Ten years of democracy: attitudes and identity among some South African school children

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Date

2004

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Stellenbosch University

Abstract

Ten years into South Africa�s democracy, how do school children feel about themselves as part of specific groups, and what is the role of language in their socio-cultural identities? This paper looks at the ways in which two groups of fourteen-year-old Xhosa-speaking and mixed-race �Coloured� South African secondary school learners in a new housing area near Cape Town negotiate their identities through language in a context of rapid social change. It analyses their beliefs and attitudes about the languages and speech communities to which they are exposed.

Description

Keywords

Socio-cultural identities, South Africa, Democracy, School children

Citation

Dyers, C. (2004). Ten years of democracy: attitudes and identity among some South African school children. Per Linguam: a Journal of Language Learning, 20(1):22-35