Suchergebnisse

This contribution outlines the current dilemma of Afrikaans-medium universities in South Africa in terms of language policy. Since no language policy norms have been published by the Minister of Education since 1994, proactive steps in this regard might become counterproductive. The language policy options available to universities are considered within the three language policy paradigms of Weinstein (1990). It is argued that a reformist approach to university language policy should not be in conflict with the government's transformation approach. A diversified language policy could address this. The author argues that such a language policy should not ignore the language clause of the Constitution and that there is no need for universities to dance to the Minister's tune as far as language policy is concerned.

AbstractLinguistic diversity and its management have become increasingly significant for higher education institutions around the world. Indeed, in the context of a growing student and staff mobility, information exchange, and networked multilateral interactions, the multiplicity of languages used by university stakeholders in more and more contexts has steadily grown over the past decades. A wide range of scholars (from applied and sociolinguists to higher education researchers) have responded with an equal growing attention to this phenomenon. In this paper, we funnel some of the relevant recent scholarship on the language-planning dimension of the internationalization of higher education, providing as a result an analytical framework that attempts to capture the complex sociolinguistic nature of present-day universities. To date, with only a handful of exceptions, few attempts have been made to provide a comprehensive overview of the different levels, stakeholders, and contexts of language use in higher education. Given the rapid changing nature of language matters in such context, the framework we present in this paper should be useful to both sociolinguists interested in language issues in higher education and to on-the-ground university administrators actively engaged in language planning initiatives in their institutions. The framework, however, is not conceived of as a closed-end solution to language problems at universities today, but rather as a guiding roadmap to think productively about such issues.