Language rights versus educational realities — a South African perspective

(Department of Education 1997)

There is a close link between democracy and language rights (Beukes 1992:48; Nuusbrief van die Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns 1993:2; Bosch 1996:4-5). Skutnabb-Kangas’ (1988 in Beukes 1991:97) formulation of children’s linguistic human rights shows a profound awareness of the intrinsic value of language in the life of the individual:

The South African Constitution, Department of Education’s Language in Education policy document and Bill of Human Rights show an appreciation of the intrinsic value of language in the life of the individual. The ANC-dominated government proclaimed the will to promote the people’s languages in order to empower them economically and politically. This is in line with a resolution of the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures (1930 cited in Kashoki 1993:167):

A child should receive instruction both in and through his mother tongue and this privilege should not be withheld from the African Child.

The government’s acknowledgment of the people’s language rights is in line with the widely publicized educational principle that on psychological and pedagogical grounds the home language is the most appropriate medium for imparting the skills of reading and writing, particularly in the first years (Botes 1941:95-96; Kloss 1978:25; Kashoki 1993:167; ADEA Newsletter October-December 1996:6; Mondstuk 1996:2; De Witt, Lessing & Dicker 1998:118-123; Kotzé 2000:2; Smuts 2000:1-5). Yet the majority of South Africans opted for English and not their home language as language of learning and teaching (LOLT) after the first four years of schooling (CSD/SWO Bulletin 1993:5; NEPI 1992:13; Webb 1999:69-70). According to Webb (1999:70) the government’s policy of multilinguilasm is clearly failing. Why?

This article attempts to address the issue of home language education in the South African context against the background of the ANC-dominated government’s emphasis on the language rights of the learners. The prevalent attitudes of student educators, as well as staff members of tertiary education institutions responsible for the training of educators in the Free State and the relevant Department of Education with regard to the use of home language as LOLT in formal education in the RSA will be highlighted. Suggestions made by staff members on what may be done to promote the use of indigenous African languages (IAL) as LOLT will also be given. Some of these suggestions will be discussed against the background of research findings and recommendations made by linguists and educationists. A literature overview on language attitudes in South Africa will also be given.

B    Attitudes towards IALS as LOLT of the RSA

1. Attitudes towards IALs as LOLT in the Free State Province

Background to the study

Because attitudes play a major role in the way languages are considered and used, an empirical study was undertaken by us in 1997 to ascertain the prevalent attitudes among student educators and staff members of tertiary education institutions responsible for the training of educators, and the Department of Education in the Free State with regard to IALs as LOLT in formal education in the Free State Province in the RSA. Specifically, it was hoped that the research would achieve the following objectives:

To be able to achieve these objectives the following general research questions were posed:

Universities

Colleges of Education

The following samples were made by the use of simple random sampling:

º    University of the Free State: 5 staff members + 20 students (final year first degree in education)
º    Vista University: 7 staff members + 20 students (final year first degree in education)
º    Bloemfontein College of Education: 5 staff members + 20 students (final year)
º    Thaba Nchu College of Education: 5 staff members + 20 students (final year)
º    Free State Department of Education:5 staff members.

Total: 27 staff members + 80 students

Instrumentation

The questionnaires for the staff members combined structured and open-ended choices in order to give respondents the opportunity to give reasons for their responses. The questionnaires for the student educators contained structured questions.

Data collection procedure generally consisted of preliminary contacts with staff members in the institutions to be used. This was followed by the development, pre-testing and dispatch of questionnaires to the various destinations. Collected data were then collated and analysed.

Research findings

This section gives the research findings. The data are provided in two sets: qualitative data that have been statistically computer-analysed and qualitative data that have been analysed and interpreted descriptively.

The responses of participants to the question whether the current LOLT policy (use of the home language for the first four grades and thereafter the use of English) is ideal and beneficial to all, or the majority of black African learners, is summarised in Table 1.

Table 1: Respondents’ indication whether the current LOLT policy is ideal and beneficial to all or the majority of black African learners

Respondents	Yes	No	Total
Staff members	9	14	23
	39,13%	60,87%
Student educators	47	23	70
	67,14%	32,86%

There is statistically a significant difference between the responses of staff members and student educators with regard to the current LOLT policy in the RSA. Reasons given by staff members for their negative responses:

None of the staff members who were in favour of the current LOLT policy gave reasons for their positive responses. Unfortunately the student educators were not asked to give reasons for their positive and/or negative responses.

The participants in the study were asked whether they prefer that English be given prominence as the only LOLT throughout the South African education system. Their answers are given in the next table.

