<p>Much language planning and policy in recent years in South Africa tends to overlook linguistic situations and practices, and focuses on notions of top-down language policy and implementation. This does not fit easily with the current multilingualism dynamics of late post-modern societies, which are increasingly characterized by a culture of consumerism and politics of aspiration. Taking its point of departure from a critical analysis of linguistic practices, in the form of visual literacies (billboards) in a township in South Africa, this thesis aims to draw forth alternative approaches that focus on the notion of sociolinguistic consumption, politics of aspiration and stylization of self, as a means of addressing the linguistic situation, and highlighting implications for language planning and multilingualism.</p>

<p>In the thesis, I endeavour to create a platform on which to construct an understanding of &lsquo / integration&rsquo / in a multilingual and multicultural setting, post-apartheid. I have selected UWC as the research site as it is an institution of higher education and an inherently South African one which houses a large number of diverse ethnicities, cultures and languages. I appeal to the poststructuralist approach as it is one that explores the possible sociopolitical, economic and historical influences on which I argue and which forms the backdrop to understanding integration amongst the various groups. I am especially drawn to the topic of integration as there is to date no well-defined definition of what that means in the &lsquo / new&rsquo / South Africa. Different identities are explored in relation to how students identify themselves within their social networks, across various cultures and through language choices. In particular, I look at the three dominant &lsquo / South African&rsquo / groups, namely: Indians, Blacks and Coloureds and also two international student groups, the Batswanas and Chinese. use a qualitative approach and undertake focus groups and one-to-one interviews as well as participant observations and analyzing documentation. Data analysis is achieved through Discourse Analysis of transcribed interviews. One of the conclusions is that integration will not occur overnight. However, the broadening and exercising of linguistic options could be seen as a step in right direction to integration across the various ethnic groups. The study ends with recommendations and gives an overall view of integration at UWC. One of the recommendations is that UWC needs to give students more opportunities to practice their multilinguality and thereby broaden their linguistic repertoire which could in turn facilitate integration.</p>

<p>This thesis aims to explore the ways in which space patterns regimes of language use and language attitudes among Cameroonian immigrant children in a primary school in Cape Town. The presence of migrants in any classroom represents a significant challenge from the theoretical as well as practical point of view, given that schools are responsible for both socialization and learning (Gajo &amp / Mondada 1996). Most African countries are going through large-scale migration from rural to urban areas as well as increasing transnational migration due to recent socio-economic and socio-political trends. These flows affect the sociolinguistic economy of the places concerned, not only the individuals within them. Thus immigrants&rsquo / movement into an urban area not only affects their repertoires, as they find themselves confronted with the task of acquiring the communicative resources of the autochthonous population, but also those of the autochthonous population who find themselves confronted with linguistic communicative processes and resources &lsquo / alien&rsquo / to their environment. Similar effects are felt by local educational and other institutions, now faced with learners with widely varying degrees of competence in the required communicative skills. The participants in this study are a group of young migrants from Cameroon where English and French are the two official languages. These learners already have some languages in their repertoire, which may include their mother tongue or either of the two official languages. My focus will be on the multilingual resources of these learners and how they make use of these in the daily life of their new spaces, the school, the homes and community spaces, to construct new social identities.</p>

<p>This thesis is the result of an ethnographic study of the multilingual literacy practices of a group of families in their particular spaces within the urban context of the community of Manenberg, with the specific view of investigating the links between spatial and urban capital and the literacy practices to be encountered amongst these families. The following questions form the core of the study: 1. What are the parental ethnotheories about literacy and schooling? 2. Are there family literacy practices that may enhance preschool children&rsquo / s ability to make meaning within the school system? The results of the thesis show a range of beliefs resulting in parents adopting a range of strategies in terms of&nbsp / language choice and literacy socialisation of their children. The thesis also shows that the vast majority of parents view acquisition of English as important, that there is a definite concern about access to libraries and about safe places for children to engage in extramural activity. Parental ethnotheories have a direct bearing on how the preschool child is oriented towards literacy. This includes implications for what languages the preschool child is exposed to, what medium of instruction parents prefer for their children (which is often not the language of highest competence of the child), whether or not various supposedly accessible resources for the promotion of children&rsquo / s literacy are tapped into, and whether or not parents become actively involved in the literacy acquisition of their children. However, these findings need to be seen in the larger context of the research participants&rsquo / perceptions and discourses about space, multilingualism, and literacy. Some unexpected findings are shown as a result of listening to people&rsquo / s voices on the ground. The&nbsp / respondents&rsquo / ethnotheories of multilingualism, space, and literacy produce narratives of local patriotism, pride in Cape Afrikaans, and of emplacement rather than displacement.&nbsp / Urban planning structures, whether envisaged under apartheid or by successive regimes in the post apartheid era, are shown to have become less rigid, fluid, and porous. The&nbsp / local moral economy works to legitimise poverty, so that living in a shack is not stigmatised, and gang members are seen to be full members of the local community, ignoring&nbsp / normative structures that would treat such agents in a punitive manner beyond the borders of Manenberg. Residents, though mostly impoverished and lacking in high levels of&nbsp / education, are shown to remain marginalised through a lack of material resources, with many in need of a strategic orientation to resources, including those which would enable&nbsp / them to orient their children to literacy in such a way as to enable them to make a successful transition to the school system.</p>

