Attitudes towards English in South Africa
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2268654 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Elizabeth De Kadt (0000-0002-2599-617X, Durban University of Technology, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1993 |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 311-324 |
| Publication date | 1993-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | World Englishes (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0883-2919 • E-ISSN: 1467-971X |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-971x.1993.tb00032.x |
| OpenAlex | W2058710615 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 13 |
The future language dispensation in South Africa has been widely discussed, yet little is known about the attitudes of ordinary second-language speakers towards English, the language all agree will remain dominant for the foreseeable future. This paper attempts to begin to remedy this lack of knowledge by reporting on a series of interviews conducted with Zulu-speakers in Durban. Two groups of respondents, on the one hand 20 students and professionals, and on the other 15 (domestic and other) workers, were interviewed by two Zulu-speakers, who asked a series of questions based in the main on their own intuitions about English; the paper evaluates the responses discursively. No significant differences between the two groups were noted. English was generally seen in instrumental terms, as a very necessary job skill and lingua franca; and the link between English and education was constantly stressed. In interpreting these findings, it is suggested that a perception of English in these terms only is not without its dangers and that, in spite of the expectation that a general competence in English will help bring about a juster society, it might well on the contrary contribute to a further perpetuation of the present inequities in South Africa
Competence (human resources · English as a lingua franca · English language · First language · Lingua franca · Linguistics · Mathematics education · Pedagogy · Perception · Sociology · Zulu · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Linguistics, Language Diversity, and Identity · Multilingual Education and Policy · Psychology · Social Psychology
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,15 |
| Citation span | 1999 - 2009 (11) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |