ABSTRACT

Our paper will reflect on the dual-medium undergraduate degree which we launched in Sesotho sa Leboa and English in 2003 at the University of Limpopo. This degree (BA in Contemporary English and Multilingual Studies: BA CEMS) predates the call for decolonisation (articulated by the Fallist movement of 2015-2017); our focus is on the use of an indigenous language in Higher Education as a decolonial move. We will present our curriculum (in which six modules are taught and assessed in Sesotho sa Leboa and six in English), the lessons we have learnt in the last twenty years, and their implications for multilingual practice. The current impetus for multilingual education comes from the National Language Policy Framework for Higher Education (2021-22). Topics we will be addressing are the design of dual medium curricula, how ‘exploratory communication’ challenges the concept of translanguaging, and how scholarly writing by students in both languages is a step in the intellectualisation of African languages. We also look self-critically at our knowledge focus based on sociolinguistic variation and argue for a more historical perspective drawing on the work of Ifi Amadiume and Anta Cheik Diop.

BIO Data

Esther Ramani and Michael Joseph have an enduring history of collaboration starting in India from the 1980s in teacher development, discourse analysis, biliteracy development in basic and higher education, language and cognition, and community engagement. Seeing their work as contributing to social and epistemic justice, they have been engaged in innovative curriculum design and have published widely and collaboratively with African colleagues. They are currently involved in voluntary work in biliteracy and chess in the township of Joza.


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