The Dilemma of the Mother Tongue:
Prospects for Bilingual Education in South
Africa
Felix Banda
Linguistics Department, University of the Western Cape, Private Bag X17, Belville
7535, South Africa
The paper examines the position of the mother tongue in the proposed additive bilingual programmes in South Africa. It is argued that since the teaching and use of African
languages, particularly as media of instruction, is less than adequate, their use in additive bilingual programmes, the official South African language in education policy, is
unlikely to be successful. The paper is divided into three parts. First, the
sociolinguistic, cultural, and political factors are examined. Here, apartheid education
and its legacy are discussed. Second, using data from De Klerk (1996) and Smit (1996),
language use and attitudes of South Africans to language and education are discussed.
In this section, the pressures on standard African tongues by urban varieties and
English are highlighted in relation to the pedagogical and theoretical underpinnings of
additive bilingualism. Third, the practical possibilities for the implementation of
mother-tongue medium of instruction given the 11 official languages, as well as the
implementation of a viable bilingual education programme in which mother tongues
play a decisive role are discussed. Finally, it is concluded that government’s additive
bilingualism policy is unlikely to succeed as long as role models, learners and their
parents see little utility in languages other than in English.
Most academics and researchers in South Africa are unanimous that the mother
tongues should be at the core of bilingual programmes (Alexander, 1995; Heugh,
1995; Luckett, 1995; Pluddemann, 1996). The present situation in which English
is the preferred medium of instruction is thought to impede learning, and that it
only leads to poor mastery of both English and the mother tongues. In fact, the
poor matric results and the general lack of academic skills and intellectual
growth among blacks at high school and tertiary levels, have most often been
attributed to the use of English as a second-language medium of instruction in
South Africa (cf. Pluddemann, 1996; Heugh, 1995; Luckett, 1995). Research also
shows that increasingly black and coloured parents (the disadvantaged group
during apartheid), are demanding English medium of instruction for their children (Pluddemann, 1996). This begs the questions: why, then, do black and
coloured children and their parents still insist on English medium of instruction?
That South Africa is a multilingual country with more than 20 languages (cf.
Lemmer, 1993) is no longer in dispute. There is little doubt that the apartheid
nationalist government took its belief in preserving ethnic identities too seriously to the extent of attempting to create monolingual societies out of multilingual South Africa. Apart from separating people according to race and language
group, the apartheid regime also insisted on mother-tongue education.
However, recent literature shows that typically, a South African uses at least two
languages depending on context. Blacks, particularly those in urban areas, have
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LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND CURRICULUM
© 2000 F. Banda
Vol. 13, No. 1, 2000
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Language, Culture and Curriculum
been known to use three or more languages (cf. De Klerk, 1996; Winkler, 1997;
Slabbert & Finlayson, 1998). What, then, is the utility of the ‘mother-tongue’
concept given such multilingual reality? And can additive bilingualism as a
language in education policy work efficaciously given the multiplicity of
languages spoken in South Africa?
The paper answers the three questions in three sections. The first section traces
the history of language in education policy in South Africa. The second section
deals with language use and attitudes, and the possible effects on government’s
language in education policy of additive bilingualism. The third section looks
beyond the pedagogical and theoretical concerns to examine other possible
obstacles to change away from English medium of instruction, and to successful
implementation of additive bilingual programmes in South Africa.
The Sociolinguistic Situation
South Africa has eleven official languages with the following percentage
distribution if the 1991 census is anything to by (cf. De Klerk 1996): Zulu 21.9%,
Xhosa 17%, Afrikaans 15%, Northern Sotho 9.6%, English 9%, Tswana 8.6%,
Sesotho 6.7%, Tsonga 4.3%, Swati 2.6%, Venda 2.2% and Ndebele 1.5%. In line
with the apartheid group areas act people were grouped into what were
perceived as homogeneous ‘homelands’, each with its own language and,
supposedly, culture. However, data on linguistic distribution suggests that the
distribution of languages in South Africa is so diverse that all the eleven official
languages are represented in all the nine provinces. For instance, Kwazulu-natal
was designated a Zulu area, but Gauteng and Northern and parts of
Mpumalanga provinces have more than a million Zulus each (De Klerk, 1996).
Similarly, significant numbers of Northern Sothos, Tswanas, Tsongas, etc. are
found in the other provinces, not just in Gauteng Province.
In addition, with the demise of apartheid one can only assume that there is
freer migration of South Africans than before between the various provinces, so
that all things being equal the linguistic distribution might turn out to be even
more divergent in the next decade or so. Thus despite the apartheid government’s policy of separating South Africans according to their ethnic and
language orientation, the language distribution still shows a remarkable diversity. In turn, any bilingual education programme in South Africa will have to
take into consideration the distribution of languages.
