What – and how – should we teach when we teach English in (South) Africa?

Abstract

This study proposes changes to the teaching of English (language and literature) in South African institutions of learning in ways that prioritise functionality and communicative competence rather than the current dominant and problematic approach that seeks adherence to received standards. The author draws on his personal experience as a lecturer in a comprehensive South African university in a semi-rural setting as well as on postcolonial and decolonial perspectives on the many problems associated with epistemological access and literacy rates across South African schools and universities. Invoking a decades-old proposition by American writer, James Baldwin (1965) and Nigerian novelist, Chinua Achebe (1965) that formerly colonised people should use English for their practical purposes rather than try to imitate so-called native speakers, the author argues for a ‘world englishes’ and descriptive grammar approach to the teaching and learning of English in South Africa. Based on these ideas, a strategy with an action research component for the transformation of language, literature and literary pedagogy is proposed. Finally, the study demonstrated how such a strategy could also contribute to the objective of decolonising English studies in non-nativist ways. Though the discussion is grounded more particularly in South Africa, the issues and proposals are practicable to a significantly wider African context. Keywords: South Africa, English Studies, World Englishes, Prescriptive Grammar, Decolonisation