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Cultural identity and learning English as a second language in

South Africa

Guest lecture (17 January 2008):

Master class in intercultural communication, UU

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Overview

• Practical arrangements concerning language use during the session

• Contextualization• Language in education policy in SA• Language policy at the NWU?

• Cultural identity and learning English as a second language in SA

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Language use

• Slides are in English, is that OK?

• I am a bilingual Afrikaans-English South African; Afrikaans is my home language

• I fully understand Dutch, and speak my own “idiosyncratic” version of it!

• Use mainly English, with some repetitions in Afrikaans and/or Dutch, if you want?

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Contextualisation

• Who am I?

• Why do I visit Utrecht University as a guest researcher?

• Where is South Africa?

• Language in education policy in SA

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Who am I?

• Name is Susan Coetzee-Van Rooy• Main job at the North-West University (NWU) in South

Africa is institutional Director for Academic Development and Support:– academic staff development, – student academic development, – use of technology to supplement teaching and learning

• Extraordinary associate professor at the research group in the School of Languages

• Main research interests at the moment are:– Cultural identity and English second language learning

• South Korean families in Potchefstroom SA that learn English– Multilingual language policy: education and administration

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Why do I visit UU?

• To get some time to write away from the office …

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Where is South Africa?

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Where is the North-West Province?

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Where is Potchefstroom?

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Home language by province (percentages)*

 Eastern

CapeFreeState

GautengKwazulu

-Natal

Mpuma-langa

NorthernCape

NorthernProvince

NorthWest

WesternCape

SouthAfrica

Afrikaans 9.6 14.5 16.7 1.6 8.3 69.3 2.2 7.5 59.2 14.4

English 3.7 1.3 13.0 15.8 2.0 2.4 0.4 1.0 20.3 8.6

IsiNdebele 0.0 0.2 1.6 0.0 12.5 0.0 1.5 1.3 0.1 1.5

IsiXhosa 83.8 9.4 7.5 1.6 1.3 6.3 0.2 5.4 19.1 17.9

IsiZulu 0.4 4.8 21.5 79.8 25.4 0.3 0.7 2.5 0.1 22.9

Sepedi 0.0 0.2 9.5 0.0 10.5 0.0 52.7 4.0 0.0 9.2

Sesotho 2.2 62.1 13.1 0.5 3.2 0.9 1.1 5.1 0.4 7.7

SiSwati 0.0 0.1 1.3 0.1 30.0 0.0 1.2 0.5 0.0 2.5

Setswana 0.0 6.5 7.9 0.0 2.7 19.9 1.4 67.2 0.1 8.2

Tshivenda 0.0 0.1 1.4 0.0 0.1 0.0 15.5 0.4 0.0 2.2

Xitsonga 0.0 0.5 5.3 0.0 3.5 0.0 22.6 4.7 0.0 4.4

Other 0.2 0.3 1.3 0.5 0.4 0.8 0.3 0.5 0.6 0.6

Total 0.2 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

* Excluding unspecified.

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Home language by province (numbers)

 Eastern

CapeFreeState

Gauteng

Kwazulu-

Natal

Mpuma-langa

Northern

Cape

Northern

Province

NorthWest

Western

Cape

SouthAfrica

Afrikaans 600,253 379,994 1,213,352 136,223 230,348 577,585 109,224 249,502 2,315,067 5,811,547

English 233,376 35,154 947,571 1,316,047 54,839 19,902 21,261 34,106 795,211 3,457,467

IsiNdebele 1,248 4,454 114,899 1,231 346,337 287 72,506 42,833 3,165 586,961

IsiXhosa 5,250,524 245,101 543,698 132,223 36,378 52,689 8,597 178,931 747,977 7,196,118

IsiZulu 25,323 125,082 1,559,520 6,658,442 706,816 2,300 36,253 82,068 4,341 9,200,144

Sepedi 2,572 4,708 688,607 1,775 291,923 259 2,572,491 132,374 1,136 3,695,846

Sesotho 139,671 1,625,953 953,239 45,677 90,011 7,419 56,002 171,549 14,676 3,104,197

SiSwati 897 3,592 92,154 7,344 834,133 90 57,149 17,272 562 1,013,193

Setswana 863 171,252 573,104 2,147 75,202 165,781 70,339 2,239,774 3,311 3,301,774

Tshivenda 511 1,713 99,837 589 3,345 87 757,683 12,209 436 876,409

Xitsonga 268 14,194 382,463 1,712 97,844 209 1,102,472 156,408 535 1,756,105

Other 12,008 7,456 96,939 38,634 10,606 6,449 13,228 18,088 24,868 228,275

Un-specified 35,012 14,852 83,038 74,977 22,928 7,264 52,163 19,712 45,591 355,538

