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The aim of this Portfolio is to provide insight into some characteristics of I lungarian learners of English, and to use this as evidence in pointing out the need for a change in current teacher education practices in the preparation of English teachers. The Portfolio comprises two projects. Project `A, ' Ihingal-ia» t ieivs about Native Eiiglislr , Sppeakiiig Insiniclors, explores the positive and negative experiences of Hungarian learners with native English speaking instructors. With the help of qualitative research and analysis the learners' needs and expectations are highlighted. Project `B, ' The L inguaage Leariii, ig SIralegie Used by Ilungariarl Learners of English, investigates the learning strategies of I lungariann learners and their general approach to learning. From the qualitative analysis of the data particular features emerge which have not been documented in the literature before. The research results point out those features of the learner which prevailing teacher education models do not prepare novice teachers for. The portfolio is based on I lungarian experience but an international relevance is also demonstrated. The two projects are each placed in the wider context of teaching English as a foreign language (EFL), and thus they provide evidence that besides preserving some universally valid elements of teacher education models, it is necessary to find ways of catering for particular local needs. Instead of imposing the values and beliefs represented by Anglo-American teacher education approaches, textbooks or methods, there are local, context-specific features which have to also be taken account of. At a time when English is primarily used for international communication, teachers can only be prepared in a training program which, instead of the present Anglo-American cultural dominance, adopts an intercultural approach. The final section of the portfolio outlines the possible elements of such a culture-sensitive teacher education model for teaching English as a foreign language.

M.Ed. / The point of departure in this research is that the teaching and learning of Northern Sotho (Ll) as a mother tongue or first language to its speakers should be on the same footi.ng with the teaching and learning of any other mother tongue elsewhere in the world. While universal principles of first language (Ll) instruction are followed, they should be adapted to suit Northern Sotho as a separate language. This is necessary because of the unique nature of Northern Sotho and the language's position viz a viz its speakers. The following problems are at present experienced teaching and learning of Northern Sotho as a formal subject: - lack of adequate scientific research in the teaching and learning of Northern Sotho on being introduced as a school subject; - some teachers still follow the second and third language approaches in teaching the subject; - the observed negative attitude of teachers and pupils alike towards the subject; - the status of Northern Sotho in a multilingual South Africa in which it is relegated to a so-called 'regional language'. In an attempt to ameliorate the situation, the researcher will focus attention on the following: - a review of the curriculum and the syllabi. Differentiation is necessary, hence the researcher will suggest two types of syllabi; namely a more 'culture bound syllabus' and a 'scientifically' orientated syllabus' for those pupils who wish to specialize in universal Language Studies and Linguistics. - curriculum enrichment as a measure to correct attitudes. - the teaching of Northern Sotho for specific purposes. In a multilingual country like South Africa, an African Language like Northern Sotho still has a role to play, for example, as a vehicle of culture. An alternative approach to the teaching and learning of Northern Sotho will presumably improve the status of Northern Sotho as a sUbject and thus ensure its survival as a school subject In future.

M.Ed. (Curriculum Studies) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

D.Litt. et Phil / The primary aim of this study is to: assess the relevance of the Zulu first language syllabus in respect of its meeting the needs of pupils; investigate and discuss language teaching approaches that may be appropriate to Zulu first language teaching; establish if various types of language syllabuses can be integrated for the enhancement of effective language teaching; integrate teaching approaches. Method of investigation The main method of investigation used was the literature review. In this research the focus is on the theoretical treatises, the present syllabus as well as Zulu textbooks and methodology books used for language teaching. Only materials relevant to the study were selected, categorised and discussed systematically in detail under the topics such as: the role of linguistics in language teaching; language teaching syllabuses; learning styles and theories on language learning and teaching; methods of language teaching in the classroom. The findings were compared with other investigations in the same field of study and were applied to Zulu first language teaching. Findings In this thesis it is recognised that the methodology and approaches in the teaching of Zulu first language is inadequate, since it focuses primarily on theoretical intricacies of the subject. Grammar teaching is not utilised maximally because teachers are to adhere to the theoretical aspects of the subject at the cost of the development of communicative competence. In the teaching of languages such as English, the value of the teaching of grammar has been questioned in the course of time, but not so with Zulu first language. The focus in the traditional Zulu first language syllabus is on grammar teaching, it however, lacks proper application. In the light of the above it is clear that the traditional way of teaching Zulu first language is inadequate. The thesis will hopefully guide Zulu mother tongue teachers into acquiring adequate language teaching skills and techniques. Recommendations It is recommended that language teaching should break away from the methodology that does not apply to real-life situations and that language learning should be made useful to learners by applying it to develop their life-skills. Teachers should explain theoretical principles by using authentic or quasi-authentic texts or speech as the point of departure. In other words the theoretical principles should not be merely illustrated by isolated decontextualised examples. Language teaching should reflect on all four language skills, namely, listening, speaking, reading and writing. An integrated approach to language teaching will enhance the standard of Zulu first language teaching. Therefore, language teaching should not be confined to only one syllabus type, but various syllabus types should be integrated depending on the language need to be addressed

