No description available.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study investigated the comprehension and production of articles, quantifiers, binding relations and passive constructions as later developing constructions (LDCs) by 27 Grade (Gr) 1 monolingual Afrikaans-speaking learners with Afrikaans as language of learning and teaching (LOLT), 31 bilingual isiXhosa-speaking learners with English as LOLT and 31 monolingual isiXhosa-speaking learners with isiXhosa as LOLT in three non-fee-paying schools, each in a different low socio-economic status area, in the Stellenbosch area of the Western Cape Province in South Africa. The overarching aim of this study was to determine which LDCs these learners are capable of comprehending and producing at the start of Gr 1 and what progress they make in terms of these LDCs during their Gr 1 year. The English and isiXhosa LOLT groups were then compared on how they fared on the LDCs in their respective LOLTs in order to ascertain whether the English language proficiency of the English group is at such a level at the start of Gr 1 that they can, without disadvantage, undergo schooling successfully in English. Data were collected on articles, binding relations, quantifiers and passive constructions by using the informal language assessment instrument, the Receptive and Expressive Activities for Language Therapy (Southwood & Van Dulm 2012a), which makes use of picture selection- and pointing tasks for assessment of comprehension and sentence completion, picture description- and question answering tasks for assessment of production. The results showed that for the Afrikaans and English groups all four LDCs are indeed later developing and are only mastered after the end of Gr 1. For the isiXhosa group, quantifiers and passive production are mastered by the end of Gr 1. In terms of the language-in-education and teaching policy, the results show that the time allocated to listening to and producing language in Gr 1 is sufficient for children whose first language is also their LOLT, whereas it is not sufficient in the case of English additional language learners. The latter group made significant progress in all LDCs assessed, but still performed worse than their isiXhosa-speaking peers, for whom there was a match between first language and LOLT. The implication of the results are that (i) the Foundation Phase school curriculum should be refined so as to consider the needs of all Gr 1 learners, as learners enter Gr 1 with different language skills and different levels of preparation for the tasks which lie before them, (ii) teachers should be assisted to foster the development of language skills in additional language learners, and (iii) the institution of a universal Gr R year, which is free to those who cannot afford school fees, should be considered a necessity. Without ensuring that all children enter Gr 1 with an adequate language foundation on which literacy development can build, historical inequalities still present in South Africa will likely be perpetuated rather than systematically removed. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie ondersoek die begrip en produksie van lidwoorde, kwantifiseerders, bindingsverhoudings en passiefkonstruksies as later-ontwikkelende konstruksies (LOKs) deur Graad 1 (Gr 1)-leerders. Die deelnemers was 27 eentalige Afrikaanssprekendes met Afrikaans as taal van leer en onderrig (TLO), 31 tweetalige isiXhosa-sprekendes met Engels as TLO en 31 eentalige isiXhosa-sprekendes met isiXhosa as TLO, in drie nie-skoolfondsbetalende skole, elk in 'n ander area met lae sosio-ekonomiese status in die Stellenbosch-omgewing in die Wes-Kaap Provinsie van Suid-Afrika. Die oorkoepelende doel van hierdie studie was om te bepaal watter LOKs hierdie leerders in staat is om te verstaan en te produseer aan die begin van Gr 1 en watter vordering hulle in terme van hierdie LOKs maak tydens hul Gr 1-jaar. Die Engelse en isiXhosa TLO-groepe is vergelyk in terme van hoe hulle gevaar het op die LOKs in hul onderskeie TLOs, ten einde vas te stel of die Engels-taalvaardighede van die Engelse TLO-groep op so 'n vlak aan die begin van Gr 1 is dat hulle sonder benadeling hul skoolopleiding suksesvol in Engels kan ontvang. Data is ingesamel oor lidwoorde, bindingsverhoudings, kwantifiseerders en passiefkonstruksies met die informele taalassesseringsinstrument, die Reseptiewe en Ekspressiewe Aktiwiteite vir Later-ontwikkelende Taalvaardighede (Southwood & Van Dulm 2012a), wat gebruik maak van prentseleksietake vir die assessering van taalbegrip en van sinsvoltooiings-, prentbeskrywings- en vraagbeantwoordingstake vir die assessering van taalproduksie. Die resultate het aangetoon dat al vier LOKs wel later ontwikkelend is vir die Afrikaanse en Engelse TLO-groepe en slegs bemeester word ná die einde van Gr 1. Vir die isiXhosa-groep is kwantifiseerders en passiefproduksie teen die einde van Gr 1 bemeester. Gegee die taal-in-onderwys- en onderrigbeleid toon die resultate dat die tyd wat toegeken is aan die ontwikkeling van luister- en taalproduksievaardighede in Gr 1 voldoende is vir kinders wie se eerste taal ook hul TLO is, terwyl dit onvoldoende is in die geval van Engels Addisionele Taalleerders. Laasgenoemde groep het beduidende vordering gemaak oor hul Gr 1-jaar in alle LOKs, maar het steeds swakker gevaar as hul isiXhosa-sprekende eweknieë wie se eerste taal en TLO ooreenstem. Die implikasies van die resultate is (i) dat die grondslagfase-skoolkurrikulum verfyn behoort te word met inagname van alle Gr 1-leerders se taalbehoeftes, omdat leerders Gr 1 betree met verskillende taalvaardigheidsvlakke asook verskillende vlakke van voorbereiding vir die take wat voorlê in Gr 1, (ii) dat onderwysers gehelp moet word om die ontwikkeling van taalvaardighede vir Addisionele Taal-leerders te bevorder, en (iii) dat die instelling van 'n universele Gr R-jaar, gratis vir diegene wat nie skoolfonds kan bekostig nie, as noodsaaklik beskou behoort te word. As daar nie verseker word dat alle kinders Gr 1 betree met ‘n voldoende taalbasis waarop geletterdheidsontwikkeling kan bou nie, sal historiese ongelykhede, steeds teenwoordig in Suid-Afrika, waarskynlik eerder voortgesit as stelselmatig verwyder word.

