tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9602117474948007622024-03-08T09:37:17.725-08:00Prof Leketi MakalelaLeketi Makalelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16980105152084875469noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-960211747494800762.post-35092307755201707662018-11-06T11:39:00.003-08:002018-11-06T11:39:45.575-08:00Is tech killing African languages?
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Is tech killing indigenous African languages?</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">September 13, 2017, <a href="http://www.wits.ac.za/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Wits University</span></a> </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Is tech killing indigenous African languages? Prof. Leketi Makalela, Director of the Hub for Multilingual Education and Literacies in the Division of Languages, Literacies and Literatures in the Wits School of Education talks back. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Discussions on the status of African languages portray a dim view. For centuries, African languages have been under threat as one conqueror after another has imposed their preferred language on various nations on the continent. Subsequently, African languages have low status in our institutions and continue to be marginalised in all spheres of power, including government quarters.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In South Africa, English continues as the lingua franca, despite government policies that protect and promote vernacular languages.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There have been warnings about the death of these languages. However, indigenous languages are far from extinct says Professor Leketi Makalela.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Where government has failed, <a href="https://phys.org/tags/technology/"><span style="color: blue;">technology</span></a> is bringing hope to the people," says Makalela. "African languages were probably going to die, were it not for technology, social media and popular culture. Technology is going to take African languages forward and these languages are going to evolve to fit into the digital age and any future world shift."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ironically, this change is one of the major criticisms levelled against technology, and especially social media, where variations of spelling abound, and where the platforms are also implicated for contributing to the decline in literacy and writing standards.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"People are concerned about change and this has been an ongoing major debate in human language development. The great divide is about whether the change results in decay or progress. A conservative will say it is decay because there is nostalgia for the past and everything is being disorganised by modernity. This has to do with aging as well – the older you are, the more you want to keep things the same," says Makalela, who is also the editor-in-chief of the Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies Journal and Chairperson of Umalusi Council's Qualifications Standards Committee.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">To put things into perspective, Makalela says the primary question that needs to be asked in such debates is: "What is the purpose of language?"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"We need to question what language is and why we have language as human beings before we look at the structure (syntax and spelling). People obsess about the aesthetics of the language and yet language is here for meaning-making. The 'net speak' and contraction of words are a natural evolution of language and a reflection of the time. The structure of language keeps changing because people are changing."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">One of the significant, laudable changes brought about by <a href="https://phys.org/tags/social+media/"><span style="color: blue;">social media</span></a> is that they break down linguistic barriers. Makalela believes we should celebrate that communication technology is contributing to the decolonisation of languages.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"The Balkanisation of African states in 1884 in Berlin was attached to the languages. The Bantustan policy of apartheid architect H.F. Verwoerd was based on supposed linguistic differences," says Makalela. "African languages were separated intentionally, not because they were or are different, but because the strategy was to divide and conquer. Technology has now made it easy for linguistic groups to realise how similar they are than they were previously told."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Communities such as #BlackTwitter, mother-tongue appreciation groups on Facebook and blogs where young creatives share works in their languages and culture are defying institutions and moving languages into the 21st Century. Local television programmes are also playing their part in promoting multilingualism with many creative works moving between three and more languages, recreating and reinforcing the South African linguistic reality.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"We cannot talk about economic development and <a href="https://phys.org/tags/social+cohesion/"><span style="color: blue;">social cohesion</span></a> without taking into account the issues of language because languages are central to social cohesion. You can't expect a Zulu and a Tswana person to socially cohere if there is no crossover of language," he adds. "One of the barriers that must be removed to drive this growth is for linguistic groups to be open to the influence of non-mother tongue speakers," explains Makalela.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"There seems to be a sacredness and unwillingness to allow others to learn African languages, which often makes it closed to outsiders. If we really want our languages to flourish, we have to open the doors to non-mother tongue speakers so that there is nothing like KZN isiZulu vs Gauteng isiZulu (which is seen as weak isiZulu). In fact, it's a time to redefine what we call standards.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">English became a dominant language because it opened its doors to non-mother tongue users. The type of English used today is heavily multi-lingual with 80% of the words in the <a href="https://phys.org/tags/language/"><span style="color: blue;">language</span></a> not original English. In addition, 80% of users are not traditional mother tongue speakers. English thrives and lives on donations from other languages."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Another area where Makalela would like to see transformation is the use of technology in the classroom to promote multilingualism. "While technology is often seen as eroding African values, accelerating moral degeneration and the loss of ubuntu, practice is suggesting that it is having an opposite effect on languages. Let us focus on creating shared meaning and understanding through opening up our languages and using technology to contribute towards fostering social cohesion in our diverse society." </span></div>
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<br />Read more at: <a href="https://phys.org/news/2017-09-tech-indigenous-african-languages.html#jCp"><span style="color: blue;">https://phys.org/news/2017-09-tech-indigenous-african-languages.html#jCp</span></a></span></div>
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<header class="content-head"><h1>
Is tech killing indigenous African languages?</h1>
<h5 class="data">
September 13, 2017, <a href="http://www.wits.ac.za/" target="_blank">Wits University</a>
</h5>
</header> <section class="content-holder content-table content-story"> <section class="news-content"> <section class="content article-block"> <article> <div class="first-block">
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<img alt="Is tech killing indigenous African languages? Prof. Leketi Makalela, head of Languages, Literacies and Literatures in the Wits S" src="https://3c1703fe8d.site.internapcdn.net/newman/csz/news/800/2017/istechkillin.jpg" />
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<figcaption class="image-block-caption"> Credit: Wits University </figcaption></figure>Is tech killing indigenous African languages? Prof. Leketi Makalela, head of Languages, Literacies and Literatures in the Wits School of Education talks back.</div>
<section class="article-banner first-banner"> <div data-google-query-id="CI3ZucPAwN4CFfSu7QodPGkGDQ" id="div-gpt-ad-1449240174198-2">
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</section> Discussions on the status of African languages portray a dim view. For centuries, African languages have been under threat as one conqueror after another has imposed their preferred language on various nations on the continent. Subsequently, African languages have low status in our institutions and continue to be marginalised in all spheres of power, including government quarters.<br />
In South Africa, English continues as the lingua franca, despite government policies that protect and promote vernacular languages.<br />
There have been warnings about the death of these languages. However, indigenous languages are far from extinct says Professor Leketi Makalela, Head of Languages, Literacies and Literatures in the Wits School of Education.<br />
"Where government has failed, <a class="textTag" href="https://phys.org/tags/technology/" rel="tag">technology</a> is bringing hope to the people," says Makalela. "African languages were probably going to die, were it not for technology, social media and popular culture. Technology is going to take African languages forward and these languages are going to evolve to fit into the digital age and any future world shift."<br />
Ironically, this change is one of the major criticisms levelled against technology, and especially social media, where variations of spelling abound, and where the platforms are also implicated for contributing to the decline in literacy and writing standards.<br />
"People are concerned about change and this has been an ongoing major debate in human language development. The great divide is about whether the change results in decay or progress. A conservative will say it is decay because there is nostalgia for the past and everything is being disorganised by modernity. This has to do with aging as well – the older you are, the more you want to keep things the same," says Makalela, who is also the editor-in-chief of the Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies Journal and Chairperson of Umalusi Council's Qualifications Standards Committee.<br />
To put things into perspective, Makalela says the primary question that needs to be asked in such debates is: "What is the purpose of language?"<br />
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"We need to question what language is and why we have language as human beings before we look at the structure (syntax and spelling). People obsess about the aesthetics of the language and yet language is here for meaning-making. The 'net speak' and contraction of words are a natural evolution of language and a reflection of the time. The structure of language keeps changing because people are changing."<br />
One of the significant, laudable changes brought about by <a class="textTag" href="https://phys.org/tags/social+media/" rel="tag">social media</a> is that they break down linguistic barriers. Makalela believes we should celebrate that communication technology is contributing to the decolonisation of languages.<br />
"The Balkanisation of African states in 1884 in Berlin was attached to the languages. The Bantustan policy of apartheid architect H.F. Verwoerd was based on supposed linguistic differences," says Makalela. "African languages were separated intentionally, not because they were or are different, but because the strategy was to divide and conquer. Technology has now made it easy for linguistic groups to realise how similar they are than they were previously told."<br />
Communities such as #BlackTwitter, mother-tongue appreciation groups on Facebook and blogs where young creatives share works in their languages and culture are defying institutions and moving languages into the 21st Century. Local television programmes are also playing their part in promoting multilingualism with many creative works moving between three and more languages, recreating and reinforcing the South African linguistic reality.<br />
"We cannot talk about economic development and <a class="textTag" href="https://phys.org/tags/social+cohesion/" rel="tag">social cohesion</a> without taking into account the issues of language because languages are central to social cohesion. You can't expect a Zulu and a Tswana person to socially cohere if there is no crossover of language," he adds. "One of the barriers that must be removed to drive this growth is for linguistic groups to be open to the influence of non-mother tongue speakers," explains Makalela.<br />
"There seems to be a sacredness and unwillingness to allow others to learn African languages, which often makes it closed to outsiders. If we really want our languages to flourish, we have to open the doors to non-mother tongue speakers so that there is nothing like KZN isiZulu vs Gauteng isiZulu (which is seen as weak isiZulu). In fact, it's a time to redefine what we call standards.<br />
English became a dominant language because it opened its doors to non-mother tongue users. The type of English used today is heavily multi-lingual with 80% of the words in the <a class="textTag" href="https://phys.org/tags/language/" rel="tag">language</a> not original English. In addition, 80% of users are not traditional mother tongue speakers. English thrives and lives on donations from other languages."<br />
Another area where Makalela would like to see transformation is the use of technology in the classroom to promote multilingualism. "While technology is often seen as eroding African values, accelerating moral degeneration and the loss of ubuntu, practice is suggesting that it is having an opposite effect on languages. Let us focus on creating shared meaning and understanding through opening up our languages and using technology to contribute towards fostering social cohesion in our diverse society."</article></section></section></section><br /><br />Read more at: <a href="https://phys.org/news/2017-09-tech-indigenous-african-languages.html#jCp">https://phys.org/news/2017-09-tech-indigenous-african-languages.html#jCp</a></div>
Leketi Makalelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16980105152084875469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-960211747494800762.post-1027850810914294472018-11-06T11:33:00.000-08:002018-11-06T11:33:08.749-08:00Translanguaging: First school in the world adopts it as its official policy<style>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Imagining a thriving multilingual world </span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Fourth</span></b><b><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> International Conference on Language and Literacy Education</span></b><b></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Whereas it has exponentially become impossible to ignore the prevalence of many languages and their co-existence as a key phenomenon in the world of increased mobility within and between nation states, very few scholars have imagined a true official status of multilingualism both in the future and outside of the monolingual frame of thinking. The Hub for Multilingual Education and Literacies (HUMEL) is a thought leader that hosts annual conferences to highlight the importance of multilingual education and the value of multilingualism in the 21<sup>st</sup> Century. In line with the Hub’s strategic concentration on two pillars of education: epistemic and ontological access, the annual conferences question the validity of language boundaries and global North conceptual frames such as ‘mother tongue’, ‘first language’ and ‘second languages’, ‘interlanguage’ and places multilingualism and its discursive resources at the centre of contemporary classroom practices. In what is described as ‘disruption of the orthodoxy’ in education systems, the Hub’s conferences have always agitated for increased epistemic access and affirmation of identity positions of multilingual learners (the majority in the world), without which education becomes imitative and marginalizing. Prompting delegates to think forward about an ideal multilingual world, the theme for the fourth international conference was “Imagining a thriving multilingual world” featuring subthemes that include:</span></div>
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<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Reading and writing literacies</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Multilingual assessments</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Multilingual materials</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Alternative and critical pedagogies for multilingual education </span></li>
<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Language policy, planning and management in education</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Multiliteracies<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></li>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Taken together, these themes pointed at the danger of monolingual bias as an invention of the Enlightenment period and colonial consequences of suppressing local languages in favour of the exogenous languages, which are still regarded <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>as the only means for guaranteeing civilization or success. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These themes were debated through 60 presentations from delegates representing 20 countries and more than 40 postgraduate students coming from the Southern African Development Community countries. In addition to the regular delegates to conferences, the uniqueness of this conference is that it also brought representative primary schools and members of the South African Literacy Teachers Association- a body that was founded by the HUMEL into one space of dialogue and sharing. Five teachers from primary schools presented lessons that demonstrated innovative applications of multilingual instruction in their classrooms. The conference also celebrated the first school in the world that recognized translanguaging as its official policy, Doornspruit Primary School, in Limpopo Province.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The point was made during the gala-dinner that translanguaging is a legitimate policy option for schools as entrenched in the Language in Education Policy of 1997 and that many schools and officials have read this policy document with monolingual lenses of additive bilingualism and subtractive medium of learning and teaching. That is, one language at a time and sequential introduction of languages, which are all indicators of monolingual orientation. More schools were encouraged to follow Doornspruit Primary School as a prime example of multilingual education imagined and to seek support of HUMEL’s advocacy and community engagement programmes. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The second highlight for the conference is the intellectual rigor that showed the global South taking more strides to own theories of multilingualism that both critique monolingual and epistemic biases often transferred from theories developed from the global North geopolitical context. It is envisaged that engaging with these new theories will lead to public awareness and policy reforms that are based on multilingualism as a norm to be cultivated rather than a problem to be solved. It was noted that this direction begins with valorizing the cultural competence and constructs from the global South as the premise for theory development. In this connection, translanguaging and multilanguaging, among others, are global South relevant while at the same time having a universal appeal.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The keynote speakers from Kenya, Mauritius and the USA</span><span class="MsoCommentReference"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 8.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">delivered on point and relevant considerations for multilingual education imagined for the 21<sup>st</sup> Century and extended opportunities for collaborative projects that raise awareness on the value of multilingualism in the first quarter of the 21<sup>st</sup> C. Professor Martin Nyoroge from Kenya, Dr Pascal Nadal from Mauritius and Professor Maria Coady from University of Florida, USA presented on the need for paradigmatic shift towards complex plurality of contemporary classrooms and gave specific examples from their own contexts to make a case for multilingual education. The conference proceedings will be published into a book volume by Vernom Press: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Imagining a thriving multilingual world: Language, education and society in the 21<sup>st</sup> Century (2018)</i>, which will be disseminated globally to encourage more transformation in orthodox classrooms that still hold on to the ancient belief that using more than one language creates mental confusion. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Overall, the conference allowed academics, teachers, and the communities to engage in<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>dialogues that were <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>specific enough to bring about deep reflections and uptake from the delegates. Yet it was also general enough to cater for different interest groups that included primary schools. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Departing from routines of other conferences between academics, the Hub’s view is that connections between universities and communities is a key transformative process in knowledge dissemination in a country that has historically created an “Ivory Tower curtain” that shielded university academics from the communities they should serve. This conference was a prime example to illustrate that an imagined multilingual world is inclusive, transformative and community-based. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In brief, this conference succeeded in having the delegates to tell the multilingual story of the future.</span></div>
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Leketi Makalelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16980105152084875469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-960211747494800762.post-16738906099059611842017-12-22T11:19:00.002-08:002017-12-22T12:04:58.863-08:00What is multilanguaging? Ubuntu or botho translanguaging? Many questions arise as to what is multilanguaging. I introduced this concept in my recent articles and chapters not to discredit translanguaging, which has somehow taken the role of what was traditional termed 'codeswitching'. A full appraisal appears in my latest book: <i>Shifting lenses: Multilanguaging, decolonization and education in the global South. </i>It is the first book volume to use the concept, "multilanguaging", but here are the points to explain how we arrive here. I used some technical terms for non-linguists and educationists, but please ignore them and concentrate on the logic of the argument. <br />
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The SINS of CODE-SWITCHING<br />
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No one says there is no code-switching, but what we say is that it is conceptually flawed and very subservient to translanguaging. The former focuses on language codes and has a monolingual orientation. It assumes that there are actual codes- first felony. Second felony, it assumes that these codes operate in isolation- hence the switching on and off. Linguists will call this on and off complimentary distribution, which means one occurs in the place where one isn't to make a coherent whole. The fact that it speaks to one language at a time, I find it problematic and increasingly not a useful frame for thinking about multilingualism from the point of view of the user. Thirdly, we refute the view that the speaker is switching (but we are also not saying this is not happening in emergent bilingual situations where one is struggling with one of the named languages). In other words, codeswitching is hearer oriented- that is, it is the opinion of the hearer based on what they hear as truncated and identifiable language units that are exchanged. Are we sure that speakers actually do this? Many multilingual speakers do not 'feel' themselves when languages are used in meaning making--why? becuase they focus on meaning not on the languages. It is for this reason and the ones above that I argue that code-switching is monolingual in orientation and that it is epistemologically different from translanguaging.<br />
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TRANSLANGUAGING<br />
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What about translanguaging? First we say there are no codes- we made this up for administration purposes. These codes we refer to as languages (named languages to be precise) are artificial. The boundaries are fuzzy; there is a contiuum of language use. Where is the border between isiZulu and isiXhosa? Sepedi and Sesotho? English and Afrikaans? Spanish and English? The features of each of the named languages leak into each other; they overlap in complex ways known to speaker who selects, organizes and speaks as and when it is necessary often without feeling these ' boundaries'. Then we say even if a speaker happens to utter words that seem to resemble one of the the named languages, it does not mean that the features of the other named language are off in the cognitive domain of the speaker (they are not switched off). The boundaries between languages known to multilingual speakers are not there in the phonological loop either (an organ where language is incubated). We then prefer the term repertoire, which is a blend of language features used strategically and simultaneously by a multilingual speaker. Instead of language use, speakers are languaging and between many names languages, they are translanguaging. Translanguaging is meaning oriented and speaker oriented. What people do with languages (they are languaging) rather than what langugeslook like (language codes). Simultaneity is judged in meaning segments rather than moments. <br />
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THEORY DISRUPTION AND RE-RECREATION<br />
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I have long counted myself as one of the global education distruptors advocating for recognition of languaging phenomemnon and discredit monolingual bias where many people still hold on to the ancient myth that using more than one language creates mental confusion. Too old a myth, but still prevalent in our curriculum systems and in the 'mouths' of many parents who are not well-informed. They think being educated means speaking one language very well! As a social justice issue, we argue that monolingual bias fails multilingual learners in schools that are designed to educate an ideal monolingual speaker in various guises. Global education distruptors like me use the SANKOFA (Akan mythical birth) approach to go back and fetch, but also strech forward to prepare the future. The reality we live with now is that many children are exposed to more than 3 languages before age 6 (an optimal age for language acquisition). If they speak more than 3 languages at age 6, what is their mother tongue? their first or second language? Irrelevant concepts, aren't they? I often ask kids in Soweto schools: What is your mother tongue? They look confused, but will eventually choose one [becuase they feel obliged to choose one]. The next day, when you ask the same question, they will give you a different language and you are assured of different mother tongues depending on the number of days you go and ask the question. These kids give me a perspective that in fact the world is moving in this direction where boundaries are becoming fuzzy. I changed my question to: which languages do you speak? and generally prefer to see them performing their languages. Shouldn't we be ready for the next 50 years? So we move research and theory to reflect these 'new' realities to stay relevant in the future. <br />
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When we look for new theories, I found the logic of ubuntu-- no one language is complete without the other and temporal fluidity of SANKOFA (past and future integrated) as Africal cultural constructs that should define literacy and language theories and practices in the 21st century. From this point of view, multilingualism is a convenient concept, not as accuarte as MULTILANGUAGING is- where more than three named languages are used fluidly and normatively seen in the soap operas (see Muvhango, the Generations, etc) and everyday communication practices in Sub-Saharan Africa and much of the global South communities. Here we go multilanguaging.<br />
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www.leketimakalela.co.za<br />
@leketimakalela<br />
follow our HUB for multilingual education and literacies (www.humel.org.za)<br />
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Leketi Makalelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16980105152084875469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-960211747494800762.post-49981691809026553652017-10-31T21:58:00.004-07:002017-10-31T21:58:58.610-07:00Translanguaging: Not European concept in Africa, but a decolonizing agent
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This is the first in a series of dialogues I want to engage on why decolonization or thinking outside of the colonial invasion is a worthy cause for language and literacy education. We live in an era where literacy rates, levels, skills, practices are considered low- a very basic form of human existence. As a result, many African children are surviving through a harsh educational pathway, believing that they are stupid, unintelligent and not worthy. The ultimate result is not only being excluded from opportunity mobility in the capitalist world [eat or be eaten], they are removed gradually from a sense of who they truly are; they pose and live a false life until they hate themselves. Fathers are economically emasculated and there are no models to raise the future generation of boys and girls. Schools wane them down through the myths that one needs only one language to learn and that their own languages are useless! Self hatred is guaranteed. The colonizer can relax at a beach, knowing that the cursing has happened and will continue until 'minds are decolonized' and 'consciousness' kicks in their souls so they unmask the shades of falsehood. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">As for me, it was accidental that I became acutely aware of the
relationship between language, literacy and ways of knowing that are indigenous
to speakers of African languages. Growing up in a remote rural village under
the care of a mother who was not able to make sense of the Roman Alphabets and
what they represented, I struggled to come to terms with the literacy
programmes used in schools. I went through learning programmes where teachers
used to drill us into singing letters, memorizing and regurgitating without
real content of what these stood for and what reference they had for our lived
experiences. Many friend-children struggled to connect dots of knowledge at school and
failed dismally at every examinations opportunity. While the one language
schooling system [yes it is one language posing falsely as 11) pushed many learners out, I had the resilience to stay on and
take on the literacy journey while asking myself the question: Why is there so
much gap between school and our lived community experience? But even Plato said those who master the curriculum master themselves- why is this not so obvious in the so-called post-colonial world?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I
decided to study languages not only to understand how languages do not only
represent ideas, but also how they embody ways of knowing. On this account, I questioned
learning in a foreign language before one had at least 6 years on induction in
familiar languages and considered alternatives. My scholarship looked at the
possibility of valorizing the African cultural competence where there is a
fluid intersection of languages as a normal linguistic behavior, a way of being
and making sense of the world. When I started work on translanguaging as an
alternative pedagogy for multilingual learners, I was responding to the
well- researched, but obvious fact that learners do not understand what teachers are saying in
most African classrooms. This is the one and the real challenge for African education systems. Stop talking about anything else fancy and deal with this foundational problem. In this way I found
translanguaging, defined as a pedagogical strategy where there is complex
alternation of languages of input and output in the process of meaning making
close to my the type of communication
I experienced in my village, which is situated at the border of two provinces
in South Africa, Limpopo and Mpumalanga. In other words, my journey of
questioning monolingual (aka colonial) bias found resonance with my own lived
experiences. I am connected to the subject and thus my research makes sense first and foremost to me. It took a long journey of being lost and found until I understood that "charity begins at home", but also learning how to move away from being a village chief to a global education disruptor, taking leadership roles and making world education systems and lives of people better!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> website: www.leketimakalela.co.za</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Tiwitter: @leketimakalela</span></div>
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Leketi Makalelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16980105152084875469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-960211747494800762.post-53180212717580211972017-10-25T11:07:00.000-07:002017-10-25T11:07:04.761-07:00Matric exams underway and congratulations<div data-contents="true">
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<span data-offset-key="49ol1-0-0"><span data-text="true">That time for myths and fears has started as the grade 12 started with their exams yesterday. I was asked to comment on the questions around grade 12 examinations by a media representative and I wanted to share my views as follows: </span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="dhlt4-0-0"><span data-text="true">What advice can be given to those sitting for their first NSC examination?</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="56udv-0-0"><span data-text="true">Answer: Because there is a definite process of standardization and moderation of the papers for quality assurance, my advice in the 11th hour would be to study model papers in the past 3 years. Here one sees different options in which content knowledge can be assessed. Attempts at answering these would give a good feel for the real exam, which prepares one mentally and emotionally. </span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="c2g7-0-0"><span data-text="true">Question 2:</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9u8ht-0-0"><span data-text="true">How can learners sitting for their language examination prepare for them?</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="7ugli-0-0"><span data-text="true">Answer: There are key areas for language papers that are examinable, depending on whether it is paper 1, 2 or 3. Like maths, science and other content subjects, language examination needs practice and rehearsal. For example, summary, short and long transactional texts, and grammar items like direct/indirect speech are obviously going to be part of the exam. For evaluative questions, which are usually a challenge for the learners, it is important to note that a "yes" or "no" answer is insufficient and they need to know that there is no wrong or right answer here. Examiners/markers are interested in the reason/s of the "yes" or "no" and they judge reasoning rather than a correct answer. For comprehension texts, they should follow the old advice to read questions first so their reading of the text is intentional. It is advisable for the learners to have a good handle of these and other parts through practice, practice and practice. Examples of old papers and memoranda are all available on the DBE website. </span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="2n494-0-0"><span data-text="true">Question 3</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="821kc-0-0"><span data-text="true">In comparison to last years examination, do you think this years examination will be easier or difficult?