Apartheid and its legacy
The amalgamation of the former Boer republics with the Cape Colony and
Natal in the Union Act of 1910 gave Afrikaans (hitherto Dutch) the boost that it
needed. Afrikaans was made equal and joint official language with English (cf.
Lanham, 1996). Although economic power was still with the English, there was
an increase in English-Dutch bilingualism as Afrikaners started entering the
urban job market and in government as civil servants. But Afrikaner nationalists
were hostile towards playing second fiddle to English and ‘the concept of the
taalstryd (language struggle) was cultivated and language loyalty became the
biggest social division in white South African society’. (Lanham, 1996: 22).
Whites were effectively split into two camps: English- and Afrikaans-speaking.
The Dilemma of the Mother Tongue
53
The division widened with the alignment of the Afrikaner National party with
the Nazis during the Second World War.
At the same time use of English among black South Africans was on the
increase thanks mostly to availability of state and mission schools, and more
interaction with English speakers in the ever-growing cities and the work places.
However, all this was to change with the coming to power in 1948 of the Afrikaner National Party. According to Lanham (1996: 26) the Afrikaner National
Party proclaimed ‘confrontation with all things English … and attempts [were]
made to enforce Afrikaans over English in every sphere of public life’.
Afrikaner nationalists perceived education as a weapon through which to
advance Afrikaans and reduce the influence of English in South Africa. Black
education suffered the most under the changes that followed. Particularly, with
the Bantu Education Act of 1953, Afrikaner nationalists swiftly implemented
mother-tongue education and systematically reduced the role of English while
increasing that of Afrikaans. The switch in medium of instruction was delayed
until the secondary school (Lanham, 1996; Branford, 1996). At that point blacks
were to learn through both English and Afrikaans as media of instruction.
Although there was strong opposition from both white and black communities
to such draconian education measures on an unwilling black people, the policy
was enforced.
In effect, the Afrikaner nationalist government went on a deliberate campaign
uprooting white English mother-tongue teachers from Bantu Education, thereby
denying black children authentic models of English and well trained, experienced teachers. As Lanham (1996: 27) succinctly puts it:
Social segregation, the removal of white teachers from classrooms including mission schools, and the denial of entry to so-called white English
universities, confined the black child’s encounter with English to the classroom with teachers, themselves products of deprived learning experiences
with little gained in knowledge of teaching methods or competence in
English from training colleges, which had suffered the same way as the
schools.
Thus, the lack of consultation with stakeholder, the removal of experienced and
trained teachers, lack of funding, and generally the lack of interest in black
education culminated into the collapse of Bantu education. The demise of Bantu
education is partly responsible for blacks associating mother-tongue education
on which it was based with mediocrity and failure. Opposition to forced Afrikaans medium of instruction in black schools culminated in the now famous
Soweto Revolt of 1976 in which the apartheid police massacred protesting school
children. This in part explains why blacks still appear to have a negative attitude
towards Afrikaans. Pluddemann (1996) reports that black parents prefer their
children to be educated through the English medium of instruction (EMOI),
rather than Afrikaans medium of instruction. The Sunday Times (25 January 1998)
carried a story of black parents, who rather than have their children learn
through Afrikaans at a nearby school, decided to keep them at home until such
time that the school introduced an EMOI stream.
It is therefore interesting to note that the current language in education policy
is additive bilingualism. Government has legislated that a child’s mother tongue
Language, Culture and Curriculum
54
will be central throughout his/her education, and the second or third languages
will supplement efforts in the L1 (cf. South African School Act, 1996). For blacks
this means an African language being the significant language of education, and
effectively having education in a language other than English or Afrikaans. As
has been implied already, the problem is not how best to integrate African
tongues into the envisaged additive bilingual programmes, but rather how to
change blacks’ attitudes towards mother-tongue medium of instruction, particularly considering the apartheid legacy. This becomes even more evident in the
next section when we analyse data from Smit (1996) and De Klerk (1996) on
language use, preferred medium of instruction, attitude to English and degree of
multilingualism in South Africa. The two studies on which this paper builds
were done in Grahamstown, Easter Cape, South Africa. Subjects were high
school and university students.
Language Use and Attitudes
It has been suggested by studies on language use in Africa that for political,
socioeconomic and educational considerations, those whose first language is an
African language are likely to be at least bilingual (cf. Banda, 1995; 1996). If Table
1 is anything to go by, this appears true of South Africa, despite attempts during
the apartheid regime to divide people into unique linguistic communities, each
with its own ‘mother-tongue’ education. Those South Africans who speak an
African language tend to be multilingual, while English and Afrikaans L1 speakers tend to be either monolingual or at most bilingual.