M.A. (Greek) / In the current research our interest lies in the teaching of Modern Greek in South African secondary schools. That is why we initially researched the South African and the Greek educational policies. In the first chapter we explored the social background on which contemporary South African educational policy is founded. In the Post–Apartheid society of this country, schools did not consist of students speaking the same language. As a result, one of the South African educational policy pursuits was the recognition and enhancement of multilingualism. This resulted from the social orientation towards respect of one’s right to be different. Within this framework, teaching Greek in the South African educational system as a second additional language, was established. This fact upgraded the position of the Greek language placing it amongst the South African educational subjects and offering to high school students a powerful motif to learn it, especially the ones of Greek origin. To the teaching of Greek in South Africa special consideration was given by both the Greek communities and the Greek government. This is the reason why we studied the Greek educational policy for the Greeks of the diaspora and why we examined the way in which this policy influences the teaching of the Greek language, in chapter two. Thus, we understood that the basic principles and the values promoted through the legislation of both countries, Greece and South Africa, as far as their teaching policies are concerned, coincide in showing respect to the human being. The right to be different is also a common value in both Greek and South African educational policies. Furthermore, there is no difference of methods to be followed, as far as the teaching of languages is concerned. Later though, analyzing the most recent Greek legislation on the diaspora education, we have noticed changes on the support of educational units. Thus, in fact, while the regulations regarding the support, both in equipment and by sending teacher to the diaspora, are maintained as far as South Africa is concerned, the support from the Greek government to the communities as such for the teaching of Greek became more limited.

This research investigated the effect of teaching text organisation on reading in English second language to schoolgirls. All subjects underwent a training programme of five one-hour sessions on consecutive school days. The experimental group were trained in the use and recognition of top-level organisation as a reading strategy, based on work done by Bartlett (1978) and Carrell (1985). The control group were trained in unrelated grammar exercises. A pre-test was administered to each group before their programme began. Post-test 1 was administered immediately after the training was completed, and Post-test 2, three weeks later. These tests required a written recall of two passages once they had been read, and an answer to a question on their organisation. The null hypotheses stated that the experimental group's training in the use and recognition of top-level organisation as a reading strategy would make no difference in their ability to read and recall information or to recognise and use top-level organisation in their recalls. For the quantity of information recalled, no differences were found in the Pre-test and Post-test 1; a statistically significant difference was found in Post-test 2 in favour of the experimental group. For the quality of information recalled, the control group remembered more top-level idea units in the Pre-test; there was no difference in Post-test 1; the experimental group did better in three out of five levels in Post-test 2. There was no difference in the Pretest in either group's use of the passage's top-level organisation to structure recalls, but the experimental group did better in both post-tests. The control group did better in the Pre-test in recognising the passage's top-level organisation, but the experimental group did better in both post-tests. The null hypotheses were rejected as the experimental training made a difference, although this difference only became apparent three weeks later, and not immediately after the training. The experimental group's nullifying the control group's Pre-test advantage in Post-test 1 and surpassing it in Post-test 2, powerfully supports Bartlett's and Carrell's findings that teaching the strategy did make a difference and that this effect could be maintained over three weeks

