Vocational language learning and teaching at a South African university: Preparing professionals for multilingual contexts

This paper highlights the methodology that has been used at Rhodes University and other South African universities in implementing vocation-specific African language learning programmes. Essentially, the paper links the curriculum design to the theoretical paradigm of interculturalcommunication. Intercultural theory is used as a basis to develop vocation-specific courses where language and culture are taught, for example, to second language learners of isiXhosa at Rhodes University. These courses include courses for Pharmacy and Law students. This paper offers a new theoretical paradigm for intercultural language teaching. Furthermore, examples from specific courses are provided in order to illustrate how this theoretical paradigm can be implemented in a practical way. The impact of multilingualism and intercultural communication in the wider legal and healthcare work environment in South Africa is also discussed.Keywords: vocational language learning, indigenous African languages, multilingualism, intercultural communication, cultural awareness, cultural sensitivity, legal professional, health-care professional, law, pharmac

"Poof! a'm heppily saving the Lord...": multimodality and evaluative discourses in male toilet graffiti at the University of the Western Cape

This paper explores the use of punctuation, capitalisation, linguistic forms and images in the construction of evaluative discourses in male toilet graffiti at the University of the Western Cape. Of particular interest is how male students use these devises in the discursive construction of the appraisal resource of Attitude, Graduation and Evaluation. Using over 150 tokens of graffiti, the paper uses a multimodal approach employing notions of resemiotisation and remediation to show how taboo language, font size, images and sketches are repurposed to aid the evaluation of the 'self' and the 'other' in toilet graffiti. The paper shows that through utilising multimodal texts, graffiti writers are able to reformulate and situate novel meanings in contexts; and in terms of appraisal, the verbal and non-verbal semiotic material are strategically combined to engender novel evaluations

Language rights, intercultural communication and the law in South Africa

This article seeks to explore the present language scenario in courts of law. The article makes use of section 6 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (1996), as a point of departure. At face value this section seems to entrench the language rights of individuals. This would mean that individuals could request trials to be held in their mother tongues, with fluent and competent speakers of that mother tongue sitting on the bench. However, this has not materialised. Contrary to popular opinion, the article argues that individual language rights are to some extent entrenched in the Constitution, but there are no mechanisms to secure such rights in the public domain. The article argues that it is often only language privileges that are preserved in institutions such as the justice system. Legally speaking, there is an obligation on the State to provide interpreters to facilitate access to all eleven official languages in courts of law. This in itself presents numerous challenges. The article argues further that the corollary to this is that there is very little space for intercultural communication in courts of law (as defined by Ting-Toomey, 1999, and Gibson, 2002). There has been little or no capacity building in this regard. It is English, to some extent Afrikaans, and the western cultural paradigm, which prevails. The result is further communication breakdown and language intolerance. In this article, the notion of language rights in courts of law is explored against the backdrop of existing theories of intercultural communication

Endangered edible orchids and vulnerable gatherers in the context of HIV/AIDS in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens

Micro-connectomics: probing the organization of neuronal networks at the cellular scale.

Defining the organizational principles of neuronal networks at the cellular scale, or micro-connectomics, is a key challenge of modern neuroscience. In this Review, we focus on graph theoretical parameters of micro-connectome topology, often informed by economical principles that conceptually originated with Ramón y Cajal's conservation laws. First, we summarize results from studies in intact small organisms and in samples from larger nervous systems. We then evaluate the evidence for an economical trade-off between biological cost and functional value in the organization of neuronal networks. Various results suggest that many aspects of neuronal network organization are indeed the outcome of competition between these two fundamental selection pressures.This work was supported by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre.This is the author accepted manuscript. It is currently under an indefinite embargo pending publication by the Nature Publishing Group