Marné Pienaar

Simultaneous interpreting as an aid in parallel-medium tertiary education

In South Africa, the language policies of tertiary educational institutions have been a point of serious concern and debate over the past number of years (see De Klerk 2001:27-32; Dlamini 2001:33-40; Johl 2001:5-8; Pienaar 2001:41-47; Roodt 2001:15-20; Smit 2001:21-26; Van Rensburg 2001:9-14). Historically, Afrikaans-medium universities, especially, have been affected by pressure to re-evaluate their policies and to provide teaching in English. It must however be stated that more than politics had a role to play. South African universities also have to be pragmatic. For the former Rand Afrikaans University (RAU), now the University of Johannesburg, that meant acknowledging that the Afrikaans market was not big enough to justify the existence of yet another Afrikaans-only university. Consequently, parallel-medium teaching was introduced in 1998, whereby all undergraduate classes were to be presented twice, once in English and once in Afrikaans. This duplication of classes, however, did not take place without hindrances. The seemingly most obvious stumbling block - that of the level of English language proficiency of predominantly Afrikaans-speaking lecturers - proved to be least problematic. The impact of duplication and the subsequent increased lecturing load were clear from the decrease in research output. Yet, in strictly economic terms, duplication worked and RAU student numbers increased dramatically. Already by 2002, students in the English-medium classes significantly out-numbered their counterparts in the Afrikaans-medium classes. By 2004, the enrollment figures pointed to a 4:1 ratio of English to Afrikaans.

Simultane tolkdienste aan Suid-Afrikaanse provinsiale wetgewers: 'n paar gevaartekens / Simultaneous interpreting services to South African provincial legislatures: a few danger signs

The provision of successful interpreting services in multilingual societies and in this specific instance South Africa, is not only dependent on well trained and skilled interpreters and proper equipment, but also on the approach, attitude and support of the users of such services. In this paper general perceptions with regard to the provision of simultaneous interpretation services to government structures will be discussed and specific attention will be paid to the under-utilisation of simultaneous interpreting in the legislatures of the Northern Province and Gauteng Province. It will be argued that there is a relationship between under-utilisation and attitudes towards multilingualism, the status of English and ignorance regarding simultaneous interpreting. Finally, attention will be drawn to the need for user training and suggestions will be put forward on possible ways how this can be achieved. Die verskaffing van suksesvolle tolkdienste in veeltalige samelewings en in hierdie geval spesifiek Suid-Afrika, is nie net afhanklik van goed opgeleide en vaardige tolke en behoorlike apparatuur nie, maar ook van die ingesteldheid, houding en ondersteuning van die gebruikers van sodanige dienste. In hierdie artikel sal daar gekyk word na algemene persepsies rakende die verskaffing van simultane tolkdienste aan regeringstrukture en spesifiek aandag gegee word aan die onderbenutting van simultane tolking in die wetgewers van die Noordelike Provinsie en Gauteng Provinsie. Daar sal geargumenteer word dat die onderbenutting verband hou met houdings jeens veeltaligheid, die status van Engels en onkundigheid rakende simultane tolking. Ten slotte word daar aandag gegee aan die behoefte na gebruikeropleiding en voorstelle word aan die hand gedoen oor moontlike wyses waarop dit kan geskied.

Trends in recent South African linguistic research

Linguistic inquiry is under pressure in South Africa. This is unexpected in a country where such a rich collection of languages are used, ostensibly supported by a very enabling language policy. This paper analyses trends in recent linguistic scholarship for the period 2000 to 2005. In a partial extension of Lubbe (2002) the paper focuses on the extent of scholarship in different linguistic sub-disciplines and the theoretical orientation of research. While the emphasis is on Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, other domestic journals that publish linguistic research occasionally, as well as book publications will be considered. The aim of the paper is to focus on trends, rather than to provide a summary of all findings. The trends include a change in the scope of linguistic research with less research being done in the traditional core domains of microlinguistics and a stronger focus on macrolinguistics. As far as the languages investigated are concerned, Afrikaans is still the language that received the most attention, while there is a significant focus on the Semitic languages, specific African languages and even a proportional increase in work on English. The main theoretical orientations are the generative paradigm for work done on the syntax of African languages, cognitive linguistics for semantic studies on Afrikaans and Semitic languages and typological functional approaches and corpus linguistic approaches. Once the trends have been established, possible reasons for the decline in output as well as the perceived drop in quality are offered, namely, the current state of the university environment, transformation, commercialisation, a lack of funding and changes in publishing strategies and publishing channels.

A decline in language rights violation complaints received by PanSALB – The case of Afrikaans

Since 2002 the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB) has experienced a decline in the number of complaints received concerning alleged language rights violations. An investigation into the nature of and reasons for this decline showed that the decline can largely be attributed to the fact that the Afrikaans speech community no longer lodges complaints with PanSALB. This paper reports on the reasons for this decline. It is argued that this particular community has turned away from PanSALB and now rather engages in other strategies in order to overcome the perceived marginalisation of Afrikaans. However, what at first glance appears to be a case of language planning from the bottom rather than from the top, is complicated by the social and financial capital of this speech community.

Uitdagings en struikelblokke by die vertaling van die FIT internasionale-vertaalterminologielys in Afrikaans

Abstract This article reports on a project whereby a translation list consisting of some 200 key concepts identified by the International Federation of Translators (FIT) was revised and translated into Afrikaans. The article is concerned with the processes followed in compiling a multilingual translation terminology list and reflects on some of the challenges and pitfalls experienced in the process. The project was conceptualised and executed against the backdrop of the governments Language Policy for Higher Education (DoE, 2002) and its requirement that opportunities to promote multilingualism in the higher education context be created. The aim of the list is therefore primarily pedagogical, that is, to facilitate access to central concepts of translation through carefully selected terms that are used in the teaching of translation studies and translation practice. A secondary aim is to contribute to the process of creating and sustaining a dynamic environment for the use of indigenous languages as a medium of instruction in higher education and ultimately for scientific progress.