Record Details

English as a medium of worship: The experiences of the congregants of a Pentecostal charismatic church in Soweto

Literator

 
 
Field Value
 
Title English as a medium of worship: The experiences of the congregants of a Pentecostal charismatic church in Soweto
 
Creator Adams, Thabisile N. Beukes, Anne-Marie
 
Subject Linguistics; Sociolinguistics Pentecostalism; language of religion; language attitudes; English language; indigenous African languages
Description This study examines the experiences of the congregants of a Pentecostal charismatic church (PCC) in Soweto regarding the use of English for communication. This particular church is peculiar in that English is its predominant language of religion. This is in stark contrast to many mainline churches (such as the Anglican, Lutheran and Roman Catholic churches) that use indigenous African languages (IALs) in most, if not entire, presentation of church services for black congregants. The curiosity then arises concerning the reasons for the predominant use of English during services in PCCs. The objectives of this study were to find out the general views of black congregants about the English language, how this view may impact on the congregants’ view of the use of English within the context of the service and what their preferences about language use in the sermon are, and why. The findings suggest that the congregants view English positively and are receptive to its use in the service, particularly for conducting sermons. In addition, English is seen as an all-inclusive language but notably, not as a language of identity. Based on these findings, strategies for accommodating the diverse language concerns of the congregation were espoused.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2019-02-27
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — — —
Format text/html application/epub+zip application/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/lit.v40i1.1438
 
Source Literator; Vol 40, No 1 (2019); 9 pages Literator; Vol 40, No 1 (2019); 9 pages 2219-8237 0258-2279
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/1438/2893 https://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/1438/2892 https://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/1438/2894 https://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/1438/2889
 
Coverage Southern Africa — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2019 Thabisile N. Adams, Anne-Marie Beukes https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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