Chapter 3. Critical Historiography: Does Language Planning in Africa Need a Construct of Language as Part of its Theoretical Apparatus?

Makoni, Sinfree; Mashiri, Pedzisai

doi:10.21832/9781853599255-005

Cited by 35 publications

(32 citation statements)

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“…The extent to which languages index identities across borders is perhaps a stronger indication that the boundaries both between the neighbouring nation states and the clustered languages are artificial. As Makoni and Mashiri (2007) pointedly observe, languages are not hermetically sealed units; rather they leak into one another through seamless multiple identity and language performances. The geographical boundaries between the Southern African nation states are thus weakened by cross-border identifying processes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To respond to versatile language use of the twenty-first century, Makoni and Pennycook recommend disinvention of languages and their subsequent reinvention where heterogeneity is acknowledged and valorised. Engagement in the deconstruction exercise also applies to monoglossic language policies in which languages are treated as hermetically sealed units instead of having vernaculars that leak into one another (Makoni and Mashiri 2007). Framed in this light, it is apt that the new conceptual framework of languages should be indexical to the multiple ways or forms of being that are characteristic of the twenty-first century personhood.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fluid identity construction in language contact zones: metacognitive reflections onKasi-taallanguaging practices

Makalela

2014

International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism

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This study investigated how semi-urban, multi-ethnic and multilingual students in the city of Johannesburg, South Africa, negotiate their new identities through languaging experiences. Metacognitive reflections of their recreated language spaces were collected through 20 written narratives, which were analysed using a universalist reductionist approach. The results of the study revealed highly complex identifying processes that mark fluid, multiple affiliations and mobile and creative negotiation of an identity matrix through a hybrid language form, Kasi-taal, which breaks boundaries and embeds linguistic systems that were traditionally treated as discrete units. Using a translanguaging framework, I argue that the languaging strategies articulated in the narratives can be valorised to offset the symbolic violence of monoglossic ideologies that are dominant in our classrooms. Recommendations for further studies on identity-building spaces in multilingual language contact zones as well as the logic of hybrid linguistic repertoires are highlighted at the end of the paper.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fluid identity construction in language contact zones: metacognitive reflections onKasi-taallanguaging practices

Makalela

2014

International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism

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“…It is, therefore, an approach which is consonant with a view of languages as social constructs, called into being in many parts of Africa and elsewhere, as part of the colonial exercise of repressive and divisive power . As a result, current debate centres on calls for the 'disinvention' of languages (Makoni and Mashiri 2006;Makoni and Trudell 2009) . Aspects of language use examined in this article amply demonstrate the porosity of language boundaries: borrowing of English nouns into Twi is a continuing, and in fact cyclical, phenomenon; English verbs in particular are currently undergoing morphological integration into Twi; Twi lexical and pragmatic influence on Ghanaian English is also clear.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

English in the mix: Evolving roles of English in the language practices of Twi speakers in Ghana

Arthur-Shoba

Quarcoo

2012

Language Matters

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This article is concerned with language alternation between Twi and English in informal conversation . Twi is the most widely spoken indigenous language of Ghana, also used in the broadcast media, especially radio; English, the former colonial language, is the official language, and the main language of the education system and print media. However, English is now gradually encroaching on domestic and informal domains, and younger urban speakers are increasingly shifting towards English as a first language . Participants in the conversations examined here were of different generations and educational backgrounds . Analysis was approached from both a structural and a sociolinguistic perspective . The data reveal developing patterns in the contact between the grammars and lexicons of Twi and English. They also reflect associations and values attached to Twi and English respectively, and to codeswitching as a communicative mode of everyday interaction in Ghanaian society .

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“…In addition, there are disembodied spaces created by social networks where nation state boundaries are increasingly becoming blurred. From this point of view, Makoni and Pennycook argue for a disinvention of old language boundaries and reinvention of language systems that leak into each other to reflect heterogeneity of current social space and multilingual practices (see also Makoni and Mashiri 2007). As stated elsewhere (Makalela 2014), it is reasonable here to seek a new framework to describe language systems that are mobile, fluid and flexible in ways that are indexical to the multiple ways or forms of being, which are characteristic of the twenty-first century personhood.…”

Section: Language and Identity Boundaries: A Fuzzy Languaging Logic Fmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identity negotiation in a super-diverse community: The fuzzy languaging logic of high school students in Soweto

Nkadimeng

Makalela

2015

International Journal of the Sociology of Language

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This article reports on multilingual adolescent youth's negotiation of identities in a languaging South African environment. Focus group dialogues of 17 Grade 11 multilingual students from the South Western Townships (Soweto) in Johannesburg were analysed using conversational analysis techniques from a selected data pool that was generated over a period of three hours. The results of the study show a rift between classroom language and out of school language practices. We demonstrate that (i) the Soweto youth have a wide range of linguistic flexibility that indexes the new socio-linguistic status of South Africa in the post independent era and (ii) that monolingual classroom language are no longer adequate spaces for creativity and plural identity formation. Adopting a mathematical reasoning of approximates, rather than fixed sets, we coin the concept "fuzzy languaging logic" to argue that indigenous African languages are embedded in one another and that the respondents use this hybrid language space to identify and ethnify -choosing who they want to become beyond traditional linguistic and exact ethnic affiliations. Considerations for language in motion and social change as key features of globalization are made at the end of the article.

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Chapter 3. Critical Historiography: Does Language Planning in Africa Need a Construct of Language as Part of its Theoretical Apparatus?

Cited by 35 publications

References 0 publications

Fluid identity construction in language contact zones: metacognitive reflections onKasi-taallanguaging practices

Fluid identity construction in language contact zones: metacognitive reflections onKasi-taallanguaging practices

English in the mix: Evolving roles of English in the language practices of Twi speakers in Ghana

Identity negotiation in a super-diverse community: The fuzzy languaging logic of high school students in Soweto

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