Multilingual education in South African universities: Policies, pedagogy and practicality

Madiba, Mbulungeni

doi:10.1016/j.linged.2013.09.002

Cited by 45 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…The irony of translanguaging is that there may be resistance to using multiple linguistic repertoires to clarify content in class but when students achieve pass marks, methodology used is not an issue. The activities outlined above are in line with Madiba's (2014) strategy of bringing the academic lexicon into indigenous languages. Consequently, using multilingual glossaries in learning spaces not only develops indigenous languages, but it also facilitates learning.…”

Section: C) Learning Context Variablesmentioning

confidence: 92%

Translanguaging as Foundational Pedagogy: Disrupting Hegemonies for Academic Access in Multilingual Spaces

Zhou¹,

Landa²

2019

Alternation

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The grand objective of foundational pedagogy is underpinned by an endeavour to create access to higher education for marginalised learners. Without a deliberate plan of action to bridge the knowledge and skills gap, it would be challenging for learners to proceed to, and progress in, higher education institutions. In the multilingual South African space, language is essential in access to education given the legacies of colonialism and apartheid. However, language is currently a tool of exclusion in SA University classrooms. It is against this background that this paper disrupts the prevailing hegemony of English, using translanguaging: a subversive theory that acknowledges linguistic and cultural diversity. This paper shifts prevailing monolingual cultures, and explores practical ways of designing instruction that accommodates multilingual repertoires. We reflect on the rich linguistic canvas, initiate necessary conversations and ask relevant questions in an attempt to transform the educational experience for learners in marginalised contexts. This paper challenges attitudes of delegitimizing multilingual practices and branding them as corrupted and unacceptable. We acknowledge that sites of education are sites of legitimate struggle for decolonisation and transformation. Therefore, through translanguaging, learners' plural identities and humanity are embraced. Most importantly, foundation learners are free to use their complete linguistic repertoire to access knowledge without prejudice.

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Section: C) Learning Context Variablesmentioning

confidence: 92%

Translanguaging as Foundational Pedagogy: Disrupting Hegemonies for Academic Access in Multilingual Spaces

Zhou¹,

Landa²

2019

Alternation

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“…These are assumptions that the Writing Lab wishes to counter. While at this stage there is no guarantee that all students' language requests can be accommodated given the small staff complement, the decision to offer multilingual consultations is underpinned by a social justice goal of promoting all languages as languages of learning (McKinney, 2017), as well as implementing aspects of the University's language policy that aim at encouraging multilingual teaching and learning practices (Madiba, 2013).…”

Section: Consultationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Establishing a Health Sciences writing centre in the changing landscape of South African Higher Education

Muna

Hoosen

Moxley

et al. 2019

CriSTaL

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This article describes, analyses, and reflects on the conceptualisation and establishment of a Writing Lab at a South African university's Faculty of Health Sciences. Drawing on the theoretical framework of New Literacy Studies, the academic literacies approach, and South African writing centre scholarship, the analysis revealed that the conceptualisation of the Writing Lab was primarily informed by the academic socialisation model but has since shifted to encompass a more transformative ideology; opening spaces where students' own knowledges and literacies practices could contribute to new forms of thinking and representation in the academy. We argue that the shift was facilitated by collaboration with disciplinary lecturers, the faculty's Primary Health Care ethos, and the Writing Lab's engagement with a large postgraduate population, leading to the Writing Lab's participation in new forms of knowledge-building that could contribute to the creation of decolonised spaces and shifts in institutional culture.

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“…Madiba's (2013) research into language policy and implementation at the University of Cape Town is heartening and shows unequivocal institutional commitment to a multilingual future for the institution. According to a report of the Curriculum Working Group, English is the medium of instruction at the institution.…”

Section: Playing the Policy Gamementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The quantitative data used in this paper is extracted from research conducted for the ASSAf on the state of humanities education at South African universities. To date much of the research on the status of the 11 official South African languages is qualitative with very limited quantitative insights available (Madiba 2013;Rudwick and Parmegiani 2013;Turner and Wildsmith-Cromarty 2014). In this paper our intention is to complement and extend the qualitative research on the challenges of implementing multilingualism at South African higher education institutions (HEIs) through the presentation of a quantitative picture of undergraduate enrolments and graduations for the 11 official languages in SA.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Multilingualism at South African universities: a quiet storm

Pillay

2015

Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies

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This article seeks to reinforce the urgency for a multilingual academy in South Africa. It draws on recent quantitative data to unpack the dramatic decline of language enrolments and graduates of the 11 official languages. We explore the racial patterns in enrolments in the 11 official languages, given the scarcity of recent research articles that offer a quantitative comparison of the patterns of enrolment in this regard. We show that that while post-apartheid South Africa has seen a continuous rise in the popularity of English and Afrikaans, this has happened at the expense of all other official languages. We are mindful that the language policy in South Africa has political currency, which is not echoed in practical implementation. We suggest that while universities cannot ignore the politics of policy, it is the politics of practice in the form of what students choose to study that plays out in higher education institutions across the country. Our purpose therefore is to offer some insight into such practice. We argue that universities, in asserting their 'public good' mandate, should not be guilty of aiding and abetting the decline in indigenous languages by prioritising an efficiency mindset instead of a social justice one. IntroductionWe write this article not as linguists but as higher education practitioners. The critical importance of multilingualism at South African universities is signalled in the Linguistics and Education Special Issue 24 (2013) devoted to this concern and in the special issue of Language Matters: studies in the languages of Africa (45(3), 2014) devoted to the politics of language in Africa in which all the articles, save one, focus on language matters in South Africa. The quantitative data used in this paper is extracted from research conducted for the ASSAf on the state of humanities education at South African universities. To date much of the research on the status of the 11 official South African languages is qualitative with very limited quantitative insights available (Madiba 2013;Rudwick and Parmegiani 2013;Turner and Wildsmith-Cromarty 2014). In this paper our intention is to complement and extend the qualitative research on the challenges of implementing multilingualism at South African higher education institutions (HEIs) through the presentation of a quantitative picture of undergraduate enrolments and graduations for the 11 official languages in SA.We begin with a brief institutional policy overview aimed only at corroborating the extensive research done by Madiba (2013) and Turner and Wildsmith-Cromarty (2014) in this regard. We then present quantitative data on enrolments and graduations. We focus only on undergraduate patterns of enrolment and graduation because it is at the undergraduate level that dramatic numeric shifts are more evident (Pillay and Yu 2010). In an earlier paper (Pillay and Yu 2010) we showed that the loss of enrolment in the discipline of languages, linguistics and literature at undergraduate level is more severe (has shrunk by 27.68%) th...

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Multilingual education in South African universities: Policies, pedagogy and practicality

Cited by 45 publications

References 20 publications

Translanguaging as Foundational Pedagogy: Disrupting Hegemonies for Academic Access in Multilingual Spaces

Translanguaging as Foundational Pedagogy: Disrupting Hegemonies for Academic Access in Multilingual Spaces

Establishing a Health Sciences writing centre in the changing landscape of South African Higher Education

Multilingualism at South African universities: a quiet storm

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