Supporting student cognition of scientific knowledge through multilingual e-learning pedagogy

The emergence of COVID-19, an infectious disease spread through human-to- human transmission, in the year 2019 resulted in the immediate suspension of traditional contact classes the world over in a bid to contain the wide spread of the virus. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted educational routines leaving educational institutions with only one option: e-learning. E-learning is a technological pedagogy which supports teaching and learning through the use of electronic mail, the Internet, the Internet and can either be synchronous or asynchronous. Through a sociolinguistic lens embedded in the funds of knowledge and Freire's Critical Pedagogy, this qualitative study sought to explore the role language plays in the e-learning of 20 undergraduate science students at a university in South Africa. The e-learning lessons were delivered through videos, animations and narrated slides in English with subtitles in isiZulu and Sesotho languages. Data were collected through focus group interviews held via Microsoft Teams. The study presents positive cognitive and sociocultural benefits of multilingual pedagogy in e-learning and recommends its adoption in HE.