Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 384-397). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Göteborg, 1981. / "Abstract" [1] leaf inserted. Includes bibliographical references (p. 128-129).

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This dissertation explores the sociolinguistic dynamics and challenges facing African learners in some multiracial schools in KwaZulu-Natal in terms of their linguistic and cultural identities. It seeks to investigate the impact of schooling in multiracial schools on the identities of young Zulu speakers living in Sundumbili Township in Northern KwaZulu-Natal. Three formerly HOD schools in Stanger were identified as research sites, and 100 Grade 11 learners selected as respondents. Data was collected by a multi-method approach, through a written questionnaire, and through interviews with a sub-group of the respondents. Data analysis involved both qualitative and quantitative processes. The findings indicate that the learners investigated have responded to the challenges posed by their schooling in a multiracial environment by developing into bilingual speakers who are aware of the need to select their language according to the communicative needs of their context. They seem well able to shift from school to the township and vice versa. However it is clear that some are no longer fully proficient in isiZulu. At the same time, these learners still identify themselves as amaZulu, primarily on the basis of participating in Zulu cultural activities. The role of language in constituting Zulu identity appears to be receding: many respondents feel that speaking isiZulu is no longer essential to being amaZulu. These attitudes raise some concerns about the long-term maintenance of isiZulu. The thesis concludes with some recommendations aimed at enhancing the continued use of isiZulu. The Department of Education must ensure that all schools promote an additive form of bilingualism which will enable a child to develop in his/her mother tongue while getting exposure to an additional language. Furthermore economic value must be given to these African languages to enable learners to find meaning in studying and using them. Multiracial schools should celebrate diversity in both linguistic and cultural terms, and parents should come to accept the important roles that they need to play in this regard. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2005.

This thesis is structured into four sections. The first section is a brief statement on the choice of the text chosen for the purpose of translation. Ityala Lamawele is one of the old and classic Xhosa texts and after seeing some translated texts either from Xhosa to English or English to Xhosa such as Uhambo Lomhambi (The Pilgrim's Progress) Ingqumbo Yeminyanya (The Wrath of the Ancestors), Akusekho Konwaba (No Longer at Ease) and having not seen any translation of Ityala Lamawele, I felt an attempt at translating Ityala Lamawele was long overdue. This first section also looks at the theoretical aspects of translation that will inform the translation of ltyala Lamawele. The second section is the actual translation (the process and the product) of selected extracts which deal specifically and exclusively with the case of the twins. Though the translation of the whole text is not a remote possibility or consideration, for the purpose of this thesis, selected extracts will be dealt with. The third section of this thesis is the reflection on and the discussion of the choices I have made. This section looks at the process of translating ltyala Lamawele, the challenges and obstacles that I have come across, the way I have put and expressed issues and why. / Thesis (M.A.) - University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2002.

This longitudinal inquiry into the academic literacy practices of ten Turkish scholars of International Relations (IR) attempts to answer three broad questions: what factors have affected the participants' acquisition and maintenance of academic reading and writing skills; what patterns of similarities and differences can be found among their literacy practices; and what relationships might be discovered between the various factors and the scholars' literacy practices. Data for the study were collected through observations, autobiographical accounts of the participants' literacy practices via interviews, and textual analysis of the participants' published works. / The theoretical framework for the study draws on neo-Vygotskian Activity Theory and Bakhtinian Dialogic Theory, to create a model for uncovering and understanding the contextual factors mediating scholars' academic literacy practices. The model begins with the assumption that scholars operate within multiple "activity systems" (Engstrom, 1990), in this case: (1) the core American IR discipline; (2) the local Turkish IR discipline/particular Turkish IR departments; and (3) Turkish society. The model reconceptualizes the idea of activity systems as "filters," which mediate individuals' production and reception of texts, i.e. their literacy practices. Conflicts may arise according to the "thickness" of a filter and depending on the "operational means" acceptable within it. / By contributing to a deeper understanding of how people acquire and maintain academic literacy skills in a second language the study ultimately aims to aid in the construction of pedagogical models and approaches that reflect the complex nature of these multi-lingual literacy practices.

The primary aim of this thesis Me he korokoro kōmako [‘With the throat of a bellbird’] is to demonstrate the existence of a distinctive Māori aesthetic in Māori literature written in English. Its introductory section, of three chapters, investigates the ways in which mainstream critical discourse in various ways appropriates Māori literature to its own Western-derived models of meaning and values, and proposes instead a definition of a Māori aesthetic grounded in the principle of whakapapa, whose whole cultural components for Māori literature include distinctive textual functions for myth, orality, acts of naming, other aspects of language, and symbolism. The concept of whakapapa also provides the organizing principle and methodology of the central chapters of the thesis, which are divided into two Parts – each of six chapters. These are framed by a Prologue and Epilogue, whose subject is the profound cultural symbolism of the waka in the work of a founding figure for Māori writing in English, Jacqueline Sturm, and in Star Waka, by a major later writer in English, Robert Sullivan. Part One devotes three chapters each to the adult fiction of one female writer, Patricia Grace (Potiki and Baby No-Eyes), and one male writer, Witi Ihimaera (The Matriarch). Part Two, following the principle of whakapapa, devotes six chapters to Māori literature for children. Its primary text is the major anthology of such writing – Te Ara O Te Hau: The Path of the Wind, Volume 4 of Te Ao Mārama, edited by Witi Ihimaera, with Haare Williams, Irihapeti Ramsden and D.S. Long. It grounds its reading of the volume’s many texts (literary and visual, in Māori and in English) in the many distinctive cultural behaviours and meanings attached to the figure of Māui. Each of the authors and texts has been chosen in order to study and exemplify a particular aspect of the Māori aesthetic defined in the Introduction, through close readings which draw strongly on the work of major Māori social historians, authors of iwi histories and genealogies, and interpreters of cultural meanings attaching to the natural worlds, and recent work on literary stylistics by Geoffrey Leech and others. It also draws on conversations with numerous Māori informants, including some of the authors discussed. The readings are designed to reveal the rich, culturally contextualised knowledges which Māori readers bring to the texts, and which their authors share and invoke through their deployment of the values and practices of whakapapa. While such representations and explorations of self offer new interpretive possibilities for Pākehā readers, they are also part of a global movement in which indigenous peoples engage in the politics of decolonisation from a position of strength, the stance of self-knowledge. E kore e hekeheke he kākano rangatira Our ancestors will never die for they live on in each of us. / Whole document restricted, but available by request, use the feedback form to request access.

Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 167-183). / Electronic reproduction. / Also available by subscription via World Wide Web / xxv, 183 leaves, bound 29 cm

This study investigates Kinyarwaanda sexuality taboo words and their meaning in Rwandan culture to enable the youth to improve their communication and the values of Rwandan culture. It explores whether the use of Kinyarwaanda sexuality taboo words is a good way to communicate with one another or is a transgression of Rwandan culture. Its intent is to see the value that Rwandans assign to verbal taboos, particularly sexuality taboo words, to see how these taboos regulate Rwandans lives, to see the attitudes Rwandans hold towards them, and to find out the link there might be between sexuality taboo words, the information dissemination on HIV/AIDS and the spread of AIDS.