Total 6,302,525 2,633,504 7,348,423 8,417,021 2,800,711 840,321 4,929,368 3,354,825 3,956,875 40,583,5

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Language in education policy in SA

• Multilingualism is supported; implementation is challenging

• For speakers of African languages:– As far as possible, learners that enter school

receive mother tongue education for the first 4 years of school

– While English is introduced as an additional language from the 3rd year

– From 5th year of school onwards English is the medium of instruction

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Language in education policy in SA

• For speakers of Afrikaans and English:– Possible to attend primary and secondary

schools, as well as university where Afrikaans / English is used as medium of instruction

• In grade 12 all learners offer the mother tongue as well as one other language

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Language policy at the NWU

• Functional multilingual language policy: Afrikaans, English, Setswana, Sesotho

• Education:– Mafikeng Campus: English– Potchefstroom Campus: Afrikaans– Vaal Triangle Campus: Afrikaans and English

• Administration: all 4– Own research into use of language at

meetings

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Discussion? Questions?

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Cultural identity and learning English as a second language in

SA

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Introduction

• If knowledge is constructed socially, then cultural identity (a social construct) could influence the success of learning in general

• Possible influence of cultural identity is conceptualized as a resource or a hazard

• Tollefson (1991: 23) notes the view of cultural identity as a hazard as expressed by some theorists of second language learning:– “learners who wish to assimilate – who value or identify with the

target language community – are generally more successful than learners who are concerned about retaining their original cultural identity”

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Some social models of ESL learning

• Social psychological model (Lambert)

• Acculturation model (Schumann)

• Social context model (Clément)

• Intergroup model (Giles)

• Socio-educational model (Gardner)

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Short-comings of social models of ESL

• Underlying notion of integrative motivation

• Construction of identity of language learners as “monolingual” / “singular”

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Lambert

• Integrative motivation refers to “a sincere and personal interest in the people and culture represented by the other [language] group” (Lambert, 1974: 98)

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Schumann

• Defines acculturation as “the social and psychological integration of the learner with the target language group” (in Gardner, 1985: 135)

• “Schumann’s major proposition is that L2 acquisition ‘is just one aspect of acculturation and the degree to which a learner acculturates to the TL group will control the degree to which he acquires the second language” (in Gardner, 1985: 135)

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Giles

• “Learners from minority groups will be unlikely to achieve native speaker proficiency when their ethnolinguistic vitality is high … [and] they will achieve low levels of communicative proficiency because this would seem to detract from their ethnic identity” (in Ellis, 1994: 234-235)

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Giles

• Native-like second language proficiency is possible when:– (1) in-group identification is weak or the L1 does not

function as a salient dimension of ethnic group membership,

– (2) when inter-ethnic comparisons are quiescent, – (3) when perceived in-group vitality is low, – (4) when perceived in-group boundaries are soft and

open, and – (5) when the learners identify strongly with other

groups and so develop adequate group identity and intra-group status (Giles and Byrne, 1982)

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Definition of cultural identity

• Complex, ascribed type of social identity:– that takes various forms in different contexts – whose attributes are expressed as one’s

attitude towards the:• cultural values, language/s, ethnicity, racial identity

of the in-group; and• one’s attitudes towards the out-group/s.

• Social models of L2 learning rarely include measures of in-group identity

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Questions? Discussion?

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Participants

• 148 randomly selected Afrikaans grade 11 and 12 pupils at 2 high schools in the Vaal Triangle region

• 69 randomly selected Southern Sotho respondents in their first year at Technikon in the Vaal Triangle region

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Variables

• Dependent variable: English second language proficiency as measured by a standardized English reading proficiency test (Van der Schyff, 1991)

• Independent variables: aspects of cultural identity:– Ethnic identity (Bornmann, 1995)– Black and White racial identity (Helms, 1993)– Attitudes towards in- and out-groups (Bornmann, 1995)– Language usage preferences (Coetzee-Van Rooy, 2000)– Ethnolinguistic vitality (Bornmann, 1995)

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Data analyses

• Pearson product moment correlations to determine if aspects of cultural identity correlate with ESL proficiency

• Answer to the question: which cultural identity profile occurs concurrently with better ESL proficiency?

