Multilingual Universities in South Africa

Reflecting Society in Higher Education

Edited by Dr. Liesel Hibbert, Christa van der Walt

Publication date:

16 April 2014

Publisher

Multilingual Matters

Dimensions:

210x148mm
6x8"

ISBN-13: 9781783091652

Focusing on the use of African languages in higher education, this book showcases South African higher education practitioners’ attempts to promote a multilingual ethos in their classes. It is a first-time overview of multilingual teaching and learning strategies that have been tried and tested in a number of higher education institutions in South Africa. Despite language-in-education policies that extol the virtues of multilingualism, practice remains oriented towards English-only learning and teaching. In the multilingual contexts of local campuses, this book shows how students and lecturers attempt to understand their multiple identities and use the available languages to create multilingual learning environments.

Preface
Section 1. Policy Development and the Opening up of Implementation Opportunities
1. Liesel Hibbert and Christa van der Walt: Biliteracy and Translanguaging Pedagogy in South Africa – An Overview
2. Ernst Kotzé: The Emergence of a Favourable Policy Landscape
3. Pamela Maseko: Multilingualism at Work in South African Higher Education: From Policy to Practice
Section 2. Enhanced Student Performance through Biliteracy Pedagogy
4. Ingeborg M. Kosch and Sonja E. Bosch: African Languages as Languages of Teaching and Learning – The Case of the Department of African Languages, University of South Africa
5. Mbulungeni Madiba: Promoting Concept Literacy through Multilingual Glossaries: A Translanguaging Approach
6. Leketi Makalela: Teaching Indigenous African languages to Speakers of Other African Languages: The Effects of Translanguaging for Multilingual Development.
Section 3. Affective Aspects of Biliteracy Pedagogy
7. Andrea Parmegiani and Stephanie Rudwick: An Exploration of Students’ Attitudes.
8. Sandiso Ngcobo: Dual Language Instruction: Its Impact on Attitudes Towards the Role of African Languages in Education.
9. Nomakhaya Mashiyi: Tertiary Educators’ Reflections on Language Practices that Enhance Student Learning and Promote Multilingualism
Section 4. Africanisation and Localisation of Content for Cultural Identification
10. Lerothodi L Leeuw: An Exemplary Astronomical Lesson that Could Potentially Show the Benefits of Multilingual Content and Language in Higher Education.
11. Adelia Carstens and Linda-Anne Alston: Literacy Self-Narratives as Constructions of Pre-Service Teachers’ Multiliterate and Multilingual Identities.
12. Christa van der Walt and Liesel Hibbert: African Languages in Higher Education: Lessons from Practice and Prospects for the Future

Like it or not, the language debates in South Africa are back and the authors of this excellent book bring together a collection of papers that are empirically rich, theoretically inventive and politically courageous in making the case for multilingualism in the face of the ubiquity of English in school and society.