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UFS language policy commits to multilingualism

10 August 2022 | Story Edzani Nephalela | Photo iStock

Translanguaging — Several presenters presented their themes during the translanguaging virtual session. The seminar sought to improve participants' awareness of using more than one language in lecture rooms across the institution, particularly for tutoring and academics.

Language continues to be a barrier to access and success for many students at South African higher education institutions. Despite their status as official languages, indigenous languages have in the past and at present, structurally not been afforded the official space to function as academic and scientific languages.

Language policy for higher education seeks to address the challenge of the underdevelopment and underutilisation of official African languages at higher education institutions whilst simultaneously sustaining the standard and utilisation of languages that are already developed.

The University of the Free State (UFS) Centre for Teaching and Learning hosted a multilingualism virtual seminar on 20 July 2022 that aimed to broaden an understanding of utilising more than one language within lecture rooms across the university, specifically for tutoring and academics. The following speakers presented various topics at the seminar:

• Professor Leketi Makalela, Wits University ( Translanguaging, decoloniality and epistemic (in)justice in education)

• Letsela Motaung, UFS ( Translanguaging as a pedagogical practice to resuscitate indigenous languages at a South African institution)

• Dr Tolani Hlongwa, University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) ( Development of Bilingual Tutoring Training Programme: The Importance of Understanding Translanguaging)

• Monnapula Molefe, UFS ( Translanguaging pedagogies in higher education: moving from informal to formal settings)

• Dr Lehlohonolo Motake, Central University of Technology (CUT) ( Transforming learning with translanguaging in multilingual settings)

Prof Makalela stated that the foundation of sustainable growth is excellent education, but the issue is, are we any closer to what one considers quality education? “You can’t, in my opinion. How can we know if you don’t examine epistemic difficulties at this level?” he further enlightened.

Linguists believe that the practice of “translanguaging” can aid in learning, and the word has recently gained popularity in literature on bilingual and multilingual education with various universities incorporating these changes in their policies and to ensure that it’s all-inclusive as indicated by Dr Tolani Hlongwa. She further explained that languages are tools to navigate better understanding, whilst English should be used as a tool to communicate, not to measure intelligence.

What is the UFS’ role in addressing this?

The university’s language policy expresses its commitment to multilingualism, with particular emphasis on Sesotho, Afrikaans, and isiZulu. This policy ensures that language is not a barrier to equity of access, opportunity, and success in academic programmes or to access to the UFS administration.

The UFS also developed an Academy for Multilingualism. This academy hosts the Multilingual Mokete, a popular annual tradition celebrating different cultural expressions in visual art, poetry, storytelling, drama, music, and songs by different language groups and in the different languages that are dominant at the UFS (i.e. English, Afrikaans, Sesotho, isiZulu, and Sign Language.

In partnership with the University of Cape Town (UCT) and UKZN, the UFS will also conduct a Multilingualism Education Project colloquium on the new language policy framework for South African public higher education institutions on 28-29 September 2022. This language policy used in the new policy framework for public higher education institutions as well as its impacts will be examined in this virtual seminar. This is also an opportunity for diverse stakeholders to contribute suggestions on how to improve the existing status of language policy.

News Archive

Renowned forensic scientist speaks at the UFS

2014-04-02

Forensic science is about the truth. At the presentation delivered by Dr David Klatzow, were, from the left: Tinus Viljoen, lecturer in Forensic Genetics, Dr Klatzow and Laura Heathfield, also a lecturer in Forensic Genetics.
Photo: Leonie Bolleurs

It is necessary for more research to be done in the field of forensic science in South Africa. This is according to Dr David Klatzow, well-known forensic scientist, during a lecture delivered at the University of the Free State (UFS) last week.

The university is offering, for the first time this year, a BSc degree in Forensic Science in the Department of Genetics. This three-year degree is, among others, directed at people working for the South African Police Service on crime scenes and on criminal cases in forensic laboratories. Students can also study up to PhD level, specialising in various forensic fields.

There is no accredited forensic laboratory in South Africa. “It is time to look differently at forensic science, and to deliver research papers on the subject. In light of the manner in which science is applied, we have to look differently at everything,” Dr Klatzow said.

Dr Klatzow praised the university for its chemistry-based course. “Chemistry is a strong basis for forensic science,” he said.

A paradigm shift in terms of forensic science is needed. Micro scratches on bullets, fingerprints, DNA, bite marks – all of these are forensic evidence that in the past led to people being wrongfully hanged. This evidence is not necessarily the alpha and omega of forensic science today. DNA, which seems to be the golden rule, can produce problems in itself. Because a person leaves DNA in his fingerprint, it is possible that DNA is transferred from one crime scene to another by forensic experts dusting for fingerprints. According to Dr Klatzow, this is only one of the problems that could be experienced with DNA evidence.

“No single set of forensic evidence is 100% effective or without problems. Rather approach the crime scene through a combination of evidence, by collecting fingerprints, DNA, etc. It is also very important to look at the context in which the events happened.

“A person sees what he expects to see. This causes huge problems in terms of forensic science. For example, if a criminal fits the profile of the perpetrator, it doesn’t follow that this specific criminal is the culprit. It isn’t what we don’t know that gives us trouble, it’s what we know that isn’t so,” Dr Klatzow said.

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