Language Centre

The Language Centre of the University offers instruction in language and text skills (as well as conducting research in these fields). The Centre has five units:

• the Unit for Afrikaans and English
• the Unit for isiXhosa 
• the Unit for Document Design 
• the Writing Laboratory 
• the Language Service

These units provide a variety of services for students:

Writing skills development: Students needing support with their writing assignments can come to the Writing Laboratory for free one-on-one consultations. The Laboratory also presents group consultations and workshops on scientific writings skills – like those needed to tackle and complete an assignment or thesis. 

Academic literacy: The Units for English and Afrikaans offer courses, chiefly to mother tongue speakers, on how to elicit information from academic texts. 

Training for second or foreign language speakers of Afrikaans, English and isiXhosa: Students, who wish to learn one of these three languages anew, or wish to improve on a limited proficiency, can attend a course at the Language Centre. Individual courses are offered for those who have no knowledge of a specific language and for those who are at an intermediate level of development. Students can develop their speaking, listening, writing and reading skills through the creative use of interactive and accelerated methods of instruction. 

A language service: The Language Centre provides editing and translation services at a fee. Services in the e-learning environment: Interesting tips about writing scientific texts are available on the Language Centre’s website.

The Language Centre's five units are situated as follows: