Vocation specific language courses can encourage both linguistic and cultural awareness. They can equip students with the basics they need to communicate.
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Articles on Multilingualism
Displaying 1 - 20 of 30 articles
The International Year of Indigenous Languages serves as a good impetus to start implementing policies that prioritises Africa's own languages.
Vulnerable groups are being excluded from society due to their lack of ability to speak national languages.
Reading involves more than decoding letter-sound relationships and making meaning from isolated texts.
Languages are said to be disappearing faster than endangered species with a different one dying every two weeks.
The international aid sector's use of languages needs to change if it is serious about dealing with the issues raised by recent scandals.
Despite reports that multilingual students' academic progress has 'stalled,' researchers find new reasons to be optimistic about how they are faring in US schools.
It would diminsh the value of Britain's multilingualism, promote a monolingual ideology and discriminate against speakers of other languages.
Africa's current situation has a parallel in European history - the Reformation and the changes it wrought in terms of language exceptionalism.
South Africa must be seen as a country for speakers of all its official languages rather than an English-only elite.
Africa needs a new strategy for mother-tongue based bilingual education, from primary through to tertiary level.
The combination of knowledge and communication, along with a few other fundamental conditions such as liberty and respect , leads to social, cultural and technological development.
Raising the status of the African languages to that of official languages in South Africa post-1994 led to an explosion of translation and interpreting work in local and foreign languages.
To understand the full scale of the world's linguistic diversity, we should be thinking about languages and how speakers relate to them.
Whether it's due to native language loss or unsupported high school curricula, the lack of bilingualism in the US is notable. Why can't more Americans speak another language? How should that change?
Ethical engagement in multilingual communication is about mutual respect. More importantly, it's about shaping a shared future through face-to-face communication.
Turns out the way you are exposed to new languages could be the key.
Teachers need training and support to deal with increasing diversity in their classrooms.
Schools and universities in post-colonial contexts still operate within the logic of coloniality. This is starkly illustrated by their language policies.
The EU may claim it is "united in diversity" but the reality is very different.
Top contributors
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Professor of African Language Studies, Rhodes University
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Associate Professor in Language Education, member bua-lit collective, University of Cape Town
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Emeritus Professor of African Linguistics, University of Leipzig
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Frank Monaghan is a Friend of The Conversation.
Senior Lecturer in the School of Languages and Applied Linguistics, The Open University
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PhD Candidate in Language and Literacy, University of Cape Town
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Lecturer, Department of African Languages, Makerere University
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Lecturer in African Languages, Makerere University
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Doctoral Student in African Languages (Law and Language/ Forensic Linguistics), Rhodes University
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Lecturer in Information Literacy, Cape Peninsula University of Technology
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Professor, Faculty of Education, Stellenbosch University
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PhD candidate in Language in Education, University of Cape Town
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Director of the Institute for the Study of English in Africa, Rhodes University
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Associate Professor in Applied Linguistics, University of South Australia
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Subject Head, African Languages, Rhodes University
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Senior Lecturer in African Languages, Rhodes University
