Moedertale en die Namibiese skoolverlater

Abstract

English abstract provided by author:

Objective: The main objective of the study was to establish the standing of Afrikaans in Namibia, six years after independence. Questions were put mainly to determine the relationship between the learner (at school-leaving age) and the mother tongue. The study focuses on Afrikaans, but since mother tongue speakers from other main language groups in Namibia were included, the gathered data also provide information on the standing of these languages

Hypothesis: One of the basic assumptions of the study is that the Law of Demand posits a negative relationship between the price of a commodity and the amount of it demanded. This law was in operation in the early Cape after 1652 when children were instrumental in the development of Afrikaans from Dutch. It was a needed language at the time. The same law now applies in Namibia: Youngsters are turning their back on Afrikaans because they see it as an unneeded language. The main hypothesis is therefore that the youth will play a major role in the future of Afrikaans in Namibia

Research methods: The early history of Afrikaans was studied to provide data that would back up the theory that children were instrumental in the forming of the language, and to seek points of similarity between the present and the past language situations as far as young speakers are concerned. The questionnaire study followed a three months period of participant observation of the target group. The researcher had the opportunity to teach Afrikaans to multilingual grade eleven pupils in a Windhoek school

Results: In the seven domains of food-shop, church, play-ground, older family, post office, clothes-shop and younger family, the respondents with Afrikaans as mother tongue use Afrikaans the most in the first domain and the least in the last. Half of the respondents indicated that they do not want Afrikaans as a first language to their future children. English is regarded by 87

as the language of the work place. Afrikaans fared better at the emotional level: 68

indicated that Afrikaans is their best loved language. Of all the respondents 36

regard education as the most important need for a better Namibia

Conclusion: According to the findings of this study Afrikaans is a threatened language in Namibia. It is clear that the respondents see no future benefit for themselves in their mother tongue Afrikaans and that a shift to English is taking place. The same shift is taking place amongst mother tongue speakers of the indigenous Namibian languages included in the study

Recommendation: Seeing that the respondents -not only Afrikaans learners --indicated that they are still emotionally attached to their mother tongue, urgent reverse language shift action is recommended. Suggestions to this effect are made in the final chapter of the study