The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency of errors in English usage, punctuation, and spelling made by grade 12 students in the two paragraphs that each student wrote on the June, 1953, English 40 (Language) University Entrance examination in British Columbia. The errors were classified within each of fourteen major categories. These categories were further divided to give a total of seventy-four classes. In order to record specific errors some of the seventy-four classes were further subdivided to increase the number of classes to 104, excluding spelling errors. Furthermore an attempt was made to discover a relationship between the incidence of errors in English and certain factors that possibly may have been associated with such errors. These factors were: the student's (a) intelligence (scholastic ability); (b) sex; (c) socioeconomic status as determined by the father's occupation; (d) interest in English as determined by the student's choice of major subjects; (e) choice of topics on which the student wrote his paragraphs, and (f) choice of high school program: University or General. Furthermore, in order to determine the extent to which the number of words in the paragraphs might have influenced the number of errors, this writer found a relationship between the number of errors students made and (a) the number of words written on the two paragraphs on the examination, and (b) the number of words written on (i) the expository paragraph and (ii) the descriptive or narrative paragraph. By discovering the extent of the relationship between errors made in the paragraphs and the marks that teachers gave to the paragraphs, this investigator attempted to find out the degree to which markers took into consideration mechanical errors in English. On examining 599 paragraphs written by 300 grade 12 students, this writer found the number of words written and errors in usage, punctuation, and spelling as summarized in the table below. (Tables omitted) Students wrote the mean number of words and made the mean number of errors as shown in the following table. (Tables omitted) When one considers the fourteen main categories of errors, he finds that spelling and punctuation account for slightly more than two-thirds of the errors. If four other categories (capitalization, the apostrophe, omissions, misuse of quotation marks) are added to the punctuation and spelling, one finds that non-usage errors account for nearly 80 per cent of the total number of errors. Those errors ranking 1-7 account for nearly 93 per cent of all errors. Ten kinds of errors in punctuation accounted for 89.9 per cent of all such errors. By applying appropriate statistical analyses, this investigator attempted to determine the relationship between errors and the elements mentioned in the first paragraph. The writer found that the coefficient of correlation between errors and scholastic ability was .304. On both paragraphs boys made a mean of 16.73 errors and girls 13.41; t was found to be 3.12. For 293 degrees of freedom t is 2.59 at the 1 per cent level or less. Consequently, for t = 3.12, the hypothesis of no difference in the means can be rejected. The writer found that students whose fathers were in the professional, semi-professional, and managerial vocations made a mean of 11.17 errors, and students whose fathers were in the skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled vocations made 14.8. For 98 degrees of freedom t is 1.984 at th 5 per cent level. But for the means just given t is 2.062. Therefore the hypothesis of no difference can be rejected. If choice of majors is used as a criterion of interest, students who are primarily interested in English make fewer errors than those who are not. The former made a mean of 12.61 errors on both paragraphs; the latter, 14.00. For 267 degrees of freedom t is 1.969 at the 5 per cent level of significance; therefore the hypothesis of no difference in the means can be rejected. Turning to a consideration of errors made by University Programme students and those made by General Programme students, one finds that the former made a mean of 12.35 errors; the latter, 17.55. For 287 degrees of freedom t is 2.592 at the 1 per cent level of significance. One can therefore reject with considerable confidence the hypothesis of no difference in the means. That the number of errors on a paragraph does not increase directly as the number of words written is shown by the fact that the coefficient of correlation between the number of errors and the number of words written is .574. Consequently the use of the paragraph as a unit on which to base the numbers of errors need not invalidate the statistical analyses and inferences previously made. Finally, examiners probably took errors into consideration when they marked the paragraphs as the coefficient of correlation between errors and the marks the examiners gave the paragraphs was - .202, which is significant at the 1 per cent level. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

This study reports the spontaneous linguistic behaviour of three children acquiring French as a first language. The introductory chapter presents such information as the children's ages and the parents' linguistic background. In Chapter Two, the children's abilities to pose questions, make requests, and give commands are described. Chapter Three discusses the various negative speech actions that the children are able to perform, and the scope or range of each child's negation vocabulary. Chapter Four discusses the children's abilities to initiate, participate, and recognize linguistic play, that is, speech which is in direct contradiction with the facts and is not intended to be serious. Finally, the concluding chapter summarizes the study and points out its significant findings. / Arts, Faculty of / Linguistics, Department of / Graduate

This case history covers the progress of a pilot course for teaching English as an additional language to older people from the original concept to its evaluation and final acceptance for future implementation. A serious problem was observed to exist among the large number of older immigrants living in Canada who cannot speak or understand the English language. Many of these people had lived here for many years imprisoned in a 'language ghetto’ which allowed them to communicate only with those of their own race. The difficulties experienced by these individuals, as well as the impoverishment of Canadian culture engendered by their inability to communicate, constituted sufficient reason to explore the feasibility of designing a course to offer English language training specifically for them. A thorough study of all the current English language training courses in Vancouver, British Columbia, revealed a gap in the services available for this particular population. A review of the literature regarding learning and the older person disclosed nothing which might suggest that such an undertaking might prove abortive. The geographical locations -of ethnic populations who might be expected to register in such a course were charted, and a suitable community centre in which to hold the classes was selected. Promotional material was prepared and disseminated through mass media and other suitable outlets. The class was successfully launched and throughout its course careful records were kept including attendance, characteristics of participants, and anecdotes reflecting the acceptance of the course by those attending. The project firmly established the need for such courses for this group, and found that the overall format of the program was satisfactory and feasible. Recommendations for future courses were outlined, and an expansion of the pilot course was subsequently effectively implemented in Vancouver. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate