Joan-Marie Steenkamp

student number: 2010 002 588

UNIVERSITY OF THE FREE STATE

LIN 114 INDIVIDUAL ESSAY QUESTION

Identify an aspect of linguistics and discuss how that aspect of linguistics helps you in better understanding South Africas language-related challenges.

LECTURER: STUDENT: STUDENT NUMBER: DUE DATE:

DR. MUNENE MWANIKI JOAN-MARIE STEENKAMP 2010 002 588 30 MARCH 2012

Joan-Marie Steenkamp

student number: 2010 002 588 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 2 3 4 5

INTRODUCTION HISTORY DISCOURSE SOUTH AFRICA AND LANGUAGE-RELATED CHALLENGES CONCLUSION

REFERENCE LIST

Joan-Marie Steenkamp 1 INTRODUCTION

student number: 2010 002 588

The language of any country or nation is vastly important to the communicative purposes and growth potential of a country. Language has many different aspects and linguists study these different aspects in relation to the theory that drives all languages. Various levels within languages exist, including phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics and discourse (Fasold and Connor-Linton, 2006).

This report will focus on how discourse aids a person with a better understanding of South Africas language-related challenges. The report will start with a brief history of languages within South Africa, the role that discourse plays in understanding a language and finally how this understanding can be applied to better understand the language-related challenges within South Africa.

HISTORY

South Africa is a diverse country with many different cultures, languages and people. The major ethnic groups within South Africa are Coloured, Indian, Black and White. The Black population can furthermore be divided into four major ethnic ethicalities. These groups are the Nguni, Sotho, Shangaan-Tsonga and the Venda groups. Amidst these different ethnic groups, South Africa has eleven official languages, but not everyone speaks those languages (SAVenues, 2012). Most people in South Africa are bilingual, or are capable of speaking only two languages. This is mostly English and Afrikaans or a native language such as isiZulu. English is considered the main commerce and politics language within South Africa (Mda, T. 1997). South Africas history had a major influence on the development and uses of various languages within South Africa. South Africa was colonised by the Dutch and later the British annexed the country. English was then forced upon the people as the administrative language of the people. Native speakers were permitted to educate children in their own languages while English was held to 3

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be the elite language of a select few. This placed English in a favourable light since speaking English meant better opportunities and higher status within the community. However, after the Anglo-Boer War, the Afrikaner began fighting for the right to use Afrikaans as an official language, and in 1925, Afrikaans achieved the status of an official language. In the 1930s, Afrikaans was a compulsory module in Black schools (Barnes, 2010).

In 1948, the National Party (NP) came to power and Afrikaans became a political language. Afrikaans was always linked with the NP government and formed the core of their political struggle. Their goal was to unite all Afrikaans speaking white people. The African National Congress (ANC), on the other hand, aimed to unite all black ethnic groups and chose English to be the political language of the party because of its neutrality (Barnes, 2010). In 1953, the Bantu Education Act was passed which forced learners to be instructed in their Mother-tongue for the first four years where after they were taught in either English or Afrikaans (Olivier, 2009). This lead to uprisings and a demand to be taught in one language, preferably English. After reaching its climax in 1976, the government had decided to implement a dual-language education system mainly comprising of English. Since English was also used by the ANC, it became known as the liberation language. Unfortunately due to the pressure applied by the NP, Afrikaans was cast in a negative light (Barnes, 2010).

Preceding the 1994 elections, debates about language use within South Africa was again brought to the fore-front as Afrikaans speaking people feared for the future of their language and English was seen as a double-edged sword a symbol representing liberation but at the same time also represented colonialism (Barnes, 2010). It was ultimately decided that South Africa was to have eleven official languages, and in 1996 this was incorporated into The Constitution (Barnes, 2010).

In 1995, various associations were created in South Africa to assist in the fair development of language use within South Africa. These organisations include the Language Plan Task Group (LANGTAG) and the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB). The goals of LANGTAG were to provide the 4

Joan-Marie Steenkamp

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Minister with a National Language Plan for South Africa, while the goals of PanSALB were to monitor language policy matters and to observe the provisions and principles of the Constitution relating to language uses (Barnes, 2010).

DISCOURSE

Discourse can be defined as the use of language above and beyond the sentence and focuses on how people use language in texts and contexts. Through the use of discourse people can convey communicative intentions and actions to others. It also helps to arrange information so that it is accessible to others and assists in actions and interactions with other people. In other words, it helps to build relationships between people and convey their identities (Fasold and Connor-Linton, 2006).

Discourse allows us to gather an overall sense of what is happening in terms of the context in which language is spoken. It conveys meaning through gestures, thoughts, spoken sentences or words and interaction among people (Fasold and Connor-Linton, 2006). Discourse therefore allows a greater understanding of a communication between two or more people in various circumstances and levels.

