A quantitative study on the merits of using the learner's mother-tongue (instead of English) as a medium of instruction. This investigation attempts to find out how many schools and parents in KwaMakhutha implement (or know about) the Language in Education Policy in 1997 (LiEP). / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2006.

This thesis has a dual focus viz. language attitudes and code-switching behaviour of facilitators and learners in the Key Learning Area of Language, Literacy and Communication (LLC), in the senior phase (more specifically Grades 8 and 9), Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) classroom. The schools that form the basis of this study are an Afrikaans medium school (comprising predominantly Afrikaans native language (NL) speakers); an English medium school (comprising both English NL and Zulu NL speakers); and a school that claims to be an English medium school, but where, in reality, the language of learning and teaching (for its predominantly Zulu NL speakers) is English-Zulu CS. These schools were specifically selected because the linguistic ethos of each is distinctly different from each other and because each may be distinguished as exNED1, exHOD2 and exDET3 schools as a result of the separatist principles of the government prior to 1994. This study, firstly, investigates the attitudes of school stake-holders viz. educators, subject advisors, parent component of the school governing body (SGB) and Grade 8 and 9 learners, toward the three principal languages i.e. English, Afrikaans and isiZulu, offered for study at Kwazulu Natal (KZN) schools, more specifically in Port Shepstone, the lower south coast of KZN. It also investigates the attitudes of the school stake-holders toward code-switching (CS). The methods I employed in collecting the data for determining attitudes toward the three languages and CS between these languages are questionnaires and interviews. An analysis of the data reveals that, for the participants of this research: (i) English is the most prestigious and coveted language and is the preferred medium of instruction for English NL and Zulu NL speakers; (ii) Afrikaans and Zulu are both perceived as "low-languages" but are greatly valued by their respective indigenous speakers mostly because they endow them with a sense of identity; and (iii) Zulu is the preferred additional language by English NL speakers. In addition, an analysis of the data reveals that the participants have mixed attitudes toward CS: (i) a few see code-switching as a degenerative form of linguistic behaviour that hinders learning; (ii) a few perceive it positively with the view that it fulfills a variety of functions in both informal and formal domains; and (iii) most attach a neutral value to it, in that, depending on the 'wheres' and 'whys' and how often it is used, code-switching can either promote or hinder learning. This study shows that most of the participants of this study hold neutral views toward CS thus indicating a shift in attitudes toward this form of linguistic behaviour i.e. from mostly negative to neutral views. Secondly, in investigating whether CS is used in the LLC English (LLCE) [Ll], LLCE [L2], and LLC Afrikaans (LLCA) [L2] classrooms by means of lesson recordings, the data reveals that: (i) the facilitator of the LLCE [Ll] classroom of the English medium school does not make use of CS in her classroom but that the Zulu speaking learners use CS during group-work; (ii) the facilitator and learners of LLCE [L2] of the Afrikaans medium school do not make use of CS because it is proscribed at the school; (iii) the Zulu NL facilitator and learners of LLCE [L2] make use of English-Zulu CS; and (iv) the English NL speaking facilitators and learners of LLCA [L2] use Afrikaans-English CS, and the Zulu NL speaking facilitators and learners of LLCA [L2] use Afrikaans-English-Zulu CS as the medium of teaching and learning. This study also examines the forms and functions of English-Zulu CS, Afrikaans-English CS and Afrikaans-English-Zulu CS by bilingual and multilingual teachers and learners. An analysis of data obtained from lesson recordings reveals that the facilitators and learners engage in various forms of CS behaviour in their teaching and discussing, respectively. These forms are: intersentential switching, intrasentential switching, lexical switching and tag switching. Through an analysis of data obtained from the lesson recordings, this research also reveals that the use of CS fulfills social, psychological and pedagogical functions. Code-switching therefore claims a legitimate place as a teaching and learning agent in the LLC, senior phase, OBE classroom. As such, I argue that CS is not demonstrative of language incompetence, nor is it necessarily an interlanguage but a linguistic code that may be employed as a powerful teaching and learning resource by those who have the linguistic repertoire to do so. Finally, I explore the implications of this research for principals, teachers and SGB members, L2 teachers and teaching, and teaching methodology. I suggest that there is a need for the education role-players to engage in consciousness raising as the language policy documents clearly accord CS official status, particularly in the OBE curriculum, and more importantly, because CS is a reality in the classroom. In addition, I suggest that by employing CS in the teaching of languages, learning is enhanced, language communicative competence is promoted, and the achievement of the specific outcomes outlined for LLC by OBE curriculum are facilitated. Furthermore, in exploring the implications for methodology, I argue that CS can be used consciously, as a technique for teaching and learning. Lastly, I suggest that if the Department of Education is committed to promoting multilingualism among its learners, then it should make the necessary financial resources available to schools. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

The study aimed to investigate the reading life histories of two educators, focusing on how they were taught to read and came to understand reading, and how this understanding has shaped their teaching of reading in the classroom. Two language educators teaching English in the Intermediate and Senior Phase in a rural primary school in KwaZulu-Natal were chosen for this research. A life history approach was undertaken to gather rich data which was analysed and presented in a life history narrative. The research revealed that the participants’ educational development was severely affected by poverty, violence and the repercussions of apartheid, which all had a negative impact on their education. In spite of this, the participants’ were taught to value reading from an early age by concerned adults in their lives. These adults, although not highly educated themselves, actively instilled early reading habits in the participants, and tried to ensure that they were given the opportunity to be educated so that they could aspire to a better life. The participants’ experiences of learning to read and reading in primary school and high school gave them only a limited understanding of reading and reading practices. The tertiary institutions where they trained as teachers failed to equip them with adequate skills and strategies to teach reading well in their own classrooms. As a result, although both educators believe that they were well trained, they lack adequate strategies for truly effective development of reading in their classrooms. Consequently, they fail to facilitate sound reading skills in their learners, yet are not fully aware of the shortcomings in their own practice. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.

Language and literacy are of central importance to communication for most people in the world today. This case study investigates the language and literacy practices amongst African immigrant families in Pietermaritzburg. There are many immigrant families from different countries with different home languages and different backgrounds. This study examines the languages used in these different immigrant homes, and what factors lead to the choice of the languages. It investigates what literacy practices these families are engaged in. The study further examines the effects that the choice of languages used in these homes and the literacy practices engaged in have on the education of both the parents and their children. The literature reviewed for this study focused on six major themes on literacy, namely; (i) literacy as social practice, (ii) literacy networks, (iii) literacy domains, (iv) literacy events, (v) language, literacy acquisition and social identity and (vi) second language socialization. To collect the data necessary to for the study, three methods were used: group interviews, home observation and participant observation. Data was examined using Street’s ideological model of new literacy studies as theoretical framework. The findings for this study show that there are different languages used in each home but that the use of English is common in all the homes. The findings show that the literacy practices that these families are engaged in are similar despite coming from different countries. The study found that texts using cell phones play a major role during communication. This shows that electronic technology plays a vital role in both the children’s and adults’ language and literacy development. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2014.

This project sets out to outline the problems that are encountered by teachers in most black schools in South Africa, with regard to the language of instruction. In an attempt to cope with these problems teachers exercise their discretion, which often leads to them making policy. The language policy in education gives the learners a right to receive education in the official language or languages of their choice. The current situation in South Africa does not allow for the exercise of such a right. Black schools in rural areas, therefore, continue to choose English as the medium of instruction, although in actual practice Zulu becomes the main language that is used to get the lesson across the learners. Such a practice has both negative and positive effects on learners who attend these schools. To understand what actually happens in black schools with regard to policy implementation, I conducted interviews in two rural primary and one secondary schools near Pietermaritzburg. Information was elicited from teachers of Grade 1 to 10, members of the schools' governing bodies, as well as learners. It became evident from my study that the choice of mother tongue instruction will not be made in the near future despite the difficulties that are faced by the schools in teaching in the medium of English. The reasons for such a kind of situation are that the blacks have negative attitudes towards their languages, and the status of these languages lag far beyond that of English In brief, English is still the important language in education, government, economy and administration. There is no way the good language policy of 1996 will take root if nothing is done to change the present course of events. The black schools will continue to battle with teaching in English and in the process produce learners of poor quality. The study recommends that the government should undertake campaigns to improve and develop African languages such that they become the languages of instruction in schools and tertiary education institutions. The stakeholders in education could also cooperate in ensuring that the chosen medium of instruction is adhered to. This would minimise the problems that lead to partial or non implementation of the policy. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2001.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, 2003.

The South African Schools Act (1996) is now in place to allow the governing bodies to decide on language policies for their schools. This has come about as a means to redress the past situation whereby policies were imposed upon schools. The most affected groups of people were Africans since those policies were designed with the sole aim of undermining their home languages. The only two languages that were promoted at all cost were English and Afrikaans. These languages were also used as languages of learning and instructions. This had detrimental effects on the school results of black children as they could not cope to learn in a foreign or second language. Teachers also worked under tremendous pressure as they had to make an extra effort in trying to make learners understand difficult and new concepts. In an effort to redress these problems the new language policy under the new democratic South Africa recommends the use of a home language as a language of learning. It however remains to be investigated what attitudes the black educators have towards this policy as they are the ones who should implement it in their classrooms. This study set out to investigate the black educators' attitudes on the issue of the role of indigenous languages in education. The focus indigenous language of this study is isiZulu. This is due to the fact that the study was conducted in an isiZulu dominated area, that is in Durban in the region of KwaZulu-Natal. I wanted to ascertain what are the isiZulu-speaking teachers' attitudes on the role of isiZulu in society and in education. I investigated their attitudes on what languages should be used as languages of teaching and learning and at what levels. I also tried to understand what languages they would prefer to be offered as subjects. The data of this study were obtained mostly by means of questionnaires and verified through limited but structured interviews. The questionnaire had two sections: Respondents completed the first part of the questionnaire giving their personal details. These were needed to establish whether and to what extent they have an effect on teachers' attitudes. The rest of the questionnaire was directed at eliciting the educators' attitudes towards the role of African languages in education. This study has two