In this section you will find a mixed bag of ideas, reflections and suggestions. The Academy encourages submissions for inclusion, the publication of which will always be at its sole discretion. The opinions and philosophies so published are those of the contributors, not of the Academy, which expresses no views for or against them.

Anyone wishing to discuss points raised with the authors may send them to the Academy's office by e-mail to englishacademy@societies.wits.ac.za and they will be forwarded for their attention. The Academy encourages debate on language issues for the public benefit, recognizing that it enhances understanding of both the English language in particular and effective communication in general.

CONTENTS

English Academy – ENGLISH IN A MUTILINGUAL SITUATION

Prof. Peter Titlestad – THE ROLE OF THE ACADEMY AS WATCHDOG AND LOBBYIST

Prof. Elwyn Jenkins – DAMNED IF YOU DO, DAMNED IF YOU DON’T – CHANGING PLACE NAMES

English language body of PANSALB –  ENGLISH AND MULTILINGUALISM IN SOUTH AFRICAN SOCIETY

ENGLISH IN A MULTILINGUAL SITUATION

THE ENGLISH ACADEMY OF SOUTHERN AFRICA

Preamble

As a contribution to realising the constitutional ideal of equitable treatment of all South Africa’s languages, the English Academy has explored the significance of English in the context of a multilingual South Africa. We hope that this document will help promote fruitful discussion of a set of issues crucial to our national development.

1. English in relation to other SA languages
   1. The expansion of English into a global language constitutes, on the one hand, an opportunity for enhanced communication and, on the other, a possible threat to other languages and their associated cultures. Although the usefulness of a world-wide common language cannot be denied, its dominance may be resented by users, however expert in English, from other cultures. The challenge is to build on the usefulness of English as a world language while affirming the importance of local languages. 1.2
   2. This situation pertains in South Africa too because, while English nominally enjoys equal status with ten other languages, it is patently indispensable in many spheres of national life, and citizens lacking it may find themselves disempowered in certain linguistic domains. The challenge for our society is to facilitate access to English for everyone in these domains, while consciously avoiding the cultural threat it may represent in other domains.
   3. The English Academy is well placed to assist in meeting this challenge, and indeed has something of considerable value to offer the country. Recognising the intrinsic value of South Africa’s many languages, the Academy wishes to ensure that none be supplanted but that all should be complemented by English in its role as an exceptionally useful language in the modern world and in modern South Africa.
   4. English is a most significant language resource for South Africa. Facing the facts of our linguistic situation is a complex matter with many different, even conflicting, interests involved. While there are significant areas in which English is not essential and perhaps not needed at all, we cannot afford to avoid the great need for competent English in a number of vital linguistic domains. One such domain is tertiary education (see 2. below). In fact, English is needed at most other levels of education too. We can add that it is also irreplaceable in a range of other domains, including Parliament and general administration at higher levels. The impossibility of an integrated central economy’s functioning effectively without a common language, in our case English, needs to be stressed.
   1. In general, the question of linguistic domains, one of the facts of linguistic life which is sometimes neglected by language planners, is too little discussed. The term “domains” is helpful in recognising that certain languages can predominate in certain specific areas of use. Harm can result from domains’ being ignored or their existence being denied or resented.
   5. The English Academy would like to work closely with PanSALB and other interested parties, including the Departments of Education and of Arts and Culture, and in particular it would like to urge the necessity of a research project to ascertain both the present and the potential roles of the country’s languages in a representative range of domains and how these needs can best be served. The language clauses of the Constitution invoke the concepts of “equity” and of “parity of esteem” precisely to take account of varied needs and patterns of use. It is important to recognise that the Constitution does not call for “equal use” (as is sometimes incorrectly thought).
   6. Lastly, the ideal situation for all South Africans would be competence in all languages which they normally encounter; and in particular sufficient competence in English to be able to function in at least those domains in which it is indispensable in the modern world and a modern South Africa. Further consideration of the crucial domains of tertiary and school education follow.

2. English at university
1. English is the most significant academic language internationally. The great bulk of the books in our libraries (including those in Afrikaans universities) is of books in English. There is, currently, considerable emphasis on the need for graduates in mathematics and science, but the need for English is just as great.
2. English has such unavoidable significance as an academic language that it is critical to the achievement of national objectives that it be well taught at school. Those in our society who might be able to benefit from tertiary education must be taught adequate English at school. This means well-trained teachers and adequate facilities.
3. At tertiary level the need is even more pressing. While arguments are heard for the use of the indigenous African languages as languages of instruction at university, so much of the reading and learning material is in English that other languages can in no way replace it. The overwhelming preponderance of books in our libraries is of books in English. Universities have been required to formulate language policies incorporating the African languages. However, their effective use in fact depends on students’ having an excellent command of English as well. A little time ago, the Academy sent a document to the Minister of Education arguing this matter more fully.
4. The funding of developmental teaching of English at tertiary level needs attention. Such teaching and learning of English, to be effective, needs small groups and an adequate number of teachers. For such teaching to be at all successful, however, the job must be done by the schools, which should, in the long run, make developmental teaching at tertiary level unnecessary. Academic literacy is one of the country’s great needs, a need as great as (and in many ways inseparable from) the need for excellence in mathematics and science. All three require teachers with a high level of competence.

