Schooling superdiversity: Linguistic features as linguistic resources in two Manenberg classrooms in the Western Cape

Abstract

This thesis takes on a non-essentialist view of language by studying the borrowing of linguistic features across languages as natural, everyday language practices. More specifically, this research identifies the need for the accommodation of linguistic diversity and multi-layered repertoires amongst pupils in two monoglossic grade R classes in the area of Manenberg, Western Cape. As a means of accommodating the linguistic diversity and mixed linguistic repertoires of pupils in these two classrooms, it is investigated how the borrowing of linguistic features can be utilized as a linguistic resource in these diverse classrooms. Furthermore, this research also studies how the language ideologies of the teachers of the two grade R classes could possibly influence the absence or the presence of the borrowing of linguistic features in these spaces. This study made use of research methods which closely resemble methods ethnographic in nature, by mainly making use of observations to study the natural spoken discourse of two grade R teachers and their pupils in the domain of the classroom. Moreover, these two grade R classes and the area in which the schools are located, were studied as possible superdiverse spaces as these classes are made up of diverse groups of pupils which reside in the community of Manenberg, where diversity is increasing. The discussion on whether the community of Manenberg and the two classrooms studied can be regarded as superdiverse spaces, takes on an interrogative perspective in the concluding chapter of this thesis.