Abstract
2.2 LITERATURE PART A
2.2.5 LITERATURE ON LANGUAGE AND DEVELOPMENT
training, and increases understanding of the subject being taught (LANGTAG Report, 1996: 105).
In business communication, language is generally formal. It is essential to understand the difference between formal and informal language. When the researcher talks of formal language it means the following,
Is grammatically correct?
Does it follow correct procedures when applied in different formats?
Is it courteous?
Is it used in situations where the recipient is not well known?
Is it used in business communication?
Whereas informal language,
Is more relaxed in style and vocabulary than formal language.
Is used in social or friendly situations.
Language therefore plays a vital role at the different levels of the workplace such as in the production cycle, between workers and supervisors, between workers and managers, in labour negotiations, in training, personal development, job descriptions and promotion opportunities etc.
Therefore, work is a very significant feature of human life, and so much work is takes place with the medium of language. (See Appendix for A Policy for Language Democracy in the Workplace).
people is ultimately registered at both the individual and collective level.
Robinson (1996: 32) comments that, “It is in the language of the masses that social transformation in its most far-reaching sense makes an impact”. He further says that “a society cannot develop if language is the monopoly of a small and restricted minority whose orientation is directed outside, towards cultures that have had an imperial or colonial relationship with the society that is endeavouring to develop”. Education for the masses must be done in the languages of the masses so that development becomes a mass phenomenon, which is part of mass culture. Only then will development translate relevantly to the lives of the broad and major sections of the population”. Language is the key to the challenge of African development.
In general, Robinson (1996: 78) revealed that, “development projects need to be managed in local languages in order to allow full participation of those who are meant to benefit from these projects”. In terms of micro-level purposes of the economy, it is clear that development will not be owned by local people until they are able to discuss it among themselves and with outsiders without the barrier of somebody else‟s language. This is because, as Djite (1993: 4) says, “the actors of change remain the people themselves”.
Economic development is a central feature of national development, hence the link with language. It also necessarily implies social, political and cultural change.
Such development must affect, and be affected by language. Coulmas (1992) concurs. There is a fundamental relationship between language and economic development, more specifically, between language and production. Alexander (1995) explains this relationship as follows,
One of the reasons for the development of the linguistic capacity in the human species is the need which human beings have to co- operate with one another in the labour process.
There are very few acts of production that human beings can perform without recourse to communication with other human beings. In this (limited and derivative) sense, language is an
instrument of production, a function derived from its function as a means of communication. (p.21)
Just as language is an instrument of production it is also a tool which can be manipulated to control access to different levels of power in the labour process.
The architects of apartheid, whose purpose was to protect the elite‟s control of power and economic resources, understood this relationship very accurately when they manipulated a language-in-education programme (mother tongue?) to deny speakers of African languages sufficient access to the languages of economic power in this country.
There is ample evidence in Africa that development does not occur if the ex- colonial language plays a central part in development projects. This also has implications for economic development in South Africa, so it is in the interests of the people of this country to promote African languages. So, as the case of isiZulu, it is up to the people of KwaZulu–Natal to promote their language, in so far as economic development is concerned. However, the role of PanSALB is made evident by Alberts (2003: 41), who states that, ”PanSALB has made important strides in addressing language developmental problems”. Its structures are in place. On the whole, it appears that PanSALB has done its share in the promotion of multilingualism in South Africa.
What is the role of language, in so far is economic development is concerned, here in KwaZulu–Natal? Is the language factor a facilitator or a barrier?
Moreover, can isiZulu be an economic resource in the region? This issue has not been investigated systematically across a broad spectrum, but there is no doubt that English will be found to be, by far, the dominant language of formal economic activity. It is even probable that English is a general requirement for appointment in most occupations above the level of unskilled labourer. isiZulu is restricted in its role and it is used in (low level) informal sectors and for personal communication between its speakers in the workplace.
The central role of English in economic activity in South Africa is pretty clear. For one good reason, a knowledge of English is of exceptional importance in so far as getting a job, occupational mobility and for international economic activities in general. However, only about 25% of the South African population has an adequate proficiency in English for the purpose of effective economic activity.
Nationally, 75 % of blacks in South Africa are not proficient enough in English to be able to use it as a meaningful instrument of economic activity. Given this information, English acts as a barrier regarding access to information, the effective development of knowledge understanding and skills in individuals and the free and open participation in economic activity.
The objections against the use of African languages (isiZulu) have no economic value and that a policy of multilingualism will be expensive to implement and maintain. The extended use of African languages will lead to a decline in English proficiency.
It has been shown that English is privileged by language policy and is used in the prestigious social, educational and economic domains leading people to equate it with education, knowledge, civilization and development. As Hymes (1995) explains,
[…] if one does not attend to the loss of native abilities in American Indian Communities whose traditions of myth have been extinguished, if one does not attend to the differences in life chance between a child in Nigeria who acquires a command of English and a child who does not, if one has no principled way of accounting for the fact that economic security in a society may require some kind of linguistic ability to which only some have access, then one has no purchase on the world. English is such. (p.34)
This above quote does not exist in SADEC countries only, but South Africa is also affected by the issues of language rights and other
relevant matters. The prestige of English over other languages I believe does not give citizens equal democracy
2.2.6 LITERATURE ON MULTILINGUALISM AND THE ECONOMY