Thesis presented in the fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the FACULTY OF ARTS at the UNIVERSITY OF ZULULAND, 2009. / This study explores the application of genre-based approach to teaching writing and speaking skills in the senior phase of language learning, as a reflection of language teaching competence of the student -teachers studying in the Faculty of Education at the University of Zululand. The main aim is to investigate how genre-based approach to isiZulu Home Language Education (ZHL) is a means to successful English First Additional Language Education (EFAL). This investigation aims at establishing how genre-based approach to language education with other related contemporary approaches recommended in the South African National Curriculum Statement for Language education in schools, such as the communicative approach and text-based approach are adopted to instill the applied competence in the communicative writing and speaking skills of Grade 9 learners of both isiZulu Home Language and English First Additional Language. Various theories and approaches to writing and speaking skills are discussed and explored in order to make suggestions to teacher-educators and language educators’ effective ways of learning and teaching communicative writing and speaking skills using the genre-based approach to language education. Eltis’s, (1989:10) model of genre-based approach to language learning and teaching is presented in relation with Key Genres for Teaching Writing across the Curriculum suggested by Macken-Horarik in Jonhs, (2003:21-23), the teaching and learning cycle by Hyon, (1996:705) and the main texts types as recommended by the South Africa Department of Education in the participants manual for languages learning area’s orientation programme, (2006:41-43) are all presented in relation to the learning outcomes and associated assessment standards that need to be addressed and achieved in the languages learning area. The main aim of presenting this multidimensional model is to enable the language educators and teacher educators to design language lessons and modules that will expose the target Senior Phase school learners and advanced student-teachers to communicative writing and speaking skills relevant for producing and presenting both narrative and information report related genres. In this study genres presented in the form of written essays and prepared speeches are assessed and analysed. The findings based on this research are presented explicitly to identify challenges and attributes that educators and learners experience during writing and speaking practices. Recommendations are made concerning positive and constructive changes in the teaching and learning of the communicative writing and speaking skills based on various genres in the Senior Phase and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in South Africa.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of a Home Language Program on the oral expressive skills of educable mentally retarded (EMR) children attending special classes at the primary level. It sought to answer the following questions: 1. Will there be a statistically significant increase in the verbal fluency of educable mentally retarded children in terms of an increase in vocabulary, number of concepts expressed, and mean length of response (MLR) as a result of a Home Language Program? 2. Will there be a statistically significant increase in the total verbal output of educable mentally retarded children (EMR) as a result of a Home Language Program? / 2031-01-01

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Education in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education in the Department of Early Childhood Development at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2015 / South Africa’s performance in international benchmark tests is a major cause for concern for the country, raising questions about the effectiveness of the curriculum reform efforts and the literacy attainment levels of learners in the Foundation Phase. This study aims at exploring Foundation Phase learners’ attainment levels in IsiZulu Home Language due to their exposure to Grade R. In some rural areas, learners commence Grade 1 without going through the Reception Year class, even after the roll out plan of the universal access to Grade R that was in 2010. In such areas, Grade R is offered in school based and community based centres. The objectives of this study were: • To find out the nature of the relationship between prior learning and academic performance in IsiZulu in Grade 1 (entry point) and Grade 3 (exit point) as the result of exposure to Grade R.• To establish the extent to which learners have attained IsiZulu Home language literacy skills by the time they enter Grade 1. • To ascertain how teachers identify learners’ actual development level in IsiZulu literacy. • To determine espoused approaches to the teaching of literacy to learners who are at different levels of development in IsiZulu literacy. Using literacy as a conceptual framework and Vygotsky’s Theory of Social Constructivism as the underpinning of the study, literature was explored and the data was also analysed. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to generate data for this case study. In order to explore literacy attainment levels of learners in In order to explore literacy attainment levels of learners in Grade 1, purposive sampling was used. Four rural school educators and thirty four Grade 1 learners from three categories, that is, those learners who obtained Grade R from school based centres, community based centres and those who did not have any prior learning, were sampled for this study. Instruments such as class activities, observations, interviews and document analysis were used to collect data. The study revealed that high academic achievement in Grade 1 is based on learners’ exposure to grade R and that their literacy attainment levels differ as per the three categories. However, the gap in literacy development among learners from the three categories shrinks as they exit the Foundation Phase of study. The findings also reveal that educators lack proper skills of identifying learners’ zone of proximal development and also to teach in the zone of each learner. The study recommends proper training of educators in differentiation and also in establishing the baseline of learners in their mother tongue.

Student Number : 0215974F - MSc Dissertation - School of Mathematics Education - Faculty of Science / The report presents an investigation on how learners’ home language can be used as a support for learning mathematics. This qualitative case study was conducted in Phelindaba Primary School wherein learners use English as the language of learning and teaching which is not their home language. This school worked in collaboration with the Home Language Project to facilitate the learning of mathematics using the learners’ home language as a resource. The study revealed that when learners use their home languages they interact better with their peers, the teachers and their tasks. Learners used home languages to achieve conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, adaptive reasoning and strategic competence, which would in turn develop their productive disposition

This study investigates the assessment of creative essays in grade 10 Sesotho home language. Nine participants from a total of six schools took part in the research. For the purpose of this study, no literature was found on the assessment of Sesotho essays (or essay writing in any other African language) in general or specific to creative writing in high schools in South Africa. The literature on English first language teaching and English second language teaching were then used to theoretically contextualise the writing and assessment of creative writing essays in Sesotho home language in South African high schools. Data were collected through questionnaires completed by teachers, an analysis of a sample of marked scripts (representing above average, average and below average grades) and interviews with teachers (tailored to investigate the asset of creativity and the aspect of style in Sesotho creative writing essays). The researcher manually coded open-ended responses in the questionnaires. Interview responses were coded with Atlas.ti version 7. Frequencies were calculated for the close-ended questions in the questionnaire. Participating teachers perceived their assessment of essays with the use of the rubric and the correction to be standardised. This was evident in their awarding of marks. It was found in this study that teachers generally award marks around 60%. However, their report that they use comments as per their responses in the questionnaire was disproven by the lack of comments in the scripts analysed in this study. There was also no relationship observed between the correction code frequencies observed in the marked essays that were analysed and the marks granted for specific sections of the rubric. This study recommends use of the rubric in earlier drafts of the writing process. In addition, it proposes an expansion of the marking grid used to provide clearer feedback via the revised rubric to the learners. Due to the participating teachers’ evident lack of clarity on what style in Sesotho home language essays entail, it was inferred that teachers are not clear on the distinctions between different essay assessment criteria in the rubric. A recommendation was the development of a rubric guide, which would clearly indicate to teachers what each criterion of the rubric assesses.

This study investigates the assessment of creative essays in grade 10 Sesotho home language. Nine participants from a total of six schools took part in the research. For the purpose of this study, no literature was found on the assessment of Sesotho essays (or essay writing in any other African language) in general or specific to creative writing in high schools in South Africa. The literature on English first language teaching and English second language teaching were then used to theoretically contextualise the writing and assessment of creative writing essays in Sesotho home language in South African high schools. Data were collected through questionnaires completed by teachers, an analysis of a sample of marked scripts (representing above average, average and below average grades) and interviews with teachers (tailored to investigate the asset of creativity and the aspect of style in Sesotho creative writing essays). The researcher manually coded open-ended responses in the questionnaires. Interview responses were coded with Atlas.ti version 7. Frequencies were calculated for the close-ended questions in the questionnaire. Participating teachers perceived their assessment of essays with the use of the rubric and the correction to be standardised. This was evident in their awarding of marks. It was found in this study that teachers generally award marks around 60%. However, their report that they use comments as per their responses in the questionnaire was disproven by the lack of comments in the scripts analysed in this study. There was also no relationship observed between the correction code frequencies observed in the marked essays that were analysed and the marks granted for specific sections of the rubric. This study recommends use of the rubric in earlier drafts of the writing process. In addition, it proposes an expansion of the marking grid used to provide clearer feedback via the revised rubric to the learners. Due to the participating teachers’ evident lack of clarity on what style in Sesotho home language essays entail, it was inferred that teachers are not clear on the distinctions between different essay assessment criteria in the rubric. A recommendation was the development of a rubric guide, which would clearly indicate to teachers what each criterion of the rubric assesses.

