Journal for Language Teaching = Ijenali Yekufundzisa Lulwimi = Tydskrif vir Taalonderrig - latest Issue

Languages afford access to epistemologies. It is in and through language that we learn and come to know. If denied the right to use our languages for learning, then what we come to know might remain superficial knowledge at best. We need a frame of reference for the acquisition of new knowledge and this is created through our own language/s. Multiple language use is common in the African educational domain where teachers and learners share the same languages. Such linguistic practices have been referred to as code-switching in the literature (Setati, 2008; Probyn, 2009; Wildsmith-Cromarty & Gordon, 2009) and were used by teachers to facilitate epistemic access to disciplines such as science and mathematics. The concept of code-switching later gave way to a more recent construction of multiple language use as translanguaging (Garcia, 2009; Garcia & Wei, 2014; Makalela, 2016). At tertiary level, an important focus is on the ways in which such practices create affordances for learning (or not), and what is ‘lost’ in translation or paraphrasing, if anything.

This paper reports on a mother-tongue based pedagogical initiative aimed at promoting epistemic access among native Spanish speakers attending a community college in the United States. This pedagogical initiative linked English and Spanish academic literacy courses within the framework of a learning community, or clusters of pedagogically integrated courses that students take in the same cohort. After presenting the political and pedagogical rationale for this program, I will discuss its impact on students’ ability to access knowledge in higher education through the medium of an additional language. This impact will be assessed through a comparative analysis of quantitative academic success indicators combined with qualitative data collected through interviews. The findings show that the link facilitated epistemic access by providing students with an emotionally safe space where they were able to take ownership of their additional language through a higher level of engagement with academic discourse. This greater engagement was made possible by the use of the mother tongue as a resource for self-expression and as a frame of reference.

Summary writing is an important skill for university students to possess as they have to use it in their studies and future employment. Yet, many students struggle in mastering this skill, especially when it is taught solely through a second language (L2). This article reports on a study that sought to develop this skill among first-year African students through the use of both their first language (L1) and L2 as informed by translanguaging theory. Working in groups, students were guided on how to summarise texts in L1 and L2 by moving from one language to another. Their produced work was then analysed using a marking rubric as a tool developed to assess the quality of their summaries in both languages. The research tool was a summary writing rubric. The findings indicated that the majority of participants have satisfactory levels of competency in L2 as opposed to the summaries produced in their L1. It is recommended that biliteracy skills should be developed as part of students’ training in South African higher education.

Summary writing is an important skill In this paper, it is argued that although the preferred language of teaching, learning and assessment at the former Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) is English (NMMU Language Policy, 2009), students’ primary languages can be mobilised to facilitate learning. Internal research at NMMU (2008) indicated that black and coloured students’ pass rates were low. To improve this situation, language support in the form of multilingual glossaries (in English, Afrikaans & isiXhosa) was provided. Multilingual glossaries were developed by communities of practice inside and outside the university. These glossaries have contributed towards changing the monolingual academic environment at NMMU to a multilingual one, and improved Black and Coloured students’ pass rates although they are still lower than their White and Indian counterparts (Sheppard, 2013/14). This study led to the conclusion that, understanding disciplinary concepts through the primary language could improve students’ academic performance and pass rates. A group of 28 Tourism Management students in a Communication tutorial participated in a pilot study conducted by the Centre for Teaching, Learning & Media to develop and measure the effectiveness of these multilingual glossaries. The data, in the form of qualitative and quantitative students’ feedback and pre- and post-test scores, will be presented.

This article determines whether transliteracy practices can be employed as a basis for introducing decoloniality into teacher education. The aim of the project was to devise ways of turning learning spaces into critical areas of enquiry. Discursive spaces were created to strengthen cross-cultural interpretive sensitivities, and to develop a stronger sense of voice and reflexivity among student teachers. Examples are provided of various collaborative tasks devised and implemented in this process. Evidence from student course feedback, suggests that a transliteracies framework can interrupt the discourse of coloniality; enacting epistemological and social change.

The aim of the research reported on in this article was to explore the effects on student learning and performance of the use of two languages of instruction, viz. isiZulu and English, in a course on the teaching of isiZulu as an additional language at school level. The course was for third year BA students considering a language teaching career. The content of the course came from the Applied Linguistics field and had not been translated from English into isiZulu. In addition, the discipline content was taught by a non-isiZulu speaking applied linguistics lecturer who had recently joined a three-year major course in isiZulu but was not fluent. The course was team taught by the Applied Linguist and an isiZulu lecturer who made the content accessible to the students through translation of difficult terms and concepts into isiZulu. Students were free to use either language. The research questions focused on how the two languages interacted naturally within a translanguaging framework in order to scaffold learning, and whether and how the use of isiZulu would facilitate understanding of key disciplinary concepts when the terminology had not yet been developed. Class sessions were recorded and transcribed with informed consent. Instances of translanguaging were analyzed in terms of the functions they were fulfilling within a broad discourse analysis framework. Findings revealed that what began as planned and systematic code-switching became, over time, translanguaging. Students appreciated the affordance for meaningful engagement with the subject content as they found it easier to challenge the lecturers and to present their own points of view in isiZulu. The experience also created rich affordances for building an academic discourse in isiZulu. Finally, teaching on the course created learning experiences for the lecturers who increased their knowledge of the languages concerned and the subject content respectively.