Page 233 - Handbooks of Applied Linguistics Communication Competence Language and Communication Problems Practical Solutions

Lingua franca communication in multiethnic contexts 211

The student’s first utterance indicates that families are often bilingual, due to in-
termarriage across the different original tribes. Furthermore, labor migration,
which is widespread in South Africa (due to a shortage of labor in the vast rural
areas), often implies that speakers need to acquire a further language – Zulu in
the case of the 23-year-old and his parents. In multilingual urban areas in gen-
eral, language contact usually results in black speakers acquiring even more lan-
guages. At the end of his comment, the speaker mentions three lingua francas.
English and Afrikaans are the two major lingua francas used across South Af-
rica. Depending on the area, either of the two is more widespread than the other.
The last language, Tsotsitaal, is of particular interest. It also is a lingua franca,
but not an officially recognized one. Tsotsitaal belongs to what are referred to
as urban lingua francas: mixed forms of language used in metropolitan areas,
mainly by black males.
In addition, there are several languages, sometimes no longer spoken, which
serve to unite people of similar religious fate. For example, Arabic is used as a
lingua franca for prayer in mosques, and Hebrew and Sanskrit function as the
media for the Jewish and the Hindi communities’ services. The individual lin-
gua francas serve their functions in clearly defined contexts. As a result, some of
them are associated with high social prestige whereas others are used by re-
stricted user communities, nevertheless playing an important role in their users’
linguistic repertoire in that they are frequently used for identity construction.
Afrikaans and English were the national languages associated with the two col-
onizing powers, the Dutch and the British. Prior to the present constitution, the
apartheid regime had made Afrikaans and English the sole official languages of
South Africa. However, the two languages occupied different domains. Tradi-
tionally, English has dominated the business and industrial sector, and higher
education. Afrikaans, on the other hand, has been associated with the civil ser-
vice and government (during apartheid), and it was the dominant language of
the police, army and navy. Given the wide acceptance of both languages in these
important domains, both languages have been valued by all citizens as indis-
pensable. As a result, both languages have been used by large numbers of sec-
ond language speakers, allowing for interaction between speakers of different
mother tongues, in the past with Afrikaans having even more second language
speakers than English (see McCormick 2006). Today, English is gradually at-
tracting increasing numbers of second language users, despite the multilingual
language policy of the government. The reasons for this preference of English
are manifold. But in particular, English is regarded as a guarantee to socio-econ-
omic empowerment by the still disadvantaged black and colored communities.
As a consequence, many colored families have chosen to shift from Afrikaans
towards English as their home language. And black families make enormous
efforts to send their offspring to multiethnic, traditionally English-medium
schools.