<= o:p>
Revista Nebrija =
de
Lingüística Aplicada a la Enseñanza de Lenguas (RNAEL) IS=
SN
1699-6569<=
o:p> Vol. 16 Núm.=
33
(2022) =
doi: 10.26378/rnlael1633496 Recibido:
12/08/2022 / Aprobado: 5/11/2022 Publicado bajo licencia de Creative Commons Reconocimiento Sin Obra Derivada 4.0
Internacional
On students’
challenges and motivations=
learning Spanish with the current
curriculum in South Africa=
n
universities
Sobre los
desafíos y motivaciones de los estudiantes para aprender español con el currículo actual en universidades sudafricanas
=
=
María Recuenco Peñalver<=
/span>
Universidad de Málaga, España y Universidad de Ci=
udad
del Cabo, Sudáfrica
mariarecuenco@uma.es; maria.rec=
uencopenalver@uct.ac.za
=
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México y Univers=
idad
de Witwatersrand, Sudáfrica
a.mendoza@enallt.unan.mx y amen=
doza@sudafrica.unam.mx
ABSTRACT
Spanish is one of the most widely spoken and learnt languages worldw=
ide.
Spanish teaching in Africa has been predominantly in Francophone countries =
and
the Magreb. In the Southern region of Africa,
Madagascar and South Africa are the two countries with the highest number of
learners. In South Africa, although students in higher education are motiva=
ted
to learn Spanish, the implementation of language policies and the current
Spanish language curriculum in South African universities have affected the
number of enrolments in recent years. In this paper, we examine the current
situation of Spanish studies in higher education institutions in South Afri=
ca,
focusing on the cases of the University of Cape Town and the University of =
the
Witwatersrand. A survey was conducted among 89 first, second and third-year
students who were learning Spanish at those universities in 2019 and 2020. =
The
results suggest that Spanish is an important language to learn in South Afr=
ican
universities, but its implementation at the tertiary level might benefit fr=
om
some revision of the current Spanish language curriculum. Finally, we would
argue that the design and implementation of language policies in higher
education are having a negative impact on the opportunities for students to
learn Spanish.
Keywords: Spanish language, higher education, South Africa,
motivation, curriculum revision
RESUMEN
El español es una de las lenguas más habladas y aprendidas en todo=
el
mundo. La enseñanza del español en África ha sido relevante en países
francófonos y en el Magreb. En la región del sur de África, Madagascar y
Sudáfrica son los dos países con el mayor número de estudiantes. En Sudáfri=
ca,
concretamente, aunque existe motivación a este respecto entre los estudiant=
es
universitarios, los números de matrículas se han visto reducidos en los últ=
imos
años debido a la puesta en marcha de ciertas políticas lingüísticas y el ac=
tual
currículo de enseñanza del español como lengua extranjera. En este artículo,
examinaremos la situación actual de los estudios de español en las
instituciones de educación superior sudafricanas y nos centraremos en los c=
asos
de la Universidad de Ciudad del Cabo y la Universidad de Witwatersrand, en
Johannesburgo. Para ello, se llevó a cabo una encuesta entre 89 estudiantes=
de
español en primer, segundo y tercer año en los años 2019 y 2020. Los datos
recogidos sugieren que el español es una lengua importante para los estudia=
ntes
universitarios en Sudáfrica, pero su currículo podría necesitar cierta revi=
sión
y mejora. Para terminar, se hablará también del diseño y la ejecución de las
políticas lingüísticas sudafricanas y su impacto en las oportunidades de los
estudiantes en relación con el estudio del español como lengua extranjera.<=
/span>
Palabras clave: lengua española, educación superior, Sudáfrica,
motivación, revisión curricular
1. INTRODUCTION
In this paper we shall give an account of the current situation of
Spanish as a foreign language in South Africa, focusing on its study at ter=
tiary
level, with the intention of determining whether a curriculum revision migh=
t be
necessary and/or beneficial.
Despite the
importance of Spanish as a language for Africans, as we shall see, there are
not many papers on this particular topic. Javier=
Serrano’s
lengthy report from 2014 titled La =
enseñanza del español
We will start by
presenting an overview of the state of Spanish studies in the African
continent, moving on to the particular situation=
of
South Africa and its background. We shall present the survey we conducted <=
span
class=3DGramE>in order to learn about students’ reasons for register=
ing
and deregistering for Spanish and we shall finish our paper by discussing t=
he
possibility of a curriculum revision, based on the survey’s results and our=
own
experiences.
1.1 =
Spanish in Africa
The learning of Spanish in Africa is concentrated in Northern, Weste=
rn,
and Central Africa, particularly in Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Benin,
Ivory Coast, Senegal, Angola, Cameroon, and Gabon. Kab=
en
(2017), for example, provides a clear example on how Spanish has become an
important language to learn, particularly in Algeria and Egypt. The
dissemination of Spanish through language and teacher training courses in
northern Africa has been promoted by Instituto Cervantes, and its growth has
been extended from primary and secondary education to the university level.
Another important reason for the increase of Spanish in that region is the
establishment of Spanish companies in these two countries.
