The politics of English : a study of classroom discourses in a township school

Abstract

This is an ethnographic study, which investigates discourse practices in English subject classrooms at Mziwethu Senior Secondary, a Western Cape township high school, where the subject is taught as a second language. The data were collected between October 1997 and March 1999. Working within a critical theory framework, my assumptions are (1) that classroom discourse practices reflect and construct outside realities and (2) that motivation to learn a language, and classroom language practices are intimately connected to power relations outside the classroom, as well as to social identity. These assumptions are embedded in my thesis title. Alongside Pennycook (1998), Kumaravadivelu (1999) and Canagarajah (1999), I believe that it is not possible to analyse English language practices in colonial and post-colonial contexts without a consideration of the history and national politics of English in that country. But, as all these writers emphasise, politics also extends to the contemporary local context in which the learning takes place, the roles and relationships in the classroom, and to literacy practices.