This article seeks to explore the present language scenario in courts of law. The article makes use of section 6 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (1996), as a point of departure. At face value this section seems to entrench the language rights of individuals. This would mean that individuals could request trials to be held in their mother tongues, with fluent and competent speakers of that mother tongue sitting on the bench. However, this has not materialised. Contrary to popular opinion, the article argues that individual language rights are to some extent entrenched in the Constitution, but there are no mechanisms to secure such rights in the public domain. The article argues that it is often only language privileges that are preserved in institutions such as the justice system. Legally speaking, there is an obligation on the State to provide interpreters to facilitate access to all eleven official languages in courts of law. This in itself presents numerous challenges. The article argues further that the corollary to this is that there is very little space for intercultural communication in courts of law (as defined by Ting-Toomey, 1999, and Gibson, 2002). There has been little or no capacity building in this regard. It is English, to some extent Afrikaans, and the western cultural paradigm, which prevails. The result is further communication breakdown and language intolerance. In this article, the notion of language rights in courts of law is explored against the backdrop of existing theories of intercultural communication.

Avec plus de 78 millions d’habitants, l’Iran actuel comprend une population multilingue ; la langue majoritaire et officielle, le persan, coexiste avec une diversité de langues plus ou moins usitées selon les situations et le nombre de locuteurs. Cette diversité linguistique du pays qui sert également de ciment à l’identité culturelle et aux différentes traditions des locuteurs de ces multiples langues, a rendu nécessaire de recourir à une politique linguistique définissant aussi bien la place et lapromotion de la langue officielle que les droits linguistiques de toutes les minorités. Ce travail de recherche, en empruntant une démarche ethnosociolinguistique, s'intéresse donc à cette situation linguistique particulière dans le contexte iranien. Il étudie les langues iraniennes, l’identité culturelle, le statut des minorités linguistiques, et ce grâce au recours aux différentes approches et théories de la politique linguistique, pour analyser et réinterroger ce contexte dans le cadre de la planification linguistique et les interventions des décideurs qui aboutissent à la définition des politiques linguistiques iraniennes. Ainsi, en nous appuyant sur les trois étapes de la planification linguistique ; la planification du corpus, du statut et de l’acquisition, nous avons étudié les travaux de l’Académie de la Langue et de la Littérature Persanes en tant que l’un des plus importants organismes pour planifier les interventions linguistiques du pays. Cette étude illustre également le statut sociolinguistique des minorités du pays grâce à des enquêtes de terrain. La prise en compte des politiques menées ainsi que des résultats des enquêtes illustre l'insuffisance ou bien des mesures, ou bien de leur application. Ce qui semble avoir conduit certains locuteurs de ces langues à formuler des revendications linguistiques liées également à la situation géopolitique du pays. / Contemporary Iran has a population of 78 million inhabitants who speak a variety of languages; its official and majority language Persian co-exists with many languages which are more or less used in different situations and count a variable number of speakers. The linguistic diversity of the country is the bedrock of the cultural identity and of the various traditions of the speakers of these many languages; it has made it necessary to define a linguistic policy to define both the role and thepromotion of the official language and the rights of all linguistic minorities. This dissertation is based upon an ethno-sociolinguistic methodology and focuses on the case of Iran, notably on Iranian languages, cultural identity, the status of linguistic minorities. It resorts to the various theories and scholarly interpretations of linguistic politics to analyze and question this context within the frame of linguistic planning and the decision making process of officials who developlinguistic policies in Iran. Thus our study is based upon the three stages of linguistic planning, that is the definition of the corpus, status and acquisition, it aims at highlighting the significance of the work of the Persian Language andLiterature Academy in the planning of linguistic interventions in the country. Il also highlights the sociolinguistic status of minorities in Iran thanks to fieldwork surveys. The analysis of the policies that have been implemented as well asthe results of surveys point out that the measures or their implementations are insufficient. This has therefore led to some linguistic demands connected with the geopolitical situation of the country.

This study examines the historical and contemporary sociolinguistic status of three minority languages, namely Shangani, Kalanga and Tonga in Chiredzi, Plumtree and Binga respectively within the civil courts of Zimbabwe. This research problematizes the issue of language choice and usage in civil courtroom discourse by native speakers of the languages under study. The background to this research endeavor is the historical dominance of English, Shona and Ndebele in public institutions as media of communication even in areas where minority languages are dominant, a situation that has resulted in minority languages having a restricted functional space in public life. Respondents in this research included native speakers of the languages under study who have attended civil courtroom sessions either as accused persons or complainants, members of rural communities including community leaders, court interpreters stationed at Binga, Chiredzi and Plumtree magistrates‟ courts and members of the Judicial Services Commission (JSC). Data was also collected from minority language advocacy groups including Tonga Language and Cultural Committee (TOLACCO), Shangani Promotion Trust (SPAT) and Kalanga Language and Culture Development (KLCDA) using semi-structured interviews. In addition, participant observation of civil courtroom proceedings involving native speakers of Kalanga, Tonga and Shangani was done. Documentary analysis of colonial and postcolonial language policies in Zimbabwe was also done. Data was analyzed using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Ecology of Language theories. The findings for this research revealed that historically, language policy making in Zimbabwe has impacted negatively on the functional roles of Shangani, Tonga and Kalanga in civil courtroom communication because of the lack of implementation clauses in national constitutions. Furthermore, language attitudes that were analyzed in conjunction with a number of factors including age, demographics, naming of provinces, awareness of constitutional provisions on language and language-in-education policies were found to be key determinant factors influencing the sociolinguistic status of Kalanga, Tonga and Shangani in civil courtroom discourse. Court interpreting and initiatives by language advocacy groups also impacted on the sociolinguistic status of the languages under study in civil courtroom interaction. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / D. Phil. (Language, Linguistics and Literature)

Language rights in South Africa are entrenched in the Constitution of South Africa (Chapter 1, Section 6, Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996). However, the concomitant infrastructure and organisational realities make this policy difficult to implement, especially in law courts (Kaschula and Ralarala 2004). Creating effective communicative environments has historically been constrained by lack of effective training of legal practitioners and by the lack of capacity for building translation structures. With the advancement of technology, potential solutions are becoming more apparent and it is incumbent upon the academic community to embark on a rigorous investigation into possible solutions and how these Information Communication Technology (ICT) solutions could be applied to the execution of justice in South African law courts. This article aims to open the discourse of possible solutions, via assessments of computer based translation solutions, ICT context simulations and other potential opportunities. The authors hope to initiate the interest of other language and legal practitioners to explore how the new technological capabilities could be harnessed to support the entrenchment of language rights in our law courts.

The modern notion of language rights leads at least to the confluence of three landmark that have come to mark out the relationship of nation states and their language: a historical landmark, which refers to the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, which emerged linguistic rights to a human rights category and fostered the positivization of a significant number of these rights in the constitutions of various countries; a legal landmark, which, in Brazil coincides with the enactment of the Constitution of the Republic, in 1988 and the strengthening among us, of a vision centered on fundamental rights, a theoretical landmark, which although strongly interdisciplinary, is mostly populated by the development of researches on language policy, sociology of language and also in the sociolinguistics field, which have instrumented researches that has generated meaningful data about the linguistic diversity of national states, defined methodological safe criteria, besides presenting language categories from which, countries can guide the development of their legislation. Another hallmark of this scenario is the fact that states usually legislate about the linguistic rights starting from two complementary normative biases, but distinct: in a first bias, the languages law, taking their own languages as legal objects to be protected by the States and, in a second bias, the linguistic rights of individual and groups, who understands to be the object of state protects the fundamental right of individuals and groups to use their own languages