Thesis (MA (African Languages))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / This study is concerned with a task-based analysis of specific purposes Sesotho learning tasks for the learning and teaching of Sesotho as a second language by personnel of the small business development corporation. A range of authentic tasks in Sesotho has been constructed to demonstrate authentic specific purpose learning and teaching, and hence assessment tasks for personnel in the small business development corporation.

Text in English / One of the critical challenges associated with migration is a need to acquire a destination language, which has never been an easy experience for immigrants. This study aims at exploring and analysing experiences of Malawian immigrant labourers in their process of acquiring spoken skills of isiZulu in Durban. In order to understand the phenomenon under investigation better, this study used a qualitative research approach and adopted a phenomenological research design. The data for this study was collected using semi structured one-to-one interviews. The data were analysed using content analysis method and was approached and discussed in light of Schumann‟s (1986) Acculturation Model and frame works and a destination–language acquisition model of Chiswick and Miller (2001). Empirical findings from this study have shown that adults; just like children, are also capable of mastering a second language if they can manage both social and psychological factors that impede acquisition. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / M. A. (Linguistics)

The purpose of this research was to explore the ways in which a small, purposefully sampled group of Grade One isiXhosa-speaking children began the process of becoming literate in English as their second language. The research looked specifically for evidence of strategic behaviours in reading and writing which, according to Clay (200 I, 2005), form the foundation for self-extending systems and have the potential to accelerate learning. The research was guided by the principles of Clay's early intervention Reading and Writing Recovery. By Clay's definition, self-extending systems are literacy processing systems that work, that is, they enable children to continue to learn to read by reading and to write by writing. Within this context, the research explored the role of oral language in learning to read and write in English. Consideration was given to the potential for transfer of the principles that underlie Reading Recovery to South African mainstream classrooms in an attempt to raise literacy outcomes for all. This is a particularly urgent need in South Africa where many attempts to tum around poor trajectories of literacy learning do not seem to have the desired long term effects. The results of the research showed that the children began to actively engage in their English literacy learning within a network of strategies, primarily motivated by making meaning of their texts. The findings of the research suggested that a mismatch of needs and instructional procedures was evident here in this formative stage of second language literacy learning. The results suggested that children who were already educationally at risk for a multitude of reasons, were being set back even further by instructional approaches that were unresponsive to their linguistic needs.