Table 1 Declared spoken and written multilingual competence (%) (n = 2975)
Number of languages
English
Afrikaans
Xhosa
SA Black
1
27
0
1
0
Spoken
2
62
73
52
30
3+
11
27
47
70
1
21
1
1
2
Reading
2
68
69
31
28
3+
11
30
68
70
Note: SA Black refers to ZuluTswana and Sotho.
Source: Adapted from De Klerk (1996: 116).
With regard to language use outside the classroom, Table 2 shows that English
is the language of choice, though Xhosa speakers appear to use more of their
mother tongue. I should point out that the table does not give an indication of
incidents of code-switching or whether ‘outside the classroom’ extends to the
neighbourhood and home environments. However, the data’s significance
should be measured in terms of informants’ perceptions of language usage,
which also offer us insights into their attitudes towards the languages concerned.
What is worth noting here is the fact that Xhosa L1 speakers’ extensive use of the
mother tongue outside the classroom can be construed to suggest that they have
a strong sense of identity and that for them English is more a ‘classroom’
language than the other language groups (cf. Saravanan, 1993; Banda, 1996).
The Dilemma of the Mother Tongue
55
Table 2 Language use outside the classroom (%) (n = 2975)
Afrikaans
Xhosa
SA Black
Always
Eng.
L1
35
5
5
15
11
2
Mostly
Eng.
L1
57
25
35
68
61
38
Sometimes
Eng.
L1
8
45
40
12
28
52
Seldom
Eng.
L1
0
25
2
4
0
8
Never
Eng.
L1
0
0
0
1
0
0
Source: Adapted from De Klerk 1996: 121
This does necessarily mean that Xhosa speakers would prefer Xhosa as a
medium of instruction. This is evident in Table 3. On the contrary, Xhosa L1
speakers, like other informants were unanimous in their choice of English as the
medium of instruction. It is also worth noting the apparently changing role of
languages in South Africa, as Afrikaans, a language whose status and appeal the
Afrikaner Nationalist government had tried to match with English, finds itself as
one of ten ‘other languages’ in the English-plus-ten-other official languages
combination.
Table 3 Preferred medium of instruction (%) (n = 2975)
English
Afrikaans
Xhosa
SA Black
English
94
83
74
96
English/Afrikaans
2
13
3
1
English/Xhosa
4
4
22
3
Source: Adapted from De Klerk (1996: 117)
Of interest in the study by Smit (1996) are issues relating to language, social
identity and attitudes to a variety of South African Englishes. The attitudes were
measured through respondents rating of three accents: mother-tongue English
(MtE), Black South African English (BlE) and Afrikaans English (AfE) on five
attributes: competence, career-mindedness, personal integration, social attractiveness and self-awareness. It is noteworthy that legally, segregation according
to language, race or colour was no longer the case at the time of the research, but
in practice ‘the majority of all pupils in Grahamstownstill attended those schools
the apartheid system had reserved for them’ (Smit, 1996: 85). Thus, respondents
could be categorised into five school systems popularly known by the following
acronyms:
… DET: Department of Education and Training (EMOI), mainly black pupils;
… DEC: Department of Education and Culture (Afrikaans MOI), mainly
coloured pupils;
… CED-A: Cape Education Department (Afrikaans MOI), mainly white Afrikaans L1 pupils;
… CED-E: Cape Education Department (English medium of instruction),
mainly white English L1 pupils; and
… PRV: Private Schools (EMOI), mainly white English L1 pupils.
Language, Culture and Curriculum
56
Table 4 shows that on average, there is no clear-cut preference for any particular accent, although the trend is towards MtE. Note that ‘black’ English (BlE) and
Afrikaans English (AfE) are evaluated worse than ‘white’ English. It is also interesting to note that the general trend towards ‘white’ English (MtE) appears to be
largely influenced by preferences related to attributes of competence and career
mindedness. These qualities are usually associated with personal achievement
in formal and professional spheres. However, during apartheid, these attributes
were largely reserved for whites. In other words, for blacks, knowledge of
English did not usually translate into socioeconomic mobility for the nature of
apartheid was such that non-whites could not achieve the same status or power
levels as enjoyed by whites with equivalent socioeconomic qualities and educational qualifications.
Table 4 Ratings on a variety of Englishes (n = 282)
Competence
Career mindedness
Personal integration
Social attractiveness
Self-awareness
Average mean
BlE
2.44
2.08
1.85
1.75
1.72
1.97
AfE
2.37
2.05
1.87
1.97
1.92
2.04
MtE
1.95
1.87
1.73
1.95
1.95
1.89
Average mean
2.07
1.83
1.67
1.71
1.71
1.80
Note: The lower the mean the more positively evaluated.
Source: Adapted from Smit (1996: 107).
