The use of isiZulu mother tongue as a medium of teaching and learning in the access programmes in the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Abstract

The focus of this qualitative study was to acquire an in-depth understanding of the use of IsiZulu Mother Tongue as the Medium of Teaching and Learning in the Access Programmes at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The study narrowed its scope to the Extended Curriculum Programmes (Access Programmes). Therefore, the study focused on highlighting the importance of mother tongue and its role in education. Furthermore, the study interrogated the strategies used by the UKZN in implementing the isiZulu-English bilingual policy. The study employed the Language Management Theory (LMT), this theory postulates that the process of language planning should begin with the conceptualisation of language problems within the context of their occurrence followed by the evaluation of such problems and the formulation and implementation of suitable interventions. The research then showed and provided all the positive and negative perspectives provided by the students and the lecturers of the Extended Programmes (EPs).The study primarily had three principal objectives which were: (a) To explore students' and educators’ attitudes towards the use of IsiZulu-English bilingualism as a medium of instruction and learning at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (b) To investigate the academic benefits and challenges of implementing isiZulu-English bilingualism education at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (c) To investigate different strategies used by various Extended Curriculum Programmes to ensure IsiZulu-English bilingualism as a medium of instruction and learning at the University of KwaZulu-Natal yields envisaged outcomes. The study adopted a qualitative data collection method because of how the data is going to be collected, and the research showed that as much as they have done a lot in the process of implementing the isiZulu-Bilingual teaching and learning, there are still numerous gaps, which means that there is a lot that still needs to be done. The study further revealed that in South Africa as a whole, the use of African languages as the language of instruction for teaching and learning is still not regarded as a priority. The study recommends that the if Department of Higher Education and other higher offices worked together, a lot of positivity and inclusivity could have been done.