University students’ perspectives on an English-only language policy in higher education

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dc.contributor.authorNgidi, Sizakele A.
dc.contributor.authorMncwango, Elliot Mthembeni
dc.coverageSouth Africa
dc.coverage.conferenceissn
dc.date.accessioned2026-02-27T12:14:20Z
dc.date.available2026-02-27T12:14:20Z
dc.date.issued2022
dc.departmentNameGeneral Linguistics
dc.description.abstractThe study aimed to determine students’ perspectives on a shift from a dual-medium (English and Afrikaans) language policy to a monolingual (English-only) language policy at a University of Technology in South Africa and to establish whether the shift had any impact on student learning at the institution. The study used a quantitative method of inquiry, with a questionnaire used for data collection. The findings revealed that language-related challenges vary amongst students, and these can be categorised as low, medium and high language learning problems. The article concludes that the language policy shift does not reflect the multilingual nature of the country, student demographics or their language needs at the institution. Instead of addressing the real challenge facing the majority of students who speak Sesotho, it merely dropped a second medium of instruction (MOI), Afrikaans, instead of developing a dominant indigenous language (Sesotho) for educational use alongside English and Afrikaans.
dc.facultyFaculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
dc.identifier.citationNgidi, S.A. and Mncwango, E.M. 2022. University students’ perspectives on an English-only language policy in higher education. TD: The Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa, 18(1), pp.
dc.identifier.issn415-2005 (online)
dc.identifier.issn1817-4434 (print)
dc.identifier.otherhttps://doi.org/10.4102/td.v18i1.1189
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10530/58905
dc.inproceedingsissn
dc.issuenumber18 / 1
dc.keynoteissn
dc.language.isoen
dc.pages1 - 5
dc.peerreviewedYes
dc.publisherAOSIS Publishing
dc.subjectLanguage policy shift
dc.subjectEnglish language
dc.subjectIndigenous languages
dc.subjectMonolingual language policy
dc.subjectLanguage rights
dc.titleUniversity students’ perspectives on an English-only language policy in higher education
dc.title.journalTD: The Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa
dc.typeJournal Article
dspace.entity.typePublication
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