Date: 27/03/2003
Source: Ministry of Education
Title: Mangena: African Languages Colloquium
KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF EDUCATION, MR MOSIBUDI MANGENA, TO THE FIRST AFRICAN LANGUAGES COLLOQUIUM, ON UNLOCKING THE VALUE OF AFRICAN LANGUAGES IN CONTEMPORARY SOUTH AFRICA, University of the Witwatersrand, 27 March 2003
TOPIC: THE ROLE OF TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN THE PROMOTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF AFRICAN LANGUAGES
Programme Director
Ladies and Gentlemen
Any debate about the use of language is always emotive. Language is a medium through which information, knowledge, ideas, culture, perceptions, norms, standards and value systems are transmitted and inculcated within a society. A society uses its education system to determine its way of life and future direction and its language is a means by which its ideals and aspirations are realised.
By participating in this very complex debate my contribution this afternoon can only result in expanding the scope of questions to be answered and the challenges to be dealt with.
I often wonder why we still have to debate about the status of African Languages as though their role and function is different from that which any language plays in education. Why, after nearly a decade since nine of our African languages became officially recognised, do we still have to ask questions about their particular value in higher education? As academics that are involved in teaching and development of language, you obviously know more about the importance of language, its role in learning, and the plight of a student who is not proficient in the language of instruction.
You have asked me to talk about 'The Role of Tertiary Institutions in the Promotion and Development of African Languages'. If we want to meaningfully contribute towards the social and economic development of the continent and ourselves, the need to protect, promote and develop all African languages, particularly our indigenous ones, is a non-negotiable.
A German linguist, one Professor Konrad Schroeder, while conceding the importance of English as the world language of the 21st century, still argues for the downgrading of English as the first foreign language of choice at German schools. He proposes that German schools should first accommodate languages of their immediate neighbours such as French and Italian as an attempt to offset the dangers of lingual imperialism that would elevate English into the status of a Euro-language. If developed countries still argue for the promotion of their vernaculars and those of their immediate neighbours, what more about those societies whose languages, culture and traditions were downtrodden by imperialists' centuries ago?
The question about the role of language in education is in fact a question about access and success in education. At this point in time, the questions we should be asking about the role of African languages generally should be questions relating to access to information and participation in our economy. While it may be true that English is an international language of commerce, it is equally true that English is the mother tongue to less than a fifth of the world population. The sad irony is that more than 80% of international communities have resigned themselves to conducting their most basic survival activities in a language that is not their own. Taken to its logical conclusion this argument implies that by excluding their non-English speaking citizens from participating meaningfully in their own economies, the largest majority of humanity is at the risk of unwittingly surrendering their economic power to the minority English-speaking economic giants.
In your attempt to interrogate and define the role that higher education institutions should play in promoting and developing African languages, the question about the role and function of language in human interaction and development should remain uppermost in your minds. English is today an international language because an imperialist agenda was and continues to be conducted in English. That is why English is predominantly used as a language of teaching, learning and development. Those who are already caught within this system have long stopped asking themselves questions about access, participation and the development of their own people.
The topics that will be dealt with in the series of seminars planned by the Department of African Languages at this institution reveal an earnest desire to turn this tide. This is a clear indication that this institution is taking very seriously the needs and development of our multilingual and multicultural society. Experts on Linguistics also concur that pace of development of any language is directly proportional to the extent to which it is being utilised. For example, the English language borrowed extensively from languages such as Greek and Latin to develop their body of knowledge for science and law. Some decades ago, the Afrikaners also followed the same principle when they embarked on a mission to develop the Afrikaans language. Similarly, if our own languages increasingly find usage in the various spheres of our lives, we would be compelled to develop the necessary vocabulary to respond to this need.
As a university your role is to assist government in responding to the needs of our nation. Therefore, we are looking to institutions such as this one to develop programmes on African languages that would facilitate access to education, generally and to higher education, in particular. We are looking to our tertiary institutions to take us beyond the current 'feel-good' multicultural practice of "sanibonani-dumelang" into programmes that would enable all our people, irrespective of their level of proficiency in English or Afrikaans, to participate in knowledge construction and management. In an information age, we need students and graduates who are able to think and process information. So we are expecting your 'restructured' courses to respond to these national demands.