Therefore, it is not surprising that taking into account the ratings of each
ethnic group with regard to the three varieties of English, non-whites prefer their
own variety of English rather than MtE. This is demonstrated in the ratings of the
five types of school on the three varieties of English regarding socioeconomic
status as can be seen from Table 5. It is significant that only white Afrikaans L1
speakers (CED-A schools) would prefer MtE to their own AfE. In essence the fairest conclusion one can draw from Table 5 is that, generally, each language group
appears to favour its own variety of English.
Table 5 Ratings on social status (n = 282)
DET
DEC
CED-A
CED-E
PRV
BlE
1.83
2.51
3.06
3.05
3.38
Note: The lower the mean the more positively evaluated.
Source: Adapted from Smit (1996: 108).
AfE
1.89
1.67
2.09
3.03
3.32
MtE
2.40
1.93
1.85
1.51
1.72
The Dilemma of the Mother Tongue
57
In a nutshell, blacks’ preference for EMOI could be due to their quest to attain
personal achievement in formal and professional spheres so as to have attributes
of status and power denied them during apartheid. In summary:
… Monolingualism is more prevalent among English L1 speakers; bilingualism is more prevalent among Afrikaans while those whose L1 is an African
language tend to be multilingual.
… Some English and Afrikaans L1 speakers would not mind an English/African language or Afrikaans/African language MOI.
… All language groups prefer an EMOI, but each prefers its own variety of
English. Only white Afrikaans L1 speakers would prefer MtE.
… On average English is the language of choice outside the classroom, particularly in a multilingual context. But Xhosa L1 speakers use a lot more of
their L1 than other groups.
… There is a possibility that among Xhosa L1 speakers, English can be taken to
be more of a ‘classroom’ language than a language for interpersonal
communication outside the classroom.
… ‘Black’ English and Afrikaans English are evaluated as being less desirable
than ‘white’ English with regard to attributes of competence and career
mindedness.
… The supremacy of MtE (‘white’ English) over other languages is not
confirmed. But ‘white’ English appears to be associated with attributes of
competence and career mindedness.
The issues
Government documents (cf. Curriculum 2005, 1997) on language in education
policy appear to emphasise integration in diversity, rather than coercion and
segregation as was the case during the apartheid days. By integration, it does not
by any means imply movement towards the imposition of one language or
several lingua francae. On the contrary, the diversity of South Africa’s linguistic
and cultural patrimonies, solidly anchored in historical developments leading to
South Africa’s new constitution, makes it absurd seriously to envisage a
language situation that could lead to language death and shift (unless one
includes the Khoi-San languages). Ironically, it is the apartheid legacy that
appears set to preserve the linguistic communities in South Africa, be they small
or large, for some time to come. As argued elsewhere, people in South Africa are
still more or less living in those areas set aside for them during apartheid. Moreover, in general, though accepting a significant role for English in the new South
Africa, South Africans are largely closely tied in with feelings of regional or
ethnic identity, and as a consequence few would even envisage sacrificing their
linguistic or cultural identity on the alter of South Africa’s integration. Blacks, for
instance, want to use English as a tool for socioeconomic mobility, while preserving their linguistic and cultural identity. Thus, it is not at all surprising that the
findings of the Grahamstown’s research show respondents from different
linguistic backgrounds preferred their own variety of English. This brings into
sharp focus Ndebele’s (1987: 13) pronouncement that: ‘South African English
must be open to the possibilities of its becoming a new language. This may result
from the proximity of English to indigenous African languages’.
58
Language, Culture and Curriculum
Therefore, integration in South Africa’s highly diversified population should
be interpreted as interventions to ensure and to propagate multilingual proficiency. This means that language management programmes should ensure that
English and other languages in South Africa play a facilitative role and not a
displacive role. However, one hurdle in integrating South Africa’s educational
set up emanates from the inherited legacy pertaining to institutional inequalities
and differences between so-called former white schools and so-called former
coloured or black schools. The inequalities relate to the delivery and quality of
education, to procedures and practices that weigh against so-called former
coloured and black schools. In this regard, government has tried to improve the
delivery and quality of education in the former black and coloured schools
through increased funding, retraining of teachers and the introduction of a new
curriculum. At the same time schools have been desegregated through the
dismantling of apartheid laws and enactment of a new constitution. Still, there
have been problems associated with the implementation of new government
policy. For instance, there are reports of white parents and principals (through
the Parents-Teachers Association) in some private schools resisting full integration of ‘their’ schools into the new South Africa, by subtly raising school fees
under the guise of maintaining ‘high’ standards, but effectively shutting out
blacks and coloureds who cannot afford such fees.
The other problem relates to the choice of variety of English and the diversity
of mother tongues found in South Africa, and the type of classroom practice to
engender this diversity of languages. A comprehensive bilingual programme in
South Africa would have to give an indication of which variety of English and
which African language(s) should be used in a particular region. Such a
programme may also have to indicate, at least in a general way, the possible
classroom practice to be adopted to ensure and maintain the multilingual nature
of South Africa.
