Department of English / PhD (English) / The study sought to investigate the role played by learners’ mother tongue, in the teaching and learning of English in secondary schools in Zimbabwe. Two secondary schools in Masvingo District were used as a case study. The study was informed by bilingualism, models of bilingualism and related theories such as Second Language Acquisition (SLA) and Communication Strategies. The selected communication strategy that was focused on is code-switching. This communication strategy reveals the important role that the learners’ L1 can play in learning English. The study, therefore, sought to gain insights into the beliefs of secondary school teachers and learners of English about the use of code-switching in the teaching and learning of English. The study also sought to investigate the ESL teachers’ perceptions on the relationship between code-switching and emerging varieties of English called New Englishes, as well as the teachers’ perceptions on the teaching of such local varieties of English. The inquiry adopted a qualitative research paradigm and focused on two purposively sampled secondary schools comprising one rural day, and one urban boarding school that also enrols day learners. It was the researcher’s belief that these schools would offer useful insights about the role of the learners’ L1 in the teaching and learning of English. The study employed three data collection tools, namely observation, interviews and focus group discussions. Ten Form One and ten Form Three English lessons were observed per school, to give a total of twenty lessons. The four ESL teachers whose lessons were observed at the two schools were interviewed. The researcher also held focus group discussions with a sample of a group of ten Form One and ten Form Three English learners per school. Thus, four focus group discussions were held. Data were analysed and presented qualitatively through identification of emerging themes, and through descriptions, narratives, direct quotes, and tables. Results show that the ESL teachers and learners who participated in the study code-switched from English to the learners’ L1 as a communication strategy and teaching and learning tool, mainly to foster understanding among learners and between the learners and their teachers, and for other communicative and social functions. Results also indicate that there was more code-switching at School B (rural day secondary school) than at School A (urban boarding secondary school), although the teachers’ and learners’ code-switching functions at the two secondary schools were by and large similar. It also emerged that the frequencies of the teachers code v switching differed from teacher to teacher, with Teacher A (urban boarding secondary school) code-switching moderately and Teacher B (urban boarding secondary school) code-switching minimally, while Teacher C and Teacher D (rural day secondary school) code-switched frequently. With regard to the learners, the study revealed that Class A learners (urban boarding secondary school) code-switched moderately during formal classroom exchanges with their teacher, but code-switched a lot among themselves. Class B learners (urban boarding secondary school), Class C and Class D learners (rural day secondary school), code-switched minimally during formal classroom exchanges with their teachers. However, as was the case with Class A learners, they code-switched a lot among themselves. The teachers were largely tolerant of their learners’ code-switching although they showed awareness of the possible negative effects of learners’ code-switching in the learning of ESL. As for the learners, the majority expressed an appreciation of their teachers’ code-switching but there were also negative sentiments against the teachers’ code-switching. The inquiry also revealed that there was unanimous agreement among the four teachers that there is a relationship between code-switching and New Englishes. In addition, two of the teachers expressed the view that there is nothing wrong with teaching the local variety of English in the schools, while the other two said they preferred the teaching of ‘standard’ English. In light of the findings, the study recommends that language policy planners revisit the English-only policy in the school and consider adopting the endonormative rather than the exo-normative model of English for the education system. The study also recommends that the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education should hold workshops to sensitise teachers on how code-switching may best be employed as a teaching and learning tool. Furthermore, the study recommends that ESL teachers be guided by the Postmethod pedagogy, a sense of plausibility as well as the notion of relativism in their decisions on code-switching. In addition, the inquiry recommends that the Zimbabwe Schools Examinations Council be sensitive to aspects of the local variety of English rather than set exo-normative models. Finally, the study recommends that further research be done on code-switching in school types which were not included in the sample for the present study.

Film has worked as a tool in schools a long time. But what ways can film facilitate learning in an upper-secondary classroom, regarding the aspects of global English and culture? This research synthesis will attempt to answer the question on how film can facilitate learning by investigating the different perspectives in the learning process, such as the cultural and global perspective whilst focusing on the perception of using film from students and teachers. The curriculum for upper-secondary school is highly influenced by the diversity in society, which aligns well with the cultural perspectives of using film in the English classroom. Opening up the classroom for visual literacy, socio-cultural theory, investigating the film theory and the characters of motion-picture. Studies implicating that film is a good learning resource have taken into perspective that film can be divided into a numerous number of tasks, helping students with vocabulary, understanding of the surrounding world and interacting with global Englishes. By presenting different ways of working with film, students’ knowledge and understanding in the English language increase. But it all comes down on how it is used. This would open up for discussion but also an understanding of motion-picture history and technology.

Especially for the last twenty years, the studies of Linguistic Landscapes (LLs) have been gaining the status as an autonomous linguistic discipline. The LL of a (mostly) geographically limited area – which consists of e.g. billboards, posters, shop signs, material for election campaigns, etc. – gives deep insights into the presence or absence of languages in that particular area. Thus, LL not only allows to conclude from the presence of a language to its dominance, but also from its absence to the oppression of minorities, above all in areas where minority languages should – demographically seen – be visible. The LLs of big cities are fruitful research areas due to the mass of linguistic data. The first part of this paper deals with the theoretical and practical research that has been conducted in LL studies so far. A summary of the theory, methodologies and different approaches is given. In the second part I apply the theoretical basis to my own case study. For this, the LLs of two shopping streets in different areas of Hong Kong were examined in 2010. It seems likely that the linguistic competence of English must be rather high in Hong Kong, due to the long-lasting influence of British culture and mentality and the official status of the language. The case study's results are based on empirical data showing the objectively visible presence of English in both examined areas, as well as on two surveys. Those were conducted both openly and anonymously. The surveys are a reinsurance measuring the level of linguistic competence of English in Hong Kong. That level was defined before by an analysis of the LL. Hence, this case study is a new approach to LL analysis which does not end with the description of its material composition (as have done most studies before), but which rather includes its creators by asking in what way people's actual linguistic competence is reflected in Hong Kong's LL. / Das Forschungsfeld der Linguistic Landscape (LL) hat sich vor allem in den letzten zwanzig Jahren als autonome Disziplin im Bereich der Sprachwissenschaft emanzipiert. Die LL eines meist geografisch eingegrenzten Gebietes – die beispielsweise aus Reklametafeln, Plakaten, Ladenschildern, Wahlkampfpropaganda, etc. besteht – erlaubt tiefe Einblicke in die An- oder Abwesenheit von Sprachen auf dem jeweiligen Gebiet. Die LL lässt dadurch nicht nur Rückschlüsse auf die Dominanz einer Sprache aufgrund ihrer Anwesenheit zu, sondern auch auf die Unterdrückung einer Minderheit durch die Abwesenheit ihrer Sprache an Orten, an denen die Minderheitensprache demografisch gesehen eigentlich sichtbar sein müsste. Wegen des Überflusses an linguistischen Daten in den LLs großer Städte sind diese ergiebige Tätigkeitsfelder für die Disziplin. Diese Arbeit beschäftigt sich im ersten Teil mit der theoretischen und praktischen Forschung, die es bislang zu diesem Thema gab. Sie prüft den Stand der Theoriebildung, fasst Methodiken zusammen und gibt einen Überblick über verschiedene Ansätze. Im zweiten Teil wird die theoretische Basis auf eine eigene Fallstudie angewendet. Für diese wurden 2010 die LLs zweier Einkaufsstraßen in unterschiedlichen Gegenden Hong Kongs untersucht. Durch den dort lange währenden Einfluss der englischen Kultur und Mentalität und den offiziellen Status der Sprache liegt der Schluss nahe, dass die Sprachkompetenz des Englischen in Hong Kong eher hoch sein muss. Die Ergebnisse der Fallstudie basieren sowohl auf der Erhebung von statistischen Daten, die die objektive Anwesenheit des Englischen in der LL beider untersuchten Gegenden zeigt, als auch auf zwei daraus resultierenden Befragungen. Diese wurden zum einen offen, zum anderen anonym durchgeführt. Die Befragungen stellen eine Rückversicherung dar, die den Grad der Sprachkompetenz des Englischen in Hong Kong misst, welcher zuvor anhand der LL festgestellt wurde. Damit bietet die Fallstudie einen neuen Ansatz der Untersuchung einer LL, der im Gegensatz zu vorangegangenen Studien nicht bei der Beschreibung ihrer materiellen Beschaffenheit endet, sondern auch ihre Schöpfenden miteinbezieht und sich fragt, inwiefern die LL von Hong Kong die tatsächliche Sprachkompetenz der Menschen widerspiegelt.

abstract: This study is about Thai English (ThaiE), a variety of World Englishes that is presently spoken in Thailand, as the result of the spread of English and the recent Thai government policies towards English communication in Thailand. In the study, I examined the linguistic data of spoken ThaiE, collected from multiple sources both in the U.S.A. and Thailand. The study made use of a qualitative approach in examining the data, which were from (i) English interviews and questionnaires with 12 highly educated Thai speakers of English during my fieldwork in the Southwestern U.S.A., Central Thailand, and Northeastern Thailand, (ii) English speech samples from the media in Thailand, i.e. television programs, a news report, and a talk radio program, and (iii) the research articles on English used by Thai speakers of English. This study describes the typology of ThaiE in terms of its morpho-syntax, phonology, and sociolinguistics, with the main focus being placed on the structural characteristics of ThaiE. Based on the data, the results show that some of the ThaiE features are similar to the World Englishes features, but some are unique to ThaiE. Therefore, I argue that ThaiE is structurally considered a new variety of World Englishes at the present time. The findings also showed an interesting result, regarding the notion of ThaiE by the fieldwork interview participants. The majority of these participants (n=6) denied the existence of ThaiE, while the minority of the participants (n=5) believed ThaiE existed, and one participant was reluctant to give the answer. The study suggested that the participants' academic backgrounds, the unfamiliar notion of ThaiE, and the level of the participants' social interaction with everyday persons may have influenced their answers to the main research question. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. English 2013

Submitted by Geandra Rodrigues (geandrar@gmail.com) on 2018-10-24T12:05:10Z No. of bitstreams: 1 phelippenathanielribeirooliveira.pdf: 38807259 bytes, checksum: 0fb7a9c3618eead9cfaf2b0cd4b00d9c (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2018-11-23T11:11:27Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 phelippenathanielribeirooliveira.pdf: 38807259 bytes, checksum: 0fb7a9c3618eead9cfaf2b0cd4b00d9c (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-11-23T11:11:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 phelippenathanielribeirooliveira.pdf: 38807259 bytes, checksum: 0fb7a9c3618eead9cfaf2b0cd4b00d9c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-08-22 / Esta pesquisa de base qualitativa (DENZIN & LINCOLN, 1994) tem por finalidade coletar ocorrências de lookalike English (BLOMMAERT, 2012) a partir da paisagem linguística (GORTER, 2006) da cidade de Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, e propor sua análise sob uma orientação translíngue (CANAGARAJAH, 2013) para a linguagem, a qual acreditamos permitir uma compreensão mais esclarecedora dos complexos processos subjacentes a estas práticas linguísticas. Revisitamos os principais modelos teóricos desenvolvidos a partir da segunda metade do século XX, tais como World Englishes (KACHRU, 1991), English as Global Language (CRYSTAL, 2003), English as a Lingua Franca (JENKINS, 2006; MAURANEN, 2017) e English as A Local Language (HIGGINS, 2009), os quais têm sido usados para se descrever a expansão global da língua inglesa e sua diversificação a partir do contato com outras línguas, a fim de evidenciarmos um dinamismo característico deste processo e traçar as bases conceituais necessárias à compreensão da virada multilíngue (MAY, 2014), à qual pretendemos alinhar nossas considerações. Discutimos como a mobilidade (BLOMMAERT, 2010) possibilitada pelos episódios mais recentes da globalização tem dado origem a novas formas de multilinguismo urbano em uma sociedade frequentemente descrita como superdiversa (VERTOVEC, 2005; BUDACH & SAINTGEORGES, 2017). Apoiados em pressupostos teóricos recentes da Sociolinguística e da Linguística Aplicada, tais como o entendimento de língua como uma prática local (PENNYCOOK, 2010), nas contribuições metodológicas da tradição etnográfica (BLOMMAERT, 2013; BLOMMAERT & JIE, 2010) e da análise de narrativas (DE FINA, 2009, 2015; DE FINA & JOHNSTONE, 2015), buscamos evidenciar nos accounts (SCOTT & LYMAN, 1968) produzidos em nosso trabalho de campo a natureza translíngue de tais práticas (CANAGARAJAH, 2013) e examiná-las através das lentes da multivocalidade (HIGGINS, 2009) e da inescrutabilidade (LEE, 2017), noções que nos permitem discutir questões de identidade e legitimidade envolvidas em práticas translíngues. / This qualitative study (DENZIN & LINCOLN, 1994) aims to collect examples of lookalike English (BLOMMAERT, 2012) from the linguistic landscape of Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, and treat them from a translingual orientation (CANAGARAJAH, 2013) to language, which we believe to foster a deeper discussion of the complex processes underlying such language practices. We reexamine the most important theoretical models developed during the second half of the 20th century, such as World Englishes (KACHRU, 1991), English as Global Language (CRYSTAL, 2003), English as Lingua Franca (JENKINS, 2006; MAURANEN, 2017) and English a Local Language (HIGGINS, 2009), which have been used to describe the global expansion and diversification of English through its contact with other languages, in order to reveal the inherent dynamics of this process and build the conceptual foundations to the understanding of the multilingual turn (MAY, 2014), with which we expect to align our considerations. We discuss how the mobility (BLOMMAERT, 2010) brought about by the latest events of globalization has originated new forms of urban multilingualism in a society frequently described as super-diverse (VERTOVEC, 2005; BUDACH & SAINT-GEORGES, 2017). By drawing on more recent theoretical constructs in Sociolinguistics and Applied Linguistics, such as an understanding of language as a local practice (PENNYCOOK, 2010), as well as methodological contributions both from the ethnographic tradition (BLOMMAERT, 2013; BLOMMAERT & JIE, 2010) and narrative analysis (DE FINA, 2009, 2015; DE FINA & JOHNSTONE, 2015), we examine the accounts (SCOTT & LYMAN, 1968) produced during our fieldwork in order to unveil the translingual nature of such language practices, which are further discussed through the lenses of multivocality (HIGGINS, 2009) and inscrutability (LEE, 2017) in order to address identity and legitimacy issues embedded in these practices.

Language attitude studies focussing specifically on native speaker perceptions of varieties of English speech have demonstrated consistently that standard varieties tend to be evaluated positively in terms of competence/ status whilst non-standard varieties are generally rated higher in terms of social attractiveness/ solidarity. However, the great majority of studies which have investigated non-native attitudes have tended to measure evaluations of ‘the English language’, conceptualised as a single entity, thus ignoring the substantial regional and social variation within the language. This is somewhat surprising considering the importance of attitudes towards language variation in the study of second language acquisition and in sociolinguistics. More specifically, there is a dearth of in-depth quantitative attitude research in Japan concentrating specifically on social evaluations of varieties of English, as the limited number of previous studies conducted amongst Japanese learners have either been qualitative in design or too small in scale. Moreover, the findings of these studies have been somewhat inconclusive. The present quantitative study, employing a range of innovative direct and indirect techniques of attitude measurement, investigated the perceptions of 558 Japanese university students of six varieties of English speech. The results obtained suggest that Japanese learners are able to differentiate between speech varieties within a single language of which they are not native speakers and hold different and often complex attitudes towards (a) standard/ non-standard and (b) native/ non-native varieties of English speech. For instance, the learners rated both the standard and non-standard varieties of inner circle speech more highly than varieties of expanding circle English in terms of prestige. In contrast, it was found that the learners expressed higher levels of solidarity with the Japanese speaker of heavily-accented English and intriguingly, with speakers of non-standard varieties of UK and US English than with speakers of standard varieties of inner circle English. Moreover, differences in the Japanese students’ gender, level of self-perceived competence in English, level of exposure to English and attitudes towards varieties of Japanese all had significant main effects on perceptions of varieties of English speech. However, the regional provenance of the informants was not found to be significant in determining their language attitudes. The results also imply that Japanese learners retain representations of varieties of English speech and draw upon this resource, whether consciously or unconsciously, in order to identify and evaluate (speakers of) these speech varieties. The findings are discussed in relation to the pedagogical and language planning implications for the choice of linguistic model in English language teaching both inside and outwith Japan and in terms of the methodological importance of the study for potential future attitudinal research in this area.

Globalization has made English a pivotal language for global communication. This has increasingly made a great number of native English speakers move to Korea and teach English at all levels of education from kindergarten to university year after year. Most of them have not only little or no training as language instructors, but also little or no teaching experience. Many may wonder how they teach students with little understanding about teaching in a foreign country. At the same time, they may also surmise that they would endure many difficulties in their profession. As a faculty member working with them for over fifteen years, I have also had such questions. Especially, I was curious what conflicts they bear in their minds and how they respond to differences between Canadian and Korean culture and pedagogy. This study is grounded on the hermeneutic tradition which ultimately pursues humane lives. This hermeneutic tradition leads me to the conflicts that native English speaking teachers have experienced, to the implications embedded in the Korean and English language, and to the differences between Canadian and Korean ways of thought. While following the hermeneutic tradition, I am aware that there was little or no communication between the Canadian and Korean teaching staff, which resulted in their alienated lives and in living in a world of exclusion from their schools, disregard about their profession, and indifference from their students. The hermeneutic tradition guides me in a path toward restoring the deteriorated humane aspects of their lives as teachers. As a ground for understanding them, I attempt to define the notion of the in-between on the basis of equality and respect which are rooted in the concept of the Korean language for the in-between. This conceptual elaboration enables me to conceive that differences are not objects to exclude, to disregard, or to be indifferent, but motives to perceive the necessity to reform and to change the inequality and injustices. In this light, I propose that educational institutions allow them to participate in decision making, open a special in-service teacher training program for them, and provide them with a support system.

Un fattore determinante che ha influito sull’enorme espansione dell’inglese nel mondo, nel corso degli ultimi secoli, è stato il ruolo assunto da tale lingua sulla scena mondiale, in particolare nell’ambito economico-culturale: l’inglese è uscito dai suoi confini naturali diventando lingua globale, entrando in contatto con nuovi ambienti e diverse lingue e di conseguenza sviluppando nuove varietà che probabilmente diventeranno in futuro nuove lingue autonome. Oggi anche in Cina, contrariamente al passato, non molto lontano, si avverte un forte e diffuso desiderio di imparare l'inglese, soprattutto tra le giovani generazioni, tra le persone istruite e preferibilmente tra coloro che vivono in città o che hanno contatti al di fuori dei confini nazionali e che utilizzano l’inglese come lingua della comunicazione scientifica, economica, finanziaria e tecnologia. L’inglese non è più considerato una minaccia, sia culturale che politica dal governo che ne incentiva l’apprendimento. Questa crescita nel numero di persone che imparano e parlano inglese, parallelamente alla diffusione di tale lingua, favorisce la nascita e l’affermazione di una nuova varietà linguistica che va sempre più differenziandosi dall’inglese originario. La presente ricerca si propone di analizzare tale fenomeno di variazione dell’inglese in Cina, attraverso l’osservazione e la rilevazione di dati riguardanti l'uso e le occorrenze del genitivo sassone e di altre strutture premodificatrici del sostantivo, caratterizzanti questa emergente varietà di lingua inglese, indagando al tempo stesso anche alcune sue fondamentali coordinate socio-linguistiche. / The crucial factor in the development of English over the last few centuries is its role in the world arena. English has been brought into contact with new environments and languages, and, as a result, has developed into new directions and into new varieties. In today’s China there is an astounding desire to learn English, especially among the educated and the people living in cities, and to use it as a means of communication outside the national borders. This growth in the number of people, who learn and speak English, seems to be contributing to a distinctive variety. The present research aims at contributing to this field of study by analyzing the use and occurrences of the Saxon genitive, of-constructions, and other noun modification structures within this emerging variety of English and the framework of its sociolinguistic features.

No description available.

Narratives are the product of a basic human tendency to make sense of real or imagined experiences. The research question posed in the dissertation is: how is narrativity encoded in East African English? Can the narrativity model in the dissertation distinguish between registers that prototypically focus on narration versus registers that do not primarily focus on narration? The narrativity model consists of four main groups of features, namely Agency, Causation, Contextualisation and Evaluation. These groups are representative of the fundamental structure of narratives: things happen to people at a specific time and place. Agency concerns the people who either instigate or are affected by the events. The things that happen can be denoted by Causation when they are the result of cause and effect in the world. Contextualisation refers to the grounding of events in time and space. Lastly, Evaluation concerns the reactions and attitudes people have towards the events. Eighteen linguistic features such as third person pronouns (part of the Agency group) and past tense verbs (part of the Contextualisation group) were analysed as micro-level indicators of narrativity. The corpus-based investigation analysed the linguistic features used to encode narrativity across 22 spoken and written registers of the East African component of the International Corpus of English (ICE-EA) using WordSmith Tools 4.0. The raw scores for each feature were standardised across all registers to enable comparisons between features, as well as between registers. The results indicate that narrativity is a gradient phenomenon that occurs across a variety of East African English spoken and written registers. After the initial analyses were done, the narrativity model was revised to include only 11 core narrativity features. These features are past tense verbs, third person pronouns, proper nouns for persons, activity verbs, time and place adverbials, perfect aspect, emotional stance verb feel, first person pronouns, evaluative adjectives and non-finite causative clauses. ICE-EA registers that focus on narration as a MEANS to make sense of experiences (the objective or END) are Fiction, Social letters, Oral narratives, Face-to-face conversation and Legal cross-examination. In other words, the core narrativity features are the MEANS and the END is to make sense of experiences and facilitate understanding using narration. Twelve registers have an intermediate focus on narrativity. Narration is a secondary or simultaneous objective in these registers alongside primary objectives such as scientific exposition, persuasiveness, information presentation or interpersonal interaction. There are five registers with low scores for the core narrativity features: Student writing, Business letters, Popular writing, Academic writing and Instructional writing. These registers do not primarily focus on narration and have other primary and even secondary objectives such as scientific exposition and persuasiveness. The narrativity model sheds light on the way narrativity is encoded using linguistic features and gives insight into East African English register variation / Thesis (M.A. (English))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2011