The (re)making of an African language

Revisiting epistemologies for quality assessment practices

Dados Bibliográficos

ID21757173
AutoresShilela Nkadimeng (Umalusi, autor correspondente), Leketi Makalela (0000-0001-6375-5839, University of the Witwatersrand)
Ano2023
Volume41
Fascículo1
Páginas5-15
Data de publicação2023-01-02
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSouthern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1607-3614 • E-ISSN: 1727-9461
EditoraNational Inquiry Services Center (NISC) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2989/16073614.2023.2185973
OpenAlexW4361800630
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas2
Referências citadas24

It is a well-established fact that languages of the world have different typological parameters despite their universality in key structures. These different typologies predict various ways of knowing, teaching and assessing. Despite the plethora of knowledge systems available in linguistics and educational research worldwide, African languages of Bantu origin have been residually neglected and versioned from Germanic languages for curriculum development, teaching and assessment. In this paper, we review key tenets of indigenous African languages and examine how these parameters have not been considered in assessment regimes broadly. We use this analysis to gauge the extent to which mother tongue-speaking learners of these languages may have experienced a disproportional disadvantage over the years and explore the challenges that were experienced in the assessment ecosystem conducted by Umalusi, as the quality assurer of assessment in national examinations. Applying deconstruction as a decolonial tool and indigenous African knowledge systems, we argue that linguistic typologies and underpinned epistemologies need to be key drivers in designing assessment taxonomies. We then present a model that offers assessment bodies alternative ways aligned with the ways of being, acting and knowing based on the nature of African languages. In the end, we offer useful recommendations for further research and a practical assessment practices modality for African languages

Bantu languages · Curriculum · Disadvantage · Epistemology · Indigenous · Languages of Africa · Linguistics · Pedagogy · Sociology · Computer Science · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning · Multilingual Education and Policy · Second Language Learning and Teaching · Artificial Intelligence