</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="3jrmo-0-0"><span data-text="true">Answer: We have seen an increase in the level of difficulty in the past three years as the CAPS started maturing. This is however not matched by improvements in the quality of teaching. Most learners are caught in this tension as teacher education institutions and a generation of retiring teachers have equally not been helpful in decoding the CAPS as they have serially proven underprepared. Yet the public eyes are narrowly focusing on the easiness/difficulty of the papers. It is delicate matter, not simple in black and white. </span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="30s02-0-0"><span data-text="true">Standardization of papers by Umalusi ensures that cohorts of learners are not unfairly advantaged or disadvantaged by reasons other than their own capabilities. Although the quality of papers are gradually improved, the level of change cannot be so drastic to lower or raise a pass significantly. The public often decries marks going down or up ( especially if the results at face value show an upward trend) without understanding how standardization works (e.g., why a historical average is important to assure steady growth/decline- something normal with general population growth dynamics). In short, the exams will not be either difficult or easy as this will be unfair to either the previous or current cohort. Any suggestion to either way should be dismissed as sensational. </span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="a47f2-0-0"><span data-text="true">Question 4:</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="4gp6i-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="eimtl-0-0"><span data-text="true">Efforts made by the department and schools, do you think the provincial rates will be higher than last year?</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="4spvq-0-0"><span data-text="true">Catch up programmes at provincial levels are commendable. But recall that these are geared mainly at lower performing schools and in particular targeting the "progressed" learners. The idea is to mitigate overall pass rates, which stand to be low due to progressed learners who usually come to grade 12 underprepared. If anything, we can learn from the impact of these programmes in 2016. Because the overall number of progressed learners were slightly above 60000, the efforts did not have a significant impact on the overall national performance. The number will most certainly rise to about 90000 this year, but this will still be insignificant relative to approximately 700000 learners in total. At a very micro level, yes to see more learners passing due these efforts is encouraging and we are likely to see a repeat of urban provinces like Gauteng doing better than rural provinces where these efforts are not as effective. For example, Gauteng, in a bid to reclaim its position as the number 1 province, has introduced an unfair and discriminatory system called "targeting the talented" to boost results while leaving the weaker even weaker. They noticed that focusing on low performers was not in the end showing statistical change in the overall provincial results. Rural provinces, in the other hand, do not have this leverage as they have more underperforming schools. It seems in my view an uncoordinated intervention that is based on competition instead of a cohesive system managed to stem out deeply unequal outcomes. </span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="ar2d2-0-0"><span data-text="true">Question 5:</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="8oqnk-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="d3ov1-0-0"><span data-text="true">What could be the reasons for the high number of drop outs, learners not making it to sit for their NSC exam?</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="d3ov1-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="942tq-0-0"><span data-text="true">Answer: A large number of drop outs occur in grade 10, counting up to 50%. There are as many reasons as these learners including transitional and structural factors I prefer to call "push outs". Beyond grade 10, drop out/push out rate is so negligible to cause any alarms. I am not sure why this is raising concerns. The assumption of this statement is categorically incorrect as there is no mark for one to obtain to qualify to sit for the exams. Even the SBA's would not disqualify any learner. </span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="a2dqd-0-0">Congratulations to the 2017 cohort! </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="a2dqd-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4sds8-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="4sds8-0-0"><span data-text="true">Professor Leketi Makalela </span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="2455q-0-0"><span data-text="true">Founding Director: Hub for Multilingual Education and Literacies</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="edbja-0-0"><span data-text="true">Twitter: @LeketiMakalela </span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="6p2iu-0-0"><span data-text="true">www.leketimakalela.co.za</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="8kch9-0-0"><span data-text="true">Latest Book: Shifting Lenses: Multilanguaging, Decolonization and Education in the Global South</span></span></div>
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Leketi Makalelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16980105152084875469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-960211747494800762.post-50990291859931022472017-07-18T14:37:00.003-07:002017-07-18T14:37:44.571-07:00De-education through syllabic reading: The horrors of literacy teaching in African languages
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">This article is adapted from Balang Foundation (www.balangfoundation.org) during the 2017 Africa Day (May 22)</b></div>
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Teaching literacy is incomplete without full involvement of
the early readers’ parents, caregivers and siblings. To change the reading
literacy direction of the country and celebrate Africa Day, Balang Foundation
held an arms length session with about 50 parents in Attridgeville on 25 May
2017. How do we make literacy African? This was the question. </div>
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A delegation of the Foundation sent four important messages
for improving reading in the homes. First, parents understood how reading words
at syllable levels can be a dangerous precedence for reading development in
future. While these are good building blocks for words in English, syllables
are not particularly important for meaning making in African languages. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The problem is that most of the teaching in
African languages version the logic of syllables from English and as a result
create the so called ‘ba-be-bi-bo-bu’ methodology where children put these
sounds to memory when they are not useful at a later stage. This method also
treats African languages as ‘miniature English languages’ rather than
independent languages in their own rights. To respect African languages and
their internal structure, syllabic reading should be avoided at all costs as it
breeds bad reading habits that hamper comprehension at a later stage. Negative
reading behaviours were identified as: head movement, regression, finger
pointing and verbalization. Parents got the message straight that when
syllables are used as units of reading, the parents need to help the child to
close these into a full meaningful word. For example: I-n-vu-la should be
closed as ‘invula’ once.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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The next issue that impedes comprehension is read aloud.
While this skill is practiced in many schools nationally, we find that an over-emphasis
at the expense of silent reading robs the readers of the opportunity to read
for meaning and enjoyment. At worse, many readers at grade 6 are conditioned to
believe that this is the only way to approach a text. And they ‘bark’ at texts.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is very important to let children
have opportunities for silent reading. Again this skill is based on the English
logic of phonological awareness. While this is necessary for teaching English,
African languages teaching does not benefit a lot from repetition of sounds and
rhymes because they rely on tone. They are however very rich in their word
conjugations (Morphology), which is sadly neglected in the education system. “Literacy
in African languages is incomplete without a focus on morphological awareness.
Phonological awareness emphasis in the curriculum is an indication of the
symptoms of versioning”, asserted Leketi Makalela. Understood from this candid
conversation with parents, there is no Africa day without African literacy.
While the concepts are complex, they were presented in an easy to follow steps,
using isiZulu, Sepedi and English.</div>
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Finally, when it comes to habits formation, it was stressed
that parents should be involved in the reading process for the children.
Parents should model reading to the extent that a reading time should be given
a ‘sacred’ space without competition with television. Parents cannot watch
television programmes while their kids are reading in another room. Moreover,
in the process of reading for (scaffolded reading) and reading with (shared
reading), parents and caregivers need to spend at least 15 minutes daily with
children on reading. This is more effective if it is happening just before
bedtime. </div>
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Leketi Makalelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16980105152084875469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-960211747494800762.post-79788157650773997492017-03-04T18:19:00.001-08:002017-03-04T18:19:36.046-08:00Prognostication and literacy education: cave humans in the 21st C<style>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The power of education lies is its grand ability to skill the
mind to <i><b>project and reflect </b></i>experiences. Outside of these twin-goals for education, it is apparent that the classrooms can only serve to re-create the dark ages 'caves' suitable to arrest human development. One's ability to look into the past in
order to see the future- prognostication- is assumed to be a trait that comes naturally to all human beings, not a specialized skill reserved for a few. Literacy education is best suited to harnesses this skill and to bring it to live! We increasingly find that bad education based on oppressive-one-language norm, on the other
hand, teaches multilingual people to stay in 'the here and the now' mental state--a trait well-known among
children and other animal species.This assisted oblivion also happens when we ask learners/students to regurgitate information and memorize answers in ONE language (information is stored in the short term memory space). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There is no doubt in my view that prognostication is a strong feature among human beings. In Ghana, for example, there is a saying called "Sankofa",
meaning you go back and fetch! Not only are we able to predict what is coming,
we are also able to 'create' the future provided we have a glimpse of what it might look like.
