(Unoffi cial) Multilingualism in desegregated schools: Learners' use of and views towards African languages

Ndlangamandla, Sibusiso Clifford

doi:10.2989/16073614.2010.488444

Cited by 21 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Verhoef conducted a study among black teenagers in which it emerged that these youths perceived indigenous languages as vehicles for cultural inheritance, while English was more favourably viewed as having higher functional value. This view is supported by more recent studies which found that the youth still view their languages as inextricably linked to their culture, from which they derive a strong sense of self and identity, while English is perceived as an instrumental language (Ndlangamandla 2010;Rudwick 2004 and.…”

Section: Language Choice In Hiv and Aids Messages For Young South Afrmentioning

confidence: 77%

‘No ‘til we know.’Fela ba a tseba naa? Using African languages to communicate about HIV and AIDS to young South Africans

Lubinga¹,

Jansen²

2011

Communicatio

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An experiment was conducted in order to determine the extent to which the presentation of HIV and AIDS messages in different languages would affect the appreciation and comprehension of these messages among young South Africans. Interviews were carried out with 60 learners in rural and peri-rural schools in Limpopo Province. Four messages (on posters or in radio advertisements), were presented in three languages. The interviews focused on appreciation (to what extent do the participants like the messages?), perceived comprehension (to what extent do the participants think that they understand the message?), and actual comprehension (to what extent do the participants really understand the message?). The language of presentation did not prove to have any influence on appreciation, perceived comprehension or actual comprehension. A considerable gap was found between perceived comprehension and actual comprehension; participants overestimated their level of understanding. Significant correlations were found between perceived comprehension and appreciation, indicating that the better members of this target group think they understand HIV and AIDS messages, the more they like them.

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Section: Language Choice In Hiv and Aids Messages For Young South Afrmentioning

confidence: 77%

‘No ‘til we know.’Fela ba a tseba naa? Using African languages to communicate about HIV and AIDS to young South Africans

Lubinga¹,

Jansen²

2011

Communicatio

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“…offline conversation in the classroom and outside of the classroom space) (see Ndlangamandla, 2011). offline conversation in the classroom and outside of the classroom space) (see Ndlangamandla, 2011).…”

Section: English In a Linguistic Repertoirementioning

confidence: 99%

Orientations to English in post-apartheid schooling

McKinney¹

2013

English Today

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As Voloshinov has famously argued, ‘the word is the most sensitive index of social changes, and what is more, of changes still in the process of growth’ (Voloshinov, 1986: 19). Scrutiny of young people's discourses on language together with their language practices offers us a window into a society in transition, such as present-day South Africa. This article examines the language ideologies and language practices of Black youth attending previously White, now desegregated, suburban schools in South African cities, important spaces for the production of an expanding Black middle class (Soudien, 2004). Due to their resourcing during apartheid (both financial and human) previously White schools are aligned with quality education and perceived as strategic sites for the acquisition and maintenance of a prestige variety of South African English. This article looks at how mainly African girls (15–16 years) position themselves in relation to English, drawing on data collected using ethnographic approaches in four desegregated schools in South African cities: three in Johannesburg, Gauteng and one in Cape Town, Western Cape. The discussion focuses on two significant themes: English and the [re]production of race; and the place of English in young people's linguistic repertoires. My aim is to show how African youth in desegregated schools orient themselves to English and what their language ideologies and language practices might tell us about macro social processes, including the (re)constitution of race in South Africa. Schooling, as Bourdieu points out, is one of the most important sites for social reproduction and is thus also one of the key sites, ‘which imposes the legitimate forms of discourse and the idea that discourse should be recognised if and only if it conforms to the legitimate norms’ (Bourdieu, 1977: 650). However, co-present with processes of reproduction are practices that work to subvert and unsettle dominant discourses. Suburban desegregated schools are thus productive sites for the re-making of cultural practices (including language) and identities.

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“…This is particularly true among users of African languages as home languages in urban communities (Slabbert and Finlayson 2000;Ndlangamandla 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…There are some studies that document the multilingualism of users of African languages (for example, Slabbert and Finlayson 2000;Ndlangamandla 2010) and in other studies the issue is treated conceptually (for example by Banda 2009;Prah 2010). However, the majority of the current studies about the multilingualism of South Africans focuses on the role of the home language and the potential influence of English related to issues of language maintenance and language shift; and it laments the failure of language policies that do not succeed in increasing the use of African languages in new and higher status domains.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Explaining the ordinary magic of stable African multilingualism in the Vaal Triangle region in South Africa

Rooy

2013

Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development

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The academic and public debates about language maintenance and language shift in the post-1994 South Africa distract attention from the more productive and important endeavour of explaining the nature of the multilingualism observed among users of African languages in urban contexts. An explanation for this phenomenon is offered here, based on evidence from a literature overview, data from a large-scale language repertoire survey conducted in 2010 in the Vaal Triangle region, as well as interview data collected from students who participated in the language repertoire survey and additional interviews with students who did not participate in the 2010 survey. The explanatory model is based on the sociolinguistic language mode of the society, the linguistic culture resulting from the language mode, a description of the motivations for language learning in this context and the resultant effects on the domains of language learning and proficiency aimed at in the different languages in the multilingual repertoires studied. The model provides an explanation for the widespread and stable multilingualism observed among the participants and it explains the observed gaps between South African multilingual language policies and the supposed lack of implementation lamented by language policy commentators.

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(Unoffi cial) Multilingualism in desegregated schools: Learners' use of and views towards African languages

Cited by 21 publications

References 19 publications

‘No ‘til we know.’Fela ba a tseba naa? Using African languages to communicate about HIV and AIDS to young South Africans

‘No ‘til we know.’Fela ba a tseba naa? Using African languages to communicate about HIV and AIDS to young South Africans

Orientations to English in post-apartheid schooling

Explaining the ordinary magic of stable African multilingualism in the Vaal Triangle region in South Africa

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