and / or the official language of the state in social situations formality or informality. This study aims to analyze the Brazilian state plurilingual situation under the bias and on the possibilities of the Federal Constitution of 1988, trying to extract a reading that can enable the guarantee language rights to individuals and groups speakers of minority languages, as well as understanding how Brazil appropriates the languages spoken in its territory, establishing a relationship between the official language and other languages constitutive of its linguistic diversity. / A noção moderna de direito linguístico nos conduz ao menos à confluência de três marcos que passaram a balizar o relacionamento dos Estados nacionais e suas línguas: um marco histórico, que remete à elaboração da Declaração Universal dos Direitos Humanos, em 1948, que elevou os direitos linguísticos à categoria de direito humano e fomentou a positivação de um conjunto significativo desses direitos nas constituições de diversos países; um marco jurídico-filosófico, que, no Brasil coincide com a promulgação da Constituição da República de 1988, com o fortalecimento do neoconstitucionalismo e com uma visão centrada nos direitos fundamentais, um marco teórico-epistemológico, que apesar de fortemente interdisciplinar, é majoritariamente preenchido pelo desenvolvimento das pesquisas em Políticas linguísticas, na sociologia da linguagem e também na sociolinguística, as quais têm instrumentalizado pesquisas que têm gerado com dados significativos acerca da diversidade linguística dos Estados nacionais, definido critérios metodológicos seguros, além apresentar categorias de línguas a partir das quais os países podem balizar a elaboração de suas legislações. Outro ponto de relevo neste cenário é o fato de que os Estados, usualmente legislam acerca dos direitos linguísticos partindo de dois vieses normativos complementares, porém distintos: em um primeiro viés, o direito das línguas, que toma as próprias línguas como objetos jurídicos a serem tutelados pelos Estados e, em um segundo viés, o direito dos grupos linguísticos, que entende como sendo o objeto da tutela estatal o direito fundamental dos indivíduos e dos grupos de utilizarem as suas próprias línguas e/ou a língua oficial do Estado em situações sociais formais ou informais. Este estudo objetiva analisar a situação plurilíngue do Estado brasileiro sob o viés e sob as possibilidades da Constituição Federal de 1988, buscando extrair uma leitura que possa viabilizar a garantia de direitos linguísticos aos indivíduos e aos grupos falantes de línguas minoritárias, bem como compreender como o Brasil se apropria das línguas estabelecendo uma relação entre a sua língua oficial e as demais línguas constitutivas da sua diversidade linguística.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-10T18:55:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 SIMONE B_ C RIBEIRO.pdf: 5269230 bytes, checksum: be374b863830e417cbc5f4e5a94377ac (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-02-20 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Reflecting on language policies and language planning in development and in practice it is an attempt to understand how they are being thought and executed. As Language Policy is a field of study that, when as the conductor of the public concern and of the emerging need of a nation, it manages the actions and reflections regarding the field of languages. The drawing up of a language planning that meets community interests is a necessity, along with the fact of being a responsibility of public authorities, since it is indispensable to correlate these fields with approaches related to linguistic rights, due to the contemporary scenario in which Language teaching and learning, most of the time, is a place where local or regional reality are being ignored. Therefore, considering this regard, this Thesis proposes to study the Spanish Language in the municipality of Guaíra - Paraná as a Border Language in order to identify, to discuss and to argue in favor of a language planning and policy compatible with the linguistic context of this municipal district. Hence, this research process indexed by Applied Linguistic, under the critical bias, supported by Pennycook (1998, 2006), Rajagopalan (2003), Signorini and Cavalcanti (1998), and Moita Lopes (2006), plus Sociolinguistic studies, Labov (1983, 1986, 2008), Tarallo (2007), and others, under Language Policies, through studies of Calvet (2007 [1987]), Oliveira (2010), Pereira and Costa (2011), Savedra and Lagares (2012), Rajagopalan (2013), Nicolaides et al. (2013) and von Borstel (2013), aiming a linguistic and political approach of local and regional nature which considers that teaching the said Modern Foreign Language, in this region of geographic border discourse of Paraguay, and, also, under the factor of historical region, as either in matters of Spanish settlement and colonization after the discovery of America, with focus on the municipal district of Guaíra, Paraná, or the strong presence of Spanish, Argentinians and, mostly, Paraguaians during the Matte Larangeira Company's export of maté. Thus, for the purpose of analysis, the applied method was in situ research using 33 semi-structured interviews, applying an script based on reflections and readings of qualitative approach, from theories by Flick (2004), Lüdke and André (1986), and others. According to the language policy applied in the above said municipal district where teaching of the English Language is a priority, this work justifies and argues, based on the context experienced by its citizens, the importance and common sense of introducing the Spanish Language in the educational curriculum of primary schools, beginning years, of the Brazilian educational system, enhancing the relevance of having an applied approach that involves the whole resulting contemporary problem, coached not only by theories but also by problems in order to understand language and sociocultural borders / Refletir sobre as políticas e planificações linguísticas em desenvolvimento e em prática é uma tentativa de compreender como as mesmas estão sendo pensadas e executadas. Como a Política Linguística é uma área de estudos que, ao agir como condutora do interesse público e da necessidade emergente da nação, administra as ações e reflexões referentes ao campo das línguas, a elaboração de uma planificação linguística que atenda aos interesses da comunidade, além de uma necessidade é uma obrigação do poder público, uma vez que demonstra a imprescindibilidade de correlacionar esses campos com abordagens relativas aos direitos linguísticos, em virtude do cenário contemporâneo em que o ensino e a aprendizagem de Línguas se encontram, lugar que, na maioria das vezes, desconsidera a realidade local ou regional. Portanto, ao refletir a esse respeito, esta Tese propõe um estudo sobre a Língua Espanhola no município de Guaíra, Paraná, como Língua de Fronteira, objetivando identificar, problematizar e argumentar em favor de uma política e de uma planificação linguística condizentes com o contexto linguístico vivenciado por este município. Para tanto, o processo investigativo inscreve-se na Linguística Aplicada, sob o viés Crítico, sustentado em Pennycook (1998, 2006), Rajagopalan (2003), Signorini e Cavalcanti (1998), e Moita Lopes (2006, 2013), acrescidos dos estudos da Sociolinguística, Labov (1983, 1986, 2008), Tarallo (2007), entre outros, nas Políticas Linguísticas, através dos estudos de Calvet (2007 [1987]), Oliveira (2003, 2010), Pereira e Costa (2011), Savedra e Lagares (2012), Rajagopalan (2013), Nicolaides et al. (2013) e von Borstel (2013), com vistas a uma abordagem linguística e política de cunho local e regional que considere o ensino da referida Língua Estrangeira Moderna, nessa região de fronteira geográfica enunciativa com o Paraguai, e, ainda, no fator histórico da região, tanto no que se refere ao povoamento e colonização espanhola após o descobrimento da América, focando o município de Guaíra, Paraná, quanto na forte presença de espanhóis, argentinos e, principalmente, paraguaios durante a exportação da erva-mate pela Companhia Matte Larangeira. Assim sendo, para fins de análise foram realizadas 33 entrevistas semiestruturadas, desenvolvidas a partir de um roteiro de entrevista que foi aplicado por meio de uma pesquisa in loco, sustentada em reflexões e leituras de cunho qualitativo, partindo dos pressupostos estabelecidos por Flick (2004), Lüdke e André (1986), entre outros. Em função da política linguística implementada no município e que prioriza o ensino da Língua Inglesa, justificou-se e argumentou-se, com base na realidade vivenciada pelos cidadãos, a importância e a validade da inserção da Língua Espanhola no currículo educacional público do Ensino Fundamental I, anos iniciais, reforçando a relevância de uma abordagem de cunho aplicado, que envolva toda a problemática advinda da contemporaneidade, orientada não somente por teorias, mas sim por problemas, e que extrapola as fronteiras da linguagem e do sociocultural

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Cette recherche se construit autour d’un travail de terrain réalisé dans trois communautés autochtones quichuas vivant au nord de l’Équateur. Il prétend étudier l’incidence que devrait avoir la diversité culturelle et linguistique dans les politiques éducatives en milieu plurilingue et multiculturel. En Amérique hispanique, l’éducation des peuples autochtones n’a jamais été très attentive à leurs besoins spécifiques en ce qui a trait à l’apprentissage de l’espagnol comme langue seconde. En effet, les motivations des apprenants, plus instrumentales qu’intégratives, prouvent que les autochtones apprennent la langue espagnole presqu’exclusivement pour communiquer, sans vraiment être intéressés au groupe natif de cette langue. De plus, notre recherche sur le terrain avec les apprenants du peuple Otavalo nous a démontré que leur très forte identification ethnique influence l’acquisition de l’espagnol. D’une part, ils sont plus enclins à se distinguer des autres, spécialement des hispano parlants, et de l’autre, ils réussissent plus difficilement à atteindre une compétence élevée dans la langue seconde. Notre recherche conclut donc que l’éducation, qu’elle soit issue du système national ou bilingue, devrait davantage prendre en considération l’identité ethnolinguistique des nombreux enfants indigènes, afin de ne pas préjudicier leurs droits. Ceci permettrait de favoriser un apprentissage positif et significatif de l’espagnol comme langue seconde ou langue maternelle, mais tout en consolidant l’identité autochtone