A language resources audit conducted by the South African Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR) was hosted at the Central University of Technology (CUT), Free State, on Wednesday, 12 April.
Universities South Africa (USAf), through its Community of Practice for the Teaching and Learning of African Languages (CoPAL), is working with universities to implement the Department of Higher Education and Training’s (DHET) new Language Policy Framework for public higher education institutions.
SADiLaR, a strategic national research infrastructure under the South African Research Infrastructure Roadmap (SARIR), is conducting this comprehensive language resources audit across all South African public universities. The audit will, amongst other things, assess the resources universities require to implement the new framework.
Dr Sally Dzingwa, CUT registrar, said the university welcomed the audit, as it allowed the institution to evaluate the progress of implementing the language policy.
“We cannot have excuses for why we are not implementing. We have to be realistic about what we need to do in order to drive these policy directives forward. We need to be counted as a compliant institution, but it is part of contributing to the bigger transformation of the South African landscape. We have small pockets of initiatives that speak to the overall transformation, and the language policy is one such directive, because it bridges the gap and the divide in our society. When we embrace multilingualism, we start to appreciate the diversity that we have in our country,” said Dzingwa.
The objectives of the audit are, firstly, to define the range of resources that are required for the implementation of the language policy framework; secondly, to identify resources that are available at the institution to enable the implementation of the framework; and, lastly, to identify milestones in the successful implementation of the institutional language policy.
Prof Tobie van Dyk, professor of Applied Linguistics at the School of Languages at North-West University (NWU), and manager at SADiLaR’s Inter-Institutional Centre for Language Development and Assessment (ICELDA), is currently leading the national language resources audit at higher education institutions in South Africa.
“This policy framework is unique in the sense that we have never seen it before in South Africa. It is highly commended across the world for the fact that we acknowledge 11 languages in our education landscape. What is important, is that language can be seen as a vehicle for teaching and learning in particular. We use language to structure, organise and contrast our thoughts. We use language all the time, even when we are not necessarily aware of it. Link that to the whole issue of epistemological access, and you will know that we see it repeatedly in policies of our institutions, in scientific articles and journals and research papers, etc. But there is a link between epistemological access and the point of language being a vehicle for learning. We use language to open up access; to make overt what is normally covert.
“Students struggle with reading materials and listening to lecturers, and it is language that underlines that. So, we must think about how we can support students to survive the linguistic landscape of university life,” said Van Dyk.
The auditing process included the completion of a questionnaire and a discussion of the different survey categories: institutional information, language services, teaching and learning, the language of communication and administration, student life, and general language resources matters.
This audit will be used to improve student access and success through the decolonisation of the curriculum at higher education institutions.
