Language as a right and language as a resource in multilingual South African higher educational institutions

Abstract

The chapter examines the challenges encountered during language transformation in South African higher education institutions (HEIs) as well as how language as a right and language as a resource could be incorporated to address the language question adequately in higher education teachertraining. This is necessary because South African society is multicultural and multilingual and recent trends in language teaching in South African educational HEIs have focused on the widely held belief that a specific language incorporates aspects of culture. The relationship between language and culture is unambiguous because cultural factors influence language use, but language also creates culture. Furthermore, culture is not a fixed entity; there may be a variety of subcultures within mainstream culture and different members of a cultural grouping may disagree on what constitutes mainstream and subculture. South Africa recognises 11 official languages and guarantees citizens the right to receive instruction in their native tongue. However, although this Constitution is powerful, it does not guarantee that linguistic principles shall be implemented in teacher-education in higher education. This chapter demonstrates how any government policy in language, as in other aspects of education, could be most effective when the user, in this case, higher education students and other stakeholders, is involved and participates in educational decisions, including those on the language of instruction and other linguistic repertoires to make teacher-training in South African HEIs linguistically responsive.