des apprenants. / This research is built around a practical investigation conducted in three Quichua communities living in northern Ecuador. It claims to study the impact that should have the cultural and linguistic diversity in the educational policies in multilingual and multicultural environments. In Spanish America, the education of indigenous people has never been very attentive to their specific needs in respect to learning Spanish as a second language. Indeed, the motivations of these learners, more instrumentals than integratives, show that indigenous learn the Spanish language almost exclusively to communicate, without being actually interested in the group's native language. In addition, our field research with Otavalo learners showed us that their very strong ethnic identification influences the acquisition of Spanish. On the one hand, they are more likely to distinguish themselves from others, especially the Hispanic speaking people, and on the other hand, they don’t achieve high competence in the second language. Our research concludes that education, no matters if it comes from the national or the bilingual system, should further consider the ethnolinguistic identity of the many indigenous children, in order not to prejudice their rights. This would encourage a positive and significant acquisition of Spanish, as a second language or mother tongue, but would also consolidate the indigenous identity of the learners. / Esta investigación se basa en un trabajo de campo llevado a cabo en tres comunidades quichua del norte de Ecuador. Pretende estudiar el impacto que debería tener la diversidad cultural y lingüística en las políticas educativas en contextos plurilingüe y multicultural. En Hispanoamérica, por lo general la educación de los pueblos indígenas nunca ha tenido muy en cuenta sus necesidades específicas respecto al aprendizaje del español como segunda lengua. En efecto, la motivación de los aprendientes, más instrumental que integradora, muestra que los indígenas aprenden el idioma español casi exclusivamente para comunicarse, sin estar realmente interesados en el grupo meta. Además, nuestro trabajo de campo con aprendientes del pueblo otavalo mostró que la fuerte identificación con el propio grupo influye en la adquisición del español. Por un lado, son más propensos a distinguirse de los demás, especialmente de los nativos hispanohablantes, y por otro, no alcanzan altas competencias en la lengua segunda. Nuestra investigación concluye entonces que la educación, impartida por el sistema nacional o bilingüe, tiene que considerar la identidad etnolingüística de los numerosos niños y niñas indígenas, con el fin de no perjudicar sus derechos. Tal manera de actuar fomentaría un aprendizaje positivo y significativo del español, como segunda lengua o como lengua materna, y al mismo tiempo ayudaría al fortalecimiento de la identidad indígena de los alumnos.

Cette recherche se construit autour d’un travail de terrain réalisé dans trois communautés autochtones quichuas vivant au nord de l’Équateur. Il prétend étudier l’incidence que devrait avoir la diversité culturelle et linguistique dans les politiques éducatives en milieu plurilingue et multiculturel. En Amérique hispanique, l’éducation des peuples autochtones n’a jamais été très attentive à leurs besoins spécifiques en ce qui a trait à l’apprentissage de l’espagnol comme langue seconde. En effet, les motivations des apprenants, plus instrumentales qu’intégratives, prouvent que les autochtones apprennent la langue espagnole presqu’exclusivement pour communiquer, sans vraiment être intéressés au groupe natif de cette langue. De plus, notre recherche sur le terrain avec les apprenants du peuple Otavalo nous a démontré que leur très forte identification ethnique influence l’acquisition de l’espagnol. D’une part, ils sont plus enclins à se distinguer des autres, spécialement des hispano parlants, et de l’autre, ils réussissent plus difficilement à atteindre une compétence élevée dans la langue seconde. Notre recherche conclut donc que l’éducation, qu’elle soit issue du système national ou bilingue, devrait davantage prendre en considération l’identité ethnolinguistique des nombreux enfants indigènes, afin de ne pas préjudicier leurs droits. Ceci permettrait de favoriser un apprentissage positif et significatif de l’espagnol comme langue seconde ou langue maternelle, mais tout en consolidant l’identité autochtone des apprenants. / This research is built around a practical investigation conducted in three Quichua communities living in northern Ecuador. It claims to study the impact that should have the cultural and linguistic diversity in the educational policies in multilingual and multicultural environments. In Spanish America, the education of indigenous people has never been very attentive to their specific needs in respect to learning Spanish as a second language. Indeed, the motivations of these learners, more instrumentals than integratives, show that indigenous learn the Spanish language almost exclusively to communicate, without being actually interested in the group's native language. In addition, our field research with Otavalo learners showed us that their very strong ethnic identification influences the acquisition of Spanish. On the one hand, they are more likely to distinguish themselves from