Following government’s language in education policy of additive bilingualism, several models of bilingual education have been proposed for South Africa
(cf. Luckett, 1995; Heugh, 1995; Alexander, 1995). They are all based on
mother-tongue education, preferably as soon as a child enters school. Of particular interest, Luckett (1995: 77) argues for ‘affirmative action for African
languages … to be developed to carry cognitively demanding content and
concepts’. In as far as the additive bilingualism argument is concerned, Luckett
(1995) cites research on the Threshold Project done in South Africa in the early
1990s which showed that many black pupils had difficulty adjusting to the
switch from mother-tongue education to English-medium of instruction in Standard 3. The research, according to Luckett (1995), revealed that pupils could not
transfer knowledge acquired in the L1 to English; at the same time they could not
transfer what they had learnt in English to the first language. Drawing on
Cummins’ (1981) distinction between basic interpersonal communicative skills
(BICS) and cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP), she attributes this
failure by pupils to transfer acquired knowledge to failure to achieve CALP in
either language. However, she goes on to propose that pupils should use their
mother tongue until they reach CALP: ‘Only once pupils can operate in CALP in
their first language should they begin to operate in a second language at
cognitively-demanding levels’ (Luckett, 1995: 76). Clearly, the problem does not
The Dilemma of the Mother Tongue
59
appear so much with the medium of instruction, as with classroom practice. If
anything the research seems to suggest that both English and the mother tongues
suffered from poor classroom practice which led to inadequate acquisition of
both English and the mother tongues.
There is also the question of the pedagogical implication of using the CALP
argument in the South African context to support the medium of instruction in
mainly one language – the mother tongue. According to Cummins (1981: 24), it
requires 5–7 years for a child to achieve CALP that enables him perform well on
academic skills. This might be taken to mean that a child should be introduced to
English earlier rather than later (cf. Lemmer, 1993). On the other hand, it can be
assumed that a South African child has already achieved BICS in their mother
tongues by the time they enter school. This is where Cummins (1981) Common
Underlying Proficiency (CUP) comes in. CUP appears to support early
mother-tongue education in that it assumes that efficiency in the mother-tongue
transfers to the L2. But if the Threshold Project research (Luckett, 1995) is
anything to go by, there is need for improved mother-tongue education and
EMOI education. Therefore, given the South African context, it makes more
pedagogical sense to argue for improving both mother-tongue and EMOI education, than to use the CALP and CUP arguments for mother-tongue education. In
fact, the concept of ‘mother tongue’ is increasingly becoming fuzzy and untenable considering rural-urban migration and the changing South African language
context after the end of apartheid and legislated compartmentalisation of people
according to race and language group (cf. Calteaux, 1995: Winkler, 1997: Slabbert
& Finlayson, 1998). Regional language education is more apt. I will elaborate on
this later.
Current school situation and practice
In spite of the government’s policy of additive bilingualism, schools have
generally continued teaching as before. This means that primary and secondary
schools are teaching through Afrikaans or English. It can be argued that some
schools that were Afrikaans MOI only have opened an additional EMOI stream.
Also, some former Afrikaans only and English only ‘white’ schools are now
offering African languages such as Xhosa and Zulu as optional subjects. The
token use of Xhosa and Zulu does not necessarily mean full integration of
languages and language groups. In practice, working-class children from black
and coloured families cannot afford the high fees of these former ‘whites only’
schools.
Almost without exception, school application forms and other official documents in South Africa have a ‘Home Language’ section. Ironically, despite the
overwhelming evidence of multilingualism and government’s additive bilingual policy, it is still assumed and expected that South Africans are typically
monolingual using a ‘Home Language’ in their neighbourhoods. The argument
is sometimes used by a school to deny a child entry on account of his/her ‘Home
Language’ if it is deemed to differ from the medium of instruction of the school.
In such a situation a child is ‘encouraged’ to enrol in another school.
Although laws have been promulgated to transform and integrate higher
education, there is still no university offering instruction through the medium of
an African language. Moreover, despite talk, there has been minimal curriculum
60
Language, Culture and Curriculum
transformation apart from the fact that English is increasingly becoming the de
facto MOI in institutions of higher learning. Those institutions that used to offer
instruction in Afrikaans only are being forced to open English streams as well.
The reason is that to get government subsidy, they need black students to swell
their numbers as well as to show that transformation is taking place. But black
students as already seen prefer EMOI and have had their secondary school
education in English (or a mixture of English and an African language).
Thus the majority of South African schools and tertiary institutions have a
monolingual orientation despite the government’s policy of additive bilingualism. The situation is unlikely to change in the near future.