We believe that the position of the Department, as spelt out in the Language-in-Education Policy of the General Education and Training (GET) which was promulgated in 1997, is theoretically and pedagogically sound. It promotes additive multilingualism. In short, it decided on an approach that would maintain home languages while providing access to and effective acquisition of additional languages. It also requires School Governing Bodies to stipulate how their schools will promote multilingualism in one or more of the following ways:
(a) By using more than one language of learning and teaching; and/or
(b) By offering additional languages as fully-fledged subjects; and/or
(c) By applying special immersion or language maintenance programmes, or through other means approved by the department. (Language policy in education, p.8)
If we examine this statement carefully, what comes out clearly is that the new language policy, at least in the GET and FET bands, promotes our national goals and need for the "full participation" of all our people in national socio-economic activities through equitable and meaningful access to education. The rationale for a policy that promotes mother-tongue education and additive multilingualism is that access to education is not only confined to the abolition of school fees and new funding formulas. It is also about facilitating epistemological access, that is, access to knowledge or different ways of knowing. Access is about using the cultural and social capital of every learner as the basis for the construction of new knowledge. That is why our language policies are intended to ensure that language is used for the benefit of all learners instead of acting as a barrier to learning.
Let us now briefly focus on the role and value of African languages in higher education. Our Language-in-education policy in the GET and FET bands provides a framework within which the Higher Education Language Policy is based. The language policy in higher education should not be seen as an isolated and stand-alone document because the success of its implementation will depend on the successes achieved from its sister policy at pre-tertiary level. It would be unfortunate if the higher education language policy could undo or undermine the goals of the language policy in the GET and FET bands.
We will be able to understand and determine the value of African languages in higher education, if we never lose sight of the principles of access, equity and redress. Therefore, to argue for the student's right to use the language that she/he understands best is in fact to argue for a student's inalienable right to quality education. When we force students to learn mathematics, history, and other subjects in a language they are not proficient in, we are in fact, taking away their right to all the other rights because we are making language a barrier to their access to knowledge.
The language policy for higher education aims to remove language as a barrier to access and success in education. Whilst the role of English as the language of learning and teaching remains uncontested in the policy, the role of African languages as a resource that can facilitate learning is also acknowledged. The policy sees different languages "working together" to "build a common sense of nationhood" (Language Policy for Higher Education, p 3).
We are concerned that the decline in student enrolments in African languages programmes would lead to the closure of African Languages Departments in higher education institutions. We need to ask why this is happening. Central to this is the question about whether we can really expect African languages to remain areas of academic study and research when these are not affirmed in schools, workplaces, political and other social places. Higher education institutions are also experiencing a progressive decline in the success rates of students. We should also ask ourselves whether our students would perform better if they were allowed to take their studies and examinations in their primary languages or at least be provided with question papers in more than one language. As long as we fail to locate the question of language within a human rights discourse, no amount of debate on the efficacy and effectiveness of our policies will yield any tangible results in this regard. Always remember that like knowledge, language is power.
Our broadcast and other media are also doing very little or worse to promote the status of African languages. The research findings by the Pan South African Language Board reveal that 70% of the broadcasts by the SABC is in English. Shocking, as this might be, the fact that 78% of those surveyed said that they did not fully understand speeches delivered in English by politicians, means that a large percentage of the population is excluded from the democratic process in this country. How does one fully participate in democratic processes if one does not understand what is being said by public representatives?
Compared with their peers of other population groups, African kids are currently doing worse in mathematics, science and other content subjects. Research has shown that language is one of the important barriers to their success. But the domination of English does not only damage us in the spheres of politics, democracy and education, it devastates us in many other ways. Our cultures are inextricably bound to our languages. Our values, norms, customs and rituals are intertwined with our languages, music, dress and dances. When you suffocate the language of a people, you also smother their customs, rituals, music and dances, that is, their creativity, dreams and identity because the memory of a people is imbedded in their language.
Some scholars have even attributed the underdevelopment of Africa to the failure to harness the linguistic and cultural attributes of all African people. It is important to note that all past attempts at developing Africa have tended to impose the language, culture and outlook of the outsiders on the Africans. As a result, the creativity, genius and energies of the ordinary people for whom the development was meant, could not be harnessed, leading to the final collapse of such endeavours. I believe that the greatest contribution that the departments of African languages could make towards the re-birth of Africa and NEPAD is by raising awareness about the importance and value of indigenous languages in the transmission of knowledge and skills.
We hope that our humble submission will in some way contribute to the expansion of the framework and context within which academics could begin to interrogate the question of African languages in higher education. African languages departments have a leading role to play in the development of new institutional cultures by assisting and persuading their managements and students to embrace multilingualism in their instructional programmes and day-to-day activities of university life. You will not win this battle unless you are prepared to fight for the use of African languages in the academic discourse of your universities and technikons. Your task is to dispel the myth that African languages are not ready to be used as languages of learning and teaching. You are fully aware of the existing large body of research conducted locally and internationally, which points conclusively to the disastrous effects of teaching mainly in English when prevailing conditions make this an impossibility (Research Report on Language in the Classroom, published by Department of Education: 2000: p.14).
To this end, the Language-in-Education Implementation Plan provides for a programme that will focus on the "Development of language learning models from Grades 4 - 12, to improve the learning and teaching of Mathematics, Science and Technology. The bottom line is to make learners understand that mathematical computations done in Tshivenda or Sesotho are the same in all languages. We are looking to you as institutions of higher learning to lead the way in this battle.
Always remember that linguistic inequality was one of the pillars of apartheid. In the new dispensation we should use language as one of the vehicles of eliminating inequalities and uniting our people.
I wish you well in this difficult but very important task.
Issued by Ministry of Education
27 March 2003
Source: Ministry of Education
Title: Mangena: African Languages Colloquium
KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF EDUCATION, MR MOSIBUDI MANGENA, TO THE FIRST AFRICAN LANGUAGES COLLOQUIUM, ON UNLOCKING THE VALUE OF AFRICAN LANGUAGES IN CONTEMPORARY SOUTH AFRICA, University of the Witwatersrand, 27 March 2003
TOPIC: THE ROLE OF TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN THE PROMOTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF AFRICAN LANGUAGES
Programme Director
Ladies and Gentlemen
Any debate about the use of language is always emotive. Language is a medium through which information, knowledge, ideas, culture, perceptions, norms, standards and value systems are transmitted and inculcated within a society. A society uses its education system to determine its way of life and future direction and its language is a means by which its ideals and aspirations are realised.
By participating in this very complex debate my contribution this afternoon can only result in expanding the scope of questions to be answered and the challenges to be dealt with.
I often wonder why we still have to debate about the status of African Languages as though their role and function is different from that which any language plays in education. Why, after nearly a decade since nine of our African languages became officially recognised, do we still have to ask questions about their particular value in higher education? As academics that are involved in teaching and development of language, you obviously know more about the importance of language, its role in learning, and the plight of a student who is not proficient in the language of instruction.
You have asked me to talk about 'The Role of Tertiary Institutions in the Promotion and Development of African Languages'. If we want to meaningfully contribute towards the social and economic development of the continent and ourselves, the need to protect, promote and develop all African languages, particularly our indigenous ones, is a non-negotiable.
A German linguist, one Professor Konrad Schroeder, while conceding the importance of English as the world language of the 21st century, still argues for the downgrading of English as the first foreign language of choice at German schools. He proposes that German schools should first accommodate languages of their immediate neighbours such as French and Italian as an attempt to offset the dangers of lingual imperialism that would elevate English into the status of a Euro-language. If developed countries still argue for the promotion of their vernaculars and those of their immediate neighbours, what more about those societies whose languages, culture and traditions were downtrodden by imperialists' centuries ago?