others, especially the Hispanic speaking people, and on the other hand, they don’t achieve high competence in the second language. Our research concludes that education, no matters if it comes from the national or the bilingual system, should further consider the ethnolinguistic identity of the many indigenous children, in order not to prejudice their rights. This would encourage a positive and significant acquisition of Spanish, as a second language or mother tongue, but would also consolidate the indigenous identity of the learners. / Esta investigación se basa en un trabajo de campo llevado a cabo en tres comunidades quichua del norte de Ecuador. Pretende estudiar el impacto que debería tener la diversidad cultural y lingüística en las políticas educativas en contextos plurilingüe y multicultural. En Hispanoamérica, por lo general la educación de los pueblos indígenas nunca ha tenido muy en cuenta sus necesidades específicas respecto al aprendizaje del español como segunda lengua. En efecto, la motivación de los aprendientes, más instrumental que integradora, muestra que los indígenas aprenden el idioma español casi exclusivamente para comunicarse, sin estar realmente interesados en el grupo meta. Además, nuestro trabajo de campo con aprendientes del pueblo otavalo mostró que la fuerte identificación con el propio grupo influye en la adquisición del español. Por un lado, son más propensos a distinguirse de los demás, especialmente de los nativos hispanohablantes, y por otro, no alcanzan altas competencias en la lengua segunda. Nuestra investigación concluye entonces que la educación, impartida por el sistema nacional o bilingüe, tiene que considerar la identidad etnolingüística de los numerosos niños y niñas indígenas, con el fin de no perjudicar sus derechos. Tal manera de actuar fomentaría un aprendizaje positivo y significativo del español, como segunda lengua o como lengua materna, y al mismo tiempo ayudaría al fortalecimiento de la identidad indígena de los alumnos.

After many years of the oppressive apartheid government, the new democratic era came into being in 1994. Lot of policy changes came into being, including language policy. This new language policy of the post-apartheid era recognises eleven official languages which include the nine indigenous African languages which were previously recognised as regional languages in the different homelands. The present study investigates the progress of Tshivenda in terms of status and development since it was accorded the official status in South Africa. Literature investigating the status of Tshivenda is generally sparse. This study investigates the status of Tshivenda in South Africa to explore how minority languages which are also recognised as official languages are treated. In most multilingual countries, there are issues which affect the development of minority languages, but the South African situation is interesting in that some of the minority languages are recognised as official languages. This study is a comparative in nature. Firstly, the study compares the level of corpus planning and development in Tshivenda and other indigenous South African languages. Secondly, it compares how people use Tshivenda in a rural area of Lukalo Village where the language is not under pressure from other languages and in Cosmo City, an urban area in Gauteng where Tshivenda speakers come into contact with speakers of more dominant languages such as isiZulu and Sesotho. Language use in different domains like, media, education, government and the home is considered in order to establish how people use languages and the factors which influence their linguistic behaviours. The study also establishes the perceptions and attitudes of the speakers of Tshivenda as a minority and those of the speakers of other languages towards Tshivenda’s role in the different domains such as education and the media. This study was influenced by previous research (Alexander 1989, Webb 2002) which found out that during the apartheid period Tshivenda speakers used to disguise their identity by adopting dominant languages like isiZulu and Sesotho in Johannesburg. Accordingly, the present research wanted to establish how the language policy change in the democratic era has impacted on the confidence of Tshivenda speakers regarding themselves and their language. This study establishes that although Tshivenda is now an official language in post-apartheid South Africa, it still has features of underdevelopment and marginalization that are typically of unofficial minority languages. Translation, lexicographic and terminological work in this language still lags behind that of other indigenous South African languages and there is still a shortage of school textbooks and adult literature in this language. As a result, using the language in education, the media and other controlling domains is still quite challenging, although positive developments such as the teaching of the language at university level can be noted. The Tshivenda speakers generally have a positive attitude towards their language and seem prepared to learn and use it confidently as long its functional value is enhanced, which is currently not happening. As a result, some Tshivenda speakers still regard English as a more worthwhile language to learn at the expense of their language