EMOI and its Implications
It is interesting to note that academics (backed by research albeit most of it
done outside South Africa) appear unanimous that there should be
mother-tongue education throughout schooling. This is in sharp contrast to the
findings in the present study which suggest that learners from different linguistic backgrounds would prefer at least an English MOI throughout schooling.
Recent studies have also shown that black parents and increasingly coloured
parents (Afrikaans L1 speakers) prefer EMOI for their children (Pluddemann,
1996). What is at issue here is whether those who prefer EMOI should be forced to
have mother-tongue education; or indeed whether learners and their parents
have the right to choose, or can make an informed judgement as far as medium of
instruction is concerned. However, if there was anything to be learnt from the
unpopular Bantu education it is that people should not be forced to learn through
a language they do not want.
Another issue relates to the phrase ‘mother-tongue education’. It has already
been shown how variegated the linguistic situation in South Africa is despite
more than 40 years of attempts by the apartheid regime to keep linguistic groups
apart. In addition, there are at least 25 tongues spoken in South Africa (Lemmer,
1993). The 11 official languages are, therefore, just a proportion of the full range
of tongues. Thus, the argument that there will ever be a situation when all South
Africans will be taught in their mother tongues is clearly presumptuous. As
already argued, it makes more sense to talk about regional language education.
In addition, recent research (ELTIC, 1997) has shown that although South Africans have generally welcomed the designation of official status of the major African languages through the 1996 Constitution, their use in education and
workplace still lacks motivation. According to Slabbert and Finlayson (1998: 4),
the feeling is ‘if you can speak it why should you learn it?’ As a result, parents
would rather have their children ‘learn something useful and new such as
English rather than a Bantu language’ (p. 4).
Language varieties
It is also noteworthy that the standard forms of African languages used in
schools are based on the rural or regional standard forms. The younger generation is increasingly finding little or no appeal in the standard African languages
(cf. Calteaux, 1995) which they often associate with ‘rural’ languages. Studies on
the emerging urban forms of African languages done elsewhere in Africa (e.g.
The Dilemma of the Mother Tongue
61
Banda, 1996 for Zambia) have shown that the younger generation finds more
status and prestige in the urban varieties than the rural-based standardised
languages. In this regard, the urban forms may turn out to be a threat to standard
African languages in South Africa (cf. Slabbert & Finlayson, 1998). Teachers of
African languages are in a dilemma about what to do with the situation. They are
aware that the urban varieties can be used to make African languages popular,
but at the same time they are wary about becoming unwitting agents of the
demise of the standard form (cf. Slabbert & Finlayson, 1998). The gravity of the
dilemma is echoed in the words of a Zulu teacher who is against the use of urban
varieties, and had this to say:
The children don’t speak standard Zulu. It is a serious problem. These
[urban] languages kill Zulu. Do you want to kill Zulu? We are to enforce
and maintain the standards. I am as a Zulu teacher totally against it. If these
languages are successful, Zulu writers will be regarded as outdated.
(Slabbert & Finlayson, 1998: 4)
Another teacher commented, ‘It disturbs them [the students in the learning of the
standards]. When they go out of the classroom it is the end of the standard
language’ (Slabbert & Finlayson, 1998: 4). Clearly, these concerns have to be
taken into account when drafting future language in education policies. My
argument is that everybody is preoccupied with the threat of domination of
English on African languages ignoring the danger posed by the urban varieties of
these languages on the standardised forms. In time, these mushrooming urban
forms of African languages may prove to be a more decisive threat to standard
African languages than English. After all, English remains a foreign language in
the minds of most black South Africans. The same cannot be said of urban varieties of African languages. In other words, before universal mother-tongue education in African languages is introduced, it would be necessary to address the
growing gulf between the popular urban varieties and the standard form. This is
also true if African languages are to be used effectively in additive bilingualism
programmes.
It is often very tempting to cite studies done elsewhere to support arguments
for mother-tongue education for all in the new nation states. In South Africa,
Cummins (1981) is widely cited in support of mother-tongue education. Even
government’s postulations on additive bilingualism appear to be anchored in
Cummins (1981). The problem here is whether such studies are applicable to a
different context, particularly considering that South Africa, for example, has a
multiplicity of mother tongues. The Canadian situation under which Cummins’
additive bilingualism evolved only had French and English to contend with.
Europeans have their own bilingual programmes and did not have to copy from
Canada (cf. Baetens-Beardsmore, 1992). The European bilingual programmes
differ from country to country. The argument is that South Africa’s language in
education policy should take into account the peculiarities of the country.