3. English at school

1. EL2 pupils/learners:
1. It is probable that a longer period of mother- tongue instruction than at present prevails in the majority of our schools will benefit cognitive development. Therefore, the switch to English as the language of learning in very many of our schools should take place later than it does at the moment. Nevertheless, the longer period of mother- tongue instruction (if it is not English) should be accompanied by a carefully worked out programme of instruction in English as a language subject that will enable the switch to English as language of learning to be easier. The training of teachers for this early phase of English instruction needs careful attention. Further, English has to be well taught up to the time of leaving school. Additive bilingualism should be more than an abstract policy. All South Africans are entitled to adequate instruction in English for the empowerment it brings. As stated earlier, this is particularly important for those who might go on to tertiary education. This means that all teachers need competence in English, a considerable challenge to all concerned with the training of teachers. All subjects are involved; the challenge is English across the curriculum and not just the teaching of English in the periods in the timetable for the English lesson.
2. In general, the African languages should be well taught for serious use, and the decline in the number of teachers qualifying to teach these languages is a cause for alarm. Among other things, poor teaching of the L1 is likely to set a benchmark for language attitudes to the L2 and any other languages. The fate of the languages is intertwined in South Africa. Better L1 teaching, whatever the language, is likely to have a generally beneficial effect on all language use and better L2 English will be one of the results.
3. Afrikaans-speaking learners generally have English as a first additional language. These learners enjoy the advantage of mother-tongue instruction for the whole of their time at school. Afrikaans has been extensively developed as an academic and technical language. In addition, Afrikaans and English belong to the same language family. Many of the schools concerned are among the finest in the country, although there are doubtless others in which the teaching of English requires quality attention. There are also a few cases where formerly Afrikaans medium schools have had to switch to English as the language of learning, creating complex linguistic situations for both teachers and learners.


2. EL1 pupils/learners

   Mother- tongue English should by no means be neglected. It is an essential part of the pattern of language development in a multilingual society. English L1 seems often to be perceived as not requiring any particular attention. That is dangerous, as witness the number of English-speaking school leavers who have no grasp of the fundamentals and cannot write reasonably fault-free English. For that matter, how many who major in English at our universities are capable of the competent editing of a text, or are genuinely in a fit state in terms of knowledge of usage to go out to teach, as we hope many will do? Robust competence is the product of many years of good education: it is unlikely to be achieved in a year or two at university. Apart from learning the fundamentals of grammar, the pupils at English medium schools should obviously also be exposed to the full riches of the language through the study of English literature. They should, further, be exposed to good English in all their classes. Teaching and using good English is not the preserve of the English classroom, but the responsibility of all teachers.

   1. In general, the fallacious assumption that the mother- tongue (whether English or another language) does not need vigorous teaching, but is somehow “acquired”, needs challenging.
   2. Schools in which English is the language of teaching and learning have a growing number of pupils whose home languages are not English. Provision has to be made for them. That raises another set of challenges for teachers and for teacher training.

June 2009

THE ROLE OF THE ACADEMY AS WATCHDOG AND LOBBYIST

The English Academy has, over the last few years, contributed to a number of debates, commissions and documents about language planning in the national life of South Africa, including language in education. This includes contributions or submissions
• to the language clauses in the constitution;
• to the National Commission for Higher Education and the subsequent Green and White Papers;
• to the formation of the Pan South African Language Board;
• to the debate on language policy in schools, and in particular The Discussion Document Towards a Language Policy in Education;
• to LANGTAG: the Language Task Action Group, of the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology;
• to the Interim Core Syllabus;
• to the Commission for the Promotion of Cultural and Linguistic Communities; and
• to the SABC.

Very broadly the stance of the Academy has been to remind those concerned of the particular role and functions of English. This has not been done in the spirit of a language imperialism that might prevent other languages in South Africa from attaining their rightful positions. We are a multilingual nation, a situation backed up by constitutional sanctions.

However, English is in a special position. It has a particular significance in education, especially tertiary education, as being South Africa's international language. Furthermore, it exists in an international standard form that should be preserved in education. Talented school pupils who intend to go on to tertiary, and especially university, education should be equipped by the schools with an adequate knowledge of English.

The bulk of books in our significant libraries are in international standard English. This is the form of English that offers empowerment. This is a situation that will never be altered by translation or by the writing of books in other languages. The significance of English to South Africa is out of all proportion to the number of its mother tongue speakers.

