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This paper seeks an explanation for the current tendency of female students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa, to select English rather than their L1, isiZulu, for social interactions with Zulu peers. I draw onfindings on the prominent role of women in language change, recent work on language shift and changing conceptualizations of gender. I take as given macro factors and instead explore gendered self-perceptions which might predispose speakers to select one language over the other. I draw on qualitative perception and attitudinal data collected by myself and Zulu research assistants, by means of interviews and focus groups. After discussing labels commonly used, in several languages, for men and women on campus, I consider interactional goals which may be underlying the choice of English: the desire to express politeness and respect, to embody‘campus style’, to negotiate changing relations with parents, and finally, to negotiate equitable relationships with male students on campus. I conclude that this instance of growing use of English is linked to continued gender inequity in South Africa, and does not necessarily imply impending language shift. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the University of Pretoria as a point of reference and explicates that the use of a second language as language of learning and teaching (LoL/T) could be detrimental to the academic development of students as well as to the assessment of their progress, if the students concerned do not have the expected proficiency in the LoL/T, which, in the case of the University of Pretoria, is English. The argument is motivated on the basis of the role of language in academic training and on the proficiency of the students concerned in English. The article then lists the language and language-related problems at the University of Pretoria, evaluates the measures taken by the University to resolve these problems, and closes with a description of the language planning steps which are necessary if the language issue at the University is to be handled in a satisfactory way. Although directed at circumstances at one particular South African university it is hoped that the discussion may be applicable to similar institutions in the country, in particular institutions which formerly wholly or mainly used Afrikaans as LoL/T, and have had to adopt a dual-medium approach to training since the country's democratisation in 1994. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]