Few studies have quantified the effects on academic performance; none has investigated, as this study does, the effects of immigration, home language, and school mobility on academic development over time. What makes this study unique is its melding of sociological and psychometric perspectives – an approach that is still quite new. Logistic regression was used to analyze data from Ontario’s 2007-2008 Junior (Grade 6) Assessment of Reading, Writing and Mathematics, with linked assessment results from three years earlier, to investigate students’ academic achievement. The focus of this study is on whether the students maintained proficiency between Grades 3 and 6 or achieved proficiency in Grade 6 if they were not proficient in Grade 3. The results indicate that Grade 3 proficiency is the strongest predictor of Grade 6 proficiency and that home language or interactions with home language are also significant in most cases. In addition, students who speak a language other than or in addition to English at home are, in general, a little more likely to be proficient at Grade 6. Most students who were born outside of Canada were significantly more likely than students born in Canada to stay or become proficient in Reading, Writing, and Mathematics by Grade 6. These results highlight the importance of considering the enormous heterogeneity of immigrants’ experiences when studying the effects of immigration on academic performance.

This study focuses on a secondary school in an Indian-African suburb of Merewent in KwaZulu-Natal, an example of a suburban school where English as a Home Language (EHL) is taught to a majority of non-native English learners from township schools. The EHL classrooms were investigated for ‘communicativeness’ and then compared to English as a Second Language (ESL) classrooms. It might be expected that EHL classrooms would exhibit an affinity with ESL classrooms. However, although non-native EHL has many aspects in common with ESL, there were significant differences between the two. The most important difference from the standpoint of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) was in the learning content selection, with the EHL settings using more literary works, and so focusing less on the direct teaching of grammatical forms. However, a disturbing pattern was the inability of the learners in both sets of settings to take full advantage of CLT, which suggested that the learners might not be at the appropriate level of language development.

Few studies have quantified the effects on academic performance; none has investigated, as this study does, the effects of immigration, home language, and school mobility on academic development over time. What makes this study unique is its melding of sociological and psychometric perspectives – an approach that is still quite new. Logistic regression was used to analyze data from Ontario’s 2007-2008 Junior (Grade 6) Assessment of Reading, Writing and Mathematics, with linked assessment results from three years earlier, to investigate students’ academic achievement. The focus of this study is on whether the students maintained proficiency between Grades 3 and 6 or achieved proficiency in Grade 6 if they were not proficient in Grade 3. The results indicate that Grade 3 proficiency is the strongest predictor of Grade 6 proficiency and that home language or interactions with home language are also significant in most cases. In addition, students who speak a language other than or in addition to English at home are, in general, a little more likely to be proficient at Grade 6. Most students who were born outside of Canada were significantly more likely than students born in Canada to stay or become proficient in Reading, Writing, and Mathematics by Grade 6. These results highlight the importance of considering the enormous heterogeneity of immigrants’ experiences when studying the effects of immigration on academic performance.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how African heritage language learners in Grade 3 constructed their language identity in a culturally diverse urban classroom. The data reflects the Grade 3 learners’ beliefs and feelings toward being educated in an English-medium school instead of attending a school where they were taught in their home language. A theoretical framework, based on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological system informed my study. The framework provides a holistic picture of how the Grade 3 learners constructed their language identity, as it did not only focus on the learners as such. The ecological system examined the unique aspects of the learners within their microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem and chronosystem. In this exploration of multiple cases studies from a social constructivism perspective, the researcher collaborated with two Grade 3 teachers, seven parents and six Grade 3 African heritage language learners, to create a mosaic by using semi-structured interviews, documents, observational field notes, narrative reflections, photographs, drawings and a reflective journal. Participants’ perceptions of attending an English-medium school revealed how the Grade 3 learners constructed their language identity through assimilation. The findings revealed that the Grade 3 participants did not favour their home language or heritage culture as much as they favoured the Western culture. The following factors influenced the construction of the Grade 3 learners’ language identity: their environments, the school setting, their teachers’ attitude toward teaching in a culturally diverse classroom, their parents’ attitude toward their attending an English-medium school and lastly their friends. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Early Childhood Education / MEd / Unrestricted