New opportunities for strategic growth and consolidation have led to the move of almost a third of the Stellenbosch University's Language Centre staff to new and spacious premises at Kleine Bosch, 44 Banhoek Road, adjacent to the Africa Centre for HIV/AIDS Management and only a short distance from the Engineering Faculty.

This was by mutual agreement with the Legal Aid Clinic, which will occupy the Language Centre's Crozier Street building from 11 December onwards.

The Language Centre environments affected by the move include the Office of the Director, the Writing Lab, the Reading Lab, the Language Service as well as the Language Learning Hub and the Communications Lab (CommsLab).

According to Dr Kim Wallmach, Director of the Language Centre, the new premises will lead to new growth for the centre. “This relocation brings all these units together under one roof for the first time, as well as providing the breathing space to explore synergies together with our two latest initiatives, the Language Learning Hub and the CommsLab."

Over the past fifteen years the Language Centre has developed into a multifaceted and highly regarded professional language and communication support environment. On the academic side, the Language Centre offers a wide range of academic support initiatives aimed at enhancing academic reading and writing skills, as well as assisting undergraduate, postgraduate and international students to learn new languages.

The Writing Lab offers free one-on-one consultations to more than 4,000 students per year and aims to help students to improve their writing skills in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere. The Reading Lab provides a comprehensive service aimed at assisting students to increase reading speed and comprehension for study at university. In addition to an online reading programme and one-on-one consultations, workshops and reading-speed development programmes are offered to more than 3,000 students across six faculties.

“Now students will also be able to access the Language Learning Hub, a new initiative aimed at supporting individual students who would like to become more multilingual by learning isiXhosa and Afrikaans. There is also space at our new premises for the Language Learning Hub's individual language tutoring, as well as tandem and peer learning sessions. Students also have the convenience of self-access online learning via PC workstations on-site as well as elsewhere on campus," says Wallmach.

The Language Centre's Language Service also helps promote multilingualism, and offers translation and editing services for English, Afrikaans and the African languages, as well as for foreign languages - including Mandarin, the most recent addition. The Language Service will also be relocating to the new premises. It serves the university's translation, editing and plain language needs as well as assisting various clients in the business sector.

"In response to the university's new language policy introduced in 2016, we have streamlined our services to align logistically and realistically with internal and external market demands," Wallmach says.

The new facilities also include an upmarket seminar room, which is ideal as a venue for workshops in language acquisition, reading, and writing for postgraduate students. It is also an ideal venue for the specialised workshops and short courses offered by the CommsLab in effective office communication, presentation skills, report writing and business blogging for social media, as well as form design, communication design and plain language.

The Language Centre is part of the Division for Learning and Teaching Enhancement, which resorts under the Vice-Rector: Learning and Teaching.

For more information on the services available at the Language Centre, click here.

Language Centre contact details:

Email: taalsentrum@sun.ac.za

Tel: 021 808 2167

Free bookings can be made for Writing Lab consultations via The Writing Lab button on my.sun.ac.za