<p>This thesis examines how multilingual spaces in South Africa are imagined and reconstructed through the use of scripted codeswitching in 7de Laan. It explores how the socio-political discourses and other ideologies from the broader South African context shape and influence the ways in which the soap reconstructs multilingual spaces and the identities that exist within these spaces through language and language practices. In the literature presented in this study I explore various theories and case studies that examine Afrikaans and its indexicality in our&nbsp / contemporary society, the conventions of soap opera in representing &lsquo / reality&rsquo / to society, the role of codeswitching in multilingual mass communication, the policies and ideologies that govern post apartheid television and finally the link between ideology, the media, language and imagined identities.. These five overarching themes often overlap throughout this thesis. My investigation of the main questions set in this thesis is based on a triangulated analysis of (a) a five episode transcript of the soap, (b) solicited viewer perceptions gleaned from questionnaires and (c) unsolicited social media commentaries. This analysis is framed by a poststructuralist critical analysis with a specific focus on how social practices and contemporary ideologies manifest in the discourse of the soap. This approach views discourse as the juncture where identity, stereotypes and power are negotiated, enforced, imagined and challenged. In this thesis I argue that the conspicuous absence of indigenous African languages and the use of standard white Afrikaans as the lingua franca in the soap creates an unrealistic utopian portrayal of the new South Africa that naturalises white Afrikaans culture and marginalises other indigenous cultures and languages. I argue that the soap puts middle class white Afrikaners at the epicentre of South African society thus enforcing the idea that non-whites still need to conform to white Afrikaans standards and norms at the expense of their own culture and languages despite the inception of democracy. The soap offers no depictions of resistance to this dominant white Afrikaans culture, thus misleadingly portraying it as the uncontested dominant culture of the new South Africa.</p>

<p>This thesis is an exploration of the historical, socio-cultural, economic, and political settings in which identities are negotiated and performed among Cameroonian immigrants in Cape Town. Focusing on language as localized practices and different interaction regimes, the thesis investigates how Cameroonian immigrants maintain and reconfigure the Anglophone/Francophone identity options in novel and hybrid ways. In addition, the study examines how ideologies favouring different languages are reproduced and challenged in translocal and transnational discourses. Guided by the poststructuralist theories the thesis explores the stance that reality is socially constructed, based on symbolic and material structural limitations that are challenged and maintained in interaction. That is, whatever we do or believe in, is supported by some historical or cultural frames of meanings in our lived world, which often gives room to some manoeuvre to do things in a new way. The study adopts a multiplex interpretive approach to data collection. This entails a qualitative sociolinguistic approach where interviews, discussion and observations at different socio-economic places namely / meetings, workplaces, homes, restaurants, drinking spots and many sites from all over Cape Town, were explored. The study suggests that Cameroonians have a multiplicity of identity options, which are manifested and negotiated performatively through language, dress code, song, food, business, and other practices that comprise their lifestyles. These identities are translocal and transnational in nature, and tend to blend South African, Cameroonian, and even American traits. It is also suggests that the different identity options which they manifest are highly mobile, enabling Cameroonians to fit into South African social structures as well as the Cameroonian ways of doing things.&nbsp / Additionally, the multiplicity of identities that Cameroonians manifest, blur the fault-line between Anglophone/Francophone identities. It is evident from the study that hybridity and the reconstruction practices are not only confined to languages. Hybridity also extends to discourse orders especially in terms of how meetings are conducted. The Cameroonian meetings captured through the activities of Mifi Association and CANOWACAT are characterised by &lsquo / disorder of discourse&rsquo / in which both formal and informal versions of English and French are used&nbsp / separately or as amalgams alongside CPE and their national languages, not only in side talks, but also when contributing to the meeting proceedings. Ultimately, the study concludes that&nbsp / Cameroonians are social actors making up an indispensable part of the social interaction in the Cape Town Diaspora. Just as they influence the languages, the entrepreneurial practices, and&nbsp / spaces in which they interact, the Cameroonian immigrants are also transformed. The major contribution of the study is that it adds to the recent debates about the nature of multilingualism&nbsp / and identities in late modern society. It emphasises that languages and identities are fluid, complex, and unstable. The distinction or boundaries between the various languages in multilingual practices are also not as clear-cut. This leads to a reframing of voice and actor hood as meaning is constructed across translocal and transnational contexts and domains in a networked&nbsp / world transformed by the mobility of endless flows of information, goods, ideas, and people. Thus, the study contributes to those arguing for a paradigm shift in sociolinguistic theory in which&nbsp / language is not a property of groups, nor is it an autonomous and bounded system fixed in time and space. Thus, identities, languages and the spaces of interaction are not fixed systems / &nbsp / identities, languages, and spaces are dynamic and in a state of flux. This in turn questions the notions of multilingualism and language itself, as well as the veracity of concepts such as&nbsp / &nbsp / &nbsp / code-switching, speech community, language variation, as the search for a sociolinguistic framework that can deal with phenomena predicated by motion, instability, and uncertainty, continues. <br /> &nbsp / </p>

