Multilingualism in democratic South Africa: the over-estimation of language policy

The article focuses on the increasing mismatch between South Africa's stated official policy on language and its gradually evolving linguistic realities. Whereas the country's institutional documents (the Constitution and the national policies being developed) proclaim linguistic pluralism to be the national objective the country seems to be regressing to its pre-apartheid situation of monolingual practice—a situation of “English only”. This phenomenon is illustrated with reference to language-in-education, particularly the issues of language of learning and teaching (“medium of instruction”), language study and language and certification. The article then debates three possible reasons for the inability of the Government of the country to take positive steps towards policy implementation, concluding with the view that language planning is not enough, and that the lack of a meaningful political will in the political (and educational) leadership of the country is the chief obstacle to giving substance to multilingualism in South Africa.     

南非高等教育语言政策的演变与现行多语制政策的实施困境

语言在南非的教育领域始终是一个有争议的问题。在高等教育层面,南非的语言政策经历了英殖民地时期的单语制、南非联盟时期的添加型双语制、种族隔离时期的减少型双语制,到民主新南非的多语制。目前,南非多语制的政策主张和高校的语言实践存在着很大的差异:英语的地位日益显赫,阿非利加语的地位不断下降,而非洲本土语言被边缘化。语言实践中的单语倾向日趋明显。本文在系统梳理南非高等教育语言政策发展历程的基础上,从历史、政治、经济、文化、教育和法令政策等多个角度分析了现行多语制政策的实施困境。     

Going to a better life: perspectives on the future of language in education for San and Khoe South Africans

The 1996 South African constitution guarantees that the government will promote and protect the languages of the San and the Khoe. Of the scores of San and Khoe languages spoken by indigenous peoples when Europeans first arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in the 17th century, only a handful survive today. The surviving languages are all at risk of dying out in the next generation.The author looks at the conditions that are causing language death, and the possible types of interventions that could reverse the process. He argues that land and natural resource access are essential for maintaining the languages of hunter-gatherers and traditional pastoralists.The South African government is having trouble implementing the constitutional provisions due to the limitations of its language policy paradigm. The paradigm within which language policy and planning is located by the state strongly influences the types of decisions that will be taken to protect or marginalise endangered indigenous languages. The current South African paradigm of a “rights-based” approach to language policy is likely to be less effective than a “resource-based” approach that seeks to identify the inherent value that certain languages bring to the speakers and the broader society. The “resource” approach is also more likely to locate language rights in a broader context of socio-economic development.     

“They Even Speak Tsotsitaal with Their Teachers at School”: The Use (and Abuse) of African Urban Youth Languages in Educational Contexts

Abstract

African Urban Youth Languages (AUYLs) are increasingly coming under the spotlight of linguists and sociolinguists across the continent, who are investigating their relationship to standard and/or vernacular varieties. Simultaneously, they are being discussed by educators and education researchers, although little has yet been published in this critical area. The difficulties for educators posed by students speaking “non-standard” varieties has been highlighted by recent studies investigating literacy and language in the classroom. This article presents an overview of some of the challenges posed to education by AUYLs. It considers recent studies of AUYLs in educational contexts from around the continent. It then presents data from South Africa which highlights different orientations towards the South African AUYL “Tsotsitaal” in educational domains. The argument is made that the position of both teachers and pupils is vulnerable, and that the legitimacy of the distinction between standard language and urban vernacular language needs to be reconsidered.     

Rehabilitating a whiteness disgraced: Afrikaner white talk in post‐apartheid South Africa

This paper is part of a longer work on whiteness in post‐apartheid South Africa, which analyzes the discourses resistant to transformation in the country, labeled “white talk.” Based on a discourse analysis of the 2001 letters to the editor of Rapport newspaper, a national Afrikaans Sunday newspaper, this paper focuses on aspects of “white talk” within Afrikaans speaking South Africa.

Afrikaner whiteness has an affinity with subaltern whiteness, in that Afrikaners contended with the more powerful forces of the British Empire throughout their history. As a resistant whiteness, the whiteness of the Afrikaner has historically been rolled into ethnic/nationalistic discourse. The current moment in South African history presents a crisis to Afrikaner identity similar to the time of dislocation that saw the original discursive suturing of Afrikaner identity into nationalism. But now the worldview has imploded; Apartheid is the “other” of the New South Africa; Afrikaners are perceived to be in need of “rehabilitation.” Certain ethnic anxieties are pervasive, and the paper explores four of these. White talk in this context attempts to do two things: (1) to re‐inscribe the Afrikaner mythology that secured a special place for the Afrikaner in the political, economic, and social life of the country, so that the ground gained through the apartheid era of systematic Afrikaner advancement is not lost in the new social order, while (2) presenting Afrikanerdom as compatible with the New South Africa.     

