Abstract
In South Africa, the language policies of tertiary educational institutions have been a point of serious concern and debate over the past number of years (see De Klerk 2001:27-32; Dlamini 2001:33-40; Johl 2001:5-8; Pienaar 2001:41-47; Roodt 2001:15-20; Smit 2001:21-26; Van Rensburg 2001:9-14). Historically, Afrikaans-medium universities, especially, have been affected by pressure to re-evaluate their policies and to provide teaching in English. It must however be stated that more than politics had a role to play. South African universities also have to be pragmatic. For the former Rand Afrikaans University (RAU), now the University of Johannesburg, that meant acknowledging that the Afrikaans market was not big enough to justify the existence of yet another Afrikaans-only university. Consequently, parallel-medium teaching was introduced in 1998, whereby all undergraduate classes were to be presented twice, once in English and once in Afrikaans. This duplication of classes, however, did not take place without hindrances. The seemingly most obvious stumbling block - that of the level of English language proficiency of predominantly Afrikaans-speaking lecturers - proved to be least problematic. The impact of duplication and the subsequent increased lecturing load were clear from the decrease in research output. Yet, in strictly economic terms, duplication worked and RAU student numbers increased dramatically. Already by 2002, students in the English-medium classes significantly out-numbered their counterparts in the Afrikaans-medium classes. By 2004, the enrollment figures pointed to a 4:1 ratio of English to Afrikaans.
Highlights
In South Africa, the language policies of tertiary educational institutions have been a point of serious concern and debate over the past number of years
South African universities have to be pragmatic. For the former Rand Afrikaans University (RAU), the University of Johannesburg, that meant acknowledging that the Afrikaans market was not big enough to justify the existence of yet another Afrikaansonly university
From the above, it is clear that simultaneous interpreting is an option that can be used to facilitate teaching in parallel-medium tertiary education
Summary
In South Africa, the language policies of tertiary educational institutions have been a point of serious concern and debate over the past number of years (see De Klerk 2001:27-32; Dlamini 2001:33-40; Johl 2001:5-8; Pienaar 2001:41-47; Roodt 2001:1520; Smit 2001:21-26; Van Rensburg 2001:9-14). Afrikaans-medium universities, especially, have been affected by pressure to re-evaluate their policies and to provide teaching in English. South African universities have to be pragmatic. For the former Rand Afrikaans University (RAU), the University of Johannesburg, that meant acknowledging that the Afrikaans market was not big enough to justify the existence of yet another Afrikaansonly university. Parallel-medium teaching was introduced in 1998, whereby all undergraduate classes were to be presented twice, once in English and once in Afrikaans. This duplication of classes, did not take place without hindrances.
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