It's been 50 years since this happened soweto rebellion In South Africa. On 16 June 1976, thousands of young black South Africans protested against African languages being taught (along with English) in school.
At that time, under apartheid Law, language, ethnicity and race were all considered characteristics that defined identity and belonging. Geographic Settlement (Artificial System) home country) added another layer of ethnographic affiliation.
in the matter of LanguageAfrikaans, designated by the government, is now spoken 10.6% of population, and English, which is now spoken 8.7% As two official languages of the population. African languages – spoken by 78.6% At present the population had no official status – except in the homeland.
These policies made languages political:
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Black South Africans considered Afrikaans to be the language of white oppressors
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English was seen as the language of education, advancement and opportunity
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African languages were maintained as carriers of cultures and ethnic identities.
Each African language in the motherland was linked to ethnic affiliation. This led to the idea that if someone spoke isiZulu (the language), for example, one was identified as umZulu (a Zulu person) and meant to live in KwaZulu (“the homeland”).
In 1994, the homelands were abolished and nine provinces were created. However, these provinces still promote official African languages based on the dominance of their first language in the previous homeland.
As scholars of African languages, we are of the view that false notions of ethnic allegiance and belonging continue to hinder the dissemination of African languages in the country.
recently paper
We looked at the delivery and teaching of languages in South African universities.
We found that English and Afrikaans are interprovincial languages and are offered in South African universities. African languages still primarily determine the university and province in which prospective African language students can study.
The results show that the apartheid pattern of language use has not been broken in the democratic era.
African languages in universities
Our Research It involved interviews with 10 academics in African language departments. We contacted eight South African public universities that offered one of the four official South African isiguni languages (isiZulu, isiXhosa, siSwati, isiNebele). These can be classified as varieties of the same language. The research participants were lecturers who taught these languages.
Apartheid policies used language and ethnic affiliation to determine admission to universities in the homeland. So we inquired about the language policies of universities today, especially for admission to the study of African languages.
We also asked about the language varieties that academics have accepted for learning, teaching and assessment.
English and Afrikaans languages are offered in universities in South African provinces.
But a student's own language still matters for admission to study an African language. When deciding who to admit, university African language departments use the African language the applicant studied in 12th grade as a home language.
National Language Policy Framework for Public Higher Education InstitutionsPublished in 2020, supports provincial language distribution. Institutional language policies are also similar.
Some languages were given more importance than others
African language courses are taught based on the first languages spoken by students and most lecturers.
English and Afrikaans courses at the same institution accommodate students and lecturers who speak different first languages.
This linguistic setup creates another layer of inclusion and exclusion for African languages in the democratic era. conclusion It turns out that African languages, which are spoken as a first language by many people, have priority over those spoken by minorities. For example, isiZulu (spoken by 24.4% of the population) and isiXhosa (spoken by 16.3% of the population) were offered by seven of the eight universities in our study. Only one in eight universities offered IsiNdebele (spoken by 1.7%) and Siswati (2.8%).
Read more:
Zulu vs. Xhosa: How colonialism used language to divide South Africa's two largest ethnic groups
We found that some academics only accepted the standard language version of the Isiguni language which they teach in their classrooms. He argued that his teaching methods were protected by the rules of the standard language. He said it promotes “pure” and “true” language diversity. Other academics said they accepted all language varieties of the Isiguni languages in their classrooms. He acknowledged that the linguistic profile of students in universities has changed over the past few decades. Therefore, he said his approach was based on respect for all students language rightsPreserving all African language varieties, and promoting student participation and engagement in the classroom.
Some academics were still upholding the standard language ideology that the apartheid government had imposed on the learning and teaching of African languages. Others were adopting approaches that recognize what students actually say.
promotion of african languages
based on us conclusion We recommend the following:
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African languages should be promoted at the national level rather than at the provincial level.
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Higher education institutions should develop their own system of benchmarking language proficiency instead of relying on Class 12 certificates.
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Official African languages should include standard and non-standard language varieties.
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African languages that are official in some provinces should be taught as a second language in provinces where they are not official. For example, although first language speakers of Xitsonga are concentrated in Limpopo, the language can be taught as a second language in KwaZulu-Natal. Similarly, Siswati can be taught as a second language in the Free State.
Many goals will be achieved through this.
First, it will encourage collaboration among African language scholars across the country. This can break down silos in promoting African languages.
Secondly, African languages can cross provincial boundaries, like English and Afrikaans. This can change the perspective of understanding languages.
Third, African languages will be accessible to everyone, rather than just to language experts and their first language speakers.
This could lead to increased training of teachers, especially for advancement mother tongue based bilingual education. And it will preserve African language varieties, regardless of the number and official status of their speakers.
Overall, changing the teaching of African languages to avoid provincial patterns would promote language inclusion and social cohesion.