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The University of KwaZulu-Natal has a bilingual language policy (2006) where students may receive instruction in isiZulu as well as in English. An online survey was carried out for all academic and support staff to gauge their linguistic capacity in isiZulu. Staff profiles were created in relation to their respective Colleges, Schools and Disciplines, and included age, language group, language use, language of schooling and years of experience in the Higher Education sector. It also included modules currently taught by staff through the medium of isiZulu; communicative language proficiency; instructional language proficiency; perceptions of own capacity to teach in isiZulu and perceptions of the time required to develop adequate proficiency to teach in isiZulu. Respondents were also asked to translate a complex sentence into isiZulu, the responses to which were later analysed into three categories: fluent, semi-fluent and not fluent for purposes of comparison with staff perceptions of their own proficiency. Findings revealed a serious gap between current staff capacity to teach in isiZulu, and the implementation of the policy within the projected timeframes. This study also reveals the complexities of teaching when discipline experts and students do not share a common language.
