The use of plain language – not that simple

Abstract

The inception of democracy in South Africa in 1994 also saw the birth of a new language dispensation granting 11 languages official status. This, as well as the fact that English is often claimed to be the de facto lingua franca despite the fact that it is not by far the largest language in terms of mother tongue speakers, carries with it concerns relating to successful communication. One solution that has been offered is the introduction of plain language. However, factors such as cross-cultural inference, specific discourse strategies and post-colonial discourse style seem to play an important role in this complex multilingual and multicultural society. These aspects should also be borne in mind in the debate concerning the use of BSAE in the English L2 classroom.


(Journal for Language Teching: 2002 36(1-2): 146-151)