The question about the role of language in education is in fact a question about access and success in education. At this point in time, the questions we should be asking about the role of African languages generally should be questions relating to access to information and participation in our economy. While it may be true that English is an international language of commerce, it is equally true that English is the mother tongue to less than a fifth of the world population. The sad irony is that more than 80% of international communities have resigned themselves to conducting their most basic survival activities in a language that is not their own. Taken to its logical conclusion this argument implies that by excluding their non-English speaking citizens from participating meaningfully in their own economies, the largest majority of humanity is at the risk of unwittingly surrendering their economic power to the minority English-speaking economic giants.
In your attempt to interrogate and define the role that higher education institutions should play in promoting and developing African languages, the question about the role and function of language in human interaction and development should remain uppermost in your minds. English is today an international language because an imperialist agenda was and continues to be conducted in English. That is why English is predominantly used as a language of teaching, learning and development. Those who are already caught within this system have long stopped asking themselves questions about access, participation and the development of their own people.
The topics that will be dealt with in the series of seminars planned by the Department of African Languages at this institution reveal an earnest desire to turn this tide. This is a clear indication that this institution is taking very seriously the needs and development of our multilingual and multicultural society. Experts on Linguistics also concur that pace of development of any language is directly proportional to the extent to which it is being utilised. For example, the English language borrowed extensively from languages such as Greek and Latin to develop their body of knowledge for science and law. Some decades ago, the Afrikaners also followed the same principle when they embarked on a mission to develop the Afrikaans language. Similarly, if our own languages increasingly find usage in the various spheres of our lives, we would be compelled to develop the necessary vocabulary to respond to this need.
As a university your role is to assist government in responding to the needs of our nation. Therefore, we are looking to institutions such as this one to develop programmes on African languages that would facilitate access to education, generally and to higher education, in particular. We are looking to our tertiary institutions to take us beyond the current 'feel-good' multicultural practice of "sanibonani-dumelang" into programmes that would enable all our people, irrespective of their level of proficiency in English or Afrikaans, to participate in knowledge construction and management. In an information age, we need students and graduates who are able to think and process information. So we are expecting your 'restructured' courses to respond to these national demands.
We believe that the position of the Department, as spelt out in the Language-in-Education Policy of the General Education and Training (GET) which was promulgated in 1997, is theoretically and pedagogically sound. It promotes additive multilingualism. In short, it decided on an approach that would maintain home languages while providing access to and effective acquisition of additional languages. It also requires School Governing Bodies to stipulate how their schools will promote multilingualism in one or more of the following ways:
(a) By using more than one language of learning and teaching; and/or
(b) By offering additional languages as fully-fledged subjects; and/or
(c) By applying special immersion or language maintenance programmes, or through other means approved by the department. (Language policy in education, p.8)
If we examine this statement carefully, what comes out clearly is that the new language policy, at least in the GET and FET bands, promotes our national goals and need for the "full participation" of all our people in national socio-economic activities through equitable and meaningful access to education. The rationale for a policy that promotes mother-tongue education and additive multilingualism is that access to education is not only confined to the abolition of school fees and new funding formulas. It is also about facilitating epistemological access, that is, access to knowledge or different ways of knowing. Access is about using the cultural and social capital of every learner as the basis for the construction of new knowledge. That is why our language policies are intended to ensure that language is used for the benefit of all learners instead of acting as a barrier to learning.
Let us now briefly focus on the role and value of African languages in higher education. Our Language-in-education policy in the GET and FET bands provides a framework within which the Higher Education Language Policy is based. The language policy in higher education should not be seen as an isolated and stand-alone document because the success of its implementation will depend on the successes achieved from its sister policy at pre-tertiary level. It would be unfortunate if the higher education language policy could undo or undermine the goals of the language policy in the GET and FET bands.
