Language attitudes in South African high schools: Surveys from Boksburg and Devon.
Tshuma, Nothando
Tshuma, Nothando
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Abstract
This study sought to unravel the contradiction that exists between usages, attitudes held toward Black South African languages (BSALs) development, and personal advancement. Many learners choose English over their BSALs, reflecting a widely-held belief that a good pass in a BSAL is not likely to help young people in the job market. English is considered by many to be the language of opportunity and advancement. The study’s main objective was to establish attitudes held by learners, teachers, and School Governing Body (SGB) members toward the use of BSALs in high schools. The study also aimed to investigate perceptions of the possible effects of multilingualism in the classroom, given current language and language-in-education policies, in terms of actual practices. Data were collected from learners, teachers, and SGB members of two high schools in Gauteng Province: one in Boksburg (suburban), and the other in Devon (township), for comparative purposes, using questionnaires (learners and SGB members), teacher interviews, and participant-observation (N = 100). The findings reveal that BSALs play a secondary role in the classroom, as they are only used to support learners with weak competence in English, e.g., for explaining subject content. There is still resistance to their use as media of instruction (MoIs) in the classroom, as the benefits of using them are not yet fully understood, or appreciated. While most of the respondents held their BSALs in high esteem, and associate them with pride and belonging, they did not see their value in their futures for furthering their studies, or in the job market – domains in which English appears to be easily dominant.
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Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree Magister Technologiae Department of Applied Languages Faculty of Humanities.
Date
2016-12-01
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Tshwane University of Technology
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Keywords
Language Attitudes, Multilingualism, Language of Instruction, Sociolinguistic Survey, Cultural Identity