Enabling students to reach their potential through access to learning (in) African languages
A collaborative capacity building strategy to develop indigenous African languages in Higher Education
The BAQONDE project provides an effective response to one of the national priorities of South Africa: the development of African Languages in Higher Education. BAQONDE seeks to establish an inter-institutional network of African Language Development Units (ALDUs) in order to optimize training strategies, coordinate the production of materials, and harmonize teaching standards for multilingual teaching in Higher Education, among other goals.
The majority of South African students in the primary, secondary and tertiary education system are home-language speakers of languages other than English. Yet, apart from Afrikaans, other languages (indigenous African languages) have still not been widely used as a medium of instruction. In other words, the majority of learners do not receive education in their home language(s). Research has underlined the extremely negative impact that this situation can have on students’ performance throughout the system.
The commendable vision of national education authorities (at basic and higher education levels) to address this problem by encouraging the development and use of African languages as a medium of education has intermittently been set back by concerns of staffing, training, infrastructure, among others.
The recent approval of the Language Policy Framework for Public Higher Education Institutions in South Africa (LPF, 2020), which replaces the draft Revised Language Policy for Higher Education (2017), not only requires the development of indigenous African languages as a medium of instruction and as languages of higher academic discourse, but also highlights the critical role of universities in developing indigenous African languages. In this regard, there is additional pressure for HEIs in that they need to foster inter-institutional cooperation and have to comply with this framework from 1 January 2022.
leading universities
South African indigenous languages
African Language Development Units (ALDUs)
High-level Project aims
Project Aims & Objectives
The main aim of the BAQONDE project is to facilitate and promote the use of indigenous African languages as medium of instruction at HE institutions in the South African context, working in the three dimensions:
01.
The development of innovative multilingual teaching methodologies adjusted to each Higher Education Institution (HEI)’s regional linguistic profile
02.
Development of new materials to train lecturers and to teach multilingually in the South African context
03.
Counter-acting the lack of top-down strategies to guarantee a more (linguistically) inclusive and legitimate access to Higher Education in line with the national priorities of the country
The goals of the BAQONDE project will be achieved by means of the following objectives:
01.
Establishment of an ALDU in each of the South African partner universities with appropriate ICT equipment.
02.
Implementation of methodological training sessions on multilingual teaching adapted to the specific regional linguistic profile of each HEI.
03.
Improvement of the multilingual teaching skills of a core group of trainers in each institution through innovative materials and resources (“train the trainer”).
04.
Development of multilingual online materials according to the South African HEIs’ needs for lectures in different disciplines to be hosted and shared through the ALDU’s website (POLOKELO).
05.
Establishment of an inter-institutional network of ALDUs across South African HEIs regulated by an inter-institutional board.
06.
Development of supervision / monitoring mechanisms to guarantee a culture of quality within the project, the ALDUs and the teaching practices
07.
The design of a set of guidelines to bridge the gap between previous educational levels and Higher Education in a context of (linguistic) transformation.
08.
Facilitate adequate management tools for the correct implementation of the project (impact and sustainability).
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Erasmus+ program for Capacity Building in Higher Education – Joint Projects (Ref. Project: 617498-EPP-1-2020-1-ES-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP). This website and its contents reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein
Our Partners
This consortium comprises the following seven universities with remarkable experience and expertise in managing bilingualism or multilingualism in academic contexts.
