Social Imperatives for Destination Language Learning

Abstract

The literature on language, immigration and the labour market mostly links destination language proficiency to higher earnings. Thus, it emphasises economic motivation for immigrants’ destination language learning. A questionnaire with open-ended and close- ended questions was used to survey 100 Ghanaian immigrants living in Johannesburg with regard to factors that stimulate or impede the learning of South African indigenous languages. The findings of this article affirm that economic migrants mostly learn destination languages for economic purposes. However, the study further revealed that social motivation is also important for immigrants’ language learning. Even though some of the participants successfully used English in their workplaces and other contexts, the established members of the host community’s preference for using South African indigenous languages for social purposes made the participants socially motivated to learn these languages. They later appreciated the social access and acceptance they gained through their proficiency.