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  3. Under the 1996 constitution, all 11 of South Africa’s official languages "must enjoy parity of esteem and be treated equitably".

Under the 1996 constitution, all 11 of South Africa’s official languages "must enjoy parity of esteem and be treated equitably".

admin2012-12-01  81
问题     Under the 1996 constitution, all 11 of South Africa’s official languages "must enjoy parity of esteem and be treated equitably". In practice English, the mother tongue of just 8% of the people, increasingly dominates all the others. Its hegemony may even threaten the long-term survival of the country’s African languages, spoken as the mother tongue of 80% of South Africans, despite the government’s repeated promises to promote and protect indigenous languages and culture.
    Under apartheid, there were just two official languages, English and Afrikaans, a variant of Dutch with a dash of French, German, Khoisan (spoken by so-called Bushmen and Hottentots), Malay and Portuguese. Pre-colonial African languages were relegated to the black townships and tribal "homelands". Even there, English was often chosen as the medium of education in preference to the inhabitants’ mother tongues. Black South Africans increasingly rejected Afrikaans as the language of the main oppressor; English was a symbol of advancement and prestige.
    Today, 16 years after the advent of black-majority rule, English reigns supreme. Not only is it the medium of business, finance, science and the Internet, but also of government, education, broadcasting, the press, advertising, street signs, consumer products and the music industry. For such things Afrikaans is also occasionally used, especially in the Western Cape province, but almost never an African tongue. The country’s Zulu-speaking president, Jacob Zuma, makes all his speeches in English. Parliamentary debates are in English. Even the instructions on bottles of prescription drugs come only in English or Afrikaans.
    Yet most black South Africans are not proficient in English. This is because most of their teachers give lessons in a language that is not their own. To give non-English-speaking children a leg-up, the government agreed last year that all pupils should be taught in their mother tongue for at least the first three years of primary school. But outside the rural areas, where one indigenous language prevails, this is neither financially nor logistically feasible.
    Some people suggest reducing the number of official languages to a more manageable three: English, Afrikaans and Zulu, the mother tongue of nearly a quarter of South Africans. But non-Zulus would object. Unless brought up on a farm, few whites speak an African language. For the school-leaving exam, proficiency in at least two languages is required. But most native English-speakers opt for Afrikaans, said to be easy to learn, rather than a useful but harder African tongue. At universities African-language departments are closing.
    Some effort is being made to protect African languages from this apparently inexorable decline. The Sunday Times, South Africa’s biggest-selling weekend paper, recently launched a Zulu edition. In September the Oxford University Press brought out the first Zulu-English dictionary in more than 40 years.
    Many of the black elite, who send their children to English-speaking private schools or former white state schools, may accept English emerging as the sole national language. Many speak English to their children at home. Fluency in the language of Shakespeare is regarded as a sign of modernity, sophistication and power.
    Will South Africa’s black languages suffer the fate of the six languages brought by the country’s first Indian settlers 150 years ago? Maybe so, thinks Rajend Mesthrie at the University of Cape Town. For the first 100-odd years, he says, South Africa’s Indians taught and spoke to their children in their native tongues. But English is now increasingly seen as "the best way forward". Today most young Indians speak only English or are bilingual in English and Afrikaans, though they may continue to chat at home in a kind of pidgin English larded with Indian and Zulu.
Why are most black South Africans not proficient in English?
选项 A、Because they are not educated in English.
B、Because most teachers are not fluent enough in English.
C、Because they are taught in their mother tongue in primary schools.
D、Because they don’t have the opportunity to use English.
答案B
解析 细节推理题。文章第三段说英语已经成为包括教育等诸多领域的语言，但是文章第四段指出大多数南非黑人英语不好的原因是他们的老师用非母语教学，可以推断他们的老师的英语水平也欠佳。
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