University students’ perspectives on an English-only language policy in Higher Education
Abstract
The study aimed to determine students’ perspectives on a shift from a dual-medium (English
and Afrikaans) language policy to a monolingual (English-only) language policy at a University
of Technology in South Africa and to establish whether the shift had any impact on student
learning at the institution. The study used a quantitative method of inquiry, with a questionnaire
used for data collection. The findings revealed that language-related challenges vary amongst
students, and these can be categorised as low, medium and high language learning problems.
The article concludes that the language policy shift does not reflect the multilingual nature of
the country, student demographics or their language needs at the institution. Instead of
addressing the real challenge facing the majority of students who speak Sesotho, it merely
dropped a second medium of instruction (MOI), Afrikaans, instead of developing a dominant
indigenous language (Sesotho) for educational use alongside English and Afrikaans.
Transdisciplinarity Contribution: The article lays bare the access paradox in higher education
owing to the misalignment between the country’s progressive language policies and learning
institutions’ language policies. The students’ perspectives bring a much-needed dimension to
the ongoing debate on the use of the learners’ home languages as languages of learning and
teaching.
Collections
- TD: 2022 Volume 18 [28]
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