[lg policy] UKZN lecturer Muhle Sibisi wins linguistic award

[Harold Schiffman]

UKZN lecturer Muhle Sibisi wins linguistic award

News <https://www.iol.co.za/sunday-tribune/news> / 13 November 2018, 2:47pm
 / *Kwandokuhle Njoli*

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Humanities lecturer wins young linguist award

Durban - Linguistics lecturer Muhle Sibisi recently won the Young Linguist
Award at the 20th annual International Congress of Linguists, held for the
first time on African soil since its inauguration in 1928. The congress,
which takes place every five years, took place at the Cape Town ICC and was
attended by esteemed linguists from around the globe.

Sibisi, whose research interest lies in language policy, believes that
isiZulu and other African languages are ‘under-used’ in accessing knowledge
including academic knowledge.

"The use of African languages in higher education would enhance
opportunities of access and success for the speakers of these languages,"
she said.

Sibisi won the Young Linguist Award. She was was given the award based on
her work entitled *Exploring attitudes towards the use of poetry in the
presentation of academic content in isiZulu*, in which she conducted an
exploratory study wherein poets recited a Linguistics academic concept as a
poem in isiZulu.

Sibisi said choosing linguistics as a field of study was driven by her
desire to learn how languages work as well as the politics and power
dynamics underlying language use.

Her PhD study is on the attitudes of isiZulu-speaking students towards the
use of discipline-specific terminology in isiZulu and isiZulu as an
academic language.

"The use of African languages in higher education would enhance
opportunities of access and success for the speakers of these languages,"
she said.

She hopes to engage in future studies that impact on people’s lives such as
research on the use of isiZulu (and possibly other African languages) to
disseminate knowledge in the education sector and in the public sphere.

"To the student fraternity I would like to say – hang in there. We need to
work hard, not just for ourselves but for the future generations. Such an
award is both motivating and challenging one to work even harder. As a
budding linguist, it is an honour to be recognized for the work I do. It
gives me confidence to soldier on, now that my foot is in the door. It
gives me a sense of belonging in linguistics as a field of study on the one
hand and to the international community of linguists on the other hand,"
said Sibisi.

Sibisi was given the award based on her presentation entitled *Exploring
attitudes towards the use of poetry in the presentation of academic content
in isiZulu*, in which she conducted an exploratory study wherein poets
recited a Linguistics academic concept as a poem in isiZulu.

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 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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