Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items

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

Council votes on appointment of senior staff

2004-11-18

The Council of the University of the Free State (UFS) today voted on the filling of three senior vacancies, including one post at Dean level and two at the level of Vice-Dean.

The Council voted as follows:


Dr Natie Luyt will be offered the post of Dean: Student Affairs	Prof Engela Pretorius will be offered the post of Vice-Dean: Faculty of Humanities	Dr Choice Makhetha will be offered the post of Vice-Dean: Student Affairs

“There are special challenges for the UFS in the short and medium term regarding transformation of our residences, and a certain combination of management qualities and skills is desirable. As a result of the diversity of the UFS’s student community it is therefore important to us to follow a team approach to deal with the challenges. With the combination of Drs Luyt and Makhetha, I believe we will be able to manage student affairs effectively and skillfully,” says Prof Frederick Fourie, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS.

“It is wonderful that we are able to celebrate the outcome of this process that has brought forward such excellent candidates who reflect our country’s diversity. It shows that we can achieve the goals of quality and diversity at the same time,” says Prof Fourie.

Prof Pretorius obtained all her qualifications (BA, BA (Hons) (cum laude), MA (cum laude) and D Phil) from the UFS, except for the Certificate in Gender Policy Management (cum laude) which she obtained in 2000 from WITS. She joined the Department of Sociology at UFS in 1980 and has headed the Department since 2001. She acted as Vice-Dean: Faculty of Humanities since July 2004. She has some thirty publications to her credit, published both nationally and internationally and has delivered 20 national and international papers. She is a member of the South African Sociological Association and is a member of the Council of the association and of the Editorial Board of Society in Transition, the society’s journal. She is also a member of the South African Academy for Science and Art and the Federation of African Women Educationalists in South Africa (FAWESA). Project involvement includes the Australian Women’s Executive Development Programme and the project Executive Development of Senior Women in South African Higher Education Institutions. She is also an NRF panelist.

Dr Luyt obtained his qualifications (BA, BA (Hons) (cum laude), MA (cum laude) and D Phil) at the UFS and started his career at the same institution in 1980 as lecturer in Political Science. He was promoted to senior lecturer in 1983 and appointed as Director: Student Affairs in 1997. He has been acting as Dean: Student Affairs since 2003. Dr Luyt completed several work-related training courses, among others a course in ethnic and multiculturality at the Swiss Institute for Federalism and a course in conflict management at the South Tyrolean Economic and Social Institute.

Dr Makheta also obtained all her qualifications (BA, BA (Hons), MA in Political Science and Ph D in Political Science) at the UFS and started working as a student assistant in Political Science at the same institution in 1999. She was promoted to junior assistant in 2000, coordinator and facilitator of Political Science in 2001, assistant/acting Director: Student Affairs in 2001 and acting Director: Student Affairs in 2003. Dr Makhetha is currently a Senior Political Analyst at the Department of Foreign Affairs.

The UFS Council also approved the promotion of nine professors to the rank of senior professor. They are Proff Louise Cilliers (Department English and Classical Languages), Dap Louw (Department of Psychology), Philip Nel (Department Afro-Asiatic Studies, Sign Language and Language Practice), Dirk van den Berg (Department of History of Art and Visual Culture Studies) Dingie van Rensburg (Director: Centre for Health Systems Research and Develoment), Andries Raath (Department of Constitutional Law and Philosophy of Law), James du Preez (Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology), Johan Grobbelaar (Department of Plant Sciences) and Louis Scott (Department of Plant Sciences).

This is the first group ever of senior professors at the UFS. The post level was created to provide better career and earnings opportunities for high quality academics and to increase the attractiveness of an academic career to young people.

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

Back

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept