Enhancing the quality of students’ academic literacies through translanguaging

Abstract

After apartheid, English became the lingua franca in South Africa and African-language speakers continued to be marginalised despite laws attesting to the equality of African languages. This article describes an attempt to rectify the effects of this marginalisation using translanguaging to improve students’ academic literacies and pass rates at an English-medium university. Bilingual tutorials were conducted in English and isiXhosa, which were the students’ languages. The translanguaging approach was based on the idea that bi/multilinguals benefit from bi/multilingual pedagogic practice. Translanguaging expanded the students’ linguistic repertoires by including in it the strategies that they needed to develop their literacies. Data were collected from a questionnaire and interviews. The students confirmed that learning was easier for them when translanguaging was used and the desired learning outcome was achieved. The findings suggested that translanguaging is crucial for bi/multilingual students. Hence, it is being maintained for non-English undergraduates at the university.

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