Table 2: Respondents’ preferences with regard to English as the only LOLT

Respondents	Yes	No	Total
Staff members	7	16	23
	30,43%	69,57%
Student educators	43	27	70
	61,43%	38,57%

There is statistically a significant difference between the responses of staff members and student educators with regard to their preferences for English as the only LOLT in the RSA. Unfortunately the student educators were not asked to give reasons for their policy preferences. Only two reasons were given by staff members for their positive responses, namely that English is an international language and that it is a major link-language that everybody needs in the region.

Reasons given by staff members for their negative responses:

The participants’ responses to the question whether IALs should be developed to qualify them to become effective LOLT, at least in the pre-school, foundation and intermediate phases, are given in Table 3.

Table 3: Respondents’ indication whether IALs should be developed as LOLT

Respondents	Yes	No	Total
Staff members	21	2	23
	91,30%	8,70%
Student educators	43	27	70
	61,43%	38,57%

The overwhelming positive response of the staff members is a reflection of their positive attitude towards IALs as LOLT. The student educators also indicated that they are in favour of the development of IALs as LOLT. This contradicts their negative attitude towards IALs as LOLT (cf. Tables 1 and 2). Unfortunately they were not asked to give reasons for their responses. It is therefore not possible to give an explanation for this contradiction.

Reasons given by staff members for their positive responses:

Reasons given by staff members for their negative responses:

The positive attitude of staff members towards the development of IALs as LOLT is reflected in their responses to a request for suggestions on what could/should be done to improve people’s attitudes towards the use of IALs as LOLT in the pre-school, foundation and intermediate phases. The following suggestions were given by staff members:

º    High priority should be placed on the development of language educators (IAL and English), especially at the pre-school, foundation and intermediate phases, through intensive in-service and pre-service approaches.

º    Educators who are positive towards and fluent users of both IALs and English, and who can effectively teach both and through both languages, at least at pre-school, foundation and intermediate phases, should be developed.

Should be improved to be in line with improved language status and roles and new democratic demands in the following ways:

º    Develop materials (even by translation where possible), commit politicians and the private sector (e.g. book publishers) to empower the people through their IALs. Southern African states could have joint instructional material development projects and in this way cut down on costs.

º    Organise seminars and workshops to show and convince parents and communities the real value and importance of IALs as LOLT and as media of communication in their regions.

º    Train student educators and learners to use IALs to discuss critical real-life issues, concerns and problems, to establish their power and value and to erase negative attitudes towards them.

º    Organise IAL dramatic performances for social, intellectual and economic reasons and for community empowerment, as well as a number of national/international cultural festivals. This should be done to revive significant but fading cultural values and to integrate new ones, and to emphasise the importance of cultural arts in improving the communities’ self-image and socio-economic development.

º    Organise children’s competitions (e.g. in play-writing and acting, authorship of poetry and short stories, etc.) in the IALs, financed by government and the private sector.

º    Teach learners the value of their IALs as factors of development and assist them to contribute to their language’s development (e.g. the coinage of new terminology)

º    Develop and introduce special lectures (based on research findings and needs) as a matter of urgency for educators and departmental officials on IALs and their critical necessity for use as LOLT.

º    Emphase language use rather than language usage.Teaching IALs through English or Afrikaans merely teaches about the language and does not do enough to teach the language per se. Appropriate curricula should be established and taught in the target IALs by experts of these languages.

º    Research the availability of teaching and learning resources on the value of IALs in the education of their speakers.

The influence of language attitudes on LOLT is very complex and cannot be addressed adequately by means of one isolated and restricted research study on the attitudes of staff members of tertiary institutions and the Free State Education Department and student educators on LOLT. In the next section an overview of related research will be given.

2. A literature study on language attitudes

   The reasons given by staff members for their positive responses with regard to IALs as LOLT are validated by the literature study. The findings from the literature study can be listed briefly as follows:

Despite the negative consequences of a foreign language (English) as LOLT and the government’s emphasis on the development of IALs and the learners’ language rights, the majority of learners prefer English as LOLT in the RSA. This preference is a reflection of the student educators’ attitude with regard to LOLT (cf. Tables 1 and 2). A literature study reveals several reasons and/or perceptions for this preference:

The majority of learners in South Africa believe that education through the medium of an IAL is synonymous with apartheid education. These learners believe they will be politically and economically empowered if they are educated through the medium of English.

The belief that English-medium education is the key to proficiency in English is repudiated by language statistics. Despite the fact that the majority of learners received their education through the medium of English, research in the 1980s (Schuring 1990 as cited in Nuusbrief van die Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns,1993:4) and 1990s (Schuring 1993 in Departement van Nasionale Opvoeding 1995:6) shows that only between 40,42 % and 42 % of South Africans were able to converse in English.

