The dissertation Trapped in the language? ICT and language-choices in Tanzanian higher education was carried out at Department of Educational Research, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Oslo in the period of 2008 - 2012. The data collection was conducted at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), Tanzania during different periods for a total of six months. The use of ICT is developing in the South. The study shows that in Tanzania the use of software and ICT tools in Kiswahili are escalating. On the other hand, a comprehension prevails that Kiswahili-speaking academics and researchers participating in the ICT era only can be carried out English. Concurrently there is the paradox in which UDSMs own reports document major problems with students' command of the English language, and at the same time, recommending English as the University's language of instruction justified by the assertion English is the ICT-language. The research is founded in Education and development studies in the South and can be considered as a contribution in the discourse on language in Africa considering whether the local language or colonial language should be the language of instruction. Through a mixed-method approach the study highlights how the choice of languages in higher education is influenced by ICT, in what way this influence is related to social and political conditions, how the correlation between formulated global and local guidelines emerge in relation to the ICT and language use, and finally how the choice of language in ICT activities is reflected in students 'and employees' everyday practices. Research results show how ICT is used in rhetorical argumentation to preserve English as the language of instruction. The thesis argues that those advocating English as the only language Tanzanians can use in an ICT context are adopting an attitude based on technological deterministic ignoring technological possibilities in favor of local adaptation and development. The study shows that employees and students at UDSM are active ICT participants in developing Kiswahili using digital technology. Informants say they read and write Kiswahili when they communicate through digital media. Informants report that they read and write more Kiswahili after they started using the internet. Staff and students with the most ICT experience show more enthusiasm for Kiswahili in ICT context and use Kiswahili as ICT-language more than students with less ICT experience. Nearly eighty percent of Master's students in Education at UDSM want to write their thesis in Kiswahili if the university administration would allow this.
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