An Assessment of High School Pupils' Attitudes Towards the Pronunciation of Black South African English

Abstract

The attitudes of Sotho, English and Afrikaans high school pupils towards diferent varieties of Black South Afiican English (BSAE) are investigated in this article. In view of the changing status of speakers of BSAE, the expectation is that at least in the eyes of black users of English in South Afiica the status of BSAE should increase. The findings are that BSAE has gained status in the eyes of the Sotho participants, but on the whole English and Afrikaans participants are still more favourably inclined toward White South African English. Nevertheless, all three groups of participants r-eveal sensitivity towards diferent subvarieties of BSAE, preferring the acrolectal form to the mesolectal form, and all are unanimous in their negative attitude towards basilectal BSAE. Die houdings van Sotho, Engelse en Afiikaanse hoerskoolleerlinge teenoor verskillende varieteite van Swart Suid-Afrikaanse Engels (SSAE) word in hierdie artikel ondersoek. In die lig van die veranderende status van sprekers vun SSAE, ten minste in die oe van swart gebruikers van Engels in Suid-Afrika, word daar venvag dat die status van SSAE sal verhoog. Daar word bevind dat SSAE we1 verhoogde aansien in die oe van die Sotho-deelnemers geniet, maar dat die Afrikaanse en Engelse deelnemers s feeds meer positief is teenoor Wit Suid-Afrikaanse Engels. Nietemin vertoon a1 drie groepe deelnemers sensitiwiteit teenoor die verskillende sirbvarieteite van SSAE, waar die akrolektiese vorm bo die mesolektiese vortn verkies word Alma1 is egter eensgesind in hulle negatiewe hoiiding teenoor basilektiese SSAE. #

Towards developmental world Englishes

“…The attitudes which prevail particularly in the upper middle class have been documented by the research findings of Van Rooy et al (2000: 205−6): they explain that Black (grade 11 Sotho‐speaking pupils) users of English attach the highest prestige to an acrolectal variety of Black South African English, which closely resembles White South African English as regards both pronunciation and grammar, rather than to White South African English. To them, ‘it serves as a marker of cultural identity within the complex, multilingual and multicultural identities of black users of English in South Africa’.…”

The History of English Language Attitudes within the Multilingual Ecology of South Africa

“…Smit (1996) records changes in attitudes towards varieties of English that are consistent with changes in the social status of speakers that happened from 1994 onwards. Van Rooy, Van Rooyen and Van Wyk (2000) fi nd that some forms of Black South African English (BSAfE) are regarded as favorably (mesolectal BSAfE) or more favorably (acrolectal BSAfE) to black listeners, although English and Afrikaans-speaking white South African listeners still favor the variety of the white native-speaker of SAfE in the experiment. Coetzee-Van Rooy and Van Rooy (2005) report that black listeners regard native-speaker WSAfE and acrolectal BSAfE equally highly, but also report favorable attitudes towards an Indian native-speaker of acrolectal Indian SAfE.…”

Black South African English: A new English? Observations from a phonetic viewpoint

“…Current evidence from attitude studies (e.g. Van Rooy, Van Rooyen and Van Wyk, 2000) suggests that the acrolect is far more acceptable within the BSAE community than the mesolect. One important aspect that should not be overlooked in future studies on this topic is the role that context plays in normal communication, unlike the present``sterile'' task, in which a carrier phrase such as say X again was used.…”