M.A. / This dissertation is focused on errors made by Zairean students who learn English as a foreign language; the difficulties encountered by teachers, which inhibit them from performing their work properly and from achieving the prescribed objectives. The analysis of the whole situation shows that many features need to be improved. The government has to define clearly the objectives of learning English in Zaire and thus revise the formation program for the teacher to be. The school must equip the teachers with modern didactic materials for a better performance of the actors in presence. Time-table as well as the curriculum need to be revised in accordance with the main objectives. Finally, the student's interest and his/her environment must be motivated to render the learning of English much easier.

M.A. (Applied Linguistics) / To account for the characteristic linguistic needs of second language students, psycholinguistic theories of second language acquisition are taken into account. Sociolinguistic factors such as possible future language policies regarding English in the South African context, and societal attitudes towards English are also considered. An overview of the more significant approaches and methods in second language teaching is followed by a brief survey of undergraduate ESL courses in South Africa and other third world countries ...

M.Ed. (Educational Linguistics) / This study examined language barriers affecting a selected group of Grade Four learners from a disadvantaged community, to whom English, the medium of classroom instruction, was their second language. They were disadvantaged because their language proficiency had not been developed early enough to serve as a springboard for conceptualizations of academic aspects. They struggled to express themselves and grappled with simple linguistic concepts which they were expected to master at school. The purpose was to explore support structures and strategies that educators employed to assist Grade Four English second language (ESL) learners in developing cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP) in a linguistically diverse classroom. Research has shown that the acquisition and use of English at an early age at home strengthens linguistic ability in learning to read and write. Language depends on basic intercommunication skills (BICS), which are developed at a very young age, and later the development of CALP in formal schooling. BICS allows children to speak and pronounce basic words and have sufficient vocabulary to develop their receptive and expressive language in daily life, basic commands and social conversations. The problem was minimal exposure to the English language at early stages in the child’s life, hence BICS being developed in the vernacular. Effective linguistic communication depends on CALP, which allows learners to engage in abstract problem-solving activities and use complex academic tasks, namely reading and writing. The research design was a qualitative descriptive case study and participants were purposefully selected. Data was collected from interviews with educators, observation of learners’ work and observations on the playground. The findings revealed that ESL learners struggled with oral activities, listening and speaking, reading, writing, language and comprehension. These learners experienced difficulties in all five forms of language, namely phonology, syntax, semantics, morphology and pragmatics. Various support strategies were necessary to assist them through peer tutoring, curriculum differentiation, simplifying assessments according to their ability, implementing various reading strategies, and adopting diverse teaching methodologies. This study argued that the educator’s role is paramount in developing CALP in the language of learning and teaching (LOLT), in all learners, in order to facilitate formal school learning. A large class with an average of 45 learners proved to be a challenge for the educators, therefore it is recommended that fewer learners be placed in a class to enable educators to give more attention to the weaker learners. There is an urgent need for remediation to take place in the English class and the study concludes that various support strategies need to be developed for CALP in ESLs.

D.Litt. et Phil. / The final objective of this study involves the acquisition of received French pronunciation on the part of native speakers of siSwati. However, considering the sole aspect of phoneticophonological competence in the context of foreign language learning needs to be justified. Hence, we explain which role phonology plays in contemporary linguistics (chapter I). Further, we commit ourselves in chapter II to accommodating foreign language phonology in the framework of contrastive linguistics. This results in testing the development of foreign language pronunciation against the contrastive analysis hypothesis. To support this, we evaluate the degree to which L2 learners inherit the well-established phonological representation of Ll in their attempt to communicate in a foreign language. Secondly, we are convinced that it is needful to consider the way in which our learners decode phonological intelligibility into observable phonetic facts. This leads us to analyse the physioacoustic "surface" features of our learners' basis of articulation. Accordingly, we justify why the analysis and comparison of the phonological systems involved are to be complemented by experimental analyses of the recorded speech data. The formant tracking of the vowels and selected spectrographic analyses of the consonants in chapters IV, V and VI allow us to show to what extent the phonological abstract of the languages involved are decoded differently according to the respective bases of articulation. To achieve this, we rely on adequate experimental analyses and 'statistical tests. The first Part of chapter V identifies and compares the vowel qualities of the two languages by means of their first two formants, while the second part investigates the spectrographic differences between the siSwati and French consonant charts. To become familiar with the physio-acoustic characteristics of the target language, we introduce the French articulatory setting in chapter VII. Turning to the final aim of our contrastive and corrective undertaking, we need to select the most beneficial method of diagnosing the characteristics of our learners' foreign accent. Moreover, we design corrective strategies that will help our learners attain faithful speech performance in the targetlanguage community. Therefore, chapter III assesses the extent to which the verbo-tonal method of corrective phonetics can be instrumental in overcoming siSwati-induced French. Further, the error analysis of the recorded interlanguage discourse results in designing ad hoc corrective strategies to be implemented (chapter VIII).

