Browsing by Author "Pluddemann, Peter"

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    Unlocking the grid: Language-in-education policy realisation in post-apartheid South Africa
    (Routledge, 2014) Pluddemann, Peter
    This paper reflects on the state of educational language policy two decades into a postApartheid South Africa caught between official multilingualism and English. The focus is on the national language-in-education policy (LiEP) that advocates additive bi/multilingualism, and a provincial counterpart, the language transformation plan (LTP). Using Ricento and Hornberger’s onion metaphor, the paper seeks to uncover the meanings of policy realisation in education at legislative, institutional, and interpersonal levels. The LiEP’s non-realisation at institutional level is indexed by a ‘gridlock of collusion’ (Alexander, personal communication) between political elites and the majority of African-language speakers, who emulatively seek the goods that an English-medium education promises. To illustrate how teachers can become policy advocates, data are presented from a bilingual education in-service programme that supported the LTP. The paper argues that sociolinguistic insights into speakers’ heteroglossic practices should be used to counter prevailing monoglossic policy discourses and school language practices, and that all languages should be used as learning resources. Strategic essentialism would recognise the schooling system’s need to separately classify language subjects and to identify the languages most productively used for teaching across the curriculum. The paper concludes with a call for the revision of the LiEP.
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    What is the relationship between the home language and literacy backgrounds of Afrikaans-speaking learners and their proficiency in English?
    (University of the Western Cape, 2003) Adams, Anthea; Pluddemann, Peter
    In this study, which is an example of three ethnographic type case studies, I explore the relationship between the literacy backgrounds and home language of Afrikaans speaking learners and their proficiency in English. My literature review mainly focuses on research pertaining to language-in-education in a South African context and where applicable, an international context. I identify two aspects, which are significant in the development of the three children's English proficiency' These aspects are the following: (i) The difference between the school language (LoLT) and home language of the three children. (ii) The difference between the school literacy practices and the home (or alternative) literacy practices. My thesis takes the view of the New Literacy Studies that literacy is situated socially and that children's literacy practices are shaped at home. I discuss the terms literacy practices and literacy events in terms of the social practices approach to literacy. Theories about reading and writing include the emergent literacy approach according to which becoming literate is described as a process whereby reading, writing and oral language are all integral parts of literacy learning, I discuss the English language proficiency of the three children in terms of Cummins' (i981) development of two continua, of context embedded, cognitively undemanding communication and context reduced, cognitively demanding communication, which is an extension of the BICS and CALP theory in language development. I reflect on how my experience as an English teacher in a multicultural township school indicates that the hegemony of English may influence school governing bodies to adopt assimilationist language policies. With reference to literacy, the term "assimilationist" refers to people choosing to learn a high-status language to the detriment of their own home language/s. The implications of such language choices are the reinforcement of English and the continuing low status of their home language/s. I conclude this mini-thesis by making recommendations to stakeholders in education.