Life sciences reading material in vernacular: lessons from developing a bilingual (IsiZulu and English) book on South African frogs

Abstract

The discussion of African languages as languages of learning and teaching can be traced back to the 1980s. To date, this discussion still continues and efforts to intellectualise African languages have been lax. Here, we present practical South African examples of higher education achievements in African languages that demonstrate the challenges and opportunities of African language planning and corpus development. We particularly focus on the development of a peer-reviewed bilingual (IsiZulu and English) book on the frogs of Zululand, South Africa. The publication under consideration falls within the life sciences, and it is the first comprehensive book on South African frogs to be written in an African language. Developing life sciences reading material in vernacular is a time-consuming process that requires a multidisciplinary team which understands both life and social sciences. Furthermore, when vocabulary relating to a focal species is undocumented, field research is necessary to identify the nuances of a specific language or culture. This language planning effort under discussion demonstrates the IsiZulu language's ability to communicate life sciences and how language planning efforts can be made integrative and inclusive of previously marginalised languages.