Boosting the Use of African Languages in Education. A Qualified Organized Nationwide DEvelopment Strategy for South Africa Erasmus Project

Project Title

Boosting the Use of African Languages in Education. A Qualified Organized Nationwide DEvelopment Strategy for South Africa

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Capacity Building in higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics:

Project Summary

BAQONDE (Boosting the Use of African Languages in Education. A Qualified Organized Nationwide DEvelopment Strategy for South Africa) represents a EU-SA well-defined collaborative response to the established national priority for CB projects “The development of African Languages”. Departing from a rigorous need analysis that certified the dominant/detrimental role of English as the main language of instruction, BAQONDE aims to capacitate academic staff at HEIs to develop multilingual pedagogical skills that will enable the development of African languages as MoI at the tertiary level. The outputs of BAQONDE will contribute to develop a coordinated national strategy through the establishment of African Language Development Units (ALDUs) at each SA partner HEI. ALDUs will:1.Develop and implement a training program (including SA-EU mobilities) for a core group of lecturers from different disciplines to master context-relevant multilingual pedagogies2.Lead the production of digital subject-relevant multilingual materials for lecturers and students. These resources will be accessible from the project website to optimize the production/usage of materials in different disciplines/languages and harmonize multilingual teaching standards3.An inter-institutional Network of ALDUs will be established with the purpose of coordinating efforts, sharing resources and good practices in order to guarantee a culture of quality during the project and after its subsequent expansionBy fostering a culture of quality and coordinated cooperation, BAQONDE seeks to generate a major short-term impact in the teaching-learning process that will enable a greater long-term impact with far-reaching implications: the intellectualization of previously marginalized languages. This is in line with both the priorities of the country and the principles of equity, as it entails a better assimilation of contents and a greater development of professional competences by L1 African (Bantu) students.

Project Website

http://baqonde.usal.es/project-overview/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 758012 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSIDAD DE SALAMANCA & Country: ES

Project Partners

• UNIVERSITY OF THE WESTERN CAPE
• UNIVERSITY OF KWAZULU-NATAL
• THE PROVOST, FELLOWS, FOUNDATION SCHOLARS & THE OTHER MEMBERS OF BOARD, OF THE COLLEGE OF THE HOLY & UNDIVIDED TRINITY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH NEAR DUBLIN
• RIJKSUNIVERSITEIT GRONINGEN
• NOORDWES-UNIVERSITEIT
• RHODES UNIVERSITY