<p>This thesis is an exploration of the historical, socio-cultural, economic, and political settings in which identities are negotiated and performed among Cameroonian immigrants in Cape Town. Focusing on language as localized practices and different interaction regimes, the thesis investigates how Cameroonian immigrants maintain and reconfigure the Anglophone/Francophone identity options in novel and hybrid ways. In addition, the study examines how ideologies favouring different languages are reproduced and challenged in translocal and transnational discourses. Guided by the poststructuralist theories the thesis explores the stance that reality is socially constructed, based on symbolic and material structural limitations that are challenged and maintained in interaction. That is, whatever we do or believe in, is supported by some historical or cultural&nbsp / frames of meanings in our lived world, which often gives room to some manoeuvre to do things in a new way. The study adopts a multiplex interpretive approach to data&nbsp / collection. This entails a qualitative sociolinguistic approach where interviews, discussion and observations at different socio-economic places namely / meetings, workplaces,&nbsp / homes, restaurants, drinking spots and many sites from all over Cape Town, were explored. The study suggests that Cameroonians have a multiplicity of identity options, which are manifested and negotiated performatively through language, dress code, song, food, business, and other practices that comprise their lifestyles. These identities are&nbsp / translocal and transnational in nature, and tend to blend South African, Cameroonian, and even American traits. It is also suggests that the different identity options which they manifest are highly mobile, enabling Cameroonians to fit into South African social structures as well as the Negotiation of Identities and Language Practices Cameroonian ways of doing things. Additionally, the multiplicity of identities that Cameroonians manifest, blur the fault-line between Anglophone/Francophone identities. It is evident from the study that hybridity and the reconstruction practices are not only confined to languages. Hybridity also extends to discourse orders especially in terms of how meetings are conducted. The Cameroonian meetings captured through the activities of Mifi Association and CANOWACAT are characterised by &lsquo / disorder of discourse&rsquo / in which both formal and informal versions of English and French are used separately or as amalgams alongside CPE and their national languages, not only in side talks, but also when contributing to the meeting proceedings. Ultimately, the study concludes that Cameroonians are social actors making up an indispensable part of the social interaction in the Cape Town Diaspora. Just as they influence the languages, the entrepreneurial practices, and spaces in which they interact, the Cameroonian immigrants are also transformed. The major&nbsp / contribution of the study is that it adds to the recent debates about the nature of multilingualism and identities in late modern society. It emphasises that languages and identities are fluid, complex, and unstable. The distinction or boundaries between the various languages in multilingual practices are also not as clear-cut. This leads to a reframing of voice and actor hood as meaning is constructed across translocal and transnational contexts and domains in a networked world transformed by the mobility of endless flows ofinformation, goods, ideas, and people. Thus, the study contributes to those arguing for a paradigm shift in sociolinguistic theory in which language is not a property of groups, nor is it an autonomous and bounded system fixed in time and space. Thus, identities, languages and the spaces of interaction are not fixed systems / identities, languages, and spaces are dynamic and in a state of flux. This in turn questions the notions of multilingualism and language itself, as well as the veracity of concepts such as code-switching,&nbsp / speech community, language variation, as the search for a sociolinguistic framework that can deal with phenomena predicated by motion, instability, and uncertainty, continues.</p>