According to the =
very
first large-scale study of Spanish teaching and learning in Sub-Saharan Afr=
ica
coordinated by Serrano (2014), the number of Spanish learners in the region
back then reached 1.5 million students. Currently, Sub-Saharan Africa —after
the United States, the European Union and Brazil— represents the region with
the fourth largest number of Spanish learners. The countries with the highe=
st
numbers of enrolled students are Ivory Coast (566,178), Benin (412,515),
Senegal (356,000), Cameroon (193,018) and Gabon (167,410), figures that
represent almost 90 percent of all Spanish learners in Sub-Saharan Africa
(Instituto Cervantes 2021: 57).
In Southern Afric=
a,
the situation shows a somewhat gloomy scenario. Of the 12 countries that
constitute this geographical region, Madagascar is the country with the lar=
gest
number of Spanish learners with 7,676 students (Gil Villa & Raharivola 2014), thanks to the presence of Spanish in
basic, secondary, and tertiary education. The country with the second large=
st
number of learners in this region is South Africa, with about 1,800 recorded
students (Gómez & Pérez 2014), while other countries in the region eith=
er
do not report data or register figures below 300 learners of Spanish. We
believe that all in all, the teaching situation of Spanish on the African
continent is circumscribed by the language policies of each country.
Regarding the
presence of Hispanic academic and cultural bodies in Africa, of the 20
Cervantes Institute’s branches on the continent, 19 are in the Maghreb. The
only one in Sub-Saharan Africa is in Dakar, Senegal. Inaugurated in 2010 as
Aula Cervantes, it was recently converted in 2021 into the very first Insti=
tuto
Cervantes in Sub-Saharan Africa (Instituto Cervantes 2021). Moreover, only a
few years ago, in 2018, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)
inaugurated its first Centre for Mexican Studies in Johannesburg, South Afr=
ica,
to promote student mobility, academic exchange, and the teaching and
certification of Spanish as a foreign language at the University of
Witwatersrand
The certification=
of
Spanish in Africa has a strong presence in the north of the continent,
particularly the Diplomas de Español como Lengua
Extranjera (DELE), administered in the diff=
erent
branches of the Instituto Cervantes. In Sub-Saharan Africa, Spanish language
certification is carried out through Embassies, as well as both private and
public institutions. However, given the lack of oral examiners, the
administration of these exams is limited. In South Africa, for example, the
DELE exam takes place exclusively at the University of Cape Town. The Servicio Internacional de Evaluación de la Lengua <=
span
class=3DSpellE>Expañola (SIELE)—designed and implemented thanks =
to the
collaboration between Spain, Mexico and Argentin=
a—whose
aim is to incorporate different varieties of Spanish, is also administered
mainly in North Africa, but rarely in Sub-Saharan Africa (Instituto Cervant=
es
2021). In the case of South Africa, the first certifying centre was created=
in
2018 by the UNAM Centre for Mexican Studies in Johannesburg, and there is o=
nly
one other certifying centre, in Durban (SIELE 2021). The advantage of this =
exam
is that it takes place online through the certifying centres. Since the
pandemic, students can take the exams remotely from home under the supervis=
ion
of the certifying centre where the student enrols. The reading and listening
comprehension tests are assessed automatically by the computer and the oral=
and
written tasks are recorded and subsequently assessed in Spain, Mexico and Argentina.=
1.2
Teaching
Spanish in Higher Education in Africa
In English-speaking countries in Africa, like South Africa, and
specifically at university level, the way of understanding the curriculum
structure and subjects’ organisation follows a very similar pattern to that=
of
the old British Higher Education system, in which students can obtain a
three-year bachelor’s degree, followed by Honours, Masters and PhD studies,=
for
which the degree is currently divided into major and minor subjects. That m=
eans
that any student interested in languages can take, in their first year at
university, four completely unrelated subjects, one of them being any langu=
age
of their choice, provided they have no prior knowledge of it. Students can
therefore register for Spanish (or any other European Modern Language) in
combination with degree courses related to Law, Psychology, Mathematics, Fi=
lm
and Media and/or Social Development, among many others. A student intereste=
d in
languages can also register exclusively in language-related topics: Spanish,
French, Italian and/or Linguistics and/or English (which is not very often =
the
case). Even though students are asked to plan properly from their first yea=
r at
university, this curricular fragmentation and independence in terms of choi=
ce
of subjects and freedom to customize the programme involves a significant
timetable clashing component that ends up restraining some students from
completing the majors of their choice.
In terms of the
internal organisation of contents inside the Spanish curriculum (the way the
curriculum is devised in the universities that offer Spanish in Anglophone
countries in Africa as part of a major programme), there is a clear
differentiation between language, culture and
literature. In all three of them, there is also a gradual progression from =
the
initial and exclusive study of the language and culture in first year, to an
introduction to Hispanic literature in second year, which becomes the focus=
of
teaching in the third year.
The lack of Spani=
sh
teaching material developed for an African audience has resulted in the use=
of
textbooks published either in the United States or in Europe (particularly,
Spain or the United Kingdom) by non-Africans, or with minimal African
participation. None of the books used either at the University of Cape Town=
or
the University of Witwatersrand have been created with the African student =
in
mind, or for their specific characteristics or needs. The fact that there is
very little material produced on the continent implies restrictions in term=
s of
both affordability and availability for the specific South African context,=
as
well as the suitability of learning approaches, methods and dynamics origin=
ated
in the classroom. However, there are exemplary cases, particularly in Afric=
an
Francophone countries: for example, Composite
Course in Spanish Grammar. Tran=
slation
and Stylistics (Lamptey 2005), Español en África (Bena &=
Pujol
1987) and Buenos días (Manso, Rodríguez & Elá 1987)
from Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea. As for teaching materials at tertiary
level, we can mention Spanish for A=
frica
(Adra & Suárez 2010), done in Ghana in
collaboration with AECID (Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and
Development) and Didáctica del Español,
coordinated in Cameroon by Medina and Habissou =
(2000)
and reviewed by the University of Extremadura (Spain). The Ivory Coast
collection Hor=
izontes
(1998–2022) is one of the best known in the whole continent. Specifically
created for the teaching and learning of Spanish in Ivory Coast, it has been
recently followed by Ya estamos
(2018) coordinated by Niango.
As for the human
resources involved in the teaching of Spanish in Africa, there is still an
extremely high percentage of lecturers that mainly come from Spain or from
Latin America. In the case of South Africa, for example, the Heads of the t=
hree
Spanish departments at the University of Cape Town, the University of Preto=
ria
and the University of the Witwatersrand are from Spanish-speaking countries=
.
1.3
Background
of teaching and learning Spanish as a foreign language in South African
universities
In South Africa, as is the case with many African universities, lear=
ning
foreign languages, along with multilingualism and multiculturalism factors,=
is
intrinsically linked to the history of colonialism and is at the core of the
conversations around the need for change across universities. Dutch and Eng=
lish
colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries in South Africa were clear examples=
of
the imposition of English and Dutch (evolving into Afrikaans) as means of
education and coveted instruments of social manipulation (Probyn
2005; Hartshorne 1995). English, however, was the lingua franca for politic=
al
resistance and liberation by the educated African elite in South Africa and=
in
other African Anglophone countries (Heugh 1995; Pennycook 1995).
In more recent ye=
ars,
the South African government elected in 1994 created a new
Language-in-Education Policy (1997). This new LiEP
aimed at the construction of a non-racial nation through the promotion of
multilingualism and the use of the eleven official South African languages.
Programmes were developed to redress the status of African languages, and to
ensure equitable access to the education system, as well as quality learning
and success for all learners within the system. This language policy target=
ed
all levels of education, from primary school to university. However, the la=
ck
of means and properly prepared educators, as well as the positive perceptio=
n of
English for social, economic, and educational development, has made such
implementation ineffective in South Africa and other African countries (How=
ie
2003; Rubagumya 1994). Unfortunately, the misma=
tch
between the languages used at home and at school has a deleterious effect on
students’ performance, particularly aggravated at the university level (CEPD
2012; Hurst, Madiba & Morreira 2017).
Regarding the
specific promotion and learning of foreign languages, in 2003 the South Afr=
ican
Department of Education approved Spanish as one of the eleven foreign langu=
ages
to be formally studied in the country. This was followed in 2006 by governm=
ent
approval of a new academic curriculum for secondary education that made the
study of two national languages compulsory and allowed two foreign language=
s as
electives, Spanish being one of them since 2003. This meant that students d=
oing
Spanish up until the last year of their secondary education have the
possibility of taking Spanish as one of their exams for matriculation (a
requirement for university acceptance). It is worth mentioning that when the
World Cup was hosted in South Africa in 2010, Spanish became very popular d=
ue
to the initial match between South Africa and Mexico, followed by the overa=
ll
victory of the Spanish national team.
Therefore, the
landscape of Spanish as a foreign language has changed, not always positive=
ly,
in the past two decades. UNISA, the first university to offer Spanish in 19=
66,
closed its Spanish department in 2015, while the University of KwaZulu Nata=
l,
which started in 1993, closed in 1997. Nowadays, out of 23 universities in
South Africa, only four teach Spanish as a foreign language: Stellenbosch
University, the University of Cape Town, the University of Pretoria and the
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. The last three mentioned are=
the
only ones, however, that offer Spanish as part of the university curriculum.
The study of Spanish at the University of Stellenbosch is not part of a
university programme. It rather comprises courses that =
run in
collaboration with the Postgraduate and International Office (PGIO) and are
offered to Stellenbosch University students and the general public.
Another important
contribution to the teaching of Spanish in South Africa comes from the Lang=
uage
Training Unit of the South African Department of International Relations and
Cooperation (DIRCO), which oversees the linguistic training of its officials
within the Diplomatic Training, Research and Development Branch. This
governmental body teaches languages such as English, French, Spanish, Manda=
rin,
Arabic, as well as Portuguese (DIRCO 2015). DIRCO started teaching Spanish =
in
1987, and since 2007, there have been two full-time permanent Spanish
instructors. In 2020, the number of enrolments at DIRCO rose to nearly 50
students, a considerable increase if we compare it with the 12 to 13 studen=
ts
reported in 2014.