That is why there is a conventional wisdom that <b>history is a good teacher</b>. Yet,
it only teaches some people as others are not able to learn from it. Here's a question and answer session:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Q: Is it possible to develop highest levels of foresight and hindsight if a language is taken away from you in schools?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A: Impossible. Language is the enabler of deeper levels of thinking. It enables our infinite intelligence to be at work. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Q: So what happens to students/learners who don't understand the language the teacher uses? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A: I and my Norwegian language education scholar believe that this is a 'stupification' exercise for the children. The real education challenge facing Sub-Saharan Africa (more than any another region in the world) is that children do not understand what teachers are saying. Neither do most teachers understand deeply what they say to the learners. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Q: So there won't be reflection in this situation?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A:You are right. Education here creates an assisted oblivion.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Q: What about their foresight?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A: Impossible in the same way that prognostication is?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Q: Are these children then made to be like animals? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A: I leave this to your imagination.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Q: But are you saying that students taught for 12 years in schools are made to be like cave men and women trapped in the moment?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A: Language damage is more than that of armed forces. I leave that question for you to answer. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">An education that fails to ignite this power of imagination only creates cave men and women as the case was in the dark ages. The good news is that we can work to change the situation. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As a student of life, it would serve one better to sit back at
the end of the day and visualize how the day has been. Taking some time once a
week to flash back offers unmatched advantages on self engagement, knowing
oneself, and reflecting on one's growth path. All great people in the world do
this and then develop better insights on what is next and take charge of the
next. Simply put, they are always intentional about tomorrow, next week, next
month, and next year--some even go to the next 20 years. When one flashes back for the
same amount of the foresight time, the magic sparks! When you habitually do this (even when
you don't feel like it), you become unstoppable and stay on your way to earning a life of prognostication! Not moment paralysis and procrastination. Every parent should know that the language, literacy and prognostication are related and interdependent. And see the argument for literacy as both a cognitive trait and social practice beyond the ink and paper. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Related links: </span> </span><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://www.leketimakalela.co.za/">www.leketimakalela.co.za</a></span></b></div>
Twitter: @leketimakalela<br />
Leketi Makalelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16980105152084875469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-960211747494800762.post-4837182888874533342017-03-01T21:52:00.000-08:002017-03-01T21:52:20.557-08:00Languages and literacies in the 21st Century
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Languages
and literacies in the 21st Century </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">23 January 2017 - Deborah Minors </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Professor Leketi Makalela chairs a
research programme on complex multilingual encounters, a growing field
attracting increasing numbers of PhD candidates. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Makalela is the Head of the Division of
Languages, Literacies and Literatures in the Wits School of Education. His
research explores the interface between languages and literacies in the 21st
Century. He is intrigued by the prospect of alternating languages of input and
output to enhance identity construction and epistemic access for multilingual
students.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">His research challenges the validity of
boundaries between languages and literacies and it ‘disrupts’ monolingual bias
in classroom interactions and language policies. His research highlights the
fact that monolingual bias is the root cause of high failure rates among
multilingual learners and that it reproduces social inequalities.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">In light of these theoretical
limitations, he has developed a multilingual literacies framework that is based
on the African value system of interdependence – ubuntu – to define complex
multilingual encounters.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Using ubuntu ‘translanguaging’ to explain
cultural competence that is embedded in the logic of incompletion (i.e., one
language is incomplete without the other) and interdependence,
Makalela argues that all global multilingual encounters are characterised
by the constant disruption of language and literacy boundaries and the
simultaneous recreation of new discursive ones.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">This research shifts epistemological
lenses from the North to the South and proposes practical methodologies that
are anchored in the cultural competence of multilingual speakers for increased
access to knowledge, ways of knowing, and identity formation/affirmation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">“I believe this is the most effective way
to bring about transformed school practices in South Africa and other
comparable contexts worldwide,” he says.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">CALL FOR PAPERS</span></i></b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">: The Hub for Multilingual Education and
Literacies in the Wits School of Education invites papers for the </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://www.wits.ac.za/media/wits-university/news-and-events/images/documents/4th%20Annual%20Conference%20on%20Language%20and%20Literacies%202017_Call%20for%20Papers.pdf"><span style="color: blue;">4th International Conference on Language and Literacy
Education</span></a><i>. Email your 250-word abstract to <a href="mailto:matlakala.moagi@wits.ac.za"><span style="color: blue;">matlakala.moagi@wits.ac.za</span></a>
by <b>31 March 2017</b>.</i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Read more about research at Wits in </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://www.wits.ac.za/media/wits-university/news-and-events/images/documents/Wits%20University%20Research%20Report.pdf"><i><span style="color: blue;">Wits Research Matters</span></i></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">- See more at:
http://www.wits.ac.za/news/latest-news/research-news/2017/2017-01/languages-and-literacies-in-the-21st-century-.html#sthash.nxDMYZjy.yqnvKq1o.dpuf</span></div>
Leketi Makalelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16980105152084875469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-960211747494800762.post-19147860814146983132017-03-01T21:33:00.000-08:002017-03-01T21:33:08.062-08:00Education in the new world order: Multilanguaging frontiers- II gave a public lecture at the University of Seychelles on the topic that preoccupies me as I ask the world: why do we use monolingual (aka. colonial) lens if we need to maximize human potential to know and to be. Several realities ring true and they are concerning: <br />
<br />
1) Majority of the primary school readers are at least 3-4 years below their expected proficiency levels <br />
2) There is a vast Matthew effect in reading development: the poor are getting poorer and it seems like a journey of no return.<br />
<br />
Our new world order is that of discontinuous continuities where there is a constant disruption of orderliness and simultaneous recreation of new ones. Many more children learn to speak and succeed in more than one language and the vast majority would have proficiency in at least 3 by the time they are 6 years old (a threshold age for language acquisition). Our contemporary children do not have 'mother tongue'; they have a repertoire that contains many languages that 'leak into each other'. The boundaries cannot hold! Besides, these have always been artificial in many complex multilingual spaces such as South Africa. One needs to stress that these new generation of speakers make sense of the world in which they live and of who they are. There is no mental or identity confusion as the old stories imposed on natural human gift: multilingualism. In terms of use, I have termed this versatile way of using at least three languages in the same speech context as multilanguaging. More articles are forthcoming to explain this phenomenon. <br />
<br />
The questions are: Why do we still stick to monolingual norms when the majority of the world populations are multilinguaging? Why are textbooks written in one language when readers can speak more than the language of writing? However way one looks at it, we seem not to tap into the full potential for human capacity. Even more, we frustrate the speakers and question the nature of their being. The real problem is our thinking that language is the tail end of our teaching instead of a means to learning. Once language teacher forego their focus on what languages look like to what speakers do with their languages, we will have reached a milestone in this journey for multilingual education and literacies---an age of multilanguaging.<br />
<br />
Related sites:<br />
@leketimakalela<br />
www.leketi.makalela.co.za<br />
<br />Leketi Makalelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16980105152084875469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-960211747494800762.post-87348639779804765332015-10-02T15:36:00.000-07:002015-10-02T15:36:18.528-07:00<div class="WordSection1">
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Readers of the Word and Leaders
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<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br clear="all" style="mso-break-type: section-break; page-break-before: auto;" />
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<br />
<div class="WordSection2">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 62.45pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There
are many weekends in one calendar year, but the 17-19 July was a very special
one to Balang Foundation and its bursars who converged at Bolivia Lodge,
Polokwane in Limpopo Province to celebrate 5 years of success and to receive
further induction as readers of the word and leaders of the world. Beyond the fact that Balang Foundation was ablaze with rich stories of successful mentoring of young minds, the weekend
was also a special one as it coincided with the celebration of the Mandela Day. Remembering the Mandela injunction that education should be the strongest weapon in the struggle for
liberation, Balang stressed the importance of education despite that fact that the post Apartheid phase has seen a snail's progress and inevitably left so many children in weak positions to develop literacy
and conquer their lives. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 62.45pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<br />
<div class="WordSection3">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 62.45pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
idea of writing as thinking was introduced to the learners who had to think
deeply about their experiences in life. Throughout this journaling exercises-
asked used as ‘catch up’ sessions, the kids became emotional as they were
‘pushed’ to confront themselves and to reflect on who they are- a tough
exercise often avoided by many. The exercise provided them with a unique
opportunity to use writing as a tool for emotional release. After an hour of
writing, the learners were given a chance to share their writings to the group (writing for an audience) after listening to model stories from the facilitators (modelling writing). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 62.45pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 62.45pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">One
of the highlights of the weekend was the book receiving ceremony where a total
of 100 books (new and used) were distributed to the grateful bursars. The idea
was to cultivate a reading culture and to increase their power of leading
through reading extensively. It was expected that the learners would pick up
writing styles from established authors and that they would read and write on a
daily basis. </span><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">As
in the past, the bursars were given lots of opportunities to write, in at least two languages of their choice, reflective pieces on how Balang changed </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">their
lives over the past 5 years. Here, translingual development is encouraged. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 62.45pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 62.45pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> Feedback from some of the bursars</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> (some translations):</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 62.45pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I
don’t know where I would have been without Balang.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 62.45pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I
feel confident and I have learned to be resilient.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 62.45pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Balang
Foundation taught me how to manage my day.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 62.45pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“It
taught me how to read my books without struggle and to read for 15 minutes
everyday.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 62.45pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“That
there is no holiday in reading; for me reading is to the mind what food is to
the stomach.” (translated)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 62.45pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 62.45pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
theme of the interdependence between the word and the world was made explicit
through an encouragement by Professor Leketi
Makalela. In particular, it was made clear that to conquer the world, and to
make sense of it and of oneself, one needs to be hungry for words, which
ultimately bring the reader closer to the world. <b>It is in the power of multilingual words that readers are able to transform the world. </b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 62.45pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; tab-stops: 62.45pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The workshop also made a special
effort to ensure that the learners understood exactly who they are. Because it
is difficult for many people to define themselves, a series of pictures were
distributed to the learners to scaffold the naming of self. At the end of the workshop, the learners received their second
bursary tranches to buy school uniform or take school-based excursion trips.