The purpose of this study was to determine the attitudes of a predetermined sample population of SABC TV viewers towards SABC’s language policies, and to identify and critically analyse the factors that influenced these attitudes by approaching the subject matter from a variety of methodological positions. This is an especially important undertaking when considering that the South African media landscape has for decades been the site of political, social and ideological confrontation, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) notwithstanding. Since operating as a mouthpiece for the National Party during the apartheid era, the role of the SABC in contemporary post-apartheid South Africa has come into sharp focus. The SABC’s role in South African society, allied to its status as a public service broadcaster, is significant in terms of encouraging nation-building and a unified national identity or cohesive national identities. Furthermore, the relationship between the public broadcaster and national policy makers is central to attaining goals such as linguistic parity in multilingual situations, such as in South Africa. For the SABC, what would be a difficult task under normal circumstances is made even more challenging when considering the numerous linguistically harmful legacies that remain after the apartheid period, where African languages were devalued and disempowered in the eyes of their speakers. The status of English as an international language, as well as the role that it played near the end of the apartheid era, would also come to be an obstacle in the path to the equitable treatment of South Africa’s eleven official languages. As such, this study aimed in part to determine whether SABC TV has embraced, or is perceived to have embraced, the ethos of the Constitution (Act 108 of 1996) and its own multilingual policies. More importantly, the main focus of this project was to ascertain the effect of SABC TV’s linguistic policy and practice decisions on the attitudinal dispositions of its viewing public, and to attempt to frame these language attitudes in terms of the ideologies operating within South Africa and the SABC. To achieve this, an assortment of complementary data-gathering techniques were arranged in a multi-method and triangulation approach to investigating the complex research problem. A historical analysis of South Africa’s and the SABC’s social, political, and media landscapes identified ideologically significant events from South Africa’s history, and these included the introduction of tangible linguistic and ideological boundaries between the African languages, the hegemony of English as a language of social and economic mobility and as the language of the indigenous African populations struggle against apartheid, speakers of African languages being placed in opposition to their own languages thanks to the misuse of mother tongue education, the association of Afrikaans with the apartheid state and the theoretical commitment of the democratic government and the SABC to fostering inclusive multilingualism. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of the SABC’s current language policy and language practices were also conducted. Whilst at face value SABC TV was seen to more or less meet the language delivery quotas stipulated by ICASA (a regulatory body) during the given period, further investigation determined that the manner in which the quotas were framed made it easy for the SABC to implement practicable strategies in implementing the multilingualism espoused by the Constitution (Act 108 of 1996). A survey and focus group interview were employed to investigate the language attitudes of the sample population in terms of the following themes: standardisation of languages (standard Sotho or Nguni), the efficiency of multilingual broadcasting in South Africa, the social and functional capability of African languages, the perceived positions of English and the African languages in South African society, and the role and responsibilities of the public broadcaster. The predetermined sample population comprised of mainly first language English and isiZulu speakers, and the linguistic attitudes between these two language groups were observed to significantly different on a number of key criteria, potentially due to those ideologically significant events uncovered with the historical description, as well as to the language policies and practices utilised by SABC TV. First language English speakers were neutral with regards to many of the issues surrounding the efforts of SABC TV at inclusive multilingual broadcasting, possibly influenced by the hegemony of English, as well as having a vested interest in maintaining the elite closure enjoyed by its speakers. Juxtaposed to the first language English speaking component of the sample population were the first language isiZulu speakers who exhibited much more of a loyalty towards their language, and towards the African languages in general. This study hopefully contributed in a small way to developing an understanding of the relationship between these speakers, as well as of their attitudes towards and expectations of language policies and practices at the level of both the SABC TV and government. By better understanding the intricacies of the complex and unique social milieu within it works, the SABC can be better equipped to formulate and execute policies and practices to best serve the needs of all South Africans. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.

