Language planning at a cross-border university in Swaziland: the case of teaching and learning, research and institutional administration

• Gregory Hankoni Kamwendo ^[1] ; Nosisi Percis Dlamini ^[2]
  1. [1] University of Zululand

     University of Zululand

     uMhlathuze, Sudáfrica

     
  2. [2] William Pitcher College, Swaziland
• Localización: Current issues in language planning, ISSN 1466-4208, Vol. 17, Nº. 3-4, 2016, págs. 298-310
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The paper discusses language planning at a cross-border university (a Zimbabwean university) that offers academic programmes to the Kingdom of Swaziland in the Southern African region. The paper is situated within the micro-level language planning framework, and discusses language decisions that govern three areas of university business, namely: teaching and learning, research, and institutional administration. The following served as sources of data for the study: newspapers, the university website, observations of linguistic behaviour and practices around the university site in Swaziland, and one key informant interview (an interview conducted with a senior manager at the Swaziland campus of the university). The study’s findings point to the fact that English is the language chosen to address the three thematic areas of teaching and learning, research, and institutional administration. This means that although the Kingdom of Swaziland has two co-official languages (English and Siswati), it is English that enjoys higher and more strategic visibility. Whilst at the macro (national) level, English and Siswati are co-official languages, the situation at the micro level (university level) shows that English is the chosen language of the three selected domains.