Save the date Language audit 2023
As part of the New Language Policy Framework for Public Higher Education Institutions, Universities South Africa (USAf) is working with universities through its Community of Practice for the Teaching and Learning of African Languages (CoPAL).
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Vice-Chancellors Colloquium was founded on the ideals of promoting multilingualism, boosting epistemic access, and promoting student success in African languages.
Under the South African Research Infrastructure Roadmap (SARIR), SADiLaR, the strategic national research infrastructure, was mandated to conduct a comprehensive audit of all public universities’ language resources. A language resources audit will allow universities to identify which resources they need for implementation of the new framework, among other things.
Objectives of the audit
Define resources: Implementing a language policy framework requires a wide range of resources.
Identify resources: Develop a language policy framework based on the resources available in your institution.
Identify milestones: In order to ensure your institutional language policy is implemented successfully, identify milestones along the way.
A meeting of the USAf Board of Vice-Chancellors on 16 Feb 2023 endorsed this Language Resource Audit.
Save the date Language audit 2023 timeline
The audit is scheduled in 2023.
Despite being a draft, this schedule may change in the future. To find out when your institution’s audit will take place, please check this page regularly.
- Proposed: University of Limpopo (UL) – 22/23 February 2023
- Proposed: University of Pretoria (UP) -16 February 2023
- Proposed: University of Johannesburg (UJ) – February 2023
Ethical Considerations USAf Supported Langauge Resource Audit
A Language Resource Audit was endorsed by the Vice-Chancellors of South African Universities at USAf’s meeting on 16 February 2023.
The USAf board, which consists of Vice-Chancellors of the Universities of South Africa, has confirmed that separate ethical clearance will not be required because the commissioning, data collection and final report will follow the guidelines endorsed and requested by the USAf board.
What the audit will entail in a nutshell:
- At all institutions, two questionnaires will be administered. Students will receive the first, and staff/management will receive the second.
- The questionnaires were developed in accordance with USAF directives and endorsements, principles of qualitative and quantitative research design, and input from local and international subject experts.
- There are both open-ended questions and restricted questions on the questionnaires (typical Likert scales). The two questionnaires have different focuses. Additionally, students and staff are asked the same questions to check whether they both understand and are aware of the institution’s language resources.
- We will present frequency counts, histograms, tables, and statistical measures for quantitative data analyses.
- The principles of attribute- and magnitude-coding will be used for qualitative data analyses, which will require in-person discussions during site visits. Methodological (hermeneutic method) issues (content analysis by hermeneutics), technology issues (code books, frequency analysis, and quote analysis) issues, as well as design issues (code consistency, codebook editor, and reporting) issues will be addressed.
- Participants will be involved voluntarily, and no one will be disadvantaged by their participation.
