Language, Power and Voices of a University: The Role of Critical Linguistics in Curriculum Development

Abstract

This paper argues that students coming to the university for the first time need to understand not only traditional university conventions and practices but, more impor­tantly, the institutional power relations that have an immediate bearing on their positions as students. It is claimed that "Learning, Language, and Logic," which is a credit-bearing course for second language speakers from impoverished educational backgrounds, should provide the context for the development of a critical response to the university and for the possible contestation of some of its commonsense practices. It is argued that critical linguistics, which focuses on the way in which power relations are linguistically encoded, provides one way in which these insights can be developed. The paper describes a critical language program that was part of "Learning, Language, and Logic" and then focuses on student responses to one particular task. It also includes a brief critique of this approach to language teaching.

Opsomming
In hierdie artikel word geredeneer dat studente wat vir die eerste maal aan 'n universiteit studeer nie net die tradisionele universiteitskonvensies en -praktyke moet begryp nie, maar ook, nog belangriker, insig moet he in die institusionele magsrelasies wat direk betrekking het op hul posisies as studente. Daar word aangevoer dat "Learning, Language and Logic", wat 'n kredietdraende kursus vir tweedetaalsprekers vanuit verarmde opvoed­kundige agtergronde is, die konteks behoort te verskaf vir die ontwikkeling van 'n kritiese respons op die universiteit en vir 'n moontlike weerlegging van sommige van die "commonsense" praktyke daarvan. Daar word geredeneer dat kritiese linguistiek, wat fokus op die wyse waarop magsrelasies taalmatig geenkodeer is, een manier verskaf waarop hierdie insigte ontwikkel kan word. Die artikel beskryf 'n kritiese taalprogram wat deel was van "Learning, Language and Logic" en fokus dan op studente se reaksies op een spesifieke opdrag. Dit sluit ook 'n kort kritiek op hierdie benadering tot taalonderrig in.