Introduction
1. Theoretical foundations
1.4. Relevant theoretical approaches
1.4.3. Language and identities in education
homogenous entities, and there exist a multitude of factors, inter alia linguistic ones that create boundaries among members of a group, which is considered to be one homogenous language community. Incidentally, the members of the isiZulu speaking community of Umlazi are no exception. The educational issues discussed above that play a role in this regard shall be discussed in more detail below.
Practically, however, English is virtually the only medium of instruction from secondary school level onwards. There is clearly a mismatch between the official language policy in education, which promotes multilingualism, and the language practices at schools and higher institutions of learning (see, Kamwangamalu 2000a). With regard to the dominance of English in the educational system, various scholars have commented on the apparent lack of change. Waddington (1999), for instance, notes that despite the official promotion of multilingualism most school authorities in South Africa have no intention to challenge the hegemonic position of English as 'the' medium of instruction in education.
Similarly, most students are writing their exams in a language they are not sufficiently fluent in and in many cases teachers are highly under-qualified, as was the case before the transition (Waddington 1999: 61). An investigation conducted specifically in KwaZulu-Natal suggests that very little progress has been made in the development of the multilingual language-in-education policy (Chick and McKay 2000). It does indeed appear as if the official approach to multilingualism backfired and left most parents with an even stronger desire to have their children instructed in English.51
In South Africa, the issue of language in education has been a sensitive and controversial issue for the last century. Despite the fact that English and Afrikaans were the only two languages of economic success, mother-tongue instruction was compulsory for African children and this contributed fundamentally to the oppression of the black population. English has, for a very long time, been the preferred medium of instruction at African schools and many Africans still bitterly resent the denial of an early access to English (Mawasha 1978: 235, Leith 1983:
203).
For further research that describes the hegemonic position of the English language in education see, for instance, Webb (2002) and Reed (2002) or PRAESA Occasional Papers: Alexander (2000), Heugh (2000a; 2002).
52 The anthropologist, W.W.M. Eiselen, who graduated with a PhD under the fascist German anthropologist Meinhof in 1924, was in charge of the education system for the Black population from 1949 (Hammond-Tooke 1997: 68). On the pretext of granting more value and importance to the African cultures and languages he developed an education system (Bantu Education) that kept the Black population on the bottom part of the economic ladder, for more detail on this issue, see for instance Hartshorne (1987, 1992, 1995).
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Any past educational language policy, and one that is by default multilingual, not only influences learners' language behaviour and their attitudes towards languages, but also the way they perceive themselves with regard to languages in their life.
According to Edwards (1985: 118), "education has often been perceived as the central pillar in group-identity maintenance, providing an essential support for linguistic nationalism and ethnic revival". Nevertheless, he argues that schools alone do not have the potential to significantly affect language maintenance and remarks that the power of the education system has been far overrated (1985:
130).53
If this holds true in the case of South Africa, we have to ask ourselves why the Indian community experienced a complete language shift from the respective Indian languages to English, whereas the African-language speakers have largely maintained their distinct ethnic mother tongues. Although generalisations about the educational system as the sole agent to decide about language maintenance, shift or even death would be inadequate, the South African case seems to present clear evidence that language education policies do play a crucial and deciding role. I strongly argue, for instance, that without Bantu Education there would be significantly more Black English mother tongue-speakers in the country.
The meaning of 'identity maintenance' is in itself problematic from the theoretical approach this thesis takes because of the multifaceted and flexible nature of identities. Even so, one has to acknowledge - as mentioned earlier - that the Indian Community maintains separate identities as South African Indians. The Indian ancestral languages, for instance Gujerati, Hindi and Urdu, play merely symbolic roles in the construction of these identities. Interestingly enough, Indian students frequently refer to the ancestral Indian language variety as the 'mother tongue',
Edwards (1977) discusses the relationship between ethnic identity and educational bilingual programmes designed for minority ethnic groups and the retention and maintenance of ethnic identity in the larger society. He particularly distinguishes between the internal and external pressures of the maintenance of language and ethnic identity, although the line between those is sometimes hard to distinguish. Generally, if the need for maintenance arises from within the group there is a greater success rate of preserving ethnic identity through language. External efforts (e.g.
language policies) are frequently seen as a symbolic or artificial undertaking and may not always follow the needs of the particular group, and may even in some cases be counterproductive.
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despite the fact that English is their LI. This could be an indication of linguistic vitality independent of the use of the languages in the community.
The fact that the African students are educated in English, despite the shared mother tongue of teachers and learners, undoubtedly has an effect on ethnolinguistic identity construction. As English is the only 'official' medium in the classroom, it fosters the perception that the African languages have no 'academic value'. Since the new democratic constitution the number of African students in multiracial schools has increased enormously. Parents who have the financial means generally choose to send their children to these schools, as ex- DET-schools and those in township and rural areas remain poorly equipped, under- staffed and frequently lack competent teaching staff. The latter, however, is not surprising, as one has to remember that most practising teachers today are still victims of Bantu Education.
Webb and Kembo-Sure (2000a: 7) argue that the use of English as opposed to the African languages had a negative effect in South Africa because it depicts an impediment of the advancement of the African population in general. "The decision of school authorities and parents to use English as the medium of learning in schools (especially primary schools) has definitely contributed to the underdevelopment of the South African people" (ibid). This also raises the question over whether this under-development affected people's self-esteem and ultimately their notions of themselves and their identities. Dlamini (2003: 54) comments on the paradox of writing an article on the promotion of the African languages in English by referring to Steve Biko's words in the post script: "the most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed".
She seems to concur with Ngugi (1986, 2003) that the use of an ex-colonial language does not have the full potential to adequately convey African thought.
There are currently a number of active organisations that support South Africa's educational multilingualism and, consequently, the construction of multilingual identities in education. At the tertiary level, the University of Port Elizabeth started
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to teach some subjects in isiXhosa a few years ago in an attempt to promote African Languages (University of Port Elizabeth 2000). Academics in the isiZulu Programme of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville campus, have created a strong lobby group for the promotion of isiZulu. Furthermore, a number of academics at the University of Zululand are currently involved in the isiZulu Dictionary Project. In addition to this, at the University of Cape Town, Neville Alexander and his associates are working, unremittingly, on the further promotion, development and 'intellectualisation' of the autochthonous languages (for more detail, see Alexander 2003). In short, there are a range of efforts underway to academically develop the African languages in order to equip them with a technologically advanced and scientific lexicon, so that they may eventually be employed as a medium of instruction at tertiary educational level.
In spite of the lack of language policy implementation in education and the fact that recent investigations suggest that language shift occurs in urban environments, the African languages seem to have a noteworthy vitality in rural and township communities. Unfortunately, sociolinguistic research data in this field remains scarce. As mentioned earlier, the large majority of language in education research, for instance, has been conducted in (urban) multiracial (ex-Model C) schools, which conveys an inadequate picture of the situation because only a fraction of South African learners attend these types of schools.