Language policy incongruity and African languages in postapartheid South Africa

Abstract

This study explores some of the reasons why, in spite of the exemplary fashion in which democratic South Africa responded to the constitutional imperatives pertaining to language, policy implementation has been slow. It is argued that language policy and planning in South Africa have become trapped in a gap between 'intention' and 'performance'. This study investigates the performance of the Pan South African Language Board, as government's statutory language planning agency mandated to promote the use of the African languages. The study argues that language planning agencies, such as PanSALB, are pivotal in addressing attitudinal problems regarding the role of African languages in education. Language planning as a marketing strategy is proposed as an integral part of reviewing and remaking policy, with a view to ensuring the ecological wellbeing of African languages, and hence their future as languages of learning and teaching.

Keywords:

• African languages
• language attitudes
• Language-in-Education Policy
• language planning agency
• language policy and planning
• linguistic culture
• National Language Policy Framework
• Pan South African Language Board