In the already
mentioned 2014 study done by Serrano (2014), that provided a detailed portr=
ayal
of the situation of Spanish teaching and learning in Sub-Saharan Africa, Gó=
mez
and Pérez (2014), the specific chapter dedicated to South Africa revealed t=
hat
students from the University of Cape Town, the University of the Witwatersr=
and,
and the University of Pretoria mainly learnt Spanish for future professional
opportunities, personal interest, travelling, appealing sound, knowledge of
similar languages, and curiosity. Students also reported having some awaren=
ess
of Spanish language and culture (e.g., food, cinema, music, soccer,
bullfighting, and way of life, among other aspects). These authors highligh=
ted
that by 2012, South Africa experienced an increasing demand to learn Spanis=
h in
secondary schools, and with private tutors. Following Gómez and Pérez (2014=
),
we would argue that Spanish holds an enduring attraction for South Africans,
with a fluctuating demand that responds to language policies, time, money,
teaching staff availability, and other variables (e.g., past learning
experiences, musical hits, sport-related victories, and the like).
Taking the above =
into
account, and comparing the situation presented by Serrano’s publication, the
main conclusion we can draw from Gómez and Pérez observations (2014) is that
there has been a slow, but consolidated interest in the teaching of Spanish=
as
a foreign language in the past decade. This has been partly due to public f=
unds
coming from Spanish-speaking countries, such as the Spanish Embassy in
Pretoria, through its Spanish language teaching assistants (‘lectorados’) and
UNAM, through its Mexican Studies Centre in Johannesburg. The learning
scenario, however, has changed in recent years with the implementation of
language policies in tertiary education. Bachelor programmes such as
Engineering and Arts, at the University of the Witwatersrand, implemented a
language policy in 2019 that compels students to learn Zulu, Sesotho, or So=
uth
African Sign Language before they choose one of the six modern European
languages offered by the School of Literature, Language and Media.
Chart 1 below sho=
ws
the number of students enrolled in the past eight years in the three South
African universities that include Spanish as part of their university
curriculum. In this chart, we can observe two things. Firstly, a decline of=
the
number of students enrolled in Spanish courses at the University of Cape To=
wn
and even more drastically at the University of the Witwatersrand—except for=
the
enrolment in 2021 at Wits (84 first-year students registered), due to a
technical error on the platform that allowed students to enrol in Spanish
courses instead of the new compulsory languages. Secondly, it allows us to
appreciate the enormous difference between the number of students that take
first year Spanish and the ones that effectively finish the three-year degr=
ee
programme.
=
Chart 1. Spanish enrolment in South African Universities
Regarding the low
numbers in Spanish registration at the University of Witwatersrand, this is=
sue
is directly related to a language policy recently implemented in 2019 but
conceived in 2003. Its aim is to promote multilingualism, highlighted by the
inclusion of Sesotho as co-medium of instruction alongside English (Conduah 2003). However, few changes were made since 2=
003,
and in 2014, a large-scale survey showed that most of the students, scholars
and administrative staff would prefer to use English as a medium of
communication (University of the Witwatersrand 2014). It also showed that
isiZulu and Sesotho were chosen first and second by most students as the
preferred African languages to be developed and learnt within the universit=
y.
Thus, in 2015, Wits adopted a new Language Policy ‘aimed at promoting
creativity, selfhood and cognition through linguistic diversity’ (Universit=
y of
the Witwatersrand 2021). In 2016, the university created a Language Planning
and Development Board at Wits with a new strategy to implement the language
policy in four phases. Phases one and two included interpreting services, t=
he
translation of key documents, multilingual signage and branding, and the
development of teaching materials in isiZulu, Sesotho
and South African Sign Language, which was included in the list of language=
s to
be taught. Phase three was implemented in 2018 for staff and in 2019 for
students, by teaching the aforementioned languages as
part of their professional and educational development. Phase four is set t=
o be
carried out by academics by including isiZulu, Sesotho and South African Si=
gn
Language alongside English as medium of instruct=
ion in
relevant fields. In 2018, this language policy became mandatory for Bachelo=
r of
Arts and Engineering students (Mashishi 2018).
Students are compelled to take one full year of one of these three language
courses as part of their elective subjects. If, for example, they are fluen=
t in
isiZulu or seSotho, they must either learn sign
language or they can choose a foreign language, such as Spanish, French,
Portuguese, Italian or German. This language policy’s implementation clearly
deters students from learning one of the Modern European Languages on offer=
and
has a clear and direct relationship with the significant decrease in enrolm=
ent
numbers for Spanish. To support this, Chart 2 below shows the massive incre=
ase
of students learning compulsory languages from 2019 (i.e., Sesotho, isiZulu and South African Sign Language) at the Univer=
sity
of the Witwatersrand.
=
Chart 2. Sesotho, isiZulu and South Africa=
n sign
language enrolments at the University of the Witwatersrand
The sharp differe=
nce
between the number of students that take first year Spanish and the ones th=
at
effectively finish the three-year degree programme might lead us to question
the internal organisation of the contents of the Spanish curriculum. Accord=
ing
to the way the curriculum is devised in the three universities that offer
Spanish in South Africa within the bachelor’s degree, language, culture and literature form part of the same programme=
. This
means that students who are only interested in learning the language are
compelled to take the culture and literature modules as well.
