Teaching English in multiethnic schools in the Durban area: The promotion of multilingualism or monolingualism?

We describe a study we carried out recently in two former white (NED) high schools, two former Indian (HOD) schools and two primary schools (one HOD and one NED) in the Durban area. We recognise that English dominance is a potential barrier to the multilingual/multicultural goals of South Africa's language-in-education policy. Accordingly our study seeks to establish to what extent these schools are attempting to promote the sort of multilingual/multicultural identity the National Education Policy Act calls for. We report on what in our classroom and interview data led us to ask a number of critical questions including: Why is there so little code-switching? Why is Zulu not effectively maintained? Why is there so much teacher-fronted teaching? Why is there so little evidence of multicultural socialisation? Why is there such concern for standards? Why is there so much teacher anxiety? We report briefly on the research which guided the interpretation of our data (helped us formulate tentative answers to our questions) and suggest what the implications of our study are for policy makers, school administrators and teachers. (S/ern Af Linguistics & Applied Language Stud: 2001 19(3&4): 163-178