When Identity and Leadership Intersect: The Experiences of Six Female Principals in South Africa

While literature on the interplay between educational leadership and context abounds, the attention granted to the experiences of female principals has, to a large extent, treated the construction of women as a homogeneous entity. Consequently, very little, certainly within the South African context, is known about how women in leadership positions construct and enact their leadership identities. Drawing on the experiences of six female principals at public schools, this article investigates the extent to which conceptions of gender give shape to the formation of leadership identity. To this end, the focus of the article is to explore the complex intersections of constructions of identity in relation to female principals; and how these constructions hold particular implications for conceptions of gendered leadership in South African schools.     

From “Boy-Government” and “Student-Government” to “Learner-Government”: The Best of Both Worlds?

In the history of South African education there have been three contrasting attempts to incorporate learners into the authority structures of schools, namely: “boy-government” (prefect system), “student-government” (Student Representative Councils (SRCs)) and “learner-government” (Representative Councils of Learners (RCLs)). This article traces the historical development of these traditions in governance in South African schools. Against this background, it proffers a historical analysis of these traditions to show that the phrase “learner representative council” is at a crossroads, that is, it is being stretched and pulled in different directions in post-apartheid South Africa. It points out that “student-government” was born out of the rejection of the unpopular “boy-government”. It also provides a critical analysis of the attempt of the national Guides for Representative Councils of Learners (Guides for RCLs) (DoE 1999) to blend the “prefect” and “SRC” traditions in order to strengthen democracy at school level. In doing so, it argues that the Guides for RCLs undermine democratic SRCs developed in the anti-apartheid education struggle. In the end, the article defends the “student-government” tradition because of its potential to educate for democratic citizenship in post-apartheid South African schools.     

二语习得中的文化认同研究综述

文章以二语习得中的“认同”为切入点,探讨了国内外对于“认同”在二语习得中研究的情况,探讨了研究存在的不足和未来发展方向。我们认为语言是文化认同的载体,在二语习得的过程中留学生会通过对语言的学习逐渐对目的语承载的文化产生认同,本文的特色就是为此寻求理论依据,旨在汉语国际教育的文化推广方面有所促进。在研究的基础上我们发现在二语习得框架下的文化认同研究领域还较为片面,方法也较为局限,同时国外很多新的研究成果并未得到国内学术界的重视。     

National unity in cultural diversity: how national and linguistic identities affected Swiss language curricula (1914–1961)

Abstract

By the end of the nineteenth century, the relationship between the state, language and schooling had become extremely close: a state was supposed to be “national”, and a real nation was supposed to be monolingual. Following the literature on nation-building, it is because schooling was charged with the task of forming such nations that curricula intended for the great majority of pupils included only one language. The theory of a direct effect of national identity on curricula was elaborated by focusing on the typical monolingual nation-state. This paper discusses the theory from the perspective of a multilingual state: Switzerland. The study’s analysis shows that in the 1914–1945 period the Swiss state’s multilingualism became part of the Swiss national identity and learning another national language became a matter of patriotic education. However, this new conception did not affect all curricula in the same manner. The economic and pedagogical rationales given voice by actors other than the state seem to be equally important factors in explaining the decisions made regarding language curricula as a state’s national identity. Therefore, warning is given against the assumption that a school’s language policy automatically aligns with a state’s national identity.     

Language and Development in Multilingual Settings: A Case Study of Knowledge Exchange and Teacher Education in South Africa

The quality of a country’s human-resource base can be said to determine its level of success in social and economic development. This study focuses on some?of the major human-resource development issues that surround the implementation of South Africa’s policy of multilingualism in education. It begins by discussing the relationship between knowledge, language, and human-resource, social and economic development within the global cultural economy. It then considers the situation in South Africa and, in particular, the implications of that country’s colonial and neo-colonial past for attempts to implement the new policy. Drawing on the linguistic-diversity-in-education debate in the United Kingdom of the past three decades, it assesses the first phase of an in-service teacher-education programme that was carried out at the Project for Alternative Education in South Africa (PRAESA) based at the University of Cape Town. The authors identify key short- and long-term issues related to knowledge exchange in education in multilingual societies, especially concerning the use of African languages as mediums for teaching and learning.     