Although South Africa
boasts five of the ten most important universities in the African continent
(Times Higher Education 2021), and it represents the third largest economy =
in
Africa, the number of Spanish students enrolled in higher education is spar=
se
in comparison with other African countries. The scarcity of research conduc=
ted
in Southern Africa impedes the understanding of the teaching and learning
situation of Spanish in this important enclave of the globe. Aside from
Serrano’s large-scale study from 2014, there are very little means to assess
the current situation in Sub-Saharan Africa, other than the efforts deploye=
d by
the Instituto Cervantes or, more locally, the Asoci=
ación
de Hispanistas del Sur de =
África
(AHSA), with its activities, including a biennial Colloquium devoted to the
analysis of the situation of Spanish as a foreign language in the Southern
region of Africa. In 2019, the AHSA Colloquium took place at the University=
of
the Witwatersrand, coorganised in collaboration=
with
the Mexican Studies Centre (National Autonomous University of Mexico in Sou=
th
Africa) and the University of Cape Town. In 2022, after a two-year gap due =
to
the COVID pandemic, the Colloquium took place again at the University of
Pretoria. There are a few other associations in the Continent that we are a=
ware
of, such as the African Association of Hispanists,
the Beninese Association of Hispanists, the
Cameroonian Association of Hispanists, the Ghan=
aian
Association of Hispanists (Instituto Cervantes,=
2022)
and the Asociación de Hispanistas
de Egipto (HEG), who organised the I
International Congress of the Association of Arab Hisp=
anists
in 2014 (Kaben 2017). However, the efforts to c=
onduct
research and to organise academic events (i.e., workshops, colloquia, conferences and symposia) are seldom and rarely articu=
lated
between different regions of the continent. Thus, the aim of this study is =
to
shed light on the teaching and learning of Spanish in higher education in S=
outh
Africa, particularly in a climate where the implementation of language poli=
cies
in favour of the teaching of African languages is reshaping the landscape.
Students’ needs and motivations to learn Spanish should be at the core of t=
he
curriculum design in higher education, particularly tak=
ing
into account that it is about an essential language for a globalised
professional perspective.
2. METHODOLOGY
This 2-phased study was conducted in 2019 =
and
2020 at the University of Cape Town and the University of the Witwatersrand,
the two highest ranked universities in South Africa and Africa (Times Higher
Education 2021) and with the most consolidated university programmes in Spa=
nish
and Latin American studies. The rationale behind this study was to identify=
the
reasons why students enrol in Spanish at two of the South African universit=
ies
that offer Spanish as part of the undergraduate curriculum. We also wanted =
to
understand why the number of students enrolled declines steeply from first =
to
second and third year. Furthermore, we wanted to know how they learn Spanish
and what value they see in learning this language in Higher Education, as w=
ell
as the resources and strategies students use to practise Spanish and to imp=
rove
their language skills.
2.1 Participants
First, second- and third-year students from both universities
participated voluntarily in both phases. The total number of students who
answered the survey in 2019 and 2020 was 85. Some students did not answer s=
ome
of the questions, but the full range of answers provided by the 85 students=
was
analysed by the authors of this paper. Most of the students were young adul=
ts,
with an average age of 21 years. Nearly half of the students were enrolled =
in
first year and the rest of them in second and third year. Most of these
first-year students had never had previous contact with Spanish. As we can
observe in Chart 3, the vast majority of students
answered that they had learnt Afrikaans as an additional language. This is =
the
result of the apartheid regime, which forced students to learn this languag=
e.
English is the other colonial language and the lingua franca in the country=
, so
those who do not speak it as L1, must learn English during their primary and
secondary education. In tertiary education, nearly all the undergraduate and
graduate programmes are taught in English. Around 60 percent of the students
learnt this additional language at school, but some of them also learn it at
home in private schools or through self-teaching methods.
Chart 3. Other languages students learnt before taking Spanish
2.2 Instrument
The questionnaire which was used for the purposes of this article was
created by the authors of this paper. In both the institutions involved, an
application for ethics clearance was granted, since the research met both t=
he
University of Cape Town and the University of the Witwatersrand’s criteria =
for
ethical research and the students’ confidentiality was assured throughout t=
he
study. The research was based on willing participation and students were
informed of the fact that they could withdraw from the study at any given t=
ime.
First, second- and third-year students from both universities participated
voluntarily in both phases.
The first phase of
this study was carried out via a paper survey, which was distributed in the
Spanish classroom during the second term of 2019. Most of the students took=
the
survey at the same time in one class. A few students missing that particular day took it a few days later within the same
week.
For the second ph=
ase,
the instrument was modified in order to be conve=
rted
into an online survey (see Annexure 1), based on the initial paper
questionnaire. Students could take the survey at their own convenience with=
in a
week. Students who did not answer the survey were reminded after one week
2.3 Data analysis
As mentioned, the two surveys took place during the second term of 2= 019 and the first term of 2020. Since the first survey was carried out on paper= , in the Spanish classroom, during one of their Spanish lectures, answers were collected by the lecturer and then registered manually in Excel documents by the authors of this paper. Lexical frequency was used as the criterion to codify the information provided by students’ answers. The second survey was carried out electronically via a Google survey. During one of their Spanish lectures, students were given a link to access the survey. They took the questionnaire either at home or at the university using one of the available computer laboratories. They had a week to access and finish the survey. The results of this second survey were electronically analysed and processed, a= nd lexical frequency was used again as the criterion to organise the results.<= o:p>
3. RESULTS
In this section, we report on the results of the two surveys that we=
re
administered to students at the Universities of Cape Town and the Witwaters=
rand
(85, in total) in 2019 and 2020. We have divided this section into the
following two parts: details regarding motivation to learn Spanish and its
usefulness in students’ lives, and reasons for studying Spanish and for end=
ing
their study.
3.1 Motivation to learn Spanish and its usefulness in students’ live=
s
In order to have a general
overview of students’ interest in learning other languages, we asked them w=
hich
other languages they would be interested in learning. Chart 4 shows the
popularity of languages students would like to learn. As we can see, Romance
languages are the most popular, followed by some Asian languages and Russia=
n.
When students were asked about their reasons for learning Spanish, the most
common answer was related to the fact that they like the language, the cult=
ure,
the history, and/or because it is a heritage language for some of them with=
a
Spanish or Latin American background.
Chart 4. Other
languages students would like to learn
Subsequently, it =
was
our intention to gather more specific information about the usefulness of
Spanish in their lives for personal, academic, and professional purposes. C=
hart
5 summarises students’ perceptions of the usefulness of Spanish in their pe=
rsonal,
academic and professional lives.
Chart 5. Usefulne=
ss
of Spanish in students’ personal, professional a=
nd
academic lives
Firstly, we asked
students about the importance of learning Spanish in their personal lives. =
As
stated, most of the students learn Spanish because they like the language a=
nd
it is widely spoken worldwide. Some students also reported that the language
was interesting and fascinating for them (11). Some like learning other
languages (8) and they chose Spanish because they want to learn a new one (=
4).
They would also like to read literature in Spanish and learn more about the
history, culture (e.g., art and literature), and popular culture, e.g.,
watching telenovelas and movies, or even playing football abroad (5). Some =
students
provided specific answers related to the heritage of Spanish speakers in th=
eir
families (3), as well as the usefulness of Spanish to travel and to make new
friends (9), which would ‘allow them to communicate in real life with people
from different Spanish speaking countries’. However, students who answered =
that
Spanish would not be useful for them, explained that they do not know anyone
who speaks the language and that they do not have the desire to travel abro=
ad.
Finally, for some students the reason for learning Spanish was the similari=
ty
to other languages that they already speak (e.g., French or Portuguese), wh=
ich
makes it easier to acquire.
We also asked
participants about how useful they think Spanish would be for their academic
life. The main reason given by students who answered
‘a bit’ and ‘a lot’ was their intention to study and work overseas, since t=
hey
see the language as the gateway to pursuing graduate studies in a
Spanish-speaking country. On the other hand, a large number of students who=
answered ‘not much’ and ‘not at all’ explained that as
English is the language of instruction in their current studies, they do not
see much probability of using Spanish in their academic contexts. A few
students reported, however, that they perceive the language as an easy way =
to
‘boost’ their university marks, showing a lack of intrinsic interest on the
subject. This could contribute to the significant drop in numbers between f=
irst
and second year.
Students who cons=
ider
Spanish to be important for their professional contexts considered further
working possibilities with people from diverse backgrounds as the main reas=
on
for their answer. Some students believed that many jobs require
Spanish-speaking candidates, such as translators, teaching Spanish or Engli=
sh
in a Spanish speaking country, and employment in international relations or
medical fields. Some of them would like to find work overseas and use Spani=
sh
to work or to live in a Spanish speaking country. For example, one student
responded that Spanish would help her/him to volunteer as a doctor in a
Spanish-speaking country. Another student wrote that s/he would like to pla=
y in
a Spanish football league. Several students also acknowledged that being ab=
le
to speak Spanish would ‘increase their chances of being employed.’ Converse=
ly,
students who replied ‘a bit’ did so since they were uncertain about their
professional future. Students who did not see Spanish as a useful language =
in
their professional life referred to the lack of Spanish usage in their chos=
en
careers as the reason for their answers.
Additionally, when
students were asked if they would like to travel or work in a Spanish speak=
ing
country, the great majority (78) answered affirmatively; hardly anyone answ=
ered
negatively (2), a few replied, ‘not much’ (4), and just one person said
‘maybe’. Most of the participants cited Spain as the most wanted-to-visit
country. Different Latin American countries, namely Mexico, Cuba, Argentina,
Peru, and Chile, were also mentioned. Students who have been in Spanish-spe=
aking
countries agree that Spanish is useful for travel, work=
and study abroad. The ones who answered positively, considered the benefits=
of
learning and practicing the language in immersion conditions as the main
reason, while the students who replied ‘not much’ or ‘no’ did so because of
their lack of fluency in Spanish.
