Athenkosi Mndende

Current Fellows: Linguistics Department, MA

Athenkosi is currently doing her Master’s degree in Linguistics in the University of the Western Cape working on a study that looks at Multilingualism, Language of assessment and the aspects of social (in)justice in High stake Examination. The work she is doing is a built up on the Honour’s thesis that looked at the feasibility of, and issues in, providing multilingual assessments involving isiXhosa in matric examinations. The objective of the study was to determine the students’ objective performance in an experimental matric assessment. This project has proved that language is one of the factors in the student’s academic performance. Athenkosi is part of the Mellon Mays Graduate Programme through the Mellon Mays Undergraduates Fellowship.