M.A. (Afrikaans) / Language sexism and stereotyping in Afrikaans teaching material perpetuate an image of Afrikaans reality which is not in keeping with the modern spirit of the times. Excessive language sexism can result in the second or foreign language learner forming an unfavourable image of the speakers of the language. It can also have teaching implications, of which a negative attitude and lack of motivation are the most important. It is the aim of this study to determine to which degree language sexism and sexist stereotyping occur in Afrikaans teaching material. The method of research followed when analysing several Afrikaans courses for adult foreign language learners is a qualitative-interpretative one. The subjectivity of such method is minimised by the quantitative support of the triangulation process followed in determining the occurrence of the male pronoun "he" in Afrikaans...

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Magister Educationis - MEd / This study examines the impact of two different models of teaching English to Chinese children, to see whether it meets learners’ needs. These two different approaches appear to lead to different result for children. The results of the analysis appear to show that this teaching programme is failing the children at Z’SL. Therefore, the course needs to be reviewed and improved. Four research tools were used in this study: interviews, questionnaires, classroom observation, and document analysis. Interviews and questionnaires were distributed to coordinators and teachers at both schools. Questionnaires were also distributed to the parents of students. Classroom observation was done during normal class time by the researcher. The document analysis dealt with the analysis of the textbooks. The results of the study appear to show that the teaching programme in English at Z’SL has failed to meet the children’s needs. The materials are not designed for young learner’s needs. They just emphasize the four skills of English in an English environment, but neglect the relatively unstable language situation of the children. The teaching methodology emphasized the direct method, but neglected children’s needs. Children should be taught to know how to use a language in the society they live in and to learn a second language effectively for actual use. This study concludes that two-way bilingual education and the cognitive developmental approach are most effective to develop dual language proficiency for Chinese children in their native language and English in order to bring up the children as members of Chinese society. Additive bilingualism education is also appropriate for Chinese children when the home language is a majority language and the school is adding a second minority or majority language. Another consideration is that collaboration between parents and teachers is more effective to provide opportunities for children to maintain their own language and culture while children acquire a second language / South Africa

Magister Educationis - MEd / The objective of this research paper was to examine how, through the prism of student migration patterns, the domination of the English language is extended and entrenched. Using the example of Chinese students in South Africa, the paper explored some of the reasons that underpin South Africa's growing appeal as an international study destination. The research specifically focused on the period between 2002 and 2004 which witnessed Chinese students arriving in unprecedented numbers to pursue higher education in a post-apartheid South Africa. / South Africa

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This study has been prompted by the negative remarks that lecturers make concerning the academic performance of students and the number of years they spend at the Eastern Cape Technikon before completing their diplomas. The aim of this study was to identify the kinds of strategies that English Second Language (ESL) students use to cope with English language writing tasks. Academic writing requires a conscious effort and much practice in composing, developing, and analyzing ideas. Black students at tertiary institutions in South Africa face additional difficulty, especially when they have to deal with writing in English which is an unfamiliar language to them. This presents them with social and cognitive challenges related to second language acquisition. Since the black students do not often consider the social contexts in which L2 academic writing takes place, models of L1 writing instruction and research on composing processes are often found wanting in their L2 writing pedagogy. In this study, I argue that language proficiency and competence is the cornerstone of the ability to write in the L2 in a fundamental way. L2 writing instructors should take into account both strategy development and language skill development when working with black students. This is critical in South Africa considering the apartheid legacy and the deprived social conditions under which black students often live and acquire their education. Therefore, using critical discourse analysis and aspects of systemic functional linguistics, this study explores errors in written cohesion and coherence in relation to L2 writing strategies used by black students at the Eastern Cape Technikon. The study focuses on errors in the form of cohesive devices of referring expressions using topic development used by students. The aim was to explore the strategies used by black students to write coherent academic texts. Further, the study intends to scrutinize the grammatical devices of reference, through analyzing the forms of cohesive devices and theme development. A focus on the writing process as a pedagogical tool enables me to explore the relationship between the quality of students‟ academic writing and coping strategies used, and come up with a model of L2 writing (coping) strategies for academic writing at the Eastern Cape Technikon. I investigate the L2 writing process adopted by competent and non-competent black students in the process of producing coherent academic texts by comparing strategies that the two groups of students adopt. / South Africa

Magister Artium - MA / This research used diary studies and interviews with five Japanese learners of English to investigate the different affective, cognitive and social factors that affected their learning of English in Cape Town between 2004 and 2005. The findings of this study corroborate arguments put forward by Gardner that factors such as learning goals, learning strategy, attitude, motivation, anxiety, self-confidence and cultural beliefs about communication affect the acquisition of a second language and correlate with one another. / South Africa