Language plays a crucial role in our lives, serving as the primary tool for expression and communication.
The South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR), with the support of Universities South Africa (USAf), is conducting an audit of the language resources at universities in the context of the Language Policy Framework for Public Higher Education Institutions (Department of Higher Education and Training, 2022). The policy, which is a revised version of the 2002 Language Policy for Higher Education, emphasises the importance of promoting multilingual environments and accessibility to multilingual learning and teaching at South Africa’s public higher education institutions.
Sol Plaatje University (SPU) will host SADiLaR on Friday, 21 April 2023.
What is the purpose of the language audit?
- Identify the range of resources required for the successful implementation of the Language Policy Framework for Public Higher Education Institutions.
- Identify resources that are available at SPU to enable the implementation of this framework.
- Acknowledge milestones in the effective execution of SPU’s institutional language policy.
The SPU language resources audit will be administered through questionnaires and discussions, exploring various survey categories such as institutional information, language services, teaching and learning, the language of communication and administration, student life, and general language resource matters.
SADiLaR is a national centre supported by the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) and is part of the new South African Research Infrastructure Roadmap. Its mission is to enable and support research and development in language technologies and language-related studies in the humanities and social sciences, focusing on all of South Africa’s official languages.
