Abstract

Any language policy has crucial social implications that impact its successful implementation. The introduction of the bilingual language policy at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) has spurred polemical debate and discussions especially regarding the value of African languages for teaching and learning. This article offers a socio-constructivist analysis of the issues that emerge in the implementation of the UKZN language policy. The study on which it is based employed a mixed methodology drawing on secondary as well as primary data collected by means of semi-structured interviews and questionnaires administered to staff and students at two UKZN campuses. Simple random sampling was applied to enroll 16 students while purposive sampling was used to select nine academic staff for the study. The findings reveal that although the bilingual language policy has inherent social value, uncertainty persists with regard to its short and long-term economic significance. This calls for deeper reflection on the social implications of the language preferences of the institution’s staff and students who are directly affected by the policy.

摘要

任何语言政策都具有影响其成功实施的重要社会影响。夸祖鲁-纳塔尔大学 (UKZN) 引入双语政策引发了争论和讨论，尤其是关于非洲语言在教学和学习中的价值。本文对 UKZN 语言政策实施中出现的问题进行了社会建构主义分析。它所基于的研究采用混合方法，利用通过半结构化访谈和问卷调查收集的二级和一级数据，这些数据是对 UKZN 两个校区的教职员工和学生进行的。简单随机抽样用于招收 16 名学生，而有目的抽样用于选择 9 名学术人员进行研究。研究结果表明，虽然双语政策具有内在的社会价值，但其短期和长期经济意义仍存在不确定性。这要求对直接受政策影响的机构教职工和学生的语言偏好的社会影响进行更深入的反思。