Speaking with a forked tongue about multilingualism in the language policy of a South African university
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Date
2018
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Abstract
As part of a broader student campaign for �free decolonized education�, protests
over language policies at select South African universities between 2015 and 2016
belied widespread positive appraisals of these policies, and revealed what is possibly
an internal contradiction of the campaign. The discourse prior to the protests (e.g.
�excellent language policies but problematic implementation�), during the protests
(e.g. silence over the role of indigenous African languages in the �Afrikaans must
fall� versus �Afrikaans must stay� contestations), and after the protests (e.g. English
becoming a primary medium in some institutional policy reviews) warrant attention
to critical literacy in language policy scholarship. Based on a theoretical account of
speaking with a forked tongue, this article analyzes the language policy text of one
South African university. The analysis suggests, simultaneously, why similar policies
have tended to be positively appraised, why students� calls for policy revisions
were justified, but why the changes clamoured for arguably amount to complicity in
self-harm.
Description
Keywords
Decolonising education, Language policy, Multilingualism, Tactical polyvalence, Systemic functional linguistics
Citation
Antia, B.E. & van der Merwe (2018). Speaking with a forked tongue about multilingualism in the language policy of a South African university. Language Policy. 1 � 23.