Fifteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

This paper focuses on understanding how the Writing Centre as a developmental aid promotes English within an institution of higher education in South Africa. It explores tutors’ and students’ perceptions on the impact of the Writing Centre in promoting English as the medium of instruction. The paper also seeks to interrogate how the use of English in South African academia could be at the expense of any other language spoken in the country while also contributing to the development of academic literacies. The focus is on the disparities in a University of Technology (UoT), in KwaZulu Natal where the larger populace prides in their language. The premise of this view is that in UoTs the majority of the students struggle to express themselves literally in English as a second language of communication on both academic and social platforms. The researchers explore, the transformational learning theory by Mezirow (2000) through examining the way students understand and constructively reinterpret their sense experience central to making meaning from their native language to English within their specific academic literacies. The study utilises a qualitative investigation approach, in which the researchers use observation of students’ responses and attitudes towards use of the English language. To this effect, the authors argue that the situation students face in South Africa is indicative of a developmental context in terms of the enhancement of parallel bilingualism/multilingualism through pedagogical translations during writing centre sessions.