Phelps‐Stokes in Congo: Transferring Educational Policy Discourse to Govern Metropole and Colony

This article combines a historical with a social/political anthropological framework to examine the role played by the transfer of educational discourse between the United States‐based Phelps‐Stokes Fund and the Belgian Ministry of Colonies in the formulation of the colonial education policy of “adapted education” in the 1920s. The author argues that the transfer of racialized discourses of education and educational language was instrumental in the political governance of both metropole and colony as well as in improving the image of Belgian colonialism in the international political arena. In particular, the author emphasizes the political clout of the Catholic Party and the role played by two problems that ascended to the center stage of Belgian national politics after World War I (i.e. the cost of rebuilding the country and the so‐called “Flemish problem”) to show how colonial educational policy, and national and international politics are interconnected.     

An Autoethnographical Study of Culture,Power, Identity and Art Education in Post‐Colonial South Korea

This article reflects my experiences of learning art in the 1970s and 1980s and my teaching career in school art education in twenty‐first century South Korea. This autobiographical reflection shows how I have struggled with my identity as an art teacher in the post‐colonial context of Western influences on Korean society since World War II. There has been greater tension and a greater struggle for different values, practices and identities when new values and practices have been introduced into the particular socio‐cultural context of South Korea. My struggles with particular kinds of pedagogic identity valued within the rapidly changing political, economic and cultural context of Western influences on Korean art education demonstrate the hidden structural mechanism of the relationship between culture, power and identity in the post‐colonial world of globalisation. This study as an autoethnographical research provides critical insights into how identities are produced by pedagogic discourses and practices of art education that are constructed through the specific systems of practice and language which transmit and regulate such identities and values.     

Keeping Up Appearances before the “Other”? Interculturality and Occidentalism in the Educational TV-Program “Happy Chinese”

“Happy Chinese” or kuaile hanyu is an educational melodrama produced by the Chinese TV channel CCTV in 2009. Aiming to improve foreign learners’ Chinese language skills, the plot revolves around Susan, an American, staying with her former Chinese classmate’s family. “Happy Chinese” proposes both language and cultural learning. In this paper, the authors are examining the first seven episodes marking Susan’s arrival in China for the Spring Festival. Basing the study on a postmodern and critical approach to the “intercultural,” as well as on a critical view towards Orientalism and Occidentalism, the authors are interested in how the programme constructs the arrival of the American and the way she is perceived and represented by the “locals.” The authors are also looking into what the Chinese family teaches Susan about being Chinese and, at the same time, the tensions that a certain tendency to “keep up appearances” and appear “real Chinese” before her trigger in the family, across generation and gender. The research tools used to analyze the data are derived from discursive pragmatics.     

Community elders’ narrative accounts of <Emphasis Type="Italic">ubuntu</Emphasis> translanguaging: Learning and teaching in African education

While South Africa has been lauded as a multilingual country that accorded official status to 11 languages, the academic notion of multilingualism has always been conceived from a monolingual perspective. Monolingual ideologies, which inadvertently favoured European languages to the detriment of local languages, were passed on to African countries through the occupation, division and colonisation of African territory by European powers in the early 1880s. Surprisingly, however, to date hardly any research has investigated African multilingualism predating the colonial era, or analysed pre-colonial narratives to offer alternative insights into African sociolinguistic and cultural realities. Aiming to shed some light on indigenous ways of knowing and the nature of translingual practices in local South African communities, the author of this article presents a study which collected and analysed storied narratives of six community elders – a glimpse into the pre-colonial period. The results of this study show that there is still a prevalent cultural competence of ubuntu (humanity towards others), which is highly relevant for teaching and learning indigenous knowledge and for identity formation among speakers of Bantu languages. Using a framework of ubuntu translanguaging to account for complex multilingual encounters, the author contends that a preferred literacy methodology for learners should be porous and value interdependence in tandem with ancient plural value systems and indigenous ways of knowing. Recommendations for future research involving narrative accounts of African community elders and practical applications in classroom encounters are considered at the end of the article.     

“If you don’t have English,you’re just as good as a dead person”: A narrative of adult English language literacy within post-apartheid South Africa

This article centres on the narrative of Thuli, a 62-year-old black South African domestic worker taking English language literacy classes outside of Johannesburg, South Africa. For Thuli, English literacy is of vital importance because, as she claims, “if you don’t have English, you’re just as good as a dead person”. Drawing primarily on the methodology of narrative inquiry, this article employs human narratives to expose the links between individual, social and political histories. Specifically, it centres on the life narratives of Thuli and the ways in which her stories are integrated into the complex history of language learning and adult education within South Africa. Utilising these coexisting histories and HERstories, the author of this article seeks to understand the multiple forces that impact a learner such as Thuli to become literate in English. By highlighting Thuli’s narrative as well as demonstrating the roles that both the author as the researcher and Thuli as the narrator play in the creation of her narrative, the author attempts to exhibit the power of the narrative in further understanding nuances of language, power and identity. Moreover, the author ventures to expose the ways in which the links between these concepts continue to affect adult learners in postcolonial South African adult basic education (ABE) and language learning. Finally, the author links Thuli’s experience to two of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), namely Quality education (SDG4) and Gender equality (SDG5). In addition, the author attempts to reveal how the links between both goals are missing in policy documents. Using this narrative as an example of the complexity of English within South African ABE, what becomes apparent are the ways in which the desire to learn English is both individually nuanced and laden with historically (re)produced ideologies.     

The golden lady: the storied life of a multilingual teacher and author of supplemental reading materials in a marginalized South African language

Personal narratives can be powerful venues for understanding human experiences. In this paper, we tell the story of Lutanyani, a Black South African multilingual teacher and author of supplemental reading materials in a marginalized South African language. Through various word images, we convey the role of language, in particular written language, in Lutanyani’s life. For Lutanyani, writing serves as ‘a healing process’ in two ways: (1) as a linguistically empowering venue that affirms and shifts his linguistic identity from outsider to insider, and (2) as a backward‐ and forward‐looking means to reconcile his past and reconstruct a message of hope for intermediate‐grade students throughout South Africa. This study has implications for classroom practices in the USA as well as development work in international settings.     

Teacher identity,teaching vision,and Chinese language education for South Asian students in Hong Kong

There is a growing interest in research on language teacher identity as relevant research suggests that language teacher self-identification has an impact on their language teaching. The present paper explores the self-identification and subsequent effects on their actual teaching vision and practice of 16 Chinese language subject teachers teaching Chinese as a second language to South Asians in Hong Kong. Data collected from classroom observations and interviews with the teachers demonstrate that Chinese language subject teachers negotiate with South Asian learners and construct their teaching in ways that enable them to create an environment where they see themselves as linguistic torchbearers and cultural transmitters while acquiring a strong feeling of success professionally. This research implies that teacher identity is a kind of pedagogy through which language teachers can reproduce or counteract hegemonic discourses and ideologies that oppress South Asians as non-native language minorities.     

Researching language and culture in Africa using an autoethnographic approach

This article has its basis in the author’s own growing annoyance at so-called “sandwich” programmes, where young academics from developing countries study and learn theories at universities in the Global North, then go to their own countries for fieldwork – only to return to the host country to fit their data into the theories of the Global North. The purpose of this article is twofold. The author’s first aim is to demonstrate that the thinking and concepts of some African educational thinkers such as, for example, Julius Nyerere, fit the educational reality in Africa better than those of Western thinkers, and that these concepts should therefore be used. Second, she argues that when it comes to building theories from the ground, the life experiences of Africans (in terms of everyday reality, indigenous knowledge, cultural transmission, community engagement etc.) should be taken into account. She explains why, through her own teaching at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, she became interested in the qualitative research method called autoethnography. She also draws on her experience of teaching qualitative research methods at a number of historically black universities in South Africa. She notes a recent positive development in the availability of a promising postgraduate programme with an authoethnographic approach. Entitled “The Narrative Study of Lives” and launched by the South African University of the Free State (UFS) Department of Sociology in 2012, this Master’s and PhD programme builds entirely on African experiences. In the last part of her article, the author applies an autoethnographic approach to the study of languages in Africa. She explains that some of her Tanzanian students grew up with several Tanzanian languages simultaneously, so that Western linguists’ terms like “mother tongue”, first and second language do not make sense to them. She also introduces the concept of ubuntu translanguaging, an effective practice of purposeful juxtaposition of languages observed in African empirical research.