In South Africa, like elsewhere in Africa, the choice of a particular ‘mother
tongue’ has implications and ramifications that go beyond pedagogical-didactic
considerations, as it effectively means elevation (‘favouritism’) of one ethnic
group over the other(s), and thus increasing the possibility of ‘tribal’-language
conflicts. Africa has already seen too many wars triggered by language-related
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problems. Thus, bilingual programmes in South Africa need to take into account
the question of language and ethnicity.
Considering that black education collapsed with the enforcement of
mother-tongue education during apartheid (cf. Lanham, 1996; Branford, 1996), it
is not surprising that black parents associate poor education with their mother
tongues, and educational excellence with English. It is easy to see why this is so.
Those who went through EMOI in mission schools which accepted black
students, or those in exile in countries such as Swaziland, Zambia and England
are perceived to have got a better education than those who underwent Bantu
education (Lanham, 1996), which at most prepared them to be houseboys or
maids for their white masters. Therefore, it is not surprising that those advocating mother-tongue education in South Africa (cf. Alexander, 1995; Luckett, 1995;
Heugh, 1995) are at pains to explain that their proposals should not be construed
as calling for a return to apartheid education.
Studies have shown that in South Africa varieties of English range from Indian
English, black English, white Afrikaans English to white ‘mother-tongue’
English (cf. Schmied, 1991). This means there is also a question of which variety
of English should be used as MOI. As already shown, data used in the present
study suggest that apart from white Afrikaans, the other language groups would
prefer their own variety of English. The implication of using different varieties of
English in South Africa’s education system has not been fully investigated or
appreciated, though it is common knowledge that in black and coloured schools
teachers do not use MtE as far as pronunciation (and to some extent vocabulary
and grammar) are concerned. I want to suggest that although the presence of
black, coloured, Indian etc. Englishes has been noted, they have neither been
studied and documented well enough, nor standardised for them to be of pedagogical value. In addition, these varieties, being mutually intelligible, do not
warrant their own standard different from MtE.
Models of bilingualism
From the foregoing, the dilemma of choosing either mother tongues or
English as media of instruction is all too apparent. On the one hand, there is
research suggesting that mother-tongue instruction is superior to
second-language medium of instruction (cf. Schmied, 1991). At the same time,
the standard form of African languages is under threat from urban varieties. Yet
there remains pressure, particularly from black learners and parents, for English
medium of instruction (cf. Pluddemann, 1996; Smit, 1996; De Klerk, 1996). Thus,
any move towards mother-tongue education would have to be handled
cautiously. For instance, it would make little sense to strictly enforce
mother-tongue education in South Africa given the prevailing situation where
there is little or no educational material in African languages, and also when
employers in South Africa use either English or Afrikaans. In this regard, given
the current situation, black learners who trained in their mother tongues only
would be both prejudiced against and disempowered economically and educationally. For comparison and illustration of the above argument, a good case is
India. Krishnamurti (1990: 19) reports that India’s Education Commission’s
(1954–1964) recommendation that mother tongues (regional languages) be used
as a medium of instruction up to tertiary education, had the unintended effect of
The Dilemma of the Mother Tongue
63
creating two streams of students, ‘those with the English medium having a definite advantage over the regional language medium students, both in employment and postgraduate education’. Consequently, English gained in stature as
the demand for mother-tongue education plummeted to levels lower than before
the proclamation (Krishnamurti, 1990).
Therefore, for black South Africans in particular, what is required is to reconcile their scepticism about mother-tongue education with the need for excellence
in classroom practice. At the same time, society has to be educated to the fact that
in a multilingual society each language could have a role to play. Moreover, bilingual programmes must take into consideration ‘the attitudes and expectations of
pupils, parents, and teachers, as well as the official proclamation on language
policy’ (Pakir, 1993: 220). Clearly, in South Africa, pupils and parents favour
EMOI, while government language policy and academics insist on education in
which the mother tongues of all South Africans are safeguarded. Hence, the
additive bilingualism policy.
I have tried to argue that the government’s language in education policy,
which should be part of a more general language planning policy, should ensure
that each language plays a facilitative role rather than a displacive role.
Currently, the mother-tongue concept and its use and acceptance in a bilingual
programme appears to be taken for granted, resulting in English becoming an
unequal partner. But a bilingual programme in South Africa will have to evolve
out of its geo-political, socioeconomic and educational needs. Such a bilingual
programme should not be ‘imported’ from Canada, the USA or Europe. Once
transplanted, imported models can lead to chaos and the disadvantaging of
certain groups (cf. Pakir, 1993). Moreover, as Baetens-Beardsmore (1992: 182)
notes, ‘no single model of bilingual education is universally applicable and no
single existing model should be transplanted to a totally different context’. The
implication here is that a comprehensive bilingual model has to take into consideration not just the people’s views on the proposed languages of instruction, but
also the socioeconomic and educational factors existing in a country.
