Mother tongues versus an ex-colonial language as media of instruction and the promotion of multilingualism: the South African experience

Abstract

According to one of the main streams of current thought in the debate on language promotion, local indigenous African languages should be elevated to become the media of instruction throughout learners' schooling and learning careers. The argument is that these languages should be developed and therefore need to intervene at a level of science, technology, mathematics and commerce or other similar domains. Unless this is done, there are fears and views that these indigenous languages will be viewed as irrelevant in developmental terms and will always be looked at as second-class languages and theiefore poor competitors with ex-colonial languages. Reliance on ex-colonial languages as languages of instruction, is viewed as subscribing to a heritage of colonialism, which is not the case, in say, France, Geimany, etc. This article considers arguments for and against such a view. For academic reasons and reasons of cost effectiveness, a more pragmatic stance is suggested, namely that mother tongues may not necessarily be adequate for academic relevance. The choice of media, particularly beyond secondary school level, is not dependent on a community's wishes, but is rather dictated by global academic pursuits. The article concludes by taking what is considered to be a balanced view with regard to educational, socio-cultural, identity, national and international considerations.