Decolonial contestations of multilingualism and translanguaging in English for Academic Purposes: A case of the University of Limpopo

Abstract

The historically disadvantaged University of Limpopo recognises only English as a medium of instruction. The offering of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) is still dominated by a monolingual ethos where other languages are viewed as diluting academic purity. The present article reports on the study that was carried out among lecturers and students who teach and learn EAP in the Faculty of Science and Agriculture at this university. The aim of the study was to investigate the extent to which African languages feature in EAP lessons and the reasons for and benefits of this. The study adopted a qualitative approach and used classroom observation to collect data. Data were analysed through classroom discourse analysis. The findings revealed that lecturers incorporate African languages in their teaching of EAP. It was also found that when students are by themselves discussing work on EAP, they predominantly used African languages. The conclusion is that the insistence on the exclusive use of English for teaching EAP is not practical and does not reflect the multilingual realities. Therefore, the acknowledgement and utilisation of dominant languages in the teaching of EAP in institutions like the University of Limpopo will go a long way to decolonising EAP.