Therefore, while the Academy wishes for a vigorous and colourful South African English (or Englishes) and acknowledges the necessity for multilingualism, it must at the same time promote the need for the international standard where appropriate and necessary. It is important to maintain English for its essential role and function in South Africa today and in the future.

DAMNED IF YOU DO, DAMNED IF YOU DON’T – CHANGING PLACE NAMES

Changes to place names and street names are a controversial feature of South Africa’s transition. Public debate on the subject is usually uninformed and over-simplified. In my book Falling into Place: The Story of Modern South African Place Names (David Philip 2007), I describe the extent of name changes, and investigate the different kinds of changes that have been made or proposed.

In relation to new place names that are constantly being given to suburbs, post offices etc., the number of official changes that have been made is minuscule. If English-speakers are going to stick to calling their new post offices and suburbs Croquet Lawn and Agincourt and their townhouse complexes Strawberry Fields and Blueberry Hills, and if Afrikaner imagination runs no further than adding “Uitbreiding” to an existing name, it’s a wonder a tsunami of Africanisation has not already swept the country.

Name changes have been going on in this country since the first Khoe arrived and changed San names. Cape Governor Sir Lowry Cole passed a law that he would impose a heavy fine on anyone who did not call Toverberg by its new name, Colesberg. Changes are not unique to South Africa, or even to former colonies that have removed the most obvious traces of their colonial masters. Canada and Australia are removing old racist names, while New Zealand has a carefully worked out national programme to restore Maori names by giving them parallel status with the European names that replaced them. Former communist bloc countries in Eastern Europe have been restoring their national names in huge numbers – as recently as April 2007 the Polish province of Pomerania announced that it had another 200 to go. By comparison, South Africa has been positively pusillanimous.

One reason is that the ANC government has no general policy on name changes and leaves initiatives to government departments (such as Water Affairs and Forestry) and provincial and local government. Without national directives and party discipline, small-time politicians try to score opportunistic or vindictive points by changing names. Even senior politicians have sometimes ignored principles of transparency and democratic participation in order to bulldoze change through. The Appeal Court overturned the change of Louis Trichardt to Makhado because the municipal council had not consulted the public sufficiently.

I was part of an initiative that advised the government to prepare for demands for name changes that would come with transition, and was appointed to the working group that drew up the South African Geographical Names Council Act of 1998. But it has not proved very effective because of feeble administration. The controversies over Pretoria/Tshwane and Durban street names and the Makhado debacle forced the government to announce recently that it would review the legislation.The Minister opf Arts and Culture is belatedly holding nationwide public hearings.

Name changes are of different kinds that evoke different degrees of opposition. Now that there are standard orthographies for indigenous languages, few would object to modernising the spellings that early settlers gave. But the costs and confusion could get out of hand if every non-conforming name in the country was “corrected”. The United Nations Resolutions on the Standardization of Geographical Names explicitly advise against changing spellings each time an orthography is updated.

Changing names wipes out the memories invested in the existing name. Many residents of Potchefstroom have family memories of the town going back generations. Should those be sacrificed to the symbolic change to Tlokwe, the original name for the piece of veld on which it was built? On the other hand, a great many indigenous names have survived, used informally in parallel throughout the duration of the new name. The change of Pietersburg to Polokwane only formalised the de facto usage of the majority of the population.

What if the majority of the local population have very bad associations with a name, say of a person notoriously associated with colonial or apartheid oppression? Shouldn’t it go? But is it right to substitute the name of another dubious character who is best forgotten? Should 2010 football teams practise in a Polokwane stadium named after Peter Mokaba, whose claim to fame was the chant, “Kill the boer, kill the farmer”?

Let’s get a sense of proportion and lighten up. The residents of the erstwhile Verwoerdburg are an example to be admired. They renamed their town after their cricket stadium, Centurion.

ENGLISH AND MULTILINGUALISM IN SOUTH AFRICAN SOCIETY

Papers from the English National Language Body of PanSALB

Introduction

The English Academy of Southern Africa has made its website available for the publication of this document so that it may be more widely known and debated. The Academy does not take responsibility for its contents.

The document is the work of the English National Language Body. The Pan South African Language Board, a statutory body in terms of the language clauses at the beginning of the South African Constitution, has a national language body for each of the eleven official languages as part of its structures.

The document was submitted to the PanSALB Board early in 2007 with a request that it should be published. An internal workshop was held at the beginning of 2008, at which strong reservations were expressed by members of other national language bodies. Publication by PanSALB, including criticism that has been expressed, may still occur. This is the situation in January, 2009.

The various sections of this lengthy document may be downloaded here in PDF format. (You will need Acrobat Reader to view this file. It is available free of charge from here.)

• Title page
• Contents
• Executive summary
• Language policy and planning: general constraints and pressures
• Domains of language use: a fundamental concept for framing language policy in South Africa
• Mother-tongue education in South Africa
• Towards a nuanced view of multilingualism
• An epilogue from the chair: how it all happened