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De-creating Language Borders at the University of Cape Town: “The Fall of English” and the Rise of African Languages in Education
The salience of English as the main language of instruction at tertiary institutions across South Africa has not been without critique. At the University of Cape Town, henceforth UCT, conversations surrounding language and academic success have become bolstered by the rhetoric of decolonisation, nec...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Social Anthropology
2022
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| _version_ | 1867613364169998336 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Botes, Inge-Ame |
| author2 | Nyamnjoh, Francis |
| author_browse | Botes, Inge-Ame Nyamnjoh, Francis |
| author_facet | Nyamnjoh, Francis Botes, Inge-Ame |
| author_sort | Botes, Inge-Ame |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | The salience of English as the main language of instruction at tertiary institutions across South Africa has not been without critique. At the University of Cape Town, henceforth UCT, conversations surrounding language and academic success have become bolstered by the rhetoric of decolonisation, necessitating a review of policy and practice. This in turn has opened up research opportunities pertaining to student and staff experiences of language at the institution. This thesis is a response to the urgent need for ethnographic focus on the language situation at UCT and higher education institutions countrywide, where increasingly light falls on the language question within quests for decolonisation and social justice. Focusing the language question within frameworks of decoloniality, glocalisation, translanguaging and the development of African languages in education, this thesis distills ethnographic data to argue that language borders need to be reevaluated in a quest for conviviality informed by the universality of incompleteness, where fluidity, interconnection, and interdependence are prioritised over the current dominance of English. Grounded in rich ethnographic evidence in the form of student interviews and reflections, meeting at the intersection of social and linguistic anthropology, this thesis grapples with the critical questions: “What is language at UCT? And what does language do?” |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/35659 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:34:58.386Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| publishDateRange | 2022 |
| publishDateSort | 2022 |
| publisher | Social Anthropology |
| publisherStr | Social Anthropology |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/35659 De-creating Language Borders at the University of Cape Town: “The Fall of English” and the Rise of African Languages in Education Botes, Inge-Ame Nyamnjoh, Francis Language Multilingualism African Languages Globalisation Translanguaging Decolonisation The salience of English as the main language of instruction at tertiary institutions across South Africa has not been without critique. At the University of Cape Town, henceforth UCT, conversations surrounding language and academic success have become bolstered by the rhetoric of decolonisation, necessitating a review of policy and practice. This in turn has opened up research opportunities pertaining to student and staff experiences of language at the institution. This thesis is a response to the urgent need for ethnographic focus on the language situation at UCT and higher education institutions countrywide, where increasingly light falls on the language question within quests for decolonisation and social justice. Focusing the language question within frameworks of decoloniality, glocalisation, translanguaging and the development of African languages in education, this thesis distills ethnographic data to argue that language borders need to be reevaluated in a quest for conviviality informed by the universality of incompleteness, where fluidity, interconnection, and interdependence are prioritised over the current dominance of English. Grounded in rich ethnographic evidence in the form of student interviews and reflections, meeting at the intersection of social and linguistic anthropology, this thesis grapples with the critical questions: “What is language at UCT? And what does language do?” 2022-02-09T09:10:27Z 2022-02-09T09:10:27Z 2021 2022-02-01T08:08:43Z Master Thesis Masters MSocSci http://hdl.handle.net/11427/35659 eng application/pdf Social Anthropology Faculty of Humanities |
| spellingShingle | Language Multilingualism African Languages Globalisation Translanguaging Decolonisation Botes, Inge-Ame De-creating Language Borders at the University of Cape Town: “The Fall of English” and the Rise of African Languages in Education |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | De-creating Language Borders at the University of Cape Town: “The Fall of English” and the Rise of African Languages in Education |
| title_full | De-creating Language Borders at the University of Cape Town: “The Fall of English” and the Rise of African Languages in Education |
| title_fullStr | De-creating Language Borders at the University of Cape Town: “The Fall of English” and the Rise of African Languages in Education |
| title_full_unstemmed | De-creating Language Borders at the University of Cape Town: “The Fall of English” and the Rise of African Languages in Education |
| title_short | De-creating Language Borders at the University of Cape Town: “The Fall of English” and the Rise of African Languages in Education |
| title_sort | de creating language borders at the university of cape town the fall of english and the rise of african languages in education |
| topic | Language Multilingualism African Languages Globalisation Translanguaging Decolonisation |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/35659 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT botesingeame decreatinglanguagebordersattheuniversityofcapetownthefallofenglishandtheriseofafricanlanguagesineducation |