published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Thesis (MPhil (General Linguistics))--university of Stellenbosch, 2010. / Bibliography

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This study sought to investigate and to record any recurring patterns in the form and communicative impact of Shona advertisements. Motivation to carry out the study came from a realisation of a growing interest in using the Shona language for advertising and the fact that very few studies have been done on Shona advertisements. For methodology, examples of Shona advertisements were qualitatively analysed using some communications and discourse analysis approaches of the speech act theory and text linguistics. A structured interview with advertising agencies randomly selected and a questionnaire on the impact of advertisements were also used. The findings of the research included that Shona was used in advertisements in order to reach out to the majority of the Zimbabwean population. In addition, Shona was also found to have been developed enough to handle formal issues like advertisements. This finding further shows that Shona advertisements reflect an instance of diglossia leakage from Shona L(ow) to Shona H(igh). Another finding is that Shona advertisements reflect some characteristics of the Shona speech community in form. These include code-switching, slang and word- division problems. An innovation in code-switching noted in some Shona advertisements is the use of three languages, namely, English, Shona and Ndebele in one advertisement. It was also established that everything about the elements of Shona advertisements communicate. For instance, the message may be visual, tactile and olfactory. It also emerged that the Shona commercial advertisements had a presenting and a hidden agenda at the same time. To achieve this the advertisements used persuasive techniques such as advertising claims, cultural hooks and personalities as spokespersons. It was also noted that most readers of advertisements do not interpret them up to the hidden persuaders but end with the direct meaning. On the other hand the Shona advertisements that gave information such as health issues have no hidden agenda. One recommendation made is that advertisements be read and studied to raise the level of awareness about the persuasive techniques used in order to distinguish between misleading advertising and those that give useful information. Some recommendations were made for future research such as carrying out similar studies of informal Shona advertisements, advertisements by n'angas/inyangas (traditional healers), prophets and political campaigns. / African Languages / M.A. (African Languages)

The research highlights the problems of the diglossic relationship between Shona and English in the teaching-learning situation in Zimbabwe secondary schools. It focuses on how English as a high variety language adversely affects the performance of learners writing 'O' level Shona examinations in secondary schools. The research also confirms that teachers and learners of Shona in Zimbabwean secondary schools have a negative attitude towards Shona. Finally, the use of English in the teaching of Shona, the less hours allocated to Shona, the low esteem of Shona vis-à-vis the dominance of English and the association of English with social mobility impact on the attitude of students towards Shona as a subject. This linguistic attitude coupled with orthographic problems causes low passes in Shona at 'O' level. Hence, one proposes, language awareness campaigns and the use of Shona in the teaching of practical criticism and grammar. / African Languages / M.A. (African Languages)

The background in this study is that over the years analysis of grade 12 results in Ekurhuleni South District indicates that most secondary schools obtain 100% pass rate but not quality results isiZulu home language. IsiZulu home language quality results often range from 20% to 40%. The research findings point at two casual factors: (1) inside the classroom and (2) outside the classroom. Inside the classroom refers to quality of educators teaching isiZulu home language and outside the classroom refers to what is supposedly isiZulu home language’ yet a close analysis of the kind spoken in the township Zulu homes is in fact pidgin Zulu. In terms of quality evaluation this so called isiZulu home language can never pass quality assurance. The researcher recommends that educators of isiZulu home language be put through vigorous quality training in the teaching of isiZulu (HL). / African Languages / M.A. (African Languages)

No description available.

Lorsque nous enseignons une langue étrangère et dans le cas de ce travail, le français, dans une classe, il faut prendre en considération les différents aspects comme l’écriture, la lecture et la compétence communicative sur laquelle ce travail met l’accent. Cette compétence peut être plus abstraite que les autres car il s’agit des dialogues et des discours qui ne peuvent pas être écrits sur un document.  Dans cette étude, nous cherchons à trouver de bonnes méthodes utilisées pour enseigner et promouvoir la compétence communicative des élèves par des professeurs dans un lycée en Suède. Le travail cherche également à trouver comment les professeurs évaluent cette compétence par rapport au plan directif et dans quelle mesure le plan directif est utilisé comme un outil dans l’enseignement. La méthode utilisée est une étude phénoménologique avec une enquête composée de questions qualitatives pour recevoir des réponses plus approfondies. Quatre professeurs d’un lycée ont été interviewés et les données ont été évaluées avec la théorie choisie. La théorie utilisée dans ce travail est un mélange de quelques approches pour enseigner une langue étrangère dans les écoles. Nous avons choisi les approches comme l’alternance codique, l’approche actionnelle, l’approche communicative et une méthodologie de base pour planifier et évaluer les activités et la compétence. Enfin, nous avons regardé les commentaires du plan directif pour les langues vivantes au niveau 3 par Skolverket (2011a) pour plus facilement interpréter les critères de notations du plan directif. Bref, les résultats ont montré que c’est mieux de créer des petits groupes en enseignant la compétence communicative et que les meilleures tâches à utiliser peuvent être des images à décrire et des questions ouvertes et adéquates qui touchent à la vie de l’apprenant. Cela peut inciter l’élève à parler et exprimer ses pensées plus facilement que des activités en grands groupes et avec des questions fermées. / When we teach a foreign language or in this case, French, in a class, we have to be aware of the different skills like communication, writing and reading whereas this study puts emphasis on the communicative skill. This skill can be more abstract than the rest of the skills since it consists of dialogues and discourses which don’t necessarily need to be written on a document. In this study we will try to reveal some applicable methods used by teachers to teach and improve students’ communicative skills at an upper secondary school in Sweden. The study also tries to find out how these teachers evaluate and grade this particular skill according to the syllabus and in what frequency the syllabus is used by the teachers as a tool in their teaching. The method used is a phenomenological study with a questionnaire consisting of qualitative questions in order to receive more accurate answers. Four teachers at an upper secondary school have been interviewed and the empirical data collected have been evaluated together with the theory chosen. The theory used in this study is a mixture of approaches for teaching a foreign language in schools. We have chosen approaches like code-switching, task-based learning, the communicative approach and a basic methodology of how to plan and evaluate the activities chosen. Lastly, we have been looking at the commentary section on the syllabus for foreign languages on stage 3 made by Skolverket (2011) in order to easier interpret the grading criteria in the syllabus. Briefly, the results showed that it is better to create smaller groups when teaching the communicative skill and that the advantageous tasks can consist of images to describe and genuine and adequate questions which concern the student’s personal life. This can generate that the students talk and express their thoughts more freely than with activities in larger groups and with display questions.