In short, benefits can only accrue from such a bilingual programme if each
language is allowed and enabled to contribute its best to the education system (cf.
Tickoo, 1993). In South Africa’s case, English, or more accurately, attitudes to
English are proving to be a stumbling block to implementation of bilingual
education. Government might do well to try to change some of these entrenched
attitudes before embarking on something that might have negative repercussions. As to the actual classroom practice, the new Curriculum 2005, with its
emphasis on innovation and creative classroom interaction, offers many possibilities, particularly for students coming from diverse linguistic backgrounds.
But there is clearly a dearth in research on how Curriculum 2005 can be effectively
integrated into government’s language in education policy of additive bilingualism.
Conclusion
Language in education policy should be viewed as part of a more general
language planning policy. In this connection, it is ironic that while government
policy, on paper at any rate, promotes the use of all South African languages,
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Language, Culture and Curriculum
politicians and other role models are more likely to use English than any other
language at public functions. Lanham (1996) laments the fact that former President Mandela’s speeches have almost exclusively been in English. In 1999 Home
Affairs Minister Buthelezi, a Zulu chief, and King Zwelithini of the Zulu
addressed assembled Zulus on Chaka Commemoration Day in English. One
would expect such an important day among the Zulus to be commemorated in
Zulu (perhaps with English translation for commercial television and radio
broadcasts). It is also not uncommon for opposition leaders from the National
Party and the Afrikaner Freedom Front lamenting in English on South African
television, the diminishing influence and use of Afrikaans in government and
public life.
In an article entitled ‘Language Problem Wasn’t Technical Defect’, The Cape
Times (11 February 1998) had a story in which the then Western Cape Premier, a
white Afrikaans L1 speaker from the National Party, was angry when he was
asked a question in Xhosa in the provincial legislature. This is despite the fact that
Xhosa is supposed to have similar status to English and Afrikaans in the province. His first excuse was that he did not understand Xhosa, but when told to use
earphones, he claimed that they were not working despite the fact that other
members were listening through earphones for translations. However, the
Premier did not seem to mind when the question was repeated to him in English.
Xhosa, English and Afrikaans are the official languages of the Western Cape
Province legislature. The argument is that role-model speakers are unwittingly
strengthening the position of English over the same languages they are purporting to promote.
Contrast the South African situation with the Tanzanian one. After Nyerere
proclaimed Ujamaa (self-reliance) through kiSwahili, the entire country interpreted (or misinterpreted) it to mean that they would be faced with kiSwahili in
every aspect of their lives. What is interesting here is that the political, civic and
government leadership were in the forefront in providing the motivation by
adopting kiSwahili as the language for the offices and public life (Mushi, 1996). In
contrast, in South Africa political, civic and government leaders appear to prefer
using English, at least when they appear in South African media, particularly
television, thereby defeating their own objective of language pluralism.
The argument here is that as long as policy makers and those in places of influence appear to send mixed signals to ordinary people, the general change of attitude required for an effective bilingual language in education policy will remain
illusive. Particularly, as long as the actions of policy makers and those in the
corridors of power suggest that a particular language (in this case English) offers
opportunity for education, job opportunities and accessibility to communication, economic, political and industrial success, then language policies enacted to
promote other languages will be futile. It is hardly encouraging to say to black
learners, ‘learn through your mother tongue because it is the language of your
ancestors and it is the language of your culture’. Such an argument is becoming a
less attractive prospect in this global economy than the need for status and socioeconomic mobility that is perceived to be offered by English. Given such a situation, it might require a great deal of motivation to make black children see the
functional sense of learning through the medium of African languages, such as
Zulu or Xhosa. Moreover, due to urbanisation, industrialisation and migration
The Dilemma of the Mother Tongue
65
brought about by the money economy, the concept of ‘mother tongue’ is becoming blurred and needs to be redefined. This is particularly true considering the
growing gulf between the standardised rural ‘classroom’ tongues used in education and the more versatile urban forms of the same languages that are in use in
the ever-growing cities of South Africa. Recent studies show that the urban forms
of African languages provide a formidable challenge to English (Calteaux, 1995;
Slabbert & Finlayson, 1998). But their utility in education has either been ignored
or dismissed under the guise of safeguarding the standard mother tongues.
As long as the supposed mother tongues of South Africans do not form mutually inclusive partnerships (particularly in relation to English) in the education
process of learners, prospects for effective additive bilingual programmes will
remain elusive. Therefore, given the socioeconomic, cultural and geo-political
situation obtaining in South Africa, English is set to be the language and
preferred medium of education in South African schools and tertiary institutions
for some time to come.
Correspondence
Any correspondence should be directed to Dr Felix Banda, Linguistics Department, University of the Western Cape, Private Bag X17, Belville 7535, South
Africa (fbanda@uwc.ac.za).
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