In an effort to provide language assistance to especially first-year students and in this way improving academic literacy, the Faculty of Education launched a web-based trilingual subject dictionary recently.
The Mobilex dictionary offers students the opportunity to look for the definition of a word on their cellphone in any of three languages – Afrikaans, English and isiXhosa. The dictionary gives the word in all three languages as well as a short, subject-specific definition in the preferred language.
This electronic trilingual dictionary currently provides translations for terms in Mathematics (foundation phase), Social Sciences and Curriculum Studies.
According to Dr Michele van der Merwe of the Department of Curriculum Studies, who is heading the project, this dictionary is filling a void. There is no updated subject dictionary for education and the existing ones are not very accessible.
Students can now, by pressing a few buttons, look for the definitions of words that they find difficulty to understand or that are unfamiliar to them.
“The better your vocabulary the better your academic writing skills,” says Dr Van der Merwe.
The project was originally initiated by Prof Christa van der Walt of the Department of Curriculum Studies and has been supported by Prof Arend Carl, Vice Dean: Teaching in the Faculty of Education, as part of the faculty's plan to provide language assistance to students and in this way improve the first-year success rate.
Dr Van der Merwe, in her capacity as lexicographer, took over the project.
“We did research among students to determine what their needs are. Almost all of them said that they would want such a dictionary and mentioned for which subjects they want it.”
There are approximately 400 words in the glossary and it is still being updated.
It was quite a process obtaining the terminology, says Dr Van der Merwe. They first had to identify the most important terms: For example, what students find difficult and what lecturers think the important terms are for students to know.
“Furthermore it was a challenge to compile short, concise, simple definitions. We must remember students do not know these terms or how to use them.”
The reception of the Mobilex trilingual dictionary was very positive.
“The feedback we've received is that it is user friendly and helpful. Students use it in class, while doing revision and while studying. Mother-tongue speakers of all three languages have indicated that they can use it.”