Large numbers of South Africans are facing the realities of linguistic exclusion from the public life of the country because of their inability to speak English. English is the language of parliament and government offices, IALs are the languages of the masses. Research by Prinsloo (1986 in Cluver 1992:113), as well as Marais, Conradie, Malan and Schuring (1994:47) indicates that more than half of black South Africans cannot speak, read or write English.

This situation is intolerable for democracy. These people cannot participate in the democratic government — they cannot be appointed as members of national, provincial or local governments. But even worse — they do not even know how their representatives are representing them. According to a spokesperson of the Pan African Language Board (PANSALB) (SABC 20 May 1998) English is used in 85 %, Afrikaans in 10 % and IALs only in 5 % of the debates in Parliament. Because Parliament does not have the necessary translation facilities, Members of Parliament must give prior notice if they want to address Parliament in an IAL or in Afrikaans. It is difficult to understand how a government can hope to govern a country efficiently if half its population does not understand what the government says.

Webb’s (1992:119) warning against the misuse of language as a tool to politically empower certain language groups at the expense of other groups is not only applicable to the use of English at the expense of IALs. Despite a decision by the local government of Bethlehem, a small Free State town, that Afrikaans and English would be used during local government meetings, the black members of the ANC-dominated council used only Sotho during a meeting in June 1999. According to a newspaper article white members of the council were ridiculed. After the meeting a member of the ANC said the decision to use only Sotho must be seen as an expression of the Sotho speakers’ constitutional rights (De Klerk 1999:1).

Education through the medium of English and the ability to speak English is not a guarantee of economic empowerment. The incomprehensibility of the belief that knowledge of English is a panacea for poverty is illustrated by findings by the Wharton Econometric Forecasting Association: more than 57 % of the total South African population was poverty-stricken during the period 1993-1996. More than two thirds (68 %) of the country’s black population live in poverty (Die Volksblad, 6 July 1999:7).

Despite the South African government’s appreciation of the intrinsic value of language in the life of the individual, its will to promote the IALs and acknowledgment of the people’s language rights, as well as research findings that the home language is the most appropriate medium for imparting the skills of reading and writing, the majority of South Africans prefer English and not their home language as LOLT after the first four years of schooling.

3. Recommendations by linguists, educationists and staff members on how to the promote IALs as LOLT

   Language attitudes are seen as a central element in language policy, language use and language learning in many African states (Pütz 1995b:274). It is therefore essential either to conform to the expressed attitudes of those involved, or to persuade those who express negative attitudes about IALs, of the rightness of home language education; or to seek to remove the causes of the negative attitude towards IALs as LOLT. In an effort to adhere to this goal, recommendations made by staff members with regard to the promotion of IALs as LOLT will be discussed against the background of research findings and recommendations made by linguists and educationists.

   The significance of the plea by staff members that role players must be made aware of the importance of home languages as LOLT is emphasised by Brock-Utne’s (1997:255) observation that parents seem to think that the emphasis on a local language will take time away from the “international” language. Research by Brock-Utne (1997:255) shows that greater emphasis on the local language, and especially having that language as the LOLT, may create better competence in the “international language”.

   In a Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa (PRAESA) at the University of Cape Town (Bloch & Edwards 1998:12, 19) a Xhosa-speaking teacher and an English-speaking teacher explored team teaching strategies to teach reading and writing in both Xhosa and English at a primary school in Wynberg. The project was an attempt to illustrate the necessity of well-trained educators who speak the languages of the children in multilingual classrooms. This project illustrates the importance of the staff members’ recommendation that educators who are positive towards and fluent users of both IALs and English, and who can effectively teach both and through both languages, at least at pre-school, foundation and intermediate phases, should be developed.

   Staff members and Brock-Utne (1997:256) see research as a tool to change perceptions. Brock-Utne (1997:256) recommends that research should be undertaken to compare the competencies of learners who study through their home language with those who study through the medium of English (vide research findings by De Witt et al. 1998:118-122). Brock-Utne (1997:256) advises that studies that are set up to compare the progress of children in home language medium classes with the progress of children in English medium classes have to be well designed so that all the variables, apart from the LOLT, are constant.

