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<h2 class="gmail-main-entry-title" style="font-size:38px"> Multilingualism must be celebrated as a resource, not a problem</h2>
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<p class="gmail-author"> <a href="http://www.menafn.com/1096470911/about.html#" title="Posts by NewEdge" rel="author">Date</a></p>
<span class="entry-date">2/15/2018 11:44:06 AM</span>
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(MENAFN - The Conversation) February ought to be a
joyful month for South African languages. It's been declared ' by the
Pan South African Languages Board, a constitutionally established body
tasked with the promotion and development of the 11 official languages,
as well as those recognised for religious and cultural purposes. The
idea is to encourage people to promote and campaign actively for the use
of the country's 11 official languages in all disciplines across
society. </p><p> </p><p> Instead of celebrating its official languages,
though, South Africa is caught in a rip current of English. This is
sweeping the country further away from accepting, promoting and
advancing the use of the other 10 languages. </p> <p> Recently a group
of parents took the Gauteng province's education department to court .
They wanted their children to be accommodated in the Afrikaans-medium
school and for the school to change its language of instruction to
English. The parents and learners in question do not necessarily speak
English as their mother tongue. But they fought for English, rather than
an African language. </p> <p> This is what South Africa's former deputy
chief justice Dikgang Moseneke, ruling in another case related to a
school's language of instruction, 'collateral irony'. People who speak
an African language at home prefer that their children learn in English –
with its – than in their own mother tongues. </p> <p> We believe there
are two reasons for this. The first is political will. There's been
insufficient buy-in from the government about the importance of
developing, promoting and using African languages, particularly in
education. Second, ordinary South Africans are ill-informed about the
advantages of mother tongue being used as the medium of instruction. </p> A rich resource <p>
Those responsible for drawing up language policies and curricula must
be aware of what scholar Richard Ruíz, who spearheaded a revitalisation
of indigenous South American languages, calls the . </p> <p> Orientation, Ruíz says, refers to </p> <p> a complex of dispositions toward language and its role, and toward languages and their role in society. </p> <p> There are three orientations: language as a problem, language as a right and language as a resource. </p> <p>
Part of South Africa's challenge is that language, and in particular
multilingualism, is generally seen as a problem rather than as a rich
resource. Several other African countries view their indigenous
languages as resources: Kiswahili in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda and
Afan-Oromo in Ethiopia are all good examples of this. And some small
corners of South Africa are getting it right; to teach maths and science
in the Cofimvaba district of the Eastern Cape province. </p> <p> If the
country's policymakers, politicians and ordinary citizens understood
this it would open innumerable doors. It would for language development
and greater access to services – from government departments, courts of
law, hospitals, banks and so on. This in turn would provide many new job
opportunities for African language speakers. </p> <p> Read more: </p> <p>
South Africa's courts do have interpreters for some local languages,
but there have been complaints about the quality of their training and
work. There's no reason why this can't be rectified, as models elsewhere
in the world show. The courts of New Brunswick in Canada
(<a href="http://www.officiallanguages.nb.ca">www.officiallanguages.nb.ca</a>>imce>pdfs) are staffed by judicial
officers and attorneys who are linguistically competent in the region's
indigenous languages. </p> <p> So what does South Africa need to shift
its thinking about African languages from 'problem' to resource? The
answer is two-fold: better policies, and greater public awareness. </p> Seeking solutions <p>
The country does not need a single central language policy, as is
currently the case. Policies should be drafted and enacted at provincial
level instead. South Africa has nine provinces, and their majority
languages differ. That's why a 'one size fits all' central language
policy isn't working. </p> <p> Each province's dominant African language or languages should be promoted equally alongside English and Afrikaans. </p> <p>
There is also a need for ordinary South Africans to find their voice in
. Language activists must work together with bodies like the Pan South
African Languages Board, the (which is part of the Department of Arts
and Culture), NGOs, schools, universities and the media to create
multilingual awareness. This will help people to see language as a rich
natural resource. </p> <p> What is needed now is the emergence of a
united and transformed multilingual vocal voice, where South Africa is
seen as a country for speakers of all official languages rather than an
English-only elite. </p> <ul> </ul> <br><img src="https://counter.theconversation.edu.au/content/74635/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1"> <p> <br></p><p>MENAFN301502201800490000ID1096407529</p></div>
<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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