Page 232 - Handbooks of Applied Linguistics Communication Competence Language and Communication Problems Practical Solutions

210 Christiane Meierkord

As the above illustrations indicate, individual countries have found very dif-
ferent ways of dealing with their multiethnic and multilingual population. In all
countries, the multilingual situation and the special status given to those lan-
guages which serve as the national lingua francas has resulted in a situation
which involves language contact and intercultural communication. Speakers of
different mother tongues and from different speech communities, potentially
each with their own communicative conventions, frequently interact in a variety
of social situations. The next section describes the situation pertaining to South
Africa to illustrate in more detail the sociolinguistic status which English enjoys
as an intranational lingua franca and the resulting issues of intercultural com-
munication.

4. A case study: lingua francas in South Africa as a multilingual
country

4.1. Languages and language use in South Africa

Originally inhabited by the Khoe and the San, then populated by migrating
Bantu tribes, and eventually colonized by the Dutch and the British, South
Africa has been characterized by language contact and multilingualism at all
times. Today, a large number of the languages used in South Africa have the
status of official languages. These are the major Bantu languages Ndebele,
Northern Sotho, Southern Sotho, Swati, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu,
as well as Afrikaans and English. The status of these languages is reflected in
the language policy of South Africa. To promote multilingualism, the curricu-
lum stipulates that all children need to learn one of the indigenous Bantu lan-
guages in school. However, most white South Africans, who have either English
or Afrikaans as their mother tongue, learn one of the Bantu languages in such
an educational context only. By contrast, the majority of black South Africans
acquire second and/or additional languages informally, through interaction with
speakers of these languages. As a result, black South Africans are frequently
multilingual in that they speak five or even more languages, as Mesthrie (1995:
xvi) points out. The following comment by a 23-year-old male student (taken
from Mesthrie 1995: xvi) illustrates several noteworthy aspects of language use
in South Africa:

My father’s home language was Swazi, and my mother’s home language was
Tswana. But as I grew up in a Zulu-speaking area we used mainly Zulu and Swazi at
home. But from my mother’s side I also learnt Tswana well. In my high school I
came into contact with lots of Sotho and Tswana students, so I can speak these two
languages well. And of course I know English and Afrikaans. With my friends I also
use Tsotsitaal.