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21 June 2023 | Story Amanda Tongha | Photo Samkelo Fetile
Enhancing students’ linguistic abilities
Language teaching professionals from Southern Africa attended a two-day symposium on foreign language acquisition practice on the UFS Bloemfontein Campus.

Language teaching professionals from across Southern Africa recently gathered at the University of the Free State (UFS) to discuss the need for benchmarking and standardising teaching and assessment practices. 

With the aim of empowering lecturers and researchers responsible for language acquisition and delivering competent students to ensure their employability globally, the educators addressed the challenges of language acquisition in the region. It was the first time that educators from different language disciplines, including Dutch, German, French, Afrikaans, isiZulu, Sesotho, and Sign Language, met to discuss standardisation and best practices in teaching and assessment.

The symposium, which was hosted on the Bloemfontein Campus on 8 and 9 June 2023, brought together educators from the UFS, North-West University, University of Cape Town, University of the Western Cape, University of KwaZulu-Natal, University of Pretoria, Rhodes University, University of South Africa, Stellenbosch University, University of the Witwatersrand, University of Limpopo, and Sol Plaatje University. They were joined by participants from the University of Namibia and the National University of Lesotho, providing a regional perspective. 

Standardising language acquisition in Southern Africa 

Prof Angelique van Niekerk, Head of the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch, German and French, says the meeting marked a movement towards delivering competent students in order to increase their employability in languages such as Dutch, German, French, Afrikaans, isiZulu, Sesotho, and Sign Language. 

“It is probably the first time that the different language disciplines and colleagues from disciplines involved in language acquisition in Southern Africa have met to discuss the need for benchmarking and standardising.” 

“The symposium was not on multilingualism per se, but as language scholars, we support multilingualism. Social cohesion is affected positively if people and their culture and language are accepted and thus used.”

Talking about the need for a reference framework for benchmarking languages, Dr Michelle Joubert, Subject Specialist in the UFS Centre for Teaching and Learning, told delegates in her keynote address that a coordinated system provides a basis for the mutual recognition of language qualifications. 

“Our aim is to develop a framework of standards for indigenous and foreign languages to reflect the political and social realities of a multilingual and multicultural South Africa, which aims to form a single South African education, employment, and residential space for its citizens.”

In another keynote address, Dr Carina Grobler, Subject Chair and Lecturer in French at the North-West University, highlighted effective assessment tools to enhance students’ ability to learn additional languages. 

Prof Van Niekerk says many new initiatives, such as the sharing of resources on centralised platforms, were some of the gains following the symposium; a follow-up event is planned for 2024. 

News Archive

Award-winning artist and UFS intertwine
2017-06-10

Description: Nomusa Makhubu Tags: Nomusa Makhubu

Nomusa Makhubu’s work will be exhibited for the next
few weeks at the Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery.
Photo: Kara Schoeman

“It is this sense of ownership, or the loss thereof, that I would still like to explore.” Exploring issues of identity, and more particularly, the sensitive issue of representation through the medium of photography, is exactly what Nomusa Makhubu sets out to do in her exhibition entitled Intertwined 2005 – 2017.

The issue of self-representation
This solo exhibition is a survey of Makhubu’s practice as a lens-based artist working mainly with portraiture, performance and space-time politics. Her exhibition includes the series entitled, Trading Lies, Self-Portrait Project, Inquietude, The Flood and In Living Colour.

The exhibition, in association with Erdmann Contemporary, is on display in the Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery at the University of the Free State from 24 May to 23 June 2017. She has exhibited in Africa, Europe, the US, and China.

Throughout this exhibition, Makhubu focuses on the issue of self-representation, but also brings in geographical locations to question the assumed universality and objectivity of time and place.

Not only an artist, but a writer too
As an award-winning artist, academic and a full-time lecturer at Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town, Makhubu is a force to be reckoned with in the art world. She has also contributed her writing to Critical Arts, African Arts, the Journal of African Cultural Studies and Third Text, as well as other book projects and catalogues.

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