Language shift in Grahamstown: A case study of selected Xhosa-speakers

A number of scholars (Fasold 1984; Aitchison 1991; Denison 1977; Dorian 1980; Gal 1979) have examined the issue of language maintenance and shift, trying to discover why certain languages (or language variants) sometimes replace each other among some Speakers, particularly in certain domains of linguistic behaviour under some conditions or intergroup contact. This article provides an overview of the main factors that have been identified as playing an important role in influencing language shift and then reports on the relative importance of these factors in a survey that examined the experiences and attitudes of Xhosa-speaking parents who have recently chosen to send their children to English-medium schools in Grahamstown (Eastern Cape, South Africa). The research was carried out during 1998, and the project was a multifaceted quantitative and qualitative longitudinal study involving responses to a postal questionnaire sent to all non-English parents at English-medium schools in the town, and follow-up Interviews with 26 parents