published_or_final_version / English Studies / Master / Master of Arts

This thesis explains the "systematic" refinement of Kenneth Burke's theoretical process through his development of a theological paradigm for the dramatistic vocabulary. It describes the merging metaphysical and dialectical issues in Burke's critical thought and locates a theoretical shift in A Grammar of Motives, where Burke posits the prototype for his key term, "act." The study then interprets the formal treatment of the prototype in The Rhetoric of Religion: Studies in Logology, and demonstrates how the derived paradigm maintains and advances the convergence of metaphysics and dialectics, and how it reestablishes the interaction between language structure and usage in two types of definition or explanation (temporal-logical, narrative-tautological). This thesis also describes the purpose and functional range of Logology.

<p>The concept of community development is founded on the premise that changes in the living conditions of people are best effected by the people themselves. The term community evokes the idea of a homogeneous social group who can recognise their common interests and work together harmoniously for their common good. The concerns of the leading development agents and donors in the past two decades have been on empowering communities to participate in their own development by taking control of decisions and initiatives that seek to improve their living conditions. The zeal to address these concerns has in the past decade been pushed with such resounding statements that people&rsquo / s participation in development projects has not only been seen as a basic human right, but also as an imperative condition for human survival. It has been strongly argued in the UNDP reports that the overall development strategy is to enable people to gain access to a much broader range of opportunities.</p> <p><br /> From this perspective, development as a social activity seeks to ensconce economic liberalisation, freedom of association, good governance and access to free market economy as the guiding tenets of an improved life in all communities in the world. The realization of this dream posed a major challenge to many governments in the Third World and the 1980s saw the emergence of &lsquo / associational revolution&rsquo / &ndash / the proliferation of small-scale non governmental organizations (NGOs) with relative autonomy from the state. The mainstream development agencies perceived the NGOs as the best instruments to instigate changes in the living conditions of the poor and the disadvantaged people. For this reason, NGOs became increasingly instrumental in implementing development objectives in the rural and disadvantaged communities. Development in this sense consists of processes in which various groups are stimulated to improve aspects of their lives particularly by people from outside their community. This has drawn attention to how these outsider- development agents communicate development information particularly due to the sociolinguistic situation in many rural African communities. The real concern is with is that the target majority of the people in the rural areas are not speakers of the dominant languages of the development discourse, in most cases this is the official foreign languages taught in schools.</p> <p><br /> Communication is a fundamental part in community development programmes and language emerges as a key factor in effective communication and implementation of these programmes. While it is evident that social interactions are sustained by agreeable communicative principles, the role of language and the different mode of communication applied to development interventions have received very little attention from the parties concerned. This has yielded detrimental repercussions in the quality of interaction at the grassroots level. More often than not, it is assumed that once there is a common language, effective communication will take place and for this reason language use and mode of communication are never given much thought in the field of development interaction.</p>

No description available.

M.A. (African Languages) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

A Research Report submitted to Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Science. Johannesburg July 2016. / The study reported in this research report was motivated by the continuous poor performance by South African learners in physical sciences. This poor performance is evidenced by the below expectations year in, year out grade 12 physical science final examinations results. Several factors may be contributing to this poor performance such as lack of resources (both financial and human resources), overcrowding, ineffective teaching methods, and the language of teaching and learning. The assertion for this study was that teacher’s oral classroom instructional language impacts on learning of classroom science. The study, hence investigated how South African physical science teachers use their oral instructional language to enhance the understanding of science concepts. The raw data was gathered through naturalistic observation and video recording of physical science lessons by two participant South African physical science teachers drawn from two different high schools located in the Gauteng Province. The two school were chosen on the basis of their matric results that are also below average. Follow up educator interviews were also conducted and video recorded. The videos of the lesson observations and educator interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed. The study revealed that the participant educators were not explaining the meanings of all technical and non-technical words that were used in the observed lessons. Teachers did not distinguish between the everyday meanings and scientific meanings of non-technical words used. Participant educators did not seek and make use of the participant learners’ pre-instructional meanings of non-technical words to help learners understand better the new scientific meanings of these words. One of the participant educators did not engage learners in the ongoing lesson talk. The findings of this study will sensitise physical science teachers to important role of their oral instructional language to successful learning of science concepts in the classroom. This might help in ensuring science teachers use their oral instructional language effectively to enhance understanding of science concepts, by adopting teaching approaches that facilitate shared meanings of vocabulary used in science classrooms. Key words: technical and non-technical words, instructional language, science language. / LG2017

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Master’s Degree in Science Education May 2016 / Studies have revealed that the teacher’s science classroom language plays a critical role in learners’ understanding of science concepts. The quality of the teacher’s science language impacts on the quality of learning. Learners encounter difficulties with the science classroom language irrespective of whether they are first or second language speakers of the language of instruction. The difficulty of the science language is mainly due to words having different meanings in science as compared to their everyday meanings, and also the foreignness of some science words (Oyoo, 2012). The language in science is therefore distinct from everyday language. In the South African context, the strategies to improve the quality of science education in secondary schools have not included the language. This study focus on the quality of the teachers’ science language in physical science classrooms. In this study data was collected by means of lesson observations of participant teachers followed by interview of one of the participant teacher. Two teachers participated in the study, and both teachers were from the same school. One teacher was teaching grade 10 physical science and the other teacher was teaching grade 11 physical science. Content analysis was used to analyse both lesson observation and interview transcripts. The findings from the lesson observation revealed that participant teachers overlooked explanation of some technical words as well as some non-technical words used in science context. The interview with one of the teachers showed an unawareness of the difficulty of the science language as he pointed that there was little difference between the science language and everyday language. The study recommends that there should be teacher development programmes dealing specifically with the language problem in science. / M T 2016

A thesis submitted to the faculty of arts, University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. Johannesburg, 1991. / Literacy includes both the ability to read and to spell. Yet until recently, and despite its importance, there has been less research on spelling than on reading. Perhaps this was because writing as a linguistic skill was considered in a marginal way as secondary to, and derivative from, speech. It was conceptualised as a photograph of spoken language (de Saussure, 1916), or as a code of transcription (Luria, 1970) with spelling presumed to be based on inner pronunciation of the phonic (sound) forms of the spoken language. Cognitive researchers were slow to recognise that written language is neither a complete isomorph of the spoken Language (Gelb,1963),nor a process of reading-in-reverse (Bradley and Bryant, 1979; Bradley, 1983), but rather, is a complex and autonomous system of representation, both of the deeper lexical-morphemic levels of language (Venezky,1970; Ellis, 1982), as well as of the mappings of phonology. As such, spelling proficiency is a highly complex intellectual achievement in its own right, and is worthy of psycholinguistic interest in the same way as other language-based skills, such as speech perception, speech production and reading comprehension. [Abbreviated Abstract. Open document to view full version] / GR2017