Next, students we=
re
asked if they would, eventually, like to settle down in a Spanish-speaking
country. The answers to this question were varied, but the majority showed
their willingness to do so (23). Some others replied negatively (18), while
five students were hesitant in their answers and replied ‘maybe’. As in
previous questions, Spain was once more the most popular destination. Some
other countries where students would like to live, if not permanently at le=
ast
temporarily, were Mexico, Chile, and Colombia. Interestingly, however, the
distinction was made regarding Spanish being more useful for travelling than
for living abroad, since most of them would prefer to live in South Africa.=
For
these students, Spanish would not be a ‘second’ language for South Africans=
but
an additional language.
3.2 Reasons for choosing and terminating Spanish learning
In terms of reasons to study Spanish, students highlighted the possi=
bilities
that the language entails in terms of travelling and possibly working or
studying overseas. They also consider that Spanish offers a great opportuni=
ty
to learn from people and to communicate with family, relatives, and friends
from Spanish-speaking countries, as well as to understand TV series and mov=
ies
without subtitles. In general, students said that they would be keen to
continue learning Spanish the following year. The most common reason was th=
at
students wanted to continue improving their Spanish until they became fluen=
t in
the language. They were aware, however, that the only way to do so is to wo=
rk
hard, to practise and to invest time. Students also expected to gain a bett=
er
understanding of the culture (e.g., literature and history). The few studen=
ts
who responded that they did not want to continue learning Spanish said that=
the
Spanish schedule of the following year would clash with their majors.
Among the
participants, there was a general belief that the main reason for those who
dropped Spanish after the first year was associated with the realisation th=
at
it is ‘time consuming and challenging’ and ‘it gets too hard quickly.’ As o=
ne
student responded: ‘Speakers of other languages (particularly non-Romance
languages) often have difficulties with concepts such as conjugation, vario=
us
moods, and tenses, as well as linguistic nuances (such as the use of ‘vos’ as opposed to ‘tú’ in
certain parts of Latin America, or ‘vosotros’ i=
nstead
of ‘ustedes’ in Spain). All these make the lang=
uage
more difficult to learn for some and may have something to do with the large
number of dropouts.’ Other students believed that there is a lack of incent=
ive
because they ‘do not see a value in the real world, or at least in the fiel=
d of
careers that they are pursuing.’ Finally, some students pointed out that
Spanish is perceived as an easy way to obtain credits, and when they realise
that it is more difficult than what they thought, they drop it the year aft=
er.
‘I think a lot of students take it as a “filler”. What I mean is they have =
the
three main courses that they want to take, and they need a fourth to obtain=
the
credits to pass. Therefore, they take a “filler”, which could be Spanish.’
Another student reported that ‘many find it more difficult than they origin=
ally
thought, as their impressions are often initially conditioned by portrayals=
of
Spanish in popular culture.’
Despite this, when
students were asked about how easy they thought it would be to learn Spanis=
h, a
significant number replied that it would not be easy. The main reasons were=
, on
the one hand, the structure of the language (for example, the verbal
conjugation, tenses, and use of moods in Spanish, such as indicative versus
subjunctive, and the regional variants and dialects of Spanish) and on the
other hand, the novelty and the challenge of lea=
rning
a new language.
4. DISCUSSION
In this study, we have provided a panorama of the current situation =
of
teaching Spanish in Higher Education in South Africa. We also explored the
reasons why South African students choose to register for Spanish, along wi=
th
the reasons behind deregistration, particularly after the first year. In the
first place, we would argue that the teaching of Spanish in South African
universities would benefit from a revision in the current context of curric=
ulum
transformation. There is, in our opinion, a clear lack of suitability in te=
rms
of the learning approaches, methods and dynamics and its relevance for the
African pedagogic, historical, socioeconomic, and cultural context. This
clearly makes the study of Spanish both difficult and yet not relevant enou=
gh
and/or useful for South African students. These considerations highlight the
urgent need for both creativity and self-reflection to acknowledge the
misalignment between what is on offer from the University side and the
students’ needs in South Africa. Following Mandani
(2019), we believe that ‘the challenge in higher education, in Africa and
elsewhere, is to be both responsive to the local and engaged with the global
(16).’ The decolonisation of curricula should not merely imply a change of
content (i.e., inclusion of the study of African authors in Spanish), but it
should also incorporate the means to teach and assess. As Morreira
and Luckett (2018) state, we believe that the curriculum does not only cover
content but also ‘implicit ways of knowing, ways of doing and ways of being=
.’
Language policy
planners, stakeholders and academic professionals in South Africa should re=
vise
the Spanish curriculum based on three factors: what to teach, how to teach =
and
to what purpose. As we saw in the survey conducted with students, the two m=
ain
reasons for dropping Spanish after the first year are, firstly, that the
language is not as easy as they would expect, and more importantly, that th=
ey
are interested in learning Spanish not to get a degree, but to be able to s=
peak
the language for personal and professional purposes. Students who continue
learning Spanish in second and third year are pursuing a major in Spanish a=
nd
Latin American studies, which is not the main goal for the majority. The
current curriculum in higher education envisions Spanish as an indissoluble
association of language, literature, and culture, which deters students from
just learning the language. We would argue that the focus in the curriculum
should be on the study of the language, at all levels, rather than literatu=
re
and culture. Spanish as a discipline should be taught as a meaningful langu=
age
of empowerment, that will allow students to work and communicate in this
language in a globalised world.
