“They Even Speak Tsotsitaal with Their Teachers at School”: The Use (and Abuse) of African Urban Youth Languages in Educational Contexts

Abstract

African Urban Youth Languages (AUYLs) are increasingly coming under the spotlight of linguists and sociolinguists across the continent, who are investigating their relationship to standard and/or vernacular varieties. Simultaneously, they are being discussed by educators and education researchers, although little has yet been published in this critical area. The difficulties for educators posed by students speaking “non-standard” varieties has been highlighted by recent studies investigating literacy and language in the classroom. This article presents an overview of some of the challenges posed to education by AUYLs. It considers recent studies of AUYLs in educational contexts from around the continent. It then presents data from South Africa which highlights different orientations towards the South African AUYL “Tsotsitaal” in educational domains. The argument is made that the position of both teachers and pupils is vulnerable, and that the legitimacy of the distinction between standard language and urban vernacular language needs to be reconsidered.