Mother-Tongue Education in Venda: An Ethnolinguistic Vitality Critique

ABSTRACT

In January 2002, the Zimbabwean government officially declared the policy of teaching and learning of minority languages in primary schools in the areas where they are spoken. These languages were to ‘be introduced to a grade per year until they could be taught at Grade 7 by 2005’ (Secretary's Circular Number 1 of 2002). A decade after 2005, out of the six concerned languages only Tonga, Venda, Shangani and Nambya have been examined at Grade 7. Be that as it may, Venda nonetheless lagged behind despite the added advantage that it has. This article is an in-depth examination of the causes of this lag. Based on Giles, Bourhis and Taylor's (1977) theory of ethnolinguistic vitality, this article notes that the main glitch in the teaching and learning of Venda has been the lack of interaction and coordination within and between the micro and macro levels.

Keywords:

• bottom-up language planning
• ethnolinguistic vitality
• mother tongue education
• Venda
• official minority language
• top-down language planning
• Zimbabwe