“We are who we are through language." This was one of the key sentiments from the Stellenbosch University (SU) Language Day 2018 on Friday, 28 September 2018, held at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS).
Seventy-five invited students, lecturers and representatives from Professional Academic Support (PASS) environments attended the 2018 Language Day, Multilingualism @ SU: Creating an enabling environment, to discuss the value of multilingualism and how SU can create an enabling environment for it to flourish. The students and staff represented all 10 faculties and a variety of PASS environments.
Prof Arnold Schoonwinkel, Vice-Rector (Learning and Teaching) opened and participated in the event which focused on open conversations around Multilingualism in Teaching and Learning Spaces and Multilingualism in Social Spaces. The topics were contextualised and introduced by Prof Christa van der Walt and Ms Denai Nyagani, whereafter the participants discussed the questions posed by the speakers. All the feedback was captured and each group also had the opportunity to provide brief feedback in plenary sessions.
Dr Antoinette van der Merwe facilitated Language Day 2018 and it was characterized by open and frank conversations with creative solutions and good practice examples around the two main topics shared by the participants. The focus was on what every individual can do to create an enabling environment for multilingualism to flourish at SU.
Listed below are the video clips of the day:
Prof Arnold Schoonwinkel, Vice-Rector (Learning and Teaching)
Prof Christa van der Walt (Discussions included)
Ms Denai Nyagani (Discussions included)
Dr Antoinette van der Merwe (Conclusion)