Dear Carol,
Thanks for your e-mail. I am a little familiar with the issue in South
Africa. Our Center has been a consultant to some educators and Ministry
people in the new South Africa regarding bilingual education.
We have worked with the National Language Project. Do you know Nigel
Crawhall, by any chance?
Yes, we found the issue in South Africa was a reversal of what is often
the case in the U.S. While language minority groups in the U.S. may
favor bilingual education for themselves to maintain home
language/culture/family/community ties, in South Africa this was not the
case.
The history in South Africa has been a little different, as I understand
it. In the Bantustans people were pretty much limited to ONLY learning
their tribal languages, and not given access to the power languages of
English and Afrikaans (and, of course, the tribal languages were given
afforded little cultural or economic value in the dominant South African
society).
So, it is no wonder, that folks formerly-designated as "blacks" or
"colored" were suspicious of programs in which their home or primary
languages figure prominently. The drive became to learn the power
languages quickly, having been deprived of access for so long.
Unfortunately that makes it difficult to carry the message that *good*
bilingual programs also enhance and strenghten one's ability to acquire
the second language (e.g., English or Afrikaans) better, and, even, at
times, more efficiently.
Our Executive Director engaged in dialogue with a number of groups on
the issue. Very interesting.
In Peace,
K.
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