Abstract

Whilst education in general is built on the Western tradition of monolingualism, a multilingual reality is all around. A monolingual ethos forces and expects students to suspend every language in their repertoire in favour of the medium of instruction. This talk will engage participants in practical ways of enhancing the utility of multiple languages for epistemic access.

Berrington Ntombela is an Associate Professor of English Studies at the University of Limpopo, South Africa. He has graduated a number of master’s and PhD students. His main research interest is in English Language Teaching, Sociolinguistics, Discourse Analysis, Pragmatics and Semantics. He has published on Alternation, Reading & Writing, Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies.

Mkateko Ngobeni is a Lecturer in the Department of Physiology and Environmental Health at the University of Limpopo. She holds a Master’s degree in Translation Studies and Linguistics from the University of Limpopo. She is currently reading for her doctoral degree in the Department of Translation Studies and Linguistics. Her doctoral research project focuses on Translanguaging among Life Science classrooms.