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This 9th edition of the Studies in Language Policy in South Africa
series follows on the 2012 MIDP Symposium, Multilingualism for
empowerment, held on the QwaQwa campus of the University of the
Free State on 11 12 September 2012. It includes the proceedings of
a selection of papers, both from local and international scholars.
The objective of the symposium was to draw together scholars from
different fields and countries that work in the broad area of
language in South Africa or study multilingual policies and
practices that fit the conference theme in other regions or
countries. The South African legislative framework for language
provides for a mixed approach towards institutionalised
multilingualism. It is becoming increasingly obvious that the
required language legislation, policies and regulations are not
efficiently implemented as English is fast becoming the de facto
official and national language. Nevertheless, studies on language
practices at grass-roots level in South Africa do point to
empowering policy-making initiatives that take cognisance of
societal multilingualism and that benefit citizens. It is the
contention of the contributors to this book that from a language
interventionist perspective these local solutions are often not
taken into account when top-down policies are formulated and
approaches to language regulation developed. It may be argued that
a more coherent approach to institutionalised multilingualism will
contribute to the empowerment of citizens at grass-roots level and
to the broadening of democracy. This book presents important
insights into language issues in education (both on school and
tertiary level), service delivery, language ideology and politics,
onomastics and legal aspects of language. Scholars in the field
will find it useful and the insights offered stimulating.
Standard accounts of language policy and language planning tend to
portray language users all too often as the 'passive receivers' of
linguistic decisions taken at the higher levels of state
organization. Conversely, those who are supposed to 'live' the
language policies never really appear to submissively 'implement'
them, but, appropriating them, steer them in novel, unforeseen
directions through their everyday language practices and their
discursive perceptions and interpretations of linguistic realities.
It is these dialectic processes of interaction between what is
designed from above and how it is responded to from below which
give shape to societies' overall patterns of multilingualism.
Multilingualism from below resulted from the Second International
MIDP Symposium, "Multilingualism from below", held in Antwerp
(Belgium) from 14 to 16 September 2009, and hosted jointly by the
University of Antwerp, the University of the Free State (South
Africa) and the University of Ghent (Belgium). The symposium
comprised part of the MIDP colloquia series sponsored by the
Province of Antwerp, and brought together several scholars from
Africa, America and Europe, as well as from South Africa. The
selected papers included in this, the eighth volume in the Van
Schaik series, "Studies in language policy in South Africa",
critically reflect on themes such as multilingualism and agency;
multilingualism and language ideology construction; the management
of multilingualism, etc. The diversity of the contributions to this
volume underscores the fact that the construction of
multilingualism is a complex process of dialectical exchange
between top-down and bottom-up actors. Decision making and
implementation by agents at grass roots level are affected by
non-explicit language ideologies, impacting on the fluidity of both
individual and societal multilingualism. In light of this,
researchers need to adapt their research approach when
investigating language practices on grass roots level. This
includes a careful consideration of the concepts 'code switching'
or 'code selection' from below. With Multilingualism from below,
the editors hope to evoke further discussion on the themes covered
in this volume, as well as the opinions expressed by its
contributors. The book is particularly directed at readers
interested in the intricate relations between language and society,
but it can also be used effectively as an important reference work
in courses in language policy and language planning with a South
African, African, or global focus.
Whether the winds of globalisation, localisation and
regionalisation of the last decades have led to more linguistic
diversity or not, is a matter of on-going dispute - one reason
being the changeable language-ideological ways in which language
practice is categorised and essentialised into countable linguistic
units. In contrast, it is less controversial that they have led to
an increased visibility and diversity - in short, to a growing
number (and a wider range) of meaning-ascribing discourses
surrounding multilingualism. The papers included in this book aim
to draw attention to the fact that such discourses do not
invariably reflect on, or give rise to, realities of societal
integration and emancipation. In practice, they often follow, and
are followed by, the mechanisms and effects of exclusion at
different levels of society. Multilingualism and Exclusion: Policy,
Practice and Prospects resulted from the First International MIDP
Symposium, "Multilingualism and Exclusion" - hosted jointly by the
University of the Free , the University of Antwerp and the
University of Ghent - which was held in Bloemfontein from 24 to 26
April 2006. The symposium comprised part of the MIDP colloquia
series sponsored by the Province of Antwerp, and brought together
several scholars from Africa, America and Europe, as well as from
South Africa. The selected papers included in this, the sixth
volume in the Van Schaik series, "Studies in Language Policy in
South Africa", critically reflect on themes such as multilingualism
as an obvious, simple and superior option in all cases; the
individual language user's experience; the management of
multilingualism, etc. The diversity of the contributions to this
volume underscores the fact that exclusion in language, like any
other type of exclusion, is based on difference. Not surprisingly,
various "tools" have been mobilised to effectuate such exclusion,
forced monolingualism being an obvious one. Far more intriguing,
however, is one of the findings made in this book - namely, that
inclusion through multilingualism does not offer a simple and
straightforward way to proceed. With Multilingualism and Exclusion:
Policy, Practice and Prospects , the editors hope to evoke further
discussion on the themes covered in this volume, as well as the
opinions expressed by its contributors. The book is particularly
directed at readers interested in the intricate relations between
language and society; but it can also be used effectively as an
important reference work in courses in language policy and language
planning with a South African or African focus.
The politics of language in South Africa is a selected collection
of essays that contains the proceedings of a colloquium organised
by Vic Webb, the guest editor, as part of the combined annual
meeting of the Southern African Applied Linguistics Association and
the Linguistics Society of Southern Africa, hosted by the
University of Pretoria and held at Dikhololo from 6 to 8 July 2005.
Additionally, a number of relevant conference papers presented
outside the colloquium are also included.
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