Because guess what? I don’t even want to speak English
English as an obstacle for the development of multilingualism at a South African institution
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6440648 |
|---|---|
| Authors | David Lasagabaster (0000-0001-7750-2314, University of the Basque Country, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 209-243 |
| Publication date | 2024-07-08 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Language Policy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1568-4555 • E-ISSN: 1573-1863 |
| Publisher | Springer Science+Business Media (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s10993-024-09707-5 |
| OpenAlex | W4400428204 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 17 |
South Africa immediately springs to mind as the epitome of multilingual language policies. In fact, its Constitution granted official status to 11 languages in 1996, and the Language Policy in Higher Education passed by the Ministry of Education in 2002 required universities to develop and use the indigenous official languages as academic languages, in addition to Afrikaans and English. With this multilingual milieu in mind, this study aimed at giving students voice in an attempt to unveil their language ideologies and attitudes by analysing their views on multilingualism and the use of English as main medium of instruction. Eleven focus groups with a total of 30 university students from different degrees at Stellenbosch University (SU) were organized to delve into four main issues: students’ perceptions on the university’s multilingual language policy; the actual use of the three official languages (Afrikaans, English and Xhosa) at SU; the impact of the use of English as the main medium of instruction; and the implementation of translanguaging practices. Despite the multilingual language policy of SU, our results reveal that there is a neatly established language hierarchy, where English reigns supreme at the top of the pyramid, followed by Afrikaans, while Xhosa remains at the base. Therefore, the preponderance of English as the language of academia only contributes to consolidating it as a strong identity factor in our interviewees’ multilingual identities, to the extent that Xhosa home language speakers disavow their own language in the academic domain
First language · Language policy · Languages of Africa · Linguistics · Medium of instruction · Multilingual Education · Multilingualism · Official language · Pedagogy · Political science · Sociolinguistics · Sociology · Translanguaging · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning · Multilingual Education and Policy · Second Language Learning and Teaching
Beyond national languages and English
Narrowing history curriculum implementation gaps in Southern African countries
An analysis of South African university students’ multilingual mindsets based on a holistic approach to language attitudes
Linguistic Marginalisation and Multilingual Policy Gaps
Pedagogical translanguaging in secondary EFL
Students’ Perceived Language Competence and Attitudes Towards Multilingualism at a South African University
Speaking with a forked tongue about multilingualism in the language policy of a South African university
Epistemological access through lecture materials in multiple modes and language varieties
Harmonisation and South African languages
From Monolingual to Bilingual Higher Education
On developing academic literacy in the mother tongue for epistemological access
Translanguaging
University multilingualism
Diversity and contested social identities in multilingual and multicultural contexts of the University of the Western Cape, South Africa
The role of English in South African multilinguals’ linguistic repertoires
Shifting Language Attitudes in Linguistically Diverse Learning Environment in South Africa
The language predicament of South African universities in a global perspective
Attitudes Towards English in the Basque Autonomous Community
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 5 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |