Language Differences Between Interviewers and Respondents in African Surveys

Introduction In face-to-face surveys, the survey language has important implications for data quality. Linguistic issues are particularly relevant in Africa because of its linguistic diversity and complexity. Combined, there are over 2,000 African languages, more than 30 percent of the world’s languages (Eberhard, Simons, & Fennig, 2019). Although there are some relatively linguistically homogeneous countries (e.g., predominantly Arabic-speaking countries in Northern Africa), most countries have a complex, multilingual structure. Many Africans are multilingual: 61 percent of Kenyan adults, for example, speak three or more languages (Logan, 2017). There are also different types of languages. People may grow up speaking the language of their tribe or local community but often learn languages of broader communication in school (for brevity, we refer to these languages as “local languages” and “broader languages”). These broader languages may be African (e.g., Swahili) or Western (e.g., English or French) and are often used in mass media, government communications, and workplaces (Bodomo, 1996). Although both local and broader languages are used to communicate, local languages tend to be used more for verbal communication, whereas broader languages are typically used for written communication. The linguistic diversity in Africa presents several challenges for face-to-face surveys. Survey language can lead to undercoverage if the survey is not offered in a language the respondents speak (Andreenkova, 2018). Language also can shape the respondents’ cultural and cognitive frames, affecting the response formation process (see Chapter 1). In this chapter, we focus on another challenge: problems that arise if respondents or data collectors are CHAPTER 5