This thesis is an exploration of the historical, socio-cultural, economic, and political settings in which identities are negotiated and performed among Cameroonian immigrants in Cape Town. Focusing on language as localized practices and different interaction regimes, the thesis investigates how Cameroonian immigrants maintain and reconfigure the Anglophone/Francophone identity options in novel and hybrid ways. In addition, the study examines how ideologies favouring different languages are reproduced and challenged in translocal and transnational discourses.Guided by the poststructuralist theories the thesis explores the stance that reality is socially constructed, based on symbolic and material structural limitations that are challenged and maintained in interaction. That is, whatever we do or believe in, is supported by some historical or cultural frames of meanings in our lived world, which often gives room to some manoeuvre to do things in a new way.The study adopts a multiplex interpretive approach to data collection. This entails a qualitative sociolinguistic approach where interviews, discussion and observations at different socio-economic places namely; meetings, workplaces, homes,restaurants, drinking spots and many sites from all over Cape Town, were explored.The study suggests that Cameroonians have a multiplicity of identity options, which are manifested and negotiated performatively through language, dress code, song, food, business, and other practices that comprise their lifestyles. These identities are translocal and transnational in nature, and tend to blend South African, Cameroonian, and even American traits. It is also suggests that the different identity options which they manifest are highly mobile, enabling Cameroonians to fit into South African social structures as well as the Cameroonian ways of doing things. Additionally, the multiplicity of identities that Cameroonians manifest, blur the fault-line between Anglophone/Francophone identities.It is evident from the study that hybridity and the reconstruction practices are not only confined to languages. Hybridity also extends to discourse orders especially in terms of how meetings are conducted. The Cameroonian meetings captured through the activities of Mifi Association and CANOWACAT are characterised by ‘disorder of discourse’ in which both formal and informal versions of English and French are used separately or as amalgams alongside CPE and their national languages, not only in side talks, but also when contributing to the meeting proceedings.Ultimately, the study concludes that Cameroonians are social actors making up an indispensable part of the social interaction in the Cape Town Diaspora. Just as they influence the languages, the entrepreneurial practices, and spaces in which they interact, the Cameroonian immigrants are also transformed.The major contribution of the study is that it adds to the recent debates about the nature of multilingualism and identities in late modern society. It emphasises that languages and identities are fluid, complex, and unstable. The distinction or boundaries between the various languages in multilingual practices are also not as clear-cut. This leads to a reframing of voice and actor hood as meaning is constructed across translocal and transnational contexts and domains in a networked world transformed by the mobility of endless flows of information, goods, ideas, and people. Thus, the study contributes to those arguing for a paradigm shift in sociolinguistic theory in which language is not a property of groups, nor is it an autonomous and bounded system fixed in time and space. Thus, identities, languages and the spaces of interaction are not fixed systems; identities, languages, and spaces are dynamic and in a state of flux. This in turn questions the notions of multilingualism and language itself, as well as the veracity of concepts such as code-switching, speech community, language variation, as the search for a sociolinguistic framework that can deal with phenomena predicated by motion, instability, and uncertainty, continues. / Philosophiae Doctor - PhD

This study is aimed at integrating theory and practice in the training of subtitlers in South Africa. In spite of the apparent benefits of subtitling for South Africa (improved access to information for viewers with impaired hearing and non-first language speakers of English, raised literacy levels and the promotion of language acquisition), subtitling has not been implemented on a large scale. However, there does seem to be a higher incidence of subtitling on SABC television, albeit of an uneven quality. This study attempts to define the parameters for the training of subtitlers in order to provide in the demand for this type of language transfer. Although the demand is as yet non-existent, PANSALB recognises subtitling as a valid way of addressing a number of language-related problems. In anticipation of the large-scale implementation of subtitling, it is worth initiating training for subtitlers who will be able to supply in this demand in a professional way when it does occur. Subtitler training needs to be firmly rooted in the user needs of South African viewers. Chapter 1 provides an analysis of the needs of viewers with impaired hearing (including pre-lingual and post-lingual deafness), viewers with low literacy levels, as well as viewers who are non-first language speakers of English. The needs of these groups are defined in terms of reading rate, access to non-linguistic audio elements, language structures, phoneme-grapheme correlation, translation, and vocabulary. Chapter 2 investigates existing subtitler courses in other (predominantly developed) countries. Aspects that shape these courses include the national context of subtitling, training aims, academic level, duration, course content, subtitling software and equipment used, practicum, entry levels, candidates envisaged, and the (non) use of scripts. The courses range from vocational to academic-theoretical. Chapter 3 proposes an outline for a South African curriculum for the training of subtitlers by integrating the domestic user-based parameters (chapter 1) and the aspects that shape existing courses in other countries (chapter 2). The curriculum is defined in terms of outcomes that are broken down into knowledge and skills required for their attainment. Chapter 4 addresses a perceived lack in existing subtitling theory, namely the absence of a model for balancing equivalence and condensing. The chapter proposes a semiotic model for subtitling that is aimed at providing a framework for South African subtitlers, as well as contribute to the international debate on equivalence in subtitling. / Thesis (Ph.D. (English))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2005.