Transformation and Inclusivity in Translanguaging Through Transliteration: Perspectives of isiZulu Home-Language Students on Discipline-Specific Terminology in isiZulu

African students in South Africa, Africa, and the diaspora exhibit a multiplicity of linguistic repertoires. This multiplicity is captured, at macro level, through applying a translanguaging approach to the use of African languages as languages of learning and teaching. To capture this multiplicity at a micro level, University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) employs translanguaging by transliterating English academic concepts into discipline-specific terms in isiZulu. Transliteration creates a phrase that a bilingual isiZulu home-language (L1), English second-language (L2) speaker can understand in both languages. Moreover, transliteration exhibits a transformational and inclusive manner in responding to the academic needs of multilingual African students. Thus, the objective of this paper is to explore isiZulu L1 students' perspectives on the transformation and inclusive aspects of the transliterated terms. The study is situated within the interpretive paradigm and employs a qualitative approach. Using focus group interview data (n = 28), the perspectives of isiZulu L1 students on transliterated terms in isiZulu found in the UKZN discipline-specific terminology lists were analysed thematically. The findings from the data endorse the use of transliteration in developing terminologies in isiZulu as a transformative and inclusive approach to the use of African languages in South African higher education. For bilingual isiZulu/English students, transliteration affords invaluable cognitive benefits and confidence in their academic endeavours.