Achieving academic excellence through higher-order cognition in an African language: Students researching 'Small Talk' in Sesotho sa Leboa

In 2002 in a special issue of Perspectives in Education on multilingual education, we outlined the thinking underlying a proposed dual-medium degree (in Sesotho sa Leboa and English) at the then University of the North. This article theorises the experience of teaching and learning since 2003 when the degree, BA in Contemporary English and Multilingual Studies (BA CEMS), was first launched. We do this by describing the curricular structure of the degree, and by analysing how students researched 'Small Talk' in a first-year module taught in Sesotho sa Leboa. We use Cummins' four-quadrant model to show how the learners are,forts to deploy higher-order thinking and to produce Sesotho sa Leboa of a Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) level. The pedagogy used is discussed and an example of a student's academic writing in Sesotho sa Leboa is provided.