Challenges to the implementation of bilingual/multilingual language policies at tertiary institutions in South Africa (1995–2012)

Turner, Noleen S.; Wildsmith-Cromarty, Rosemary

doi:10.1080/10228195.2014.961525

Cited by 20 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…There have been a number of qualitative research articles and studies that speak to the issues of power, policy and practice with respect to the language landscape in South Africa since democracy in 1994 (Narismulu 2001;Foley 2002;Cele 2004;Van der Walt and Brink 2005;Balfour 2007Balfour , 2010Coetzee-van Rooy 2012;Rudwick and Parmegiani 2013;Turner and Wildsmith-Cromarty 2014). These writers, among others, agree that post-apartheid South Africa has seen a steady rise in the popularity of English, and that this happened at the expense of the other official languages.…”

Section: Playing the Policy Gamementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In discussing language policy frameworks at South African HEIs we use the extensive review offered by Turner and Wildsmith-Cromarty (2014), who summarise the language policies of five previously white South African universities. In sum they show that institutional commitment to multilingualism is frequently limited to public notices and signage and is inscribed in policy that sets multilingual teaching and learning goals for the future, with little if any immediate implementation plans.…”

Section: Playing the Policy Gamementioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, in 2010 isiXhosa was phased out at UCT, at the University of Johannesburg the degree in isiZulu for non-mother tongue speakers was terminated and a similar situation prevailed at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) (Turner 2012: 29). We are mindful that the language policy for higher education institutions has political currency and is often perceived to be the politically correct thing to do but is not echoed in practical implementation (Foley 2002;Cele 2004;Mwelwa and Spencer 2013;Rudwick and Parmegiani 2013;Turner and Wildsmith-Cromarty 2014). We are mindful too of the now clichéd gap between policy and practice and do not attempt to read this data as yet another example of this yawning gap.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We begin with a brief institutional policy overview aimed only at corroborating the extensive research done by Madiba (2013) and Turner and Wildsmith-Cromarty (2014) in this regard. We then present quantitative data on enrolments and graduations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The quantitative data used in this paper is extracted from research conducted for the ASSAf on the state of humanities education at South African universities. To date much of the research on the status of the 11 official South African languages is qualitative with very limited quantitative insights available (Madiba 2013;Rudwick and Parmegiani 2013;Turner and Wildsmith-Cromarty 2014). In this paper our intention is to complement and extend the qualitative research on the challenges of implementing multilingualism at South African higher education institutions (HEIs) through the presentation of a quantitative picture of undergraduate enrolments and graduations for the 11 official languages in SA.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Multilingualism at South African universities: a quiet storm

Pillay

2015

Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies

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This article seeks to reinforce the urgency for a multilingual academy in South Africa. It draws on recent quantitative data to unpack the dramatic decline of language enrolments and graduates of the 11 official languages. We explore the racial patterns in enrolments in the 11 official languages, given the scarcity of recent research articles that offer a quantitative comparison of the patterns of enrolment in this regard. We show that that while post-apartheid South Africa has seen a continuous rise in the popularity of English and Afrikaans, this has happened at the expense of all other official languages. We are mindful that the language policy in South Africa has political currency, which is not echoed in practical implementation. We suggest that while universities cannot ignore the politics of policy, it is the politics of practice in the form of what students choose to study that plays out in higher education institutions across the country. Our purpose therefore is to offer some insight into such practice. We argue that universities, in asserting their 'public good' mandate, should not be guilty of aiding and abetting the decline in indigenous languages by prioritising an efficiency mindset instead of a social justice one. IntroductionWe write this article not as linguists but as higher education practitioners. The critical importance of multilingualism at South African universities is signalled in the Linguistics and Education Special Issue 24 (2013) devoted to this concern and in the special issue of Language Matters: studies in the languages of Africa (45(3), 2014) devoted to the politics of language in Africa in which all the articles, save one, focus on language matters in South Africa. The quantitative data used in this paper is extracted from research conducted for the ASSAf on the state of humanities education at South African universities. To date much of the research on the status of the 11 official South African languages is qualitative with very limited quantitative insights available (Madiba 2013;Rudwick and Parmegiani 2013;Turner and Wildsmith-Cromarty 2014). In this paper our intention is to complement and extend the qualitative research on the challenges of implementing multilingualism at South African higher education institutions (HEIs) through the presentation of a quantitative picture of undergraduate enrolments and graduations for the 11 official languages in SA.We begin with a brief institutional policy overview aimed only at corroborating the extensive research done by Madiba (2013) and Turner and Wildsmith-Cromarty (2014) in this regard. We then present quantitative data on enrolments and graduations. We focus only on undergraduate patterns of enrolment and graduation because it is at the undergraduate level that dramatic numeric shifts are more evident (Pillay and Yu 2010). In an earlier paper (Pillay and Yu 2010) we showed that the loss of enrolment in the discipline of languages, linguistics and literature at undergraduate level is more severe (has shrunk by 27.68%) th...

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