We will be able to understand and determine the value of African languages in higher education, if we never lose sight of the principles of access, equity and redress. Therefore, to argue for the student's right to use the language that she/he understands best is in fact to argue for a student's inalienable right to quality education. When we force students to learn mathematics, history, and other subjects in a language they are not proficient in, we are in fact, taking away their right to all the other rights because we are making language a barrier to their access to knowledge.
The language policy for higher education aims to remove language as a barrier to access and success in education. Whilst the role of English as the language of learning and teaching remains uncontested in the policy, the role of African languages as a resource that can facilitate learning is also acknowledged. The policy sees different languages "working together" to "build a common sense of nationhood" (Language Policy for Higher Education, p 3).
We are concerned that the decline in student enrolments in African languages programmes would lead to the closure of African Languages Departments in higher education institutions. We need to ask why this is happening. Central to this is the question about whether we can really expect African languages to remain areas of academic study and research when these are not affirmed in schools, workplaces, political and other social places. Higher education institutions are also experiencing a progressive decline in the success rates of students. We should also ask ourselves whether our students would perform better if they were allowed to take their studies and examinations in their primary languages or at least be provided with question papers in more than one language. As long as we fail to locate the question of language within a human rights discourse, no amount of debate on the efficacy and effectiveness of our policies will yield any tangible results in this regard. Always remember that like knowledge, language is power.
Our broadcast and other media are also doing very little or worse to promote the status of African languages. The research findings by the Pan South African Language Board reveal that 70% of the broadcasts by the SABC is in English. Shocking, as this might be, the fact that 78% of those surveyed said that they did not fully understand speeches delivered in English by politicians, means that a large percentage of the population is excluded from the democratic process in this country. How does one fully participate in democratic processes if one does not understand what is being said by public representatives?
Compared with their peers of other population groups, African kids are currently doing worse in mathematics, science and other content subjects. Research has shown that language is one of the important barriers to their success. But the domination of English does not only damage us in the spheres of politics, democracy and education, it devastates us in many other ways. Our cultures are inextricably bound to our languages. Our values, norms, customs and rituals are intertwined with our languages, music, dress and dances. When you suffocate the language of a people, you also smother their customs, rituals, music and dances, that is, their creativity, dreams and identity because the memory of a people is imbedded in their language.
Some scholars have even attributed the underdevelopment of Africa to the failure to harness the linguistic and cultural attributes of all African people. It is important to note that all past attempts at developing Africa have tended to impose the language, culture and outlook of the outsiders on the Africans. As a result, the creativity, genius and energies of the ordinary people for whom the development was meant, could not be harnessed, leading to the final collapse of such endeavours. I believe that the greatest contribution that the departments of African languages could make towards the re-birth of Africa and NEPAD is by raising awareness about the importance and value of indigenous languages in the transmission of knowledge and skills.
We hope that our humble submission will in some way contribute to the expansion of the framework and context within which academics could begin to interrogate the question of African languages in higher education. African languages departments have a leading role to play in the development of new institutional cultures by assisting and persuading their managements and students to embrace multilingualism in their instructional programmes and day-to-day activities of university life. You will not win this battle unless you are prepared to fight for the use of African languages in the academic discourse of your universities and technikons. Your task is to dispel the myth that African languages are not ready to be used as languages of learning and teaching. You are fully aware of the existing large body of research conducted locally and internationally, which points conclusively to the disastrous effects of teaching mainly in English when prevailing conditions make this an impossibility (Research Report on Language in the Classroom, published by Department of Education: 2000: p.14).
To this end, the Language-in-Education Implementation Plan provides for a programme that will focus on the "Development of language learning models from Grades 4 - 12, to improve the learning and teaching of Mathematics, Science and Technology. The bottom line is to make learners understand that mathematical computations done in Tshivenda or Sesotho are the same in all languages. We are looking to you as institutions of higher learning to lead the way in this battle.
Always remember that linguistic inequality was one of the pillars of apartheid. In the new dispensation we should use language as one of the vehicles of eliminating inequalities and uniting our people.
I wish you well in this difficult but very important task.
Issued by Ministry of Education
27 March 2003
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