KEYNOTE SPEAKERS Contesting Language Norms and Ideologies: Voice and Agency in Classroom Interaction in Selected Black and Coloured Schools in Cape Town Felix Banda University of the Western Cape Formulations of language education in South Africa are predicated on ‘pure’ countable languages as home and first language, second language and third additional language of instruction. The general aim of this paper is to contrast the language ideologies in official language policy documents of provincial and national governments with the ideologies informing actual classroom practice in education settings. Drawing from recent notions of language as social practice, the paper uses classroom interaction data from selected coloured and black schools in Cape Town to explore classroom language practices that defy prescribed language policy pronouncements as well as dominant ideologies of languages as being constituted by autonomous entities. It will be argued that the emergent language practices are not only counter-hegemonic but also ensure increased and broader participation by learners in their own education. The paper will show how learners’ spaces of interaction and use of linguistic resources are not bound by rigid domain boundaries or inflexible hegemonic linguistic systems, and that this openness leads to the decentring of the ‘standard’ language. The paper will also discuss the implications of the disjuncture in late modern South Africa between the language practices of learners on the one hand and the prescribed norms of language use promoted by the South African education system and gatekeepers for language education policy on the other hand. Outcomes-based Language Frameworks: Can They Accommodate the Diversity of Language Learner Achievements? Catherine Elder University of Melbourne The paper reviews ongoing debates surrounding the development and use of frameworks that describe student achievements in language learning. These frameworks are part of the broader context of outcomes-based assessment for accountability purposes operating in many educational settings around the world. In Australia, discussion has focused mainly on English, the language of mainstream education, and has highlighted the dangers of generalisation and standardisation inherent in such frameworks and their potentially negative impact on particular learner groups, such as students (both immigrant and indigenous) of English as a second language and of languages other than English. As far as languages other than English are concerned, the dangers of generalisation and standardisation are even greater in the Australian context, because: (1) students learn specific languages rather than a generic language as implied in the wording of current frameworks; (2) students do not always learn the same language continuously throughout their schooling, and therefore spend different amounts of time on learning them, and (3) Australia’s migration history means that students come from diverse backgrounds, with new learners often in the same class as heritage learners with varying degrees of home background in the language being learnt. Therefore, the learning trajectories and achievements of students in this context are markedly diverse. The national and state frameworks devised for language teachers neutralise this contextual diversity to the point of rendering the frameworks meaningless to their users. 2013 LSSA | SAALA | SAALT Conference | 1 The paper outlines a recent project designed to address some of the problems with current outcomes- based frameworks in Australia by developing context-sensitive, evidence-based descriptions of achievement (Scarino et al. 2011). It concludes by considering how language teachers elsewhere may fruitfully adopt or adapt the processes followed in this study to monitor language learning achievements in ways that are more meaningful in their particular contexts. Reflexivity and the Search for Grammatical Generalisations Johan Oosthuizen Stellenbosch University This paper focuses on two topics. Firstly, adopting the general framework of Minimalist Syntax, a novel analysis is presented of the phenomenon of obligatory reflexivity in Afrikaans, one that may be referred to as "the nominal shell analysis" (NSA). The basic idea underlying the NSA is that two expressions which enter into an obligatory coreferential relationship – in this case, the reflexive and its antecedent – are initially merged into the same constituent. It is proposed that these two expressions form part of a nominal shell structure which is headed by an identity focus light noun n, with this n representing the locus of the -self suffix that is normally found with reflexive pronouns in Afrikaans. The coreferential relationship between the reflexive and its antecedent is established via phi-feature valuation, with the light noun acting as intermediary. This paper claims that the NSA can provide an empirically adequate account of the relevant facts without appealing to any theoretical devices or features that are not provided by or that are incompatible with the basic assumptions and concepts of Minimalist Syntax. Secondly, it is argued that a generalised nominal shell approach makes it possible to give a unifying account of various (often seemingly unrelated) phenomena, including the grammatical relationship between PRO and its antecedent in subject and object control constructions, between a possessive pronoun and the expression representing the possessor, between a floating quantifier and its antecedent, and between the expletive pronoun daar ("there") and its associate. Central to the proposed generalised account of these phenomena is the claim that each of them involves a nominal shell structure headed by a particular type of light noun, which is similar to the sort of structure headed by the identity focus light noun in the case of obligatory reflexive constructions. More specifically, this paper argues that the various types of light noun belong to a natural class of identificational (or quantificational) elements which includes an identity focus n, a contrastive focus n, a possessor focus n, a quantity focus n, and a presentational focus n. Translation Policies and Practices in Political Institutions Christina Schäffner Aston University, UK Translation plays a significant role in international relations and decision-making. Politicians give speeches during state visits abroad, they negotiate with other politicians in other countries, they give statements at press conferences and answer questions from journalists, et cetera. These discursive events often require translation and interpreting, and thus influence the production and reception of political discourse, which is disseminated to a large extent by mass media. Political institutions (governments, embassies) are instrumental in producing and disseminating discourse, and should share in the responsibility to manage translation and interpreting needs. This talk will address the 2 | 2013 LSSA | SAALA | SAALT Conference issue of translation policies and practices in political institutions, with a focus on the governments of Germany and the United Kingdom. Questions to be addressed include: Do governments have in-house translation services? Who decides which text is translated by whom? Who arranges interpreters for press conferences and interviews? What is the interaction between political institutions and the mass media in disseminating translated or interpreted discourse? Since such practices and policies are underresearched within translation studies, the talk will also reflect on the concepts and methodologies that can be used to analyse these complex institutional practices. It will also address the importance of such research for the discipline of translation studies, and the connection with journalism studies and political sciences. Innovation and Reciprocity in Applied Linguistics Albert Weideman Inter-institutional Centre for Language Development and Assessment (ICELDA) Applied linguistics can be defined as a discipline of design: it solves language problems by suggesting a plan, or blueprint, to handle them. These designs are sometimes promoted as highly innovative. Yet, are innovative language courses and tests in all respects truly new in what they present to the applied linguistics community? This presentation will argue that most historically significant turning points in applied linguistic designs demonstrate a solid measure of continuity with previously designed solutions. This applies to communicative teaching as well as earlier innovations like audio-lingualism. As for testing, both interactive designs and socially responsible concerns have built on the past. Like innovation, reciprocity in design is a foundational issue in applied linguistics. How much reciprocity is there in the realms of language testing, language course design and language policy making? Why do we not explicitly determine whether a course would be designed as responsibly and carefully as a test? How can language policy making teach us to make tests more accessible and accountable? What can test designers learn from course developers about specificity? There are many useful questions that we never seem to ask. The paper will consider how a humdrum solution can be pushed to its limits; how logistic constraints can stimulate imaginative designs; how, by looking across different levels of applied linguistic artefacts (language courses, language tests and language policies), we can enrich the principles of responsible design