Teaching South African languages through technology.

Abstract

African languages are behind, especially with regards to terminology in the educationspace, and entering the digital environment. This research considers the teaching of SouthAfrican languages through technology and its presence in the digital space. What can wedo in this regard? First, it is important that we have to educate our teachers on how to usetechnology in teaching South African languages. The paper explores the potential in theuse of technology and occupying the digital space available. It examines how SouthAfrican languages can be integrated with other subjects like coding and robotics. In otherwords, teaching African languages through technology can produce learners who will beempowered with 21st-century skills and be able to use the information that will bedigitally relevant. The study adopted Actor Network Theory (ANT) to direct its activities.This framework gives credit to any being or factor, irrespective of its nature, human, ornon-human. ANT is a theory of the progressive constitution of a network in which bothhuman and non-human actors assume identities. The data and information that weregenerated through participatory action research, a desktop review, a literature review andtextual analysis were analysed using critical discourse analysis (CDA). This was used toshow how discourse structures reproduce, legitimize, question, or perform power anddominance relations in society. Also, CDA is an analytical research approach thatanalyses speech critically. A person or group of dominant tendencies review criticaldiscourse analysis trying to explain a social reality and have a specific goal in mind.Findings suggest that collaboration with all stakeholders in digitising and teachingthrough technology is possible. We also look at the contribution of the Web in promotingthe use and status of African languages. Participation in sharing and producingknowledge through the Web can play a key role in the economic, social and educationaldevelopment of Africa. The research will be of interest for educators, especially in highereducation institutions, in teaching African languages through technology. It is importantto digitise all our African languages, especially Siswati. These languages can developand then be found in the digital space in such a way that they can be used or spokeninternationally. Another opportunity can be found in the enhancement of the nationalcorpora, the use of other software and open-source platforms like Wikipedia, WordNet,and also the use of technology to teach the South African languages. African languagescan indeed be satisfactorily developed in these respects.