DIE ROL VAN TAALAKTIVISME BY DIE HERWAARDERING VAN ...

SUMMARY
The Constitutional Assembly accepted a new democratic constitution for the Republic of
South Africa on 8 May 1996. The Constitution makes provision for a fair amount of
clauses regarding language issues. Among other it makes provision for eleven official
languages that reflect the multicultural nature of our society. The National Government
presents their position on language in education in the 1996 South African Bill of Rights.
It seems clear that the Department of Education emphasises the development of
multilingualism within the framework of additive bilingual education. Schools are
strongly recommended to offer at least two languages of instruction as from Grade 1, one
of which should be the home language of the learner.
Aside from these positive goals, the opposite seems to happen in practice. Even more
complaints arise, especially from the ranks of minority languages (Afrikaans and African
languages) that their languages are marginalised as languages of instruction. A positive
development is that more voices are heard in support of language teaching, especially in
communities that have traditionally been seen as being in favour of English teaching.
This re-evaluation of the role of mother tongue teaching could be contributed to certain
language activist initiatives since 1994.
This study investigates the role of language activism in the movement back to mother
tongue education in South Africa after the establishment of a democratic language
dispensation in the country. The perception is investigated that communities are apathetic
towards language rights issues in education brought about by political and other pressure
groups that want to retain the status quo regarding the promotion of English as medium
of instruction at the expense of minority languages. This is done by determining: (a) how
widespread the phenomenon of language activism in South Africa occurs, (b) the forms
(if any) of language activism among the different language communities, (c) whether
there is indeed a re-evaluation of mother tongue teaching and (d) what role (if any)
language activism plays in the restoration of mother tongue education.
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