The Standardisation Question in Black South African English

Wright, Laurence

doi:10.1075/veaw.g15.10wri

Cited by 26 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…Secondly, it is probably close enough to WSAE as far as its linguistic properties are concerned to ensure that effective communication takes place. This closeness should go a long wat to allying the concern expressed by commentators such as De Klerk (1999), Titlestad (1996) and Wright (1996), namely that the adoption of a non-standard variety of English may pose a sever threat to intelligibility. As BSAE variety of the New South African elite, it might increasingly come to serve as an idealised target for language acquisition by BSAE learners in secondary education, even if it is not the English of their teachers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Ling., Siippl. Lanham, 1985;Cooper, 1989;Young, 1991;De Kadt, 1993; De Klerk & Bosch, 1993 De Klerk, 1996, 1997, 1999Coetzee-Van Rooy, 2000). Although English has been thrust upon Black South Africans (De Klerk, 1999:311-312), English is regarded as a means toward upward mobility, economic and political power and prestige in the Black South African community and the broad South African community in general (De Kadt, 1993;Lazenby, 1996;Titlestad, 1996; Wright, 1996). These positive attitudes are not unique to South Africa either.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

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

Rooy

Rooyen²,

Wyk

2000

South African Journal of Linguistics

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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. #

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

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

Rooy

Rooyen²,

Wyk

2000

South African Journal of Linguistics

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“…3. A growing voice among informed academics (see Wright, 1996) and ambitious parents sees BSAE as short-changing their speakers, providing them with a second-best, less-than-adequate model which will disadvantage them in the long run, and reinforce the very stereotypes which people try to counteract by learning English. If a cultivated BSAE becomes too`deviant' in comparison to standard norms, its speakers would then be excluded from education and from public forums and would be severely disadvantaged all over again (Gorlach, 1998: 118).…”

Section: Which English? Attitudes To Bsaementioning

confidence: 97%

Black South African English: Where to from here?

Klerk

1999

World Englishes

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Black South African English is generally regarded as the variety of English commonly used by mother-tongue speakers of South Africa's indigenous African languages in areas where English is not the language of the majority. This paper explores some of the problems involved in defining this variety, problems such as whether it is a`new' variety of English or a dialect, and problems relating to whose English it is: the English of those learners who have encountered only a smattering of English in informal contexts or the variety of English acquired during formal schooling. The second half of the paper focuses on the possible future of Black South African English (BSAE) against the backdrop of South Africa's new multilingual policy. Reasons for the continued appeal of English are examined, alongside the range of factors influencing the possible future growth of BSAE as a distinct variety. It is argued that South Africans are unlikely ever to be free not to learn English, owing to the huge economic, political and ideological constraints which make the`choice' of English inevitable. The success of current efforts to resist value judgements and recognise the worth of BSAE will depend not only on the goodwill of South Africans, and on the cooperation of all speakers of English, world-wide, but on the rate at which the variety drifts away from recognised standard forms of English.

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“…In recent years black education has virtually collapsed, owing to the long-term effects of underfunding of black education, overcrowded facilities and serious deficiencies in teacher-training and teaching methodology. In addition, the liberation forces hoping to use the schools as a power base in the political struggle (Wright 1996:151) were a major disruption. Exacerbating the problem is the fact that most teachers are L2 speakers whose English, through no fault of their own, is inadequate, as they are products of Bantu education themselves.…”

Section: Black Education In South Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of L2 Education on Academic Achievement in a Std 10 History Class

Mackay

Klerk

1996

Language Matters

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In this article the authors examine the linguistic problems experienced by a class of second-language matric history candidates who are studying history through the medium of English in an upgrade programme. The written work of the students is analysed in some depth, alongside the language of the textbook; students' personal linguistic backgrounds and attitudes are also taken into account in order to discover whether levels of L2 competence correlate closely with levels of academic achievement in history. The study reveals that, despite their positive (instrumental) attitudes to English, the pupils' problems go well beyond grammar and discourse to aspects of cultural and historical knowledge and understanding and more general deficiencies in their broader educational 197 Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 06:00 05 February 2015 experience. The language of the textbook is shown to be an additional barrier preventing access to factual information because of its unnecessary complexity.

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The Standardisation Question in Black South African English

Cited by 26 publications

References 0 publications

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

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

Black South African English: Where to from here?

The Effect of L2 Education on Academic Achievement in a Std 10 History Class

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