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Findings

• Three aspects of cultural identity correlated statistically significantly with better ESL proficiency:– Positive in-group identification– Positive attitudes towards “other” or out-

groups– Valuing the social attitudes concerned with an

autonomous lifestyle

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Positive in-group identification

• Salient as ethnic identification for Afrikaans participants and racial identification for Southern Sotho participants

• See tables 4 and 5

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Table 4

Pearson product moment correlations between positive in-group identification (ethnic identity) and ESL proficiency of Afrikaans participants

r p

Commitment to the culture of my own ethnic or cultural group is a major source of security in my life

-0,249 **

Loyalty towards my own ethnic or cultural group is particularly important to me

-0,238 **

I do not want to belong to any other ethnic or cultural group

0,215 **

Upsets me when other people speaks negatively about my own ethnic or cultural group

-0,166 *

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Table 4

• Afrikaans respondents who are satisfied with their ethnic group, but who do not regard it as a major issue in their lives performed better in the English second language proficiency test

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Table 5

Pearson product moment correlations between positive in-group identification (Black racial identity) and ESL proficiency of Southern Sotho participants

r p

Most Blacks I know are failures -0,319 **I speak my mind, regardless of the consequences (e.g. being kicked out of school, being imprisoned, being exposed to danger etc.)

0,287 **I feel that Black people do not have as much to be proud of as White people do

-0,253 *People, regardless of their race, have strengths and limitations 0,249 *I often find myself referring to White people as “boers”, “whities”, “settlers” etc.

0,248 *I find myself reading a lot of Black literature and thinking about being Black

0,232 *Black people who have any White people’s blood should feel ashamed

-0,231 *I believe that being black is a positive experience 0,215 *

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Table 5

• A positive experience of being Black balanced with the realization that all people have strengths and limitations correlated with better English second language proficiency amongst the Southern Sotho respondents

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Positive attitudes towards “other” or out-groups

• For Afrikaans participants it is expressed as a less racist attitude

• For Southern Sotho participants it is expressed as support for a more inclusive “South African” label

• See tables 6 and 7

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Table 6 - 1

Pearson product moment correlations between racial identity and English second language proficiency of Afrikaans respondents

r p

It is possible for Blacks and Whites to have meaningful social relationships with each other

0,316 **

I think White people should become more involved in socializing with Blacks

0,278 **

I believe that White people look and express themselves better than Blacks

-0,260 **

A Black person who tries to get close to you is usually after something

-0,256 **

I have come to believe that Black people and White people are very different

-0,240 **

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Table 6 - 2Pearson product moment correlations between racial identity and English second language proficiency of Afrikaans respondents

r p

I believe that Blacks are inferior to Whites -0,237 **

I value the relationships that I have with Black friends 0,227 **

I was raised to believe that people are people regardless of their race

0,224 **

Blacks and Whites have much to learn from each other 0,020 **

White people have bent over backwards trying to make up for their ancestors’ treatment of Blacks, now it is time to stop

0,213 **

I wish I had a Black friend 0,200 *

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Table 6 - 3

Pearson product moment correlations between racial identity and English second language proficiency of Afrikaans respondents

r p

I do not understand what Blacks want from Whites -0,189 *

Nowadays, I go out of my way to avoid associating with Blacks

-0,188 *

When I am the only White in a group of Blacks I feel anxious 0,186 *

I feel depressed after I have been around Black people -0,179 *

In my family, we never talked about racial issues -0,164 *

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Table 6

• Positive, yet more laissez faire attitude towards Black people combined with information about racial identity from within the family context correlated with higher English second language proficiency scores for the Afrikaans respondents

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Table 7

Pearson product moment correlations between identification with several groups in SA and English second language proficiency of Southern Sotho respondents

r p

Coloureds 0,221 *

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Table 7

• Identification with a more “inclusive” SA label (Coloured / of mixed race) correlated statistically significantly with higher English second language proficiency amongst the Southern Sotho respondents

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Autonomous lifestyle

• More proficient Afrikaans and Southern Sotho participants valued a more autonomous lifestyle

• Possibly indicative of autonomy as an important indicator for general academic success as well as language learning?

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Conclusions

• Findings challenge notion of integrativeness as prerequisite for successful L2 learning, as included in some social models of L2 learning

• Nobody learns English in SA to “integrate” with a group of English speakers:– Minority (only 9% of population use English as L1)– Fairly “exclusive” group

• English is used as lingua franca to communicate with speakers of other languages

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Conclusions

• Findings confirm research by Peirce (1989; 1995) that asserting different forms of social identity in different contexts is more instrumental in L2 learning than attempts to integrate with the target language group and culture

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Concluding question?

• How do these findings about cultural identity profiles and successful ESL relate to the conditions for successful inter-cultural communication?– Positive in-group identification– Positive attitudes towards “other” or out-

groups– More autonomous disposition