Language in South Africa
Subtitle: the role of language in national transformation, reconstruction and development
By: Vic Webb.
Series: Impact, studies in language and society; 14
Publisher: J. Benjamins
Published: 2002
Place of publication: Philadelphia
Language: eng
Number of pages: 356
Subjects: Language planning -- South Africa.; Language policy -- South Africa.; Sociolinguistics -- South Africa.; South Africa -- Languages.
Description: The title of this book indicates quite accurately what it wants to do: it wants to discuss the role which language, or more properly, languages, can perform in the reconstruction and development of South Africa. The approach followed in Language in South Africa (LiSA for short) is characterised by a number of features: (a) it wants to be factually based and (b) theoretically informed, yet (c) acknowledges that an ideological point of departure is inevitable in the present South African context.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 315-345) and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: CHAPTER 1; title: Invisible voices: The problem of language in South Africa 5; title: Introduction 5; title: Language-related developmental problems 7; title: Language problems 25; title: The need for language planning 33; title: CHAPTER 2; title: Exploring the maze: The macro-context for language policy and language planning in South Africa 37; title: Theory of language planning 37; title: The macro-contexts of language planning 44; title: The national ideals 45; title: The reconstruction and development programme 46; title: The Constitution 48; title: Conclusion 60; title: CHAPTER 3; title: The nature of things: A sociolinguistic profile of South Africa 63; title: The socio-political context 65; title: Languages of the country 66; title: Language knowledge 77; title: Geographic distribution of the languages of South Africa 80; title: Demographic distribution 82; title: Language functions 83; title: Language status 83; title: Literacy 90; title: National communication 9o; title: Corpus development 91; title: Public functions and domains 92; title: Language planning institutions 95; title: CHAPTER 4; title: For the people, by the people: Language and state administration 99; title: The general tasks of government 99; title: Some features of a multilingual language policy and plan for state administration 103; title: The process of language policy development for the Department of Labour 108; title: The present state of language policy development in state administration 114; title: The language policy proposals of two state departments 118; title: Language policy at the provincial and local government level 122; title: The cost of linguistic pluralism in state administration 129; title: Conclusion: The need for a pro-active approach 132; title: CHAPTER 5; title: The power of one: Language and nation 137; title: The problem of language and nation 138; title: Factors in the equation 140; title: The role of a national language in nation-building in South Africa 147; title: Language and nation-building in South Africa 151; title: Language rights 156; title: The role of the school 164; title: Language planning tasks 165; title: Conclusion 167; title: CHAPTER 6; title: Growing potential: Language in education 169; title: A profile of education in South Africa 170; title: A new education philosophy 172; title: Language as a fundamental instrument in educational development 175; title: The language of learning and teaching (LoL/T) issue 177; title: The current language-in-education policy 177; title: Present LoL/T practice 183; title: The debate on LoL/T in South Africa 185; title: How proficient are black learners in English? 187; title: Is the use of a Bantu language as LoL/T not a better choice? 191; title: The LoL/T debate at international level 192; title: Research findings on the issue 194; title: The need for local research 198; title: Concluding remarks on the LoL/T issue 200; title: Language certification requirements 202; title: Language study 203; title: The impact of sociolinguistic phenomena on educational development in South Africa 208; title: CHAPTER 7; title: Spreading the wealth: Language and economic development 217; title: The interrelationship between language and economy 218; title: Language as a production factor 219; title: Language as a consumption factor 222; title: Language as a barrier to economic development in South Africa 225; title: The Bantu languages and economic development 227; title: Language planning for economic development in South Africa 232; title: The need for research 237; title: Conclusion 239; title: CHAPTER 8; title: Giving voice: Language promotion 243; title: Introduction 243; title: Planning for Afrikaans 244; title: Planning for English 247; title: Promoting the Bantu languages 249; title: The basic requirement for effective language promotion 250; title: A strategic analysis of the politics of the Bantu languages 251; title: The contents of a language promotion programme 259; title: Status planning 259; title: Corpus planning 266; title: The technicalisation of the Bantu languages 268; title: Acquisition planning 277; title: Conclusion 277; title: CHAPTER 9; title: Steering the course: Language management 281; title: Introduction: A framework for management 281; title: Description of the institutions and structures for language management in South Africa 283; title: A brief historical note 283; title: Language management institutions in South Africa 286; title: Legislative bodies 286; title: State departments 287; title: PANSALB 289; title: A preliminary evaluation of language management in South Africa from the perspective of strategic management 300; title: Planning 303; title: Organisation 307; title: Leading 309; title: Control 310; title: Conclusion 311.