Student responses to subtitled and dubbed educational content: Implications for university translanguaging practices

Transformation in Higher Education

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Student responses to subtitled and dubbed educational content: Implications for university translanguaging practices
 
Creator Kruger-Roux, Helena C. Nakhooda, Muhammad Ticha, Ignatius K.
 
Subject translanguaging; multilingual education; higher education; South Africa; indigenous languages; language policy; academic literacy; epistemic access; language diversity; decolonisation audiovisual translanguaging; academic terminology; linguistic repertoires; South African higher education; student preferences; English dominance; multilingual pedagogy; epistemic access
Description This article examines audiovisual translanguaging as a pedagogical strategy in South African universities, where students navigate tensions between English dominance and the institutional mandate to promote indigenous African languages. Through investigating student experiences with subtitled and dubbed instructional videos in agricultural science programmes, three research questions were added: (1) students’ audiovisual language preferences, (2) how these preferences reflect linguistic tensions and (3) implications for balancing language needs. Our mixed-methods study revealed that while English subtitles are predominantly preferred, students showed greater willingness to engage with indigenous languages aurally than through text. Students strategically pair different languages across modes, often combining indigenous language audio with English subtitles to balance comprehension and comfort. However, difficulties with formal academic terminology in indigenous languages highlight the need for more accessible vocabulary development approaches. The study demonstrates how audiovisual materials create productive student spaces to leverage students’ full linguistic repertoires while acknowledging that horizontal translanguaging practices alone may not provide sufficient access to languages of power necessary for academic success.Contribution: We make recommendations for institutional policies that recognise multilingualism as a reality, supporting both fluid multilingual practices and the development of academic registers in indigenous languages.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor SADiLaR Department of Science and Innovation
Date 2025-11-27
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Mixed
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/the.v10i0.593
 
Source Transformation in Higher Education; Vol 10 (2025); 12 pages 2519-5638 2415-0991
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://thejournal.org.za/index.php/thejournal/article/view/593/1046 https://thejournal.org.za/index.php/thejournal/article/view/593/1047 https://thejournal.org.za/index.php/thejournal/article/view/593/1048 https://thejournal.org.za/index.php/thejournal/article/view/593/1049
 
Coverage South Africa Current 93 university students; 1st and 2nd year; mixed ethnicity; mixed language background
Rights Copyright (c) 2025 Helena C. Kruger-Roux, Muhammad Nakhooda, Ignatius K. Ticha https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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