Marginalized Knowledge: An Agenda for Indigenous Knowledge Development and Integration with Other Forms of Knowledge

Conclusion

From what has been discussed so far, it is clear that a language or language use has to reflect the socio-cultural imprints of the society in which it is used. One of the direct implications is that a speaker-hearer is expected to use the language like the people with whom he or she regularly associates. However, at the same time, one may also choose in appropriate circumstances to allow one’s speech or usage to move in the direction of another socio-cultural and even linguistic group. Good teaching should produce learners who are more aware of the different varieties of English in their country and of which variety to use in particular situations.

Knowledge of a language, according to Cook and Seedhoefer, (1995:4) (eds.) is:

a social fact, the expression of individual identity, the outcome of dialogic interaction, social semiotic, the intentions of speakers.

Obviously, interlanguage as a target for second language is a wrong assumption. The communication skills of an individual can always be improved upon in the light of the demands of the speech community: no one (including the native speaker) ever knows a language ‘completely.’ This is not an empty ideological generalisation but it is one that has practical, social and political consequences. There is a need to question the advisability of using or recommending native ways of communicating notions and functions.
There is also a need to investigate formal and pragmatic contrasts because learners and users of English in diverse multilingual and multicultural contexts need to be aware of the form-function fit: the relationship that holds across the spectrum of varieties and purposes of language use and those who do not. This includes even native speakers. Even if in some sense they ‘already know’ how to communicate with each other socially in English, their communication knowledge and skills, their language needs to be perfected and developed bearing in mind other rules that are generated by other systems.