The North-West University language policy: A glimmer of hope and flashes of red lights

Abstract

South Africa was notorious for its violation of its citizenry's language rights in the past. To effect redress, the current South African constitution has accorded official status to the 11 major languages of this land. There is, however, some discontent about how language policies have been made at the micro-level. In a descriptive study based on Spolsky (2006), Van Schoor (2003) and Venter's (1998) models of organisational transformation, this article used a questionnaire and observations to investigate students’ perceptions of the North-West University (NWU) language policy at the Mafikeng campus, in relation to the degree to which this document meets the language needs of the participants in the study. The findings suggest that while the implementation of NWU language policy has resulted in a few positive changes, some changes still need to be made for satisfactory transformation to occur at the Mafikeng campus of the NWU.

Keywords:

• equality
• language policy
• mother-tongue instruction
• motivation
• transformation