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Multilingualism initiatives gaining momentum

20 January 2022 | Story Charlene Stanley | Photo Anja Aucamp

UFS-Bult-5 copy — Dr Peet van Aardt, Letsela Motaung, and Prof Francois Strydom.

The University of the Free State (UFS) is playing a leading role in South Africa when it comes to implementing multilingualism in teaching and learning and has been one of the first tertiary institutions to establish an Academy for Multilingualism.

The university has been working on multilingualism in various formats since 2016, when a new Language Policy was approved by the UFS Council. At a recent Universities of South Africa (USAf) colloquium, UFS representatives could share outcomes and lessons derived from the institution’s journey towards an inclusive multilingual environment.

The state of language diversity

A key starting point was to establish the state of language diversity at the UFS. A biographic survey among 17 000 students revealed that around 27% of them had Sesotho as home language, followed closely by isiZulu at around 25%. Around 13% cited isiXhosa, just under 9% Afrikaans, and 8.5% Setswana. A total of 70% of these students had English as their language of instruction in their final school year.

Translanguage Tutorials in different academic departments were among the projects introduced this year. During these tutorials students can discuss questions in any language but give feedback to the lecturer in English. This allows students to develop a better understanding of the work while enhancing their confidence to interact in English.

“There are numerous scholars who have published on the value of shuttling between two languages – the phenomenon known as translanguaging – in order to promote a deeper and fluent understanding of the subject matter,” says Letsela Motaung, a researcher at the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL). “We follow a rigorous recruitment process to identify tutors among our senior and postgraduate students, who then get intensive training in peer-to-peer learning and collaboration before going on to design translanguaging activities that they put into practice.”

“We are creating a space where students can make sense of the work in their own language. In this way, we take away the stress that some students associate with language, creating a relaxed atmosphere that facilitates learning,” explains Prof Francois Strydom, Senior Director at CTL.

Improving academic competency

Another initiative is to provide voice-overs in Sesotho, isiZulu and Afrikaans over module lessons in English. These are made available as video files on the Blackboard online learning platform, and has so far involved the Faculties of Humanities, Theology and Religion, and Natural and Agricultural Sciences. “The goal with creating these voiceovers is to improve, first and foremost, academic competency. It’s almost like providing students with an electronic tutor that’s always available,” says Dr Peet van Aardt, Custodian of the Academy for Multilingualism.

The feedback from lecturers and students on both these programmes has been overwhelmingly positive, and plans are in place for incorporating more modules next year.

A programme also gaining momentum is the Initiative for Creative African Narratives (iCAN), where students contribute stories written in different languages to facilitate learning from and about one another.

“We want to establish a scenario where languages are deeply respected, creating a rich environment for common understanding,” explains Prof Strydom.

News Archive

Multi-disciplinary research approach at UFS

2005-10-25

UFS follows multi-disciplinary research approach with opening of new centre

“A new way of doing business in necessary in the research and teaching of agriculture and natural sciences in South Africa. We must move away from departmentalised research infrastructures and a multi-disciplinary approach to research involving several disciplines must be adapted,” said Prof Herman van Schalkwyk, Dean: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS).

Prof van Schalkwyk delivered the keynote address during the launch of the Centre for Plant Health Management (CePHMa) at the Main Campus in Bloemfontein today (21 October 2005). CePHMa is an initiative of the UFS Department of Plant Sciences.

According to Prof van Schalkwyk a tertiary institution must practice multi-disciplinary research to be a world-class research institution. “It is difficult for researchers to admit that they do not know a lot about each other’s area of speciality. It is therefore necessary for researchers to make a paradigm shift and to focus on inter-disciplinary co-operation. To do this, we must encourage them to work together and to find a common language to communicate ideas en establish symbiotic relationships,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.

“We tend to think that research is better and faster if it is specialised. This is not true. The new generation of scientists are young and they are trained to form a concept of the total system and not to focus on a specific area of speciality. At the UFS we encourage this approach to research. This was one of the main reasons for the establishment of CePHMa,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.
CePHMa is the only centre of its kind in Africa and is established to extend the expertise in plant health management in South Africa and in Africa, to train experts in plant health and to conduct multi-disciplinary research about the health of agricultural crops.

“CePHMa is a virtual centre comprising of ten disciplines applicable to crop production and crop protection,” said Prof Wijnand Swart, Chairperson of CePHMa during the opening ceremony.

“The UFS is the leading institution in Africa in terms of news crop development and manages three research programmes that concentrate on new crops, i.e. the New Crop Pathology Programme, the New Crop Development Programme and the Insects on New Crops Programme. Other applied research programmes that are unique to the UFS are genetic resistance to rust diseases of small grain crops and sustainable integrated disease management of field crops,” said Prof Swart.

“Because the expected growth in population will be 80% in 2020 in sub-Saharan Africa, the future demands of food produce in Africa will be influenced. Therefore research will in future be focused on ways to improve food security by employing agricultural systems that are economically viable and environmentally sound,” said Prof Swart.

“Thorough knowledge of the concept of holistic plant health management is crucial to meet the challenge and it is therefore imperative that innovative crop protection and crop production strategies, with particular emphasis on plant health, be adopted. This is why the Department of Plant Sciences initiated the establishment of CePHMA,” he said.

According to Prof Swart there is a shortage of expertise in plant health management. “The UFS has shown the potential to address the demand of the sub-continent of Africa regarding expertise training and CePHMa is the leader in southern Africa to provide in this need,” he said.

The appropriateness and quality of training in plant health management is reflected in the fact that students from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Malawi, Uganda, Zambia, Ghana, Tanzania, Cameroon, Angola, Mozambique and Lesotho have already been trained or are in the process of being trained in at the UFS.

Scientists from CePHMa have forged partnerships with numerous national and international institutions including the Agricultural Research Council (ARC), various community trusts, seed, pesticide and agricultural chemical companies, in addition to overseas universities.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
21 October 2005

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