Los jóvenes de Alicante viven en una sociedad donde coexisten dos lenguas, el castellano y el valenciano. La lengua valenciana es utilizada por jóvenes de Alicante tanto en ámbitos formales como informales. Los jóvenes hablantes de valenciano sienten un lazo identificativo con la lengua que se rige por las actitudes de éstos. La actitud lingüística conlleva a una identificación lingüística del hablante, la cual es una construcción social que se rige por las normas que rodean al hablante. La identificación bilingüe podría, por lo tanto, ser influenciada e influenciar a su vez a la competencia lingüística. El propósito del presente estudio es investigar en qué situaciones y contextos es usado el valenciano; con el objetivo de estudiar la relación entre el grado de bilingüismo, la actitud lingüística y el nivel de complejidad, corrección y fluidez (CAF) en la expresión escrita del valenciano. Partimos de la hipótesis de que el valenciano tiene, para la generación joven de Alicante, una función social y que la actitud hacia la lengua es positiva, lo que a su vez se refleja en la destreza escrita. Para comprobar nuestra hipótesis nos hemos basado en un cuestionario de hábitos sociales, un test de nivel de valenciano y dos redacciones, una escrita en castellano y una en valenciano. Con la participación de 59 jóvenes alicantinos, llegamos a la conclusión de que el valenciano es usado tanto en ámbitos formales como informales y que la actitud hacia la lengua es positiva, y que consideran importante dominar y preservar el valenciano. Además, los participantes han presentado un nivel alto de destreza en el valenciano escrito, mostrando complejidad y fluidez en la expresión escrita. Por otro lado, la corrección es más elevada en el castellano. También se ha podido ver que la identificación de los participantes está relativamente correlacionada con la competencia lingüística. / The young people of Alicante live in society where two languages, Castilian and Valencian, coexist. The Valencian language is used by young people from Alicante in both formal and informal settings. Young speakers of Valencian feel a linguistic identification with the language, which is governed by social norms. Bilingual identification could, therefore, be influenced by and influence linguistic competence. The purpose of this study is to examine in which situations and contexts Valencian is used with the aim of evaluating the relationship between the degree of bilingualism, language attitude and level complexity, accuracy and fluency (CAF) in the written Valencian of young people of Alicante. We hypothesized that Valencian has, for the young generation of Alicante, a social function and the attitude towards the language is positive, which in turn is reflected in writing skills. To test our hypothesis we have used a questionnaire of social habits, a diagnostic test in Valencian and two essays, written in Castilian and Valencian. With the participation of 59 young Alicantinos, we conclude that Valencian is used in both formal and informal settings, that the attitude towards the language is positive and that it is considered important to master and preserve the Valencian language. In addition, the participants have proficiency in the Valencian written language, showing complexity and fluency in written expression. On the other hand, their accuracy is higher in Castilian. It has also been seen that the linguistic identification of the participants is relatively correlated to linguistic competence.

This thesis explores literary code-switching, i.e. multilingual aspects within a single speech, as a key polyphonic structural element in the selected works. First, it analyzes Gloria Anzaldúa's Borderlands: The New Mestiza = La Frontera (1987) as a work, where the author seeks to establish a literary tradition that would reflect the life in borderlands and the given community through a new language. Secondly, the language of photography and multilingual speech patterns in W. G. Sebald's The Emigrants (1992) are considered as vital elements of the authenticity play. The following chapter deals with Franz Kafka's short stories, where gestures form an essential part of, if not the whole stories, and determine the fragmentary nature of such writing. Finally, the importance of language of power, the discourse of social realism altogether with their emergence into private and intimate discussions through repetitions and variations is commented upon in Václav Havel's play The Garden Party (1963).