Living Through Languages
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Living through languages: An African Tribute to Rene Dirven is Living through a collection of scholarly research meant to honour the various facets of his academic legacy, which includes language policy and politics, language acquisition (specifically in multilingual societies), the role of English and English language teaching and a life-long anguages interest in cognitive linguistics. As Professor Felix Banda (University of the Western Cape, South Africa) notes, Although the book is L meant to celebrate René Dirvens contribution to African linguistics and society generally, the contributions are truly a celebration of the excellence of African research, the very virtues Renés research An African Tribute to Rene Dirven demonstrated over the years. The book includes contributions by European and African scholars who have worked with René Dirven in an African context in particular: n Jan Blommaert n Herman Batibo and Birgit Smieja n Theodorus du Plessis n Augustin Simo Bobda n Riana Roos-Paola n Martin Pütz n Willem J. Botha n Vic Webb n Albert Weideman n Christa van der Walt The volume of data presented by the authors and the varied methodological approaches used leave no doubt that this is collection that represents serious academic input and the contents will be an invaluable reference to those doing research and teaching at the universities. This is certainly a must-read for those interested in comparative work in African language problems this century. Kembo-Sure (Moi University, Kenya) Edited by Christa van der Walt Living through Languages An African Tribute to René Dirven EDITED BY Christa van der Walt Living through Languages: An African Tribute to René Dirven Published by SUN PReSS, a division of AFRICAN SUN MeDIA, Stellenbosch 7600 www.africansunmedia.co.za www.sun-e-shop.co.za All rights reserved. Copyright © 2006 Christa van der Walt No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic, photographic or mechanical means, including photocopying and recording on record, tape or laser disk, on microfilm, via the Internet, by e-mail, or by any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission by the publisher. First edition 2006 ISBN: 978-1-920109-70-1 e-ISBN: 978-1-920109-71-4 DOI: 10.18820/9781920109714 Set in 11/13 Bell MT Cover design by Ilse Roelofse Typesetting by SUN MeDIA Stellenbosch SUN PReSS is a division of AFRICAN SUN MeDIA, Stellenbosch University’s publishing division. SUN PReSS publishes academic, professional and reference works in print and electronic format. This publication may be ordered directly from www.sun-e-shop.co.za Printed and bound by US Printers, Reyneveld street, Stellenbosch, 7600. René Dirven Table of Contents Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... i List of contributors ......................................................................................................... iii Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1 Ujamaa and the creation of the new Waswahili ....................................................... 5 Jan Blommaert The effect of language policy on language attitudes: A case study of young Khoesan language speakers in Botswana ...................................................... 23 Herman Batibo & Birgit Smieja Mismatch or misfit? Critical perspectives on language policy development in South Africa ...................................................................................................................... 37 Theodorus du Plessis The emergence of “new mother tongues” in Africa and its implications: The example of Cameroon ............................................................................................ 55 Augustin Simo Bobda Observing trilingual language acquisition in two pre-school children .............. 71 Riana Roos-Paola The dynamics of language policy in Namibia: A view from cognitive sociolinguistics ................................................................................................................. 91 Martin Pütz Aspects of the meaning of the word racism ............................................................... 115 Willem J. Botha The non-use of African languages in education in Africa ..................................... 131 Vic Webb Overlapping and divergent agendas: Writing and applied linguistics research .......................................................................................................... 147 Albert Weideman The transformative agenda of educational linguistics for English language teaching in Africa ............................................................................................................. 165 Christa van der Walt Acknowledgements The following people deserve special acknowledgement for their help and support in the process of completing this book: G My colleagues at Stellenbosch University in the Departments of Curriculum Studies, Linguistics and African Languages and the Language Centre, as well as colleagues at the University of the Western Cape and at Unisa, who acted as peer reviewers for the contributions in this book. Without your constructive criticism and selfless giving of time and effort, the academic stature of this book would not be what it is. G My research assistant, Ms Roshan Cader, who sat for hours formatting and editing the manuscript and yet still had time to make jokes and brew strong coffee to keep us going. G Mrs Hester Honey, for her meticulous editing of the contributions, and the Language Centre at Stellenbosch University for organising the excellent translation of the contribution by Prof LT du Plessis. i List of contributors G Herman Batibo, African Languages and Literature, University of Botswana, Botswana: [email protected] G Jan Blommaert, Institute of Education, University of London: [email protected] G Augustin Simo Bobda, University of Yaounde, Cameroon, and University of Hong Kong, China: [email protected] G Willem J Botha, Department of Afrikaans, University of Johannesburg, South Africa: [email protected] G Theodorus du Plessis, Unit for Language Management, University of the Free State, South Africa: [email protected] G Riana Roos-Paola: [email protected] G Martin Pütz, University of Koblenz-Landau (Campus Landau), Germany: [email protected] G Birgit Smieja, University of Koblenz-Landau (Campus Landau), Germany: [email protected] G Christa van der Walt, Department of Curriculum Studies, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa: [email protected] G Vic Webb, Department of Afrikaans, University of Pretoria, South Africa: [email protected] G Albert Weideman, Unit for Academic Literacy, University of Pretoria, South Africa: [email protected] iii Introduction It is surely a measure of René Dirven’s standing and reputation that students and colleagues would feel the need to pay tribute by regularly publishing collections of articles in his honour. In 1992, Thirty years of linguistic evolution appeared on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday (edited by Martin Pütz) and, in 1997, Human contact through language and linguistics was published to celebrate his 65th birthday (edited by Birgit Smieja and Meike Tasch). Now that we approach his 75th birthday, it is time to remind ourselves again of his contribution to the fields of linguistics and applied linguistics. The current volume is meant specifically to commemorate René Dirven’s influence in Africa through contributions by his students and colleagues who work and conduct research in Africa. These contributions carry with them the heartfelt gratitude of the authors who were inspired to work beyond the borders of their countries and address issues which affect the whole of Africa. Like René, and because of his encouragement, we grew accustomed to crossing borders, as he did almost daily from Belgium to Germany. For South Africans in particular, this was significant at a time when we had to take our place in Africa and contribute to its wellbeing, rather than continue the legacy of colonialism and apartheid. As the word apartheid indicates, we not only separated ourselves from our fellow South African citizens, but also from the rest of Africa. René was determined that the language problems and issues of Africa should be tackled cooperatively and he constantly urged us to take up this challenge. René Dirven’s biography and research foci, including his work in Africa, are well documented in the collections edited by Pütz (1992), and Smieja and Tasch (1997). The purpose of this Introduction is to demonstrate the way in which René’s interests were continued since 1997 by scholars working and living in Africa. To this end I have taken the liberty of including quotations from articles by Dirven (and sometimes co-authors) at the top of each contribution to this volume to make the link with his work explicit. All the bibliographical detail for these quotations can be found in the list of references after this Introduction. In 1986, René Dirven visited South Africa for the first time and set up contacts – which have lasted until today – with other European and African scholars. He created a network that still functions and grows as postgraduate students benefit from these contacts. The network is constantly rejuvenated and re-inspired at, among others, LAUD conferences and through international fellowships like the