College of Human Sciences

Scholars get recognised for promoting multilingualism

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Two senior lecturers in Unisa’s Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages under the College of Human Sciences, Dr Riah Mabule and Dr Napjadi Letsoalo, bagged the 2021-2022 Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB) Multilingualism Awards. The awards were recently held at The Galleria conference and events, Sandton in Johannesburg.

Dr Napjadi Letsoalo

Dr Riah Mabule

Established in 2002, the PanSALB Multilingualism Awards promote the use of mother tongue and multilingualism, especially for individuals or organisations who have excelled in the promotion and preservation of all official languages, which includes Khoi, Nama, San and South African Sign languages.

Mabule obtained the first place award in the Translation and Interpretation category, whilst Letsoalo received the third place award in the Mzansi Taal community engagement project for its online colloquial language dictionary.

Mabule says that her goal is to encourage others and to continue promoting South African languages through translation and interpreting at all levels of learning.

For Letsoalo, indigenous languages play a vital role in the languages spoken by the youth. "Therefore," he continues, "we will be working on the development of online resources for indigenous languages. Languages should be used to unite the nation. The goal is to develop online language resources for languages spoken by young people."

The categories that the nominees were awarded in include the Education, Language and Literature, Language Activist Award, Media, Youth, Government or Public Sector, Technology and Business, Translation and Interpretation, and the Chairperson’s Lifetime Achievement Awards.

Congratulations Unisans!

#TheWinningSchoolofArtsTeam

* By Tebogo Mahlaela, Communication and Marketing Specialist, College of Human Sciences

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Publish date: 2022/07/08

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