A Study On South African Language Planning From The Perspective Of Language Management

Language management, a new field in language planning, receives more and more attention especially when a traditional language planning framework cannot be applied to multilingual countries. South Africa houses many nations and languages. Its complex language situation makes it difficult to implement language planning. Although South Africa’s post-apartheid government declares11official languages in1996, many language-related problems still cannot be solved by language planning. This research on South African language planning from the perspective of language management will help us to learn about the multilingualism in South Africa and understand the limitations of traditional language planning. This thesis has explored the evolution of South Africa language planning from a historical perspective. Then it adopts a language management framework to evaluate language planning in South Africa.In the colonial period, both Dutch and British governments vigorously promoted Dutch and English, which caused the local economic, political and social system to collapse. Consequently, some aboriginal languages became extinct. After independence, when Afrikaners came into power, apartheid government replaced English with the Afrikaans language, which plays a leading role in the administration of the state, media and education sectors. The government introduced drastic policies for the country’s language, but this intensified racial conflict. The post-apartheid government enacted a new language plan, which paved the way for South Africa to democracy.This thesis employs the qualitative method as well as the literature method and takes Webb’s language management theory as a theoretical framework to analyze South African language planning. Through studying the country’s language situation and its language planning, the author draws a conclusion that language planning in South Africa is suitable for certain languages while language management is appropriate for the country’s multilingualism.The innovation of this thesis lies in that it uses a language management framework to analyze language planning in South Africa. Meanwhile, it provides reference for language planning in multilingual context.