| • |
To determine the extent to which cultural
and linguistic diversity is a constitutive
part of the individual and collective self-conception of the
people viewed as historical subjects. |
| • |
In what measure did a multicultural/multilingual
consciousness survive the multi-faceted colonial-imperial cultural
assault, especially through the imposed, alien and alienating educational
system? |
| • |
How are the parameters
for the construction of identity and difference being defined
in the context of, or in reaction to, the construct of globalisation
under one lingua franca? |
| • |
To examine the effects
of the hegemony of English on the language attitudes of speakers
of minority languages as well as those State dominant languages in
Goa, Maharashtra and Orissa, and South Africans in the Western Cape
Province educated through the medium of English. |
| • |
To investigate the connections between
the predominant use of English in education at the institutional
level and the vitality or subordination of selected Indian
languages and of languages other than English in the Western Cape,
and at the distributive level the resultant
widespread „semilingualism“ or „truncated multilingualism“
of the youth. |
| • |
To evaluate the achievements
and failures, the advantages and disadvantages of language-in-education
policies of particular Indian States
like West-Bengal, Orissa, Maharastra and Goa (with its weak status
language), and with the existence of powerful public and private English-medium
schools; and to draw lessons for South
African language policy in education. |
| • |
To analyse the appropriateness
of English as a global lingua franca
in terms of professional orientations and scientific-technical requirements,
and its centrality in the qualification structures at the tertiary
education level. |
| • |
To suggest shorter and longer term strategies
in support of counter-hegemonic developments in the domain
of language policy and practice, and specifically the promotion
of bi(multi)lingual practices in early childhood development,
formal schooling and tertiary education. |
| • |
Concrete examples of how
to implement bilingual education will be documented on the
basis of demonstration school projects in Cape Town, Mumbai and Goa.
The developmental aspect of our research will be manifest in the consolidation
and elaboration of their structures, curricula, materials and practices. |
