Introduction South Africa has eleven official languages due to the diversity of its population. These languages have equal status before the law and are supported and encouraged by the Department of Higher Education and Training(DHET) and the language policies of higher education institutions. In compliance with the language policy of the University of Johannesburg (UJ), the Department of Commercial Accounting developed glossaries for the Diploma in Accountancy students enrolled in the Auditing and Internal Control 2A (AIC2A) module, to embrace diversity and simplify difficult terms to be better understood in their mother tongue. The glossaries were translated into isiZulu, isiXhosa, Sepedi, seTswana and TshiVenda, the five languages most-used among students at UJ. The translated glossaries were made available to students on Blackboard, and the multilingual tutorial project was thus piloted. However, the project’s first phase of faceto-face (FtF) tutorials were limited to IsiZulu and Sepedi. The aim of the project was to improve the pass rate, particularly for AIC2A. The subject choice was influenced by the fact that Auditing had been classified as a priority module where students often need extra academic support. Auditing is a theory-intensive subject in relation to other subjects in the accountancy field, thus the need was identified to assist students who are struggling to understand certain concepts in auditing. Furthermore, it was also envisioned that student participation in the classroom with the use of mother tongue languages would create a better sense of belonging and acceptance, increase confidence and contribute to an improved student experience. Research shows that reading and using materials in students’ strongest language increases their literacy performance (Giambo & Szecsi, 2015; Nomlomo & Katiya 2018). Project description and implementation The glossaries had been translated according to the unit content for the first semester module in the Diploma in Accountancy, namely AIC2A, which was identified as a high-risk module due to its poor success rate in previous years. For this reason, there was a need to put interventions in place to ensure that we support struggling students, especially those classified as “at-risk” students, as well as students who wanted to broaden their understanding of auditing terms. At-risk students are the students repeating the module who are familiar with the knowledge in the pilot stage. After each assessment, other students who did not perform well were also considered at-risk and included in the list. However, the intervention was not compulsory for at-risk students, due to its limitation in terms of language barriers. Following the process of developing the language glossaries, a team of lecturers piloted the implementation of the glossary in 2022. The glossary was developed with the assistance and input of language specialists and lecturers to ensure the credibility of the translated glossaries. Although language specialists assisted with the glossary translation process, input from lecturers within the discipline was necessary to ensure that the glossaries conveyed appropriate meaning in the context of Auditing. Four language tutors were carefully selected through an interview process. Candidates had to demonstrate that they understood the language (either IsiZulu or Sepedi) by explaining a question they received prior to the interview. The panel of interviewers were Auditing lecturers and lecturers whose home languages are Sepedi or IsiZulu. 1. Teaching Innovation for the 21st Century | Showcasing UJ Teaching Innovation Projects 2022 58
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