   The recommendation of the staff members that educational material should be developed and printed in the IALs may not be realized in the near future because of the unwillingness of publishers to publish in local languages because of the small market involved (ADEA Newsletter, October-December 1996:13; Ridge 1996:31; Bloch & Edwards 1998:16-17) and “the language climate in [the RSA] which  … is under the spell of the all pervasive hegemonic status of English” (Bloch & Edwards 1998:17). If we look at numbers per se there are more than enough potential buyers of books in some of the IALs — we must establish a culture of reading in the IALs (cf. Krige et al. 1994:128-148 for the language distribution in the RSA, as well as the number of speakers per IAL). Despite the above-mentioned problems, PANSALB (1999:8) en Desai (1999:182) encourage the development of educational materials and literature in IALs. Webb (1999:81) and Desai (1999:189) are of the opinion that the government should play a leading role in the provision of learning material in the IALs. The importance of learning material in the IALs is stressed by Heugh (1999:165):

   [T]here can be no equality of education in South Africa  … until there are materials (text books) in each of the learning areas from Grades 1 — 12 in all 11 official languages, and until matriculation examinations can be written through each of these languages.

   The support given by staff members and student educators for the development of IALs (cf. Table 3) as LOLT, as well as the staff members’ suggestions on how to improve people’s attitudes towards the use of IALs as LOLT, is a reflection of research findings in this regard. Pütz (1995a:165) and NEPI (1992:6) reject the argument that a foreign language (English) must be used as LOLT since IALs are not developed enough in scientific and technical terminology. While Pütz (1995a:166) cites Swahili as an example of how an IAL can acquire a technical and scientific vocabulary, NEPI (1992:6) refers to Afrikaans and Somali. Situations arise in the daily life and experience of people that call for creative linguistic ability and initiative to meet those needs. The government, academics and political leaders must encourage the development of African languages. Matsela (1995:53) believes that IALs must and can be raised “out of the doldrums of self-doubt and over-dependency on foreign languages to a reasonable level of self-confidence and self-reliance  … promoting and enhancing their use as ‘high-function’ languages”. An information campaign on the importance of the home language as LOLT is essential (Beukes 1991:98; Brock-Utne 1997:253-254; Desai 1999:182).

   Matsela’s (1995:55) proposal for intra-regional and inter-regional cultural and linguistic collaborative projects concurs with staff members’ recommendation for co-operation between the Southern African states.

   Although it is difficult to change the attitudes of black learners with regard to LOLT (Verhoef 1998:35-50), Ingrid Bruynse (1996:30-31), a lecturer at the Soweto College of Education, was successful in her quest to install pride in her students towards their home languages. Some of the methods she used (Bruynse 1996:30-31) were the same as those recommended by the staff members: train student educators and learners to use IALs to discuss critical real-life issues, concerns and problems, and organise workshops to show them the importance of IALs as media of communication.

   Mawasha (1987:114) and Matsela’s (1995:53-54) recommendation that research into the people’s cultural and linguistic heritage must be encouraged and supported in order to improve re-acceptance and use of IALs and cultural values by all the African people, strengthens a similar recommendation made by staff members. Staff members emphasis that speakers of IAL must never get the impression that their languages have only cultural value. Staff members Heugh (1999:166) and Desai (1999:176) are of the opinion that greater prominence should be given to IALs in the business world and in the media.

   Most of the recommendations made by staff members emphasise the involvement of all the role players. Government, departmental officials, educators, academics, parents, the community and learners must become involved in the development and use of the IALs in all spheres of life.

4. Conclusion

   The majority of South African learners see the right to receive education in the official language or languages of their choice as the right to receive education through the medium of English. Heugh (1999:166) and Desai (1999:176) rightly stress that there has been no example in Africa of the successful implementation of a right-based language policy. Rather:

   [T]here have to be instrumental or functional reasons why there is a shift toward harnessing the resources which African languages offer (Heugh 1999:166).

   The guarantee for the use of IALs as LOLT does not lie in language policies, but in the economic and political empowerment of the masses through their home languages.

   The plea for the use of IALs as LOLT does not detract from the importance of proficiency in English. Alexander (PRAESA News, June 1998:6), a strong advocate of IALs as LOLT, has the following to say about the importance of English for South African children:

   English [is] not only  … an international language, but it’s a language which for many, many decades still is going to open up job possibilities for anybody who wishes to get a good job in South Africa and we would be disadvantaging our children and future generations if we are to move away from them having to learn or being encouraged to learn English.

   However, this must never be at the expense of home language education. The purpose of basic education in a developing country like South Africa should be to equip learners with the means of contributing firstly to the national life of their country. The educational objective of a country should therefore be to aim at intra-national integration and not at inter-national relations. Children should first be taught to discover themselves as worthy members of a worthy society with language(s) that can be used with a sense of pride. Thereafter they may be taught about people and languages beyond the confines of their society (Du Plessis 1994:323).

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