Reflecting on methods to investigate the role of English(es) in the repertoires of multilingual South Africans

Sociolinguistics as a discipline is increasingly concerned with the language repertoires of multilingual people. It is widely accepted that varieties of English play a role in many multilingual repertoires.  The inclusion of... [ view full abstract ]

Sociolinguistics as a discipline is increasingly concerned with the language repertoires of multilingual people. It is widely accepted that varieties of English play a role in many multilingual repertoires.  The inclusion of English(es) in the repertoires of multilingual people are viewed negatively by some scholars, describing English as a “killer language”.  Other scholars find that English co-exists as one of many languages in the stable multilingual repertoires of people.    

The nature of the multilingual repertoires of people are investigated with two broad methods: indirect and direct.  The most widely used indirect method is the use of a language repertoire survey.  Other indirect methods include interviews about language use and language portraits.  More direct methods to study the nature of multilingual repertoires include investigations into the use of English and other languages in the social networks of people via audio-recordings of natural speech.

In some studies, the use of different methods resulted in contradictory evidence.  For example, in a study of the language attitudes of participants towards the intergenerational transfer of Congolese migrant languages like Tshiluba and Kikongo in South Africa, Dekoke (2017) found that parents indicate a desire to transfer these languages to their children in survey data.  However, during interviews, the same parents and their children lament the lack of transfer of these languages. 

The aim of this paper is to use all the methods discussed above to investigate the multilingual language repertoires of a small group of South African participants to determine: (a) what the strengths of the different methodologies are in relation to descriptions of multilingual language repertoires; and (b) how these methodologies should potentially be used to complement one another to produce valid and reliable understandings of the nature of the multilingual repertoires of people.  Ultimately, the paper aims to provide a deeper understanding of the potentially conflicting roles that English(es) plays in the multilingual repertoires of the participants.

English [ view full abstract ]

English

English [ view full abstract ]

English

English [ view full abstract ]

English