A longitudinal study of students’ negotiation of language, literacy and identity

Abstract

IntroductionThis article is based on a longitudinal, qualitative case study (2002 to 2004) of 20 Social Science students at a historically 'white',1 English-medium, South African university. The participants in our study are all from disadvantaged educational backgrounds and/ or are speakers of English as a second language.2 They were (with the exception of one student) the first in their families, sometimes the first in their communities, to attend university. The project tracked their shifts in language and literacy attitudes and practices and in constructions of self over the course of their undergraduate years.There is by now a considerable body of literature which analyses the linguistic challenges and writing development processes of first-year university students from second-language/ marginalised/ disadvantaged educational backgrounds (see for example Clark & Ivanič, 1997;Herrington & Curtis, 2000; Thesen & Van Pletzen, 2006;Granville & Dison, 2009;Stacey, 2009). These studies have shown that becoming proficient in academic literacy is intimately connected to identity. However, aside from Herrington and Curtis' (2000) path-breaking longitudinal study of student writing in the US context, such studies have tended to be confined to the first-year experience. Our study has attempted to situate students' language and literacy attitudes and practices in time and space. We trace the felt experience of negotiating the accepted ways of 'saying-doing-beingvaluing-believing' (i.e. Discourses) of both the institution and home over time (Gee, 1990: 142). Our data reveal students' ambivalence as they found themselves straddling multiple, often conflicting discourses between home and the institution. In this article, we attempt to highlight key moments in students' journeys in order to illustrate how this process unfolds. Although our participants' trajectories through the institution are by no means uniform, there were discernable patterns in their language and literacy attitudes and practices that are intimately linked to their changing notions of self over the course of their undergraduate years.3

Community support - the missing link in indigenous language promotion in South Africa?

“…These choice are often fluid, at times ambivalent, and 'alternate back and forward all the time' (Kapp & Bangeni, 2011: 204). Kapp and Bangeni (2011) have also recorded incidents where English is 'Afranised' to signal a specific township identity. Recent studies in South Africa have also recorded instances of learners expressing appreciation of their indigenous languages (e.g., Dyers, 2007;McKinney, 2007;Rudwick, 2008).…”

“…Recent studies in South Africa have also recorded instances of learners expressing appreciation of their indigenous languages (e.g., Dyers, 2007;McKinney, 2007;Rudwick, 2008). Sometimes, learners may even risk derision and humiliation from their peers if they publicly assert their preference for English rather than their own language (Kapp, 2004;Kapp & Bangeni, 2011).…”

The struggle to maintain identity in higher education among Zulu-speaking students

“…Such an approach that goes beyond the course of instruction and examines sociolinguistic issues is quite common. Kapp and Bangeni (2011) note that other studies conducted among students from disadvantaged backgrounds have indicated that 'becoming proficient in academic literacy is intimately connected to identity ' (197). However, they assert (Kapp and Bangeni 2011) that the shortcoming of previous studies in this field is that they have concentrated on first-year students.…”

Reform and Crisis: Reflexions and Questions on the Condition of the Human and Social Sciences in South Africa and Beyond

“…3. A number of these intricate links between identity projects and studies in the Social Sciences are traced by Kapp and Bangeni (2011). 4.…”