Members of the same cultural and language group have the capacity to communicate effectively at discourse level. The fact that they belong to the same cultural group enable them to interpret gestures and thoughts within their group according to specific cultural norms, while utilising the same language enables them to communicate those thoughts and gestures effectively (Riedel, n.d.).

However, when two or more people converse outside of their cultural group and language, challenges may arise due to the frame of reference imposed by their culture. Co-operation needs to be encouraged and developed with caution to allow for variations within cultures. Even when people of different cultures and

Joan-Marie Steenkamp

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different mother-tongues converse in a second language that both understand, caution needs to be exercised to avoid confrontation (Clyne, 1994).

The culture factor in South Africa is especially volatile as South Africa has many different cultures and eleven official languages. Each culture comes from a different background and thus responds differently at discourse level.

SOUTH AFRICA AND LANGUAGE-RELATED CHALLENGES

In 1996, The Constitution officially declared that South Africa was to have eleven official languages (Barnes, 2010). This was to encourage and accommodate most of the native South African languages. Tuition languages at school could now be customised to accommodate learners in their own native language.

However, this in itself has given rise to various challenges. Even though language and culture should be encouraged among its native groups, educational challenges arose because of the different languages and their level of use at educational institutions (Harran, 2011). These challenges are amplified at university level, since most universities use the common lingua franca (Clyne, 1994) which is English.

Therefore, because South Africa has eleven official languages and because school education can be in any of these languages, students who are suddenly thrown into an English environment often struggle to cope with communicative correspondence, including writing, reading or spoken communication at university level (Harran, 2011), unless they are fluent in English.

English has also been the main commerce and political language of South Africa (Mda, T. 1997) and has also recognised internationally as a convenient lingua franca for commerce (Clyne, 1994). Due to these reasons, the main tertiary education language has been considered English because of its neutrality. But this does not address nor ease the current linguistic challenges South Africa faces. 6

Joan-Marie Steenkamp

student number: 2010 002 588

A great proportion of South Africas population, especially of the previously disadvantaged group, does not have the means of attending a tertiary institute and are in some cases only proficient in their own native tongue. This arises to problems since most businesses require proficient use in English and usually another South African language.

Therefore the discourse communication level among South Africans are severely hampered due to cultural and language challenges. Solutions to these challenges are still being sought by LANGTAB and PanSALB.

CONCLUSION

In light of the above mentioned paragraphs, a better understanding of South Africas language-related challenges can be gained. Since the country is diverse in both cultures and languages, provision for these differences has to be made and careful co-operation between the various groups have to be implemented. The most effective way, according to the authors personal opinion, would be education in the most beneficial lingua franca language, in South Africas case, English. Proficient use of English (even when taken as a second language at school) would provide some unity and a link between the various cultural groups and will further communication between these groups. It would also aid the people in international business relations since English is considered as an international commerce language.

Discourse level helps to better understand the language-related challenges because it gives insight into how people understand and communicate with each other against the backdrop of their own cultures and languages. Since South Africa is so diverse in its cultures, misconceptions and

miscommunications can be and are rampant. This has the ability to cause friction between the various groups. A better understanding of communication 7

Joan-Marie Steenkamp

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at discourse level would increase relationships between various groups as misconceptions and miscommunication can be reduced when users of these different languages keep in mind the differences of their languages and their meanings at discourse level.

Joan-Marie Steenkamp REFERENCE LIST

student number: 2010 002 588

Barnes, L. 2010. Additive Bilingualism in the South African Language-in-Education Policy: Is there Proof of the Pudding? (accessed 21 [Pdf] March

http://alternation.ukzn.ac.za/docs/11.2/04%20Bar.pdf 2012)

Clyne, M. G., 1994. Inter-Cultural Communication at Work: Cultural Values in Discourse. Melbroune, Cambridge University Press

Fasold, R. W. and Connor-Linton, J, 2006. An Introduction to Language and Linguistics. New York, Cambridge University Press

Harran, M., 2011. Engineering and Language Discourse Collaboration: Practice Realities. Across the Disciplines, 8(3). [Online] available at

http://wac.colostate.edu/atd/clil/harran.cfm (accessed 23 March 2012) Mda, T.V., 1997. Issues in the Making of South Africas Language in Education Policy. The Journal of Negro Education, [Online] 66(4) Autumn, 1997. Available at http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2668164?uid=3739368&uid=2129&uid=2 &uid=70&uid=4&sid=21100675830171. [accessed 21 March 2012)

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Riedel,

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SA-Venues.com, 2012. South African Languages and Culture [Online] Available at http://www.sa-venues.com/sa_languages_and_culture.htm (accessed 21 March 2012)