Bassey E. Antia

University multilingualism: a critical narrative from the University of the Western Cape, South Africa

This article offers a narrative of the University of the Western Cape, South Africa, from the prism of the duality of language as a co-modality (with people, protest, policy and practices) for constituting the institution in whole or in part and as a reflection of its co-modalities. For its framing, the narrative eclectically draws on language politics and policy, a grammar of multilingual landscapes and the epistemology of linguistics. Besides contributing to a historiography of university language policies, the narrative has implications for language policy analysis.

Quality assurance of the knowledge exchange process: a factor in the success of child health programs in developing countries

This article views the many national and international programs concerned with child survival in developing countries as sharing one important objective, i.e. the exchange of specialized knowledge to mothers who are the primary caretakers of children under age five. If mothers do not possess the knowledge required to develop proper care‐seeking practices, then return on investments in infrastructure, drugs, and human resources development, as these relate to child‐killer diseases such as diarrhea and acute respiratory infection, may not be optimal. Cognizant of reports of the limited impact of health promotion programs, in spite of the investments made, the article models the knowledge exchange process to pinpoint possible sources of problems. Pertinent issues of quality assurance are raised and the consequences of neglecting them pointed out. Some empirical evidence is offered in support of these predicted consequences. Proposes a value analysis framework, to make the point that paying attention to quality assurance concerns is more about optimizing the fit between available resources and ideal outcomes, rather than always being about additional resources.

HIV/AIDS messaging in Germany and Nigeria : a corpus linguistics study

Modelling success in HIV messaging is notoriously difficult in part because of the diversity of disciplines interested in the subject (e.g. public health, psychology, communication, education, sociology, linguistics) and the claims made in each, often on the basis of different coming-to-know processes. For instance, although relevant research in public health and communication emphasizes audience responses but sometimes slights detailed analyses of texts, work in applied linguistics tends to engage with texts without, however, framing its claims in the context of theories of behaviour. This study makes a case for attention to both text and behaviour by showing how a corpus linguistics study of texts of HIV messaging can be accommodated within a behavioural framework. A corpus of HIV messages from Germany and Nigeria, analyzed from the standpoint of predictions of a behavioural theory, suggests that only two German messages and one Nigerian message (out of the eleven messages in each national corpus) had the mix of features (high threat, high efficacy) predicted by the model to elicit message acceptance. In view of the implication that the observed nexus between messaging and society does not necessarily translate into better acceptance prospects as defined within the particular behavioural theory, this study may be seen as problematising certain claims in applied linguistics research on HIV, especially recommendations dealing with the need for messaging to reflect local (knowledge) perspectives.

Enhancing an International Perspective in Public Health Teaching through Formalized University Partnerships

Teaching in the field of public health needs to employ a global perspective to account for the fact that public health problems and solutions have global determinants and implications as well. International university partnerships can promote such a perspective through the strengthening of cooperation, exchange, and communication between academic institutions across national boundaries. As an example for such an academic network in the field of public health, we introduce the International Public Health Partnership—a collaboration between a university in Germany and universities in India, Turkey, and Nigeria. Formed in 2005, it facilitated the exchange of information, fostered discussion about the transferability of public health concepts, contributed to the structural development of the universities involved, and promoted an intercultural dialog through a combination of local and distance learning activities. Although well accepted by students and staff, different obstacles were encountered; these included limited external funding, scarce own financial, time and personnel resources, and diverging regulations and structures of degree programs at the partnership sites. In the present article, we share several lessons that we learned during our joint collaboration and provide recommendations for other universities that are involved in partnerships with institutions of higher education or are interested to initiate such collaborations.

Theorising terminology development: frames from language acquisition and the philosophy of science

ABSTRACT The manner in which our conceptualisation and practice of terminology development can be informed by processes of knowledge change in child language development and a paradigm shift in disciplines, has been relatively underexplored. As a result, insights into what appears to be fundamental processes of knowledge change have not been employed to reflect on terminology development, its dynamics, requirements and relationship to related fields. In this article, frames of knowledge change in child language development and the philosophy of science are used to examine terminology development as knowledge growth that is signalled lexico-semantically through a range of transformations: addition, deletion, redefinition and reorganisation. The analysis is shown to have implications for work procedures, expertise types, critique, and for the relationships between terminology development and translating.

Multilingual examinations: towards a schema of politicization of language in end of high school examinations in sub-Saharan Africa

ABSTRACT In many countries of sub-Saharan Africa, the release of each year’s results for the end of high school examinations heralds an annual ritual of public commentary on the poor state of national education systems. However, the exoglossic/monolingual language regime for these examinations is infrequently acknowledged as contributing to the dismal performance of students. Even less attended to is the manner in which the language of examinations, through shaping students’ performances, may be exacerbating social inequalities. This article politicizes the language of examinations in the region in the hope of generating policy and research interest in what is arguably an insidious source of inequality. The article makes three arguments. Firstly, it is argued that current exoglossic/monolingual practices in these examinations constitute a set of sociolinguistic aberrations, with demonstrable negative effects on students’ performance. Secondly, it is argued that the gravity of these paradoxical sociolinguistic disarticulations is better appreciated when their social ramifications are viewed in terms of structural violence and social inequality. Thirdly, in considering how to evolve a more socially equitable examination language regime, it is argued that the notion of consequential validity in testing positions translanguaging as a more ecologically valid model of language use in examinations.

Shh, hushed multilingualism!: Accounting for the discreet genre of translanguaged siding in lecture halls at a South African university

Abstract Translanguaged siding is the term used here for the relatively under-researched phenomenon of student-to-student communication occurring in parallel to the teacher-talk, but using language and other semiotic resources that differ from the teacher’s in order to shape understanding of the teacher’s meanings or to make other meanings. This article draws on Fishman’s reflections on his now famous 1965 question “Who speaks What language to Whom and When?”, and on Bakhtin’s work on dialogicity to examine the dynamics of semiotic choice in translanguaged siding as well as its functions in the experience of multilingual students at a South African University. Data obtained from recorded interviews, a questionnaire survey and documentary evidence allow for establishing that (1) there are complex chains of correlation involving subsets of identified siding variables, and (2) translanguaged siding can be supportive of learning, contrary to associations of siding with Malinowskian small talk.