English, language shift and identities: a comparison between 'Zulu-dominant' and 'multicultural' students on a South African university campus

Abstract

Within the discussion around potential language shift from indigenous languages to English, the article focusses on the impact of English on language use and identities of Zulu students on the Howard College campus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban. I move beyond macro explanations and thematise the investigation of language shift as the 'study of a people's conceptions of themselves in relation to one another and to their changing social world, and of how these conceptions are encoded by and mediated through language' (Kulick, 1992: 9). I contrast the views of 'multicultural' students, who have received their education in so-called multicultural schools, and 'Zulu-dominant' students, educated in township or rural schools. By means of interviews and focus groups, I explore student perceptions of the roles of English and isiZulu, the effects of English on isiZulu, identity perceptions in this context dominated by English, and student views about their implication in potential language shift. 'Multicultural' students still claim a Zulu identity, but an increasingly 'modernized' identity that is beginning to accommodate considerable use of English. 'Zulu-dominant' students reject 'modernizing' as a shift away from 'true' isiZulu, a variety which is increasingly distant to Zulus in higher education.