A Study On Language Policy Of Mauritius

Mauritius is an island country in eastern part of Africa. In history, there were no indigenous people on the island. It wascolonized by Netherlands, France, and Britain successively and got independence in 1968. Through the research method of literature analysis, the history of Mauritius since French Colonization period, related literature and language policy related governmental documents of modern Mauritius are studied and analyzed.In the period of French colonization, French colonizers and African slaves came to the island. Now, French is the main language of broadcasting, print media and business activities. The language contact between African slaves and slave owners generated the Mauritian Creole. Mauritian Creole has become the “unofficial” national language of Mauritius. During the British colonization period, English was regulated as official language but had never replaced French in Mauritius until now. During the same period, largequantities of Indian and Chinese indentured laborers from different part of India and China with different religious and language background came to Mauritius, which led to the situation of multiethnicism and multilingualism in Mauritius. The ethnicity of Mauritius includes Euro-Mauritian, Affro-Mauritian,Sino-Mauritian, Marathi, Telugus, Tamils, Urdus and Bhojpuri. Languages include English, French, Mauritian Creole, Chinese, Arabic, Indi, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, Urdu and Bhojpuri.In this paper,the Constitution, other laws, and documents issued by Ministry of Education, namely Education & Human Resources Strategy Plan(2008-2020), Education Reforms in Action 2008-2014 and The National Curriculum Framework, are analyzed. Based on the analysis on documents mentioned above and other literatures on language policy of Mauritius, the language policy of Mauritius by certain languages is summarized. English is the official language of Mauritius and also the official language of instruction in Mauritius. In view of the presentteaching situation of lower grade in elementary education, educators are also encouraged to use mother tongue of pupils by ways of bilingual or multilingual instruction to promote the teaching effect. Mauritian Creole has dual identity. As the country’s most popular language, the social status of it is increasing day by day. As the ancestral language of Creoles and their identity mark, it was formally introduced into the education system together with Bhojpuri as language courses in 2012. Since then, all the ancestral languages were introduced into the system, which embodies the language policy of ancestral language maintenance of Mauritius.