Browsing by Author "Ramokoatsi, Mabutsana"

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    The linguistic repertoires and lived experience of language of African foreign students at Stellenbosch University
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-12) Ramokoatsi, Mabutsana; Oostendorp, Marcelyn; Mashazi, Simangele; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. General Linguistics.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis investigated the linguistic repertoires and the lived experience of language of African foreign students at Stellenbosch University. The study also explored how globalization had affected concepts such as language, migration, and identity as the increase in the number of people moving across the world has had a huge impact on our understanding of how linguistic resources are spread and how identity is constructed. Concepts that view language as bound and static can no longer be used in this age of increased migration and increased interaction between people from all backgrounds and walks of life. This increased migration and increased mobility has meant the spread of linguistic resources that can be deployed in various communicative interactions. The aim of this study was to find the link between the linguistic repertoires of the students and how their linguistic resources contributed to their identity construction and sense of belonging in their new environment. This study was conducted at Stellenbosch University and a total of 8 participants were recruited for this study. A qualitative research approach that comprised of a language portrait, background questionnaire and semi-structured interviews was used. The language portraits were used to obtain information on the linguistic repertoires of the participants, and the background questionnaire were also used to ascertain what the linguistic repertoires of the participants were as well as to provide biographical information about where the participants originated and their level of proficiency in the languages listed. The interviews were used to gain a deeper reflection on the language portraits given by the participants and to allow the participants to narrate their own experiences in their own words and give an account of their own linguistic trajectory. It was found that migration and mobility had indeed affected the linguistic repertoires of the participants. The multilingual environments that the participants had grown up in had given them an appreciation of engaging with other multilingual speakers and so when the participants moved to new spaces, they welcomed the opportunity to add new linguistic resources to their repertoires and blend them together. The study also found that because the participants grew up in multilingual societies, this cemented a strong sense of cultural identity early on and this caused the participants to not be easily deterred when faced with linguistic challenges in Stellenbosch, but instead take them in their stride and focus on rather keeping up with the communicative interactions they were able to engage in.