Overall, this was a stimulating workshop that pulled together the wisdom of 5
years of the Foundation Foundation and confirmed its future mission to invest in young readers and the power of words to transform lives and
conquer the world. In this connection, Balang Foundation prides itself for turning reluctant readers into leaders through reading! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; tab-stops: 62.45pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; tab-stops: 62.45pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 17.3333px; line-height: 19.9333px;">Leketi Makalela</span></div>
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 62.45pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">September 2015</span></div>
Leketi Makalelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16980105152084875469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-960211747494800762.post-85251447300968969072015-06-29T08:23:00.001-07:002015-06-29T08:23:33.315-07:00Moving out of linguistic boxesI have made an argument elsewhere that the boundaries between languages have no space any longer in our modern classrooms. Linguistic boxing derives from the idea of nation states from the European Enlightenment period- a period that responded to the 'dark' ages or medieval period which was ruled by anarchy, which was largely caused by foreign invasions (Those of us who are students of English will remember this fact). Italy became the last to be freed from foreign lords. The ideology of one-ness (one language, one nation) was hatched out of this brutal historical past where a foreigner was perceived with scepticism and with a natural reaction for one to protect oneself by creating a boundary between the locals and foreigners. Because language is who we are, it became a yardstick to determine 'foreign-ness' and a tool to rally around for unity against the foreigner. Hence the development of sovereign states. To be fair, nation statism was effective in bringing Europe to light and to evolve into civilization/modernization phase. As linguists, we understand that the idea of development/civilization meant necessarily monolingualism as a norm or catalyst. <br />
<br />
When official colonisation was started in 1848, monolingualism was a twin ideological strategy to 'civilize' the new colonies. One of the moves was thus to provide monolingualism in highly multilingual spaces (multilingualism/culturalism was perceived as backwardness). Necessarily, the European languages were used as tools for civilizing the natives. This move became clearer in the Berlin Convention of 1884 where most African countries were formally balkanized to avoid potential conflict between the colonizers. However monolingualism and nation statism did not work for Europe beyond the 20th century. I attribute the first world war and the second world war to extreme forms of nation statism. Indeed after the second world war, the colonies were freed so that the colonizing countries could not potentially fight again over the colonized land. It was also a freedom of movement from the point of view of the colonizing countries. <br />
<br />
What are the effects of decolonisation? Movement is possible and foreigners matter; especially with the US coming into power on the basis of immigration. Learning a foreign/second language became so important that approaches such as audio-lingual method (1950's) and Communicative approach (1970's) were entrenched. <br />
<br />
We are now in the post-modern (nation-statism) era; globalization and movement have taken a toll to the extent that knowledge of more than one language is more prestigious than having the highest proficiency in one. Multilingualism is no longer an option, but a 21st century regime that all students and teachers should uphold for survival. Yet, our orthodox classrooms are still trapped in the one-ness ideology of one nation, one language, one classroom, one language under the false pretext that using more than one language creates mental confusion. My research proves the contrary that using more than one language enhances epistemic access and provides a safe space for identity development. It is fuelled by an ancient African value system of Ubuntu: one language is incomplete without the other. One can download my latest article on ubuntu translanguaging at the following link: <br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/7XgE8VzNys3TdwePvcZG/full"><strong><span style="color: blue;">http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/7XgE8VzNys3TdwePvcZG/full</span></strong></a></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Abstract: <br />
<span style="font-family: AdvP7B6C; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: AdvP7B6C; font-size: xx-small;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
This paper reports on an investigation into the efficacy of a teacher preparation</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
programme that introduced the teaching of African languages to speakers of other</div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
African languages in order to produce multi-competent and multi-vocal teachers. A</div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
mixed method approach was used to elicit from a pool of 60 (30 experimental;</div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
30 control group) multilingual pre-service teachers the participants’ storied reflections</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
and their reading and vocabulary achievement scores. The results of the study show</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
that translanguaging techniques used in the experimental class afforded the</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
participants affective and social advantages as well as a deep understanding of the</div>
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</div>
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: AdvP7B6C; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: AdvP7B6C; font-size: xx-small;">content. Similarly, a paired </span></span><span style="font-family: AdvP7B72; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: AdvP7B72; font-size: xx-small;">t</span></span><span style="font-family: AdvP7B6C; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: AdvP7B6C; font-size: xx-small;">-test has shown a statistically significant differential</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: AdvP7B6C; font-size: xx-small;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: AdvP7B6C; font-size: xx-small;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
performance in favour of the experimental group after three months of a</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
translanguaging intervention programme. Using the translanguaging approach, and</div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
comparing it to an ‘ubuntu’ lens of viewing the world from an amorphous and</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
continuous cultural space, I argue for development of a multilingual teaching</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
pedagogy that is premised on this worldview to advance theory and practices of</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
translanguaging as a teachable strategy. Future research possibilities are highlighted</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
and pedagogical implications for multilingual classrooms are considered for</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
adaptations in comparable contexts.</div>
</span> </span><span style="font-family: AdvP7B6F; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: AdvP7B6F; font-size: xx-small;"></span></span><span style="font-family: AdvP7B6C; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: AdvP7B6C; font-size: xx-small;"></span></span><br />
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Leketi Makalelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16980105152084875469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-960211747494800762.post-74845444858654547822015-06-06T15:54:00.001-07:002015-06-06T15:54:21.618-07:00Translanguaging as a vehicle for epistemic access<br />
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Those of us who believe in the power of translanguaging practices for learning in multilingual classrooms can argue with confidence that this 21st century phenomenon is about ways of knowing that are plural, dynamic and fluid. I have shown that translanguaging is a useful model, when aligned with the ancient African value system of ubuntu, to challenge colonial and monolingual language practices that have pre-occupied the teaching profession for centuries and put multilingual children at the risk of failure, cognitive disadvantage and identity crisis for the rest of their lives. </h3>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">Should we still believe that use of more than one language creates mental confusion? Are multilingual children and adult speakers confused? My answer is a resounding NO. Both proposition were based on exclusive, segregating societies that would not tolerate multiplicity (aka one-ness ideology as seen in their one language, one nation mantra). In my latest publication on this subject, I present two cases: one primary school bilingual readers of African languages and English and university students learning African languages. The results of the study showed superior performance in reading literacy and positive schooling experience in both groups. Thus, it is instructive to argue that ubuntu translanguaging practices- where one language is incomplete without the other- are a way for African multilingual return. Here's the abstract for this piece of research: </span></h3>
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Translanguaging as a vehicle for epistemic access: cases for reading comprehension and multilingual interactions</h3>
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<em>Leketi Makalela</em></div>
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Abstract</h4>
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<em>African multilingualism has always been construed from a monoglossic (i.e., one language at a time) lens despite the pretensions of plural language policies in Sub-Saharan Africa. The study reported in this paper explored the efficacy of alternating languages of input and output in the same lessons in order to offset linguistic fixity that is often experienced in monolingual classrooms. I present two case studies of translanguaging practices, one at an institution of higher learning and another in the intermediate phase (primary school). The results from these cases show that the use of more than one language by multilingual learners in classroom settings provides cognitive and social advantages for them. Using what I refer to as the ubuntu translanguaging model, I make a case that fuzziness and blurring of boundaries between languages in the translanguaging classes are (i) necessary and relevant features of the 21st century to enhance epistemic access for speakers in complex multilingual spaces, and that they are (ii) indexical to the pre-colonial African value system of ubuntu. Useful recommendations for classroom applications and further research are considered at the end of the paper. </em></div>
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Leketi Makalelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16980105152084875469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-960211747494800762.post-78688845764183370052014-10-10T15:49:00.000-07:002014-10-10T15:49:03.041-07:00Do we still have a mother tongue?Fluid identities and languaging in multilingual settings <br />
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How do we reconstruct our linguistic identities in the 21st century?<br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">One of the realizations in the 21st century is that boundaries between languages can no longer be defended. As different from the Medieval period when there was a 'fear of the foreigner', the 21st century has created discursive spaces where the 'child of the soil' and the foreigner cohabit the same geographical spaces and blend their languages in very complex way that the very notion of a stable language itself is questionable. Indeed, we begin to see more practices that show overlaps between languages world wide. </span></h3>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br />In South Africa, is a typical example of integrated multilingualism (although the enlightenment ideology of one-ness governs management of the languages and school policies). Multilingualism is enshrined in the Constitution that recognizes 11 official languages to ensure parity of esteem and redress past linguistic imbalances where African languages were reduced to low level 'tongues'. With the advent of the new sociopolitical dispensation that started in 1994, however, the local communities have increasingly mixed in sharing spaces and languages. </span></h3>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br />I carried out a research which shows that university students from Black townships refer to their home language as kasi-taal- a hybrid language form that draws from all of the South African official languages. In other words, they do not have a mother tongue or mother tongues because they acquired at least 6 languages before they were 7 years old. A hybrid form that draws from languages across the board is preferred to any of the individual official languages. To make the point about 'leaking boundaries' between languages, I use translanguaging to explain that fluidity, fuzziness and versatility in language use have become naturalized. Because it is though language that one BECOMES a better entity of oneself, the speakers' identities are equally fluid. It is for this reason, I argue, that the Black township dwellers do not have a mother tongue; instead they are languaging. They have naturalized alternation of languages and use this fluid system to be who they choose to be and to make sense of the world. </span></h3>
