese Government’s Project to upgrade the Status of English in DRC, Memoire, IPN, Kinshasa, Unpublished.

. -MANWEL KUNG’KINTEY, Camille (2006): The Globalization Trend and the English Language: What opportunities for DRC?, Scientific Article, PIPN, CRPA, Vol. 029, IPN, Kinshasa.

. -MANWEL KUNG’KINTEY, Camille (2010): If the Status of English were to be upgraded in DRC, Scientific Article, PUPN, CERUPN, Vol. 032, UPN, Kinshasa.

. -YABA MUNA IZENI, Ambroise (1980): Foreign Language Needs Assessment: A Survey of English Utilization in Zaire, Doctoral Dissertation, Pittsburgh, and University of Pittsburgh.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.52155/ijpsat.v56.2.8096

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2026 Olivier Mandefu

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.