Thesis (M. A. (Translation Studies and Linguistics)) -- University of Limpopo, 2016. / The present study reviews the Blouberg Municipality‟s Language Policy and its implementation plan. It investigates if there is equal parity shared by all the official languages of the municipality and evaluates whether the Language Policy of the Blouberg Municipality has provision for the establishment of a language unit, and monitoring and assessment structures. The study also evaluates the implementation progress of the Language Policy of the Blouberg Municipality. The study evaluates the language policy against South Africa‟s legislative and policy frameworks and theories of language policies. Qualitative research method was used to collect data. Open-ended and close-ended questions, tape recorders and notes-taking systems were used in the process of data collection. The study found out that the content of the policy was incomplete because proper legislative frameworks and guidelines of policy formulation were not followed when the policy was designed. The residents of the municipal area were not consulted when decisions about the language policy were made. It was also found that the policy had a one page incomplete implementation plan because people who formulated the Language Policy had no intension of implementing it. As a result, it did not specify the roles and responsibility, evaluation and monitory periods and budgetary information. Thus, it was declared without implementation. It was further noted that, even though the municipality recognises five languages (Sepedi, Xitsonga, Tshivenda, English and Afrikaans) as the official languages of the municipality, these languages are not used equitably. English dominated the other four languages in written and spoken communications. The dominance of English was encouraged by some sections in the Language Policy of the Blouberg Municipality.

No description available.

Thesis (M.A. (Translation Studies and Linguistics)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022

The study was aimed at investigating challenges hampering mother-tongue education with special reference to Afan Oromo in the Eastern Hararge Zone, the Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia. The study mainly explored the available learning materials and the skilled teachers in mother-tongue education, attitudinal factors, the extent of stakeholders’ support for mother-tongue education, parents’ education and their awareness about education through mother tongue and parent school involvements. In the study, the researcher used a mixed method approach in which both quantitative and qualitative research designs were employed to corroborate the data obtained through one method by using other methods to minimise limitations observed in a single design. In the quantitative design, survey questionnaires were employed. Accordingly, 634 primary school teachers and 134 students were randomly selected and asked to fill the questionnaires. These quantitative data were analysed through the SPSS software and responses were analysed using the percentages and the chi-square. Qualitative data obtained through in-depth interviews and observations were analysed using thematic approaches. Documents on education policy, constitutions of the country and reports of the Ministry of Education of Ethiopia were also consulted and integrated with the analyses of the data. The study generally suggests unless strong political and administrative supports are given and public awareness about the mother tongue use in education and development is created, the effort to make Afan Oromo the language of education, intellectuals and development may remain fruitless. In this respect, all the stakeholders, intellectuals and leaders must work together to overcome challenges and dilemmas that impede the implementation of mother-tongue education. The practical works on the ground should match with the language policy of the country. Popular awareness raising activities and mobilization of the communities should be carried out carefully to involve all the communities / African Languages

Traditionally, language policy (LP) has been conceptualised as a notion separate from that of practice. That is, language practices have usually been studied with a view to evaluate the extent to which a LP is (or is not) implemented (e.g. Martin, 2005; Johnson, 2009). Recently, however, Spolsky (2004, 2007, 2008a) has argued that policy and practice need not be seen as distinct and that, in fact, there is policy in language practices themselves (I use the term ‘practiced language policy’). Therefore, Spolsky’s claim represents a decisive development in the field of LP research. However, this proposal remains essentially programmatic since Spolsky does not indicate how practiced language policies can be investigated. The aim of this thesis is to address this methodological gap. The main claim of the thesis is that Conversation Analysis (CA) – a method specifically developed to describe conversational practices – can be used to investigate practiced language policies. In order to support this claim, a case study has been conducted on the language practices of an induction classroom for newly-arrived immigrant children in France. In the thesis, a broad view of CA is adopted, incorporating both sequential and categorisation analysis (Membership Categorisation Analysis). More specifically, I have used the conversation analytic approach to code-switching (as developed over the last few years by researchers such as Auer, 1984; Li Wei, 2002; Gafaranga, 2009; Bonacina and Gafaranga, 2010) and investigated a corpus of audio-recorded classroom interactions I collected in the above mentioned setting. Observation of these interactions revealed a number of “norms of interaction” (Hymes, 1972) the classroom participants orient to in order to go about the routine business of talking in an orderly fashion. For example, it was observed that each of the languages available can potentially be adopted as the “medium of classroom interaction” (Bonacina and Gafaranga, 2010) depending on who is doing being the language teacher. When no one is doing being the language teacher, it was observed, a key determinant of language choice is participants’ language preference. Finally, in the absence of any shared preferred language, French was adopted. The practiced language policy of this induction classroom consists of the set of such interactional norms. It is because CA can be used to discover and describe such interactional norms that this thesis claims it can be used to investigate practiced language policies in this induction classroom and in other settings as well. In summary, this thesis is primarily a contribution to the field of LP research. It starts from recent proposals in the field, especially by Spolsky (2004, 2007, 2008a), that there is policy in practices and shows how this programmatically formulated proposal can be implemented. More specifically the thesis shows that and how CA can be used to discover a practiced language policy. The research reported here has adopted a case study methodology, investigating language choice practices in a multilingual educational setting. It therefore contributes to the study of bilingual classroom talk, albeit indirectly. This is particularly the case as there has been very few, if any, studies of bilingual classroom talk which combine both sequential and categorisation analysis.

This dissertation presents three manuscripts that examine how present unity policies in education conflict with an increasingly pluralistic student population. Using a nuanced theoretical grounding and multifaceted research methodology, I deconstruct this tension to uncover a paradox in educational policymaking and practice, wherein policies and structures that claim to create 'equality' essentially lead to inequitable outcomes. Two empirical examples from Arizona schools illustrate the challenges of multicultural education amidst demands for unity; the first paper draws on a study of the enactment of Arizona's language policy within one low-performing high school with a high population of multilingual and immigrant students, and illustrates how the policy restricts both educators and students. The second study examines the leadership and curricular structures in a high-performing school with shifting demographics, and how those structures lead to misrecognition of culturally diverse students. In response to the challenges posed in the two empirical pieces, I present a paper in which I draw from both studies to illustrate the unity/plurality paradox in education, and then present an educational response to the challenges of that paradox in an increasingly global world, which focuses on forming a new, reflective approach to understanding policy and curriculum beyond normative binaries.

published_or_final_version / Politics and Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

published_or_final_version / Asian Studies / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This study examines attitudes towards anglicisms in Russian expressed in print media articles. Accelerated linguistic borrowing from English, a particularly visible aspect of the momentous language changes after the breakdown of the Soviet Union, has engendered a range of reactions. Print media articles spanning two decades and several central outlets are analysed to show how arguments for or against use of anglicisms are constructed, what language ideologies these arguments serve, and whether mediated language attitudes changed during the post-Soviet era. A summary of the history of Russian linguistic borrowing and language attitudes from the Middle Ages to the present day shows that periods of national consolidation provoked demands for the restriction of borrowing. Then, a survey of theories on language ideologies demonstrates that they function through the construction of commonsense argumentation in metadiscourse (talk about talk). This argumentation draws on accepted common knowledge in the Russian linguistic culture. Using critical discourse analytic tools, namely analysis of metaphor scenarios and of argumentation, I examine argumentative strategies in the mediated language debates. Particularly, the critical analysis reveals what strategies render dominant standpoints on anglicisms self-evident and logical to the audience. The results show that the media reaction to anglicisms dramatises language change in discourses of threat, justified by assumed commonsense rational knowledge. Whilst there are few reactions in the 1990s, debates on language intensified in the 2000s after Putin’s policies of state reinforcement came into effect, peaking around times of official language policy measures. Anglicisms and their users are subordinated, cast out as the Other, not belonging to the in-group of sensible speakers. This threat is defused via ridicule and claiming of the moral high ground. This commonsense argumentation ultimately supports notions of Russian as a static, sacred component of Russian nation building, and of speakers as passive. Close textual analysis shows that even articles claiming to support language change and the use of anglicisms use argumentation strategies of negativisation. Overall, a consensus on the character and role of the Russian language exists between all perspectives, emphasising the importance of rules and assigning speakers a passive role throughout.

Similar to other countries in the South-east Asian region, Thailand has transformed its education policy so that it may be able to better face the challenges of the globalised world. In order to do this, constructs such as student-centred learning and critical thinking, as well as the teaching of English in a more communicative manner, have been promoted. There has been little critical or grounded research carried out on the current English policy in Thailand, which emerged from the National Education Act of 1999 and the subsequent Basic Education Core Curricula of 2001 and 2008, therefore, in order to better understand how this policy works, this study explores how a group of Thai-English language teachers conceptualise the English language policy in Thailand by investigating their practices and beliefs (dispositions). In order to do this, and drawing on a social constructionist perspective from Bourdieu’s theory of practice, this thesis adopts a qualitative methodology that incorporates exploratory and ethnographic elements. Employing a combination of data collection methods that include classroom observations, retrospective accounts and semi-structured interviews, the findings demonstrate that a gap exists between the goals of the policy and what actually occurs in the classroom. Thus, there were few examples of either the communicative approach or student-centred learning being employed, with teachers instead tending to transmit knowledge to their students in a teacher-centred manner. Reasons for this may be due to the influence that the national examinations has on teachers’ work, the suitability and / or relevance of imported teaching and learning approaches on local contexts, as well as the need for better implementation of change. Teachers would indeed benefit from more professional development concerning the policy, but this thesis also argues that the policy itself needs to be critically examined. This would then allow Thailand, as well as other countries in the region, to better inform and improve their current education policies.