Moving beyond Artificial Linguistic Binaries in the Education of African Language Speaking Children: A Case for Simultaneous Biliteracy Development

Autor/in	Guzula, Xolisa
Titel	Moving beyond Artificial Linguistic Binaries in the Education of African Language Speaking Children: A Case for Simultaneous Biliteracy Development
Quelle	In: Perspectives in Education, 36 (2018) 2, S.1-14 (15 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0258-2236
Schlagwörter	Blacks; African Languages; Language Planning; Whites; Indo European Languages; Criticism; Case Studies; Multilingualism; Clubs; Foreign Countries; Literacy Education; Racial Bias; Disadvantaged; Language of Instruction; English (Second Language); Equal Education; Educational Policy; Bilingualism; Educational History; Language Attitudes; Play; Elementary School Students; Communicative Competence (Languages); Semiotics; South Africa + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Black person; Schwarzer; Africa; Language; Languages; Afrika; Sprachen; Afrikanische Sprache; Sprachwechsel; White; Weißer; Indoeuropäisch; Kritik; Case study; Fallstudie; Case Study; Mehrsprachigkeit; Multilingualismus; Club; Klub; Ausland; Racial discrimination; Rassismus; Teaching language; Unterrichtssprache; English as second language; English; Second Language; Englisch als Zweitsprache; Politics of education; Bildungspolitik; Bilingualismus; History of education; Bildungsgeschichte; Sprachverhalten; Spiel; Communicative competence; Kommunikative Kompetenz; Sprache; Semiotik; Südafrika; Süd-Afrika; Republik Südafrika; Südafrikanische Republik
Abstract	Language policy debates in South Africa concern only Black African language speaking children rather than White English and Afrikaans speaking children. These debates construct Black African children as learners with deficits and fail to acknowledge their language resources. At the same time, policy makers fail to critique the unjust system to which they are subjected and of which they are victims. In this paper, I present a brief case study of children belonging to the Stars of Today Literacy Club to show the possibilities and ways in which these children are positioned as competent multilinguals and, in so doing, can resist the prevailing deficit view. The paper has three key aims: 1) to bring to light the racist ideology behind the current implementation of language policy, showing the specific ways in which, it constructs African language speaking children as inherently different from English and Afrikaans speaking children, evidenced by the fact that English and Afrikaans language speakers' medium is not even debated: eventually, English becomes the preferred language of instruction from Grade 4 onwards. 2) To describe how inequality is thus created and entrenched through undifferentiated language in education policies, curriculum, textbooks, and assessments, all of which are based on the unexamined idea of the child being a middle-class English-speaking child. 3) to demonstrate how bilingual children can be positioned as capable, rather than deficient, through hybrid language and literacy practices. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	University of the Free State Faculty of Education. P.O. Box 339, Bioemfontein 9300, South Africa. Tel: +27-51-401-2368; e-mail: PiE@ufs.ac.za; Web site: http://journals.ufs.ac.za/index.php/pie/index
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01