While not proposi=
ng
the abandonment of the study of Hispanic culture and literature in Spanish,=
nor
questioning the relevance of the study of literature, we reckon that it sho=
uld
be approached from a different angle, rather as a complement to the study of
the language, and not the main objective of any course in an undergraduate
degree. Literature and culture, as inseparable manifestations, and conseque=
nces
of language, should be used as tools by lecturers to teach the language.
Teaching Hispanic culture in the Spanish curriculum should include cultural
references to Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America, with special
emphasis and reference to Afrohispanic and Afrolatin culture, and the historical connection betw=
een
Africa and South America. The cultural exchange, product of the trade of sl=
aves
to the Americas after the colonisation of the continent, should be included=
in
the teaching material—another reason why the current teaching material
produced, mainly in Spain, for Europeans, Canadians, and Americans, does not
respond to the commonalities between Africa and South America.
Furthermore,
regarding the language itself, special attention should be dedicated to the
study of the different Spanish linguistic varieties of the Spanish-speaking
countries in Africa, including Equatorial Guinea and Western Sahara, as wel=
l as
its written production in other African countries, such as Algeria, Morocco,
and Cameroon. In the same vein, all the linguistic varieties of South Ameri=
ca
should be part of the curriculum, which should necessarily move away from t=
he
prevailing Spanish-from-Spain hegemony: this is what has been happening at =
the
University of the Witwatersrand since the opening of the Mexican Studies
Centre.
Spanish instructi=
on
should also follow a multilingual approach. South Africa is a multicultural
country with 11 official languages. English is spoken as a lingua franca, b=
ut
less than ten percent of the population speak English as L1 (Ethnologue Languages of the World 2022). In everyday =
life,
due to shortage of local human resources, and since most of the Spanish
language lecturers come from Spain or Latin America, the only way to teach
Spanish is by using English, particularly in the first year (e.g., Corcoll-López & Gonza&=
#769;lez-Davies
2016). That leaves aside other important local languages such as Zulu and
Xhosa, spoken by nearly 40 per cent of the population (Ethnologue
Languages of the World 2022). Using English during the first year of Spanish
instruction might have a negative impact on South African students’ perform=
ance
whose L1 is other than English (e.g., Heugh 2000; Hurst 2016; Kapp &
The main objective
for any discipline, including Spanish in higher education, should remain its
usefulness and value for students. The Spanish curriculum should be revised
bearing in mind the reasons why students learn this language: their individ=
ual
interests and motivations. Through this survey we identified that their main
goals are personal and professional. Students desire to travel to Spain or
Latin America, and they see the value of being able to communicate through a
language that is spoken by nearly 567 million Spanish native-speakers around
the world (Instituto Cervantes 2021: 174). Students are also aware of the
potential job opportunities that will eventually open u=
p
in the future if they manage to communicate efficiently in Spanish. We beli=
eve
that a comprehensive global market mapping and analysis is crucial to unveil
the professional requirements and sectors where Spanish students could find
opportunities in the business arena, to increase their employability.
Lastly, we are of=
the
view that other degrees should be advanced instead of the current degree in
Spanish and Latin American studies. Translation and Interpreting Studies, a=
nd
degree programmes in Spanish applied to the economic sectors of Tourism, Re=
newable
Energies, Fisheries, Immigration Practising, Health, as well as General
Business, should be considered as potential ways of enhancing career
opportunities and professional prospects of university students both in Sou=
th
Africa and in Africa. Related to this, the creation of degree programmes su=
ch
as essential training for Spanish students interested in using Spanish for
teaching purposes, where the literary component would certainly find a bett=
er
fitting space, also needs consideration. This appears particularly importan=
t if
we consider the significant demand for Spanish teachers in many African
countries where the need for instructors of Spanish as a foreign language i=
s a
reality (Serrano 2014).
5. CONCLUSION
In this paper, we have explored students’ motivations to learn Spani=
sh
in higher education. By addressing the number of students enrolled in the p=
ast
five years, and across first, second and third year, we can conclude that
despite the interest in learning Spanish, the language policies recently im=
plemented
in higher education and the current curriculum makes it difficult for
university students to learn the language. We believe that a thorough revis=
ion
of the current curriculum is necessary, considering the professional
opportunities for university graduates nowadays. Furthermore, without
underestimating the importance of language policies in favour of the learni=
ng
of African languages, we claim that students should be able to allocate the=
ir
elective courses in the language they freely wish to learn. It is our hope =
that
this paper will contribute to the debate around this topic with the parties
involved in order to improve the current situati=
on to
the benefit of students of Spanish in South Africa.
NOTES
1 =
The survey can be
accessed through the following link, which was g=
iven
to students by their lecturers of Spanish in the classroom:
https://docs.goog=
le.com/forms/d/1lLqxbYVeNhhFHcLfErJug9njDpsZeygPQNy0ghWKbMc/edit
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