Language Loyalty or Ethnicity? A Comparative Study of isiZulu- and Afrikaans speakersin South African Higher Education

• Applicant: Stephanie Rudwick, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: African, American and Oceania Studies
• Term: from 2013 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 237018854

There is an extensive literature on the link between language and ethnicity in South Africa but no comprehensive study has yet explored this link against the background of higher education bilingualism. Drawing from post-structural and post-colonial theories of identity this project aims to fill this research paucity by examining the relationship between language and constructions of ethnicity at two research sites and in reference to two languages: 1) isiZulu at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), and 2) Afrikaans at the University of Stellenbosch (SUN). This project examines whether the South African higher education sphere where the dominance of English permeates academic life is one domain where African ethnicities may be less pronounced and more malleable and contested. Through a complex and interdisciplinary methodological approach, including focus groups, tutorial recordings, individual interviews and participant observation, this study aims to interrogate language loyalty and language ideologies in relation to local constructions of ethnicity and other social identities. The status and significance of isiZulu (at UKZN) and Afrikaans (at SUN) are explored vis-à-vis English through a qualitative approach in a heterogeneous higher education environment. Although these two languages greatly differ in terms of language status, corpus development, acquisition planning history and their relative position in the two universities, both of their speakers struggle to find linguistic recognition and support next to English in the higher education system. The fact that especially Afrikaans and isiZulu-speakers have publicly asserted their ethnicities in the post-apartheid state offers fruitful ground for a comparative socio- and ethno-linguistic analysis of these two language groups. The research findings will contribute new insights to the relationship of language and ethnicity more broadly, and to African languages more specifically. The study will also carve out new perspectives on how multifaceted sociolinguistic correlations affect the higher education domain from a global perspective.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Person: Professorin Dr. Rose Marie Beck