Abstract:Tanzania is one of the least developed countries in the world according to the United Nations and is also the largest recipient country of China in Africa. At present, the country has more than one hundred sorts of local dialect, among which Swahili is used for communication between different ethnic groups and was declared as the national language of Tanzania. As one of the British colonial countries and still a member of the Commonwealth, Tanzania uses English as the official language. As a post-colonial country, Tanzania’s language policy is very representative in Africa. As the common language of many nationalities in East Africa and South Africa, Swahili can unite people, strengthen national identity and keep effective exchanges with neighboring countries. At the same time, English provides convenience for Tanzanians in global contacts. Over the past 20 years, the actual social usage of English in Tanzania has greatly decreased despite financial supports from British government. Code switching of Swahili-English is very common in present Tanzania. And Chinese is becoming more and more important in Tanzanian foreign language education policy.

Key words: Language policy; Tanzania; evolution; dilemma

CONTENTS

Abstract

中文摘要

1. Introduction1

2. Literature Review.1

3. Basic National Conditions and Language Development in Tanzania2

3.1 Basic National Conditions of Tanzania

3.2 Language Development in Tanzania

3.2.1 History of Swahili and English in Tanzania

3.2.2 Swahili Language in Present Tanzania

3.2.3 English Language in Present Tanzania

4.Current Dilemma of the Language Policy in Tanzania 5

4.1 Language Policy and Bilingual Education

4.2 The Effect of Language Policy on Politics

4.3 Language Policy and Employment Opportunities

4.4 Foreign Language Policy

5. Conclusion .9

Bibliography.11

Acknowledgements .12