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TO READ MORE ON THIS SUBJECT, see the article below: "Fluid identity construction in language contact zones: metacognitive reflections on <i>Kasi-taal</i> languaging practices"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 16px;"><a class="alert dropDownLabel" href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13670050.2014.953774#" id="alertMe" style="border-left-color: rgb(204, 205, 210); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; clear: none; color: #104083; cursor: pointer; display: inline !important; font-size: 11px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-left: 7px; text-decoration: none; white-space: nowrap;">Alert me</a>
<dt style="display: inline; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><strong style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.4;">DOI:</strong></dt>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 16px;">Leketi Makalela<sup>a</sup><sup>*</sup></span></h1>
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This study investigated how semi-urban, multi-ethnic and multilingual students in the city of Johannesburg, South Africa, negotiate their new identities through languaging experiences. Metacognitive reflections of their recreated language spaces were collected through 20 written narratives, which were analysed using a universalist reductionist approach. The results of the study revealed highly complex identifying processes that mark fluid, multiple affiliations and mobile and creative negotiation of an identity matrix through a hybrid language form, <i>Kasi-taal</i>, which breaks boundaries and embeds linguistic systems that were traditionally treated as discrete units. Using a translanguaging framework, I argue that the languaging strategies articulated in the narratives can be valorised to offset the symbolic violence of monoglossic ideologies that are dominant in our classrooms. Recommendations for further studies on identity-building spaces in multilingual language contact zones as well as the logic of hybrid linguistic repertoires are highlighted at the end of the paper.</div>
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Leketi Makalelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16980105152084875469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-960211747494800762.post-88552233232685731652014-10-01T14:07:00.003-07:002014-10-01T14:07:37.044-07:00LAW OF LEAST EFFORT cultivated at Balang PLUS Workshop
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Balang Plus,
which is an advanced version of the Balang Foundation's literacy programmes, held
its first mentoring and coaching workshop for 10 high school learners who
graduated from primary schools under the tutelage of the Foundation. The
workshop was held on 12 and 13 September, 2014 at the MJ Gateway Lodge in
Polokwane, Limpopo Province. The Plus side of Balang (Reading +) upholds Balang
Foundation’s catalyst role as an active player in engineering social change through
reading literacy. After three years of training and support, the bursars were
fuming with confidence and ready to share their knowledge and habits into the
communities where they lived. The high school learners were given additional two
years of adjustment support with increased funding to buy new school uniform,
purchase extra reading materials and receive coaching on life skills as
teenagers. The workshop was facilitated by a team of nine literacy and life
skills experts: Leketi Makalela, Mpho Seerane, Hendrica Malete, Albert and
Boitumelo of the University of Limpopo’s performing Arts as well as four
pre-service teachers from the University of the Witwatersrand: Nondumiso Zulu,
Banele Zwane, Nozipho Sibanda and Melica Thewe. </div>
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The bursars had been tasked with giving back to their communities through a “read-for-a-neigbour”
programme and in doing so expanding Balang Foundation’s mission to promote
reading literacy in the communities. This workshop session involved
conversations around how the "read for a neighbor" programme went over 8 months, with each of the
bursars narrating their experiences of literacy in their communities. </div>
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The evening of
their arrival included writing sessions that involved brainstorming on how to
be a responsible citizen- mainly around literacy. These writings were shared and discussed with the
whole team of nineteen attendees as a basis for the coaching that dwelt on
self-knowledge, self-management and self-efficacy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In addition, the learners were asked to define who they are
in an attempt to determine their self-awareness- something that is a proxy for
growing within their remit of who they are. The bursars had shown growth and
maturity as evidenced through the high level of discussions, presentations and
questioning when compared to the first time they were awarded the Balang grants in 2010. Some of the quotable quotes from their responses are:</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“One has to be<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></i>responsible for her/his existence in an effective and efficient
manner”- Shane </div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“ One needs to live a
purposeful life” - David</div>
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“ Being responsible means to pass at the end of the year—to make parents
proud and to use one’s internal powers and perform better than one’s parents”-
Desney</div>
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“To look after yourself- taking risks and stop playing a victim mentality. To<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>be better
than yesterday by focusing on the positives”- Mogau</div>
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“To take action---repair; no excuses---telling the truth and watching
one’s words- being the star of one’s life”- Sello. </div>
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“To give no excuses; star small and stop procrastination”- Lesedi.</div>
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“Doing anything you want to do…taking correct decisions and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>being forward looking” –Brightness. </div>
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“To choose to feel or think the way you do. Protecting and nurturing your
emotional well-being and managing time”- Mojalefa</div>
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Overall, the
workshop was successful in raising awareness in the learners who all realized
that they needed to focus on their strengths (what they have, not what they don't have) as understood from
the principle of the “Law of least effort”. In other words, to find their
purposes, meaning and who they are in relation to others and the world, they
needed to focus on things they can do with ease (what comes more naturally to them, yet difficult or hard for people around them) to maximize their chances of success
in life. The Reading mission of Balang Foundation has turned their world around to be inquisitive and ask deep questions about themselves till it gets crystal clear: they are who they are! </div>
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Report prepared
by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Leketi Makalela, Chairman of Balang
Foundation<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Leketi Makalelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16980105152084875469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-960211747494800762.post-62301632068751656432014-08-23T15:38:00.001-07:002014-08-23T15:38:47.769-07:00Who they are, what they are and why they are: reading, leading, self and language
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<b><br /></b></div>
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Balang Foundation held its annual excursion programme in order to accelerate its bursars’
self-development in three areas: reading, self-management and leadership skills
and habits. The excursion was held on the 22 and 23 August 2014 at MJ Gateway
Lodge- about 3 kilometres west of the City of Polokwane, Limpopo Province.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fifteen primary school learners from
various schools in the Province were transported to the venue, with a few
accompanied by siblings, teachers and parents. This group included new 5
learners from the 2014 cohort and the other 10 came from the 2012 and 2013
cohorts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The learners were excited
to be away from home and to interact with peers and role models outside of
their normal daily experiences. </div>
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On the first day
of the excursion (22 August), the learners arrived at the University of
Limpopo’s Performing Arts Centre as a meeting point and a place to get inspiration
from university students who model success, resilience and drive to put dreams
to a test. This way the learners were able to see themselves beyond primary
school and to invigorate their dreams of being educated and successful in life.
After this university stop-over, they proceeded to the workshop venue where
they began with team building activities till the late hours of the night. The
workshop facilitators provided them with English and home language reading
materials to read at night in preparation for presentations, reflections and
discussions that were scheduled for the following day. </div>
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The second day
of the excursion included more team building and relaxation exercises, tongue
twisters and writing activities that included reflections on the evening
experiences at the Lodge. Together with reading tasks, these activities fed
into the Foundation’s mission to build confidence in the learners so they
maximize the experience of living within the remit of who they are: self
awareness, self esteem and self actualization. The learners understood three
key ideas around the workshop: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">who they
are</i> (Balang Ambassadors), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">what they
are</i> (Future leaders) and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">why they are</i>
(to be the change they want to see). </div>
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During the
activities, the learners wrote short stories and were engaged in high level
discussion points, focusing on evaluation of issues they considered ‘social
ills’ in their immediate communities, their schools and families. The themes
that emerged from their free writings included a pattern of homosexual
tendencies at their schools, bullying at schools, gratitude to Balang
Foundation for having turned their lives around and brought hope for a
successful future. This is a prototypical example of accolades to Balang
Foundation: </div>
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Ke a leboga Balang Foundation. Ge nka be e se ka wena, ga ke tsebe gore
nkabe ke le kae. Ke a leboga go menagane ke re Modimo a lefe mahlatse le
mahlogonolo.</div>
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‘Thank you Balang Foundation; if it wasn’t for you, I would not have
reached this far in life. I say thank you and may God accord you fortunes and
blessings.’</div>
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Other themes
included unresolved tension between home language and English at school, death
of parents, harsh conditions of being a child, discrimination, struggle for
water and social grants, boys disrespecting teachers, dreams to succeed, and
love for parents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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One of the
outstanding experiences in this workshop was training for the children’s use of
two languages to acquire vocabulary and adopt bilingual reading strategies.
Giving them readings in both their home language and English was meant to
enhance simultaneous (as opposed to sequential) development of reading skills
and habits in two languages- something they don’t usually do at school. The
Foundation had taken a decision that reading cannot be developed in isolated
languages among bilinguals or multilingual children. Comparison and contrasting
reading between two languages provided them versatility, flexibility, multiple
access points to knowledge in more than one language- biliteracy skills they
need for the future. The facilitators noticed that the bursars heartily enjoyed
the experience of exchanging languages because it valorized what they brought
with them into the reading space. It became apparent that home language
represented <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">who they are</b> and English
doubled their ‘who-ness’ and prepared them for a curriculum that is carried out
through its medium. The children had reading sessions and opportunities to
alternate languages of input and output (listening in one language and
responding in another language; reading in one language and writing in another=
translanguaging). This exercise proved successful in engaging the learners’
thinking processes, enhancing deeper understanding and affirming a sense of who
they were becoming: future home language and English users. The enthusiasm
recorded while they were receiving stories in one language and re-telling them
in another language was encouraging that it might be possible to explore this
as an option to support literacy in more than one language in their classrooms.
