Oscar Eybers

July 15th / 2021

Presentation topic:

Preventing linguicide in South Africa by translanguaging indigenous languages in academic literacy facilitation.

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The purpose of this presentation is to highlight first-year science students’ understandings and experiences of ubuntu epistemology in an argumentation-focused academic writing module called LST 110. The data acquisition methods of the study include the administration of a short-answer questionnaire which surveyed students’ perspectives of a newly implemented curriculum. In addition, students’ reflective journal entries on translanguaging were analysed critically to assess their experiences of mastering argumentative concepts in a multilingual environment. Analysis of the narratives of most of the participants in this study indicates that their understanding and appreciation of ubuntu as practised through translanguaging increased. Some students also described ubuntu as an enabling principle for academic argumentation and teamwork across cultural borders. This analysis concludes by advocating the African epistemology of ubuntu, in its multitude of regional manifestations, as an effective, pedagogical tool for advancing dialectic arguments in multilingual science classrooms and academic writing.

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Oscar Eybers is a lecturer in the Unit for Academic Literacy. He obtained the degrees BA, BA Honours in English, Post-Graduate Certificate in Education from the University of the Western Cape. His Masters is English was attained at Stellenbosch University.

After living in the USA for 13 years, he returned to South Africa, his place of birth. Oscar taught English in the secondary-school domain, before entering the tertiary sphere. He has since lectured academic literacy to students at Zululand University, Fort Hare University, Rhodes University and now, the University of Pretoria. He is currently working on his PhD which focuses on the inter-relationship between student cultures and how these interplay with their adjustment to university-level writing.

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