</div>
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Towards the end
of the workshops, the bursars were coached on self-management, the values of
Balang Foundation as ambassadors and on how to stay true to who they are. The
principles were stated in English and Sepedi (their home language) as follows: </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Be who you are (Le se be bomarata helele!)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Know who you want to be (tseba gore o nyaka go
ba eng kamoso)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Believe in the future (Dumela gore bokamoso bo
tla ba bjo bokaone)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Make reading your best friend: the only way you
succeed (Balang!)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Schedule your life: Humans are not animals; they
reflect and plan</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Spend your 168 hours per week wisely (nako e
bohlokwahlokwa!)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Prioritize (Kgetha tseo de lego bohlokwa</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
After the
coaching session, the bursars filled in a grid to start scheduling of their
daily activities and committed to reading and sharing their stories for at
least 15 minutes before they sleep.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
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Overall, the
excursion programme was successful in instilling confidence in the bursars,
giving them assurances that success is within their reach, making them take charge
of their lives, to control and manage their schedules, and read more and more.
In this way, they knew who they are (ambassadors), what they are (future
leaders), and why they are (to become the change they want to see!)</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">I was privileged to receive an African Studies Presidential Fellowship for 2011, which entailed visits to Rutgers University and the Kluge Centre at the Library of Congress and attendance of the 50<sup>th</sup> African Studies Association Annual Meeting in Washington DC. Throughout the tenure of the fellowship I refined my academic mantra: linguistic and literacy interface. <span> </span>The concept of interface blends <i>different modes (multimodality), different languages (multilingualism) and skills (multiliteracy) and interrogates fluidity of their meeting points. <span> </span>There are three basic </i>questions defining my agenda:<i> What happens when African children juggle between two systems to develop reading and/or multimodal literacy? What happens when they are taught in languages they do not understand? What happens when African languages take an agentive role in localizing English? <o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal">I carried with myself these defining questions as I visited classes at Rutgers University to do guest lectures. <span> </span>The first class focused on language politics, allowing me space to relate the story of South Africa’s bold language policy that recognized 11 official languages and how this policy should be interpreted with a series of larger socio-political processes that gave birth to it: Dutchification (1652), Anglicization (1795), Afrikanerization (1948), Soweto student uprising (1976) and democratisation (1994). <span> </span>My lecture showed that there are historically ordained ideological issues that limit utilization of indigenous African languages such as negative attitudes and mythical economic reasons about costs. <span> </span>Constitutional emphasis on the need to utilize previously marginalized languages, however, remains a positive story so far in the modern history of African languages. </div><div class="MsoNormal">In next topic on children’s literacies, I argued that visual mode and other neglected modes of communication have proliferated children’s lives, but the schools and parents seem to be “old” in keeping up with the trends and therefore failing the children who are otherwise intelligent. Using reading images as a theoretical construct, I presented on the grammar of the visual design, which needs to be interpreted with verbal grammar as we read multimodal texts. I further presented results of an empirical study I conducted in South Africa, showing a commonsense, but deep reality: <span> </span>the need to rethink literacy and prepare our 21<sup>st</sup> century children. </div><div class="MsoNormal">The Library of the Congress offered a unique opportunity to research language development over time, especially language cognition, language-in education, and the missionary “misinventions” and “disinventions” of African language orthographies and their Tower of the Babel misconceptions that exaggerated multilingualism in Africa. My public lecture on Challenges and Prospects of 11 Official Language policy in South Africa was well received by the audience at the Library and the questions raised deepened my drive to do further research on the historical accounts of language policy development. </div><div class="MsoNormal">The fellowship ended with a special session on New English in South Africa at the ASA Annual Meeting.<span> </span>I debunked the myth that African languages are passive recipients of English’s bully blows. Instead, they are catalysts of change in taming the shrew in the new African sociolinguistic milieu. </div><div class="MsoNormal">Overall, <span> </span>a fruitful fellowship tenure! </div>Leketi Makalelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16980105152084875469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-960211747494800762.post-37595882480683443172011-11-10T18:14:00.000-08:002011-11-10T18:27:25.625-08:00Children's literacies in changing times<span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}"></span><br />
<div class="text_exposed_root text_exposed">I gave a talk at the Camdem Campus of Rutgers University yesterday (9 November, 2011) on "Multimodality: impact on children's literacies". Ways of knowing and modes of communication have changed with the advent of technology. This implies that we cannot take for granted the visuals (and other modes) that inundate us on a daily basis. Do we know what they mean and do we have a langauge to talk about them? The real issue however is how these multiple modes connive to create meaning. If we don't, we might consider ourselves illiterate (digital refugees!). </div><div class="text_exposed_root text_exposed"></div><div class="text_exposed_root text_exposed">Let's start from the beginning of things: Is there a relationship between the letters MAN and the concept/signified "man"? The relationship, if any, is arbitrary and children know this already even before they lean how to speak, write or read. They want to deal with CONCRETE represenation of reality. They choose drawing and creating pictures to communicate and represent real life objects. Just give them a writing pad and a pencil to see, but we probably may not see and understand that language...adults are in this connection considered visually illiterate. The least we can do is to provide writing spaces and tools even if we don't understand. </div><div class="text_exposed_root text_exposed"></div><div class="text_exposed_root text_exposed">Suprisingly, most adults attempt to mis-educate the kids and support the education system that has made up all these squiggles of letters that do not make sense in real life. Instead of building on their <span class="text_exposed_show">strength, the school system gradually takes away opportunities for multiliterate development and frustrate intelligent kids. This is in the same way that I understand why some education systems ask children to "swim" or "sink" through the medium of a language they do not understand as early as grade 4. This is a transition from concrete operations to abstract thinking. Is it really possible to do abstract thinking in the language one does not understand? Where else is this happening except in Africa? Doesn't this explain, at least in part, why South African kids read at 35% at grade 3 and then regress to 28% at grade 6? Hmmm, something cognitively criminal is smelling....Cognitive effects that set up the children for failure in life.</span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show">Just to show how conservative we are in the larger scheme of things, I asked a group of American students today if they could consider using sms language, promote it and use it as official if they were in a position to change policy...there was a resounding NO eventhough literally everyone one them uses this "dialect-free" language. If you agree with them, wait for the next 30 years to be proved wrong. Literacies have shifted with time....we the illiterate ones (adults) should try catch up with them and be ahead of the game instead of being gatekeepers.</span><br />
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</div>Leketi Makalelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16980105152084875469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-960211747494800762.post-55902771591330818542011-11-07T18:40:00.000-08:002011-11-07T18:40:52.883-08:00Language development and society in South AfricaAfter giving a talk at Rutgers University, New Jersey today (07 November, 2011), it fully occured to me that indigenous African languages have had a long history of subjugation that even the cosmetic policy reforms of multilingualism do little to advance their cause unless more radical, politically-willed steps are put in place. Many people often think that languages should be developed first in order to be used, but I tend to believe that not using them is in fact a cause for their under-development. The first step towards development is to use them... and they can borrow words and concepts from English through normal processes of langauge contact and evolution in the same way that developed langauges like English did and still do today....the inkhorn words derived from French and classical languages like Latin before it was developed in the middle ages are best examples to show that no language is instrinsically developed.<br />
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Instead of systematic language planning expected of policy makers, we saw language "happening" in a series of lingusitic "wars", indigenous African languages had to survive against exogenous languages (which have over time become African too) and agents. The history reads as thus: Dutchification (1652), Anglicization (1875), Missionary lingusitic disinvention (1800), Dutch-English reunion (1910), the rise of Afrikaans in 1925, Afrikanerization (1948); Soweto Student uprising (1976) and Democratisation (1994). All of these historical epochs did very little to turn the fortunes for African langauges as languages of prestige in all domains of life. It is almost 15 years since multilingualism was proclaimed as a norm (1996), but many children are still caught up in the sink or swim subtractive bilingualism default policy (learning through one's home langage for the first 3 years and then making a swift transition to learning through English) that was first introduced by the missionaries in the 1800. This policy that cuts across many Anglophone African countries has been insensitive to the "threshold" levels and levels of readiness of the kids...that learners have to LEARN in a language they do not understand is still incomprehesible to me...defies the logic of education, which is to acquire knowledge and use it for personal and social advancement. <br />
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It is important to recall that the missionaries' goal was to quickly christianize the natives through their home languages and thus 3 years was deemed necessary for biblical studies. They knew that comprehesion was not possible in an exogenous language and thus home language or so called mother tongue was the logical option to spread the word of God. When the mission was accomplished, the colonizing agents wanted to transfer their culture through their languages by replacing African cultural and linguistic reality with their own. Equally, they knew that the best way was to cultivate this before children passed their critical age--puberty--- to master a behaviour and start thinking in the colonial language as early as grade 4. This is the story of a sink or swim policy cutting across many African countries to date. Ironically, change has been claimed when in fact things remained the same as far as enliteration of African children in schools despite the odd reality that they are underachieving in schools. Cognitive underdevelopment, literacy development failures, semi-lingualism, skills shortage, unemployment, and general dependence on the government by a large section of the population are some of the harsh consequences of failed language policy of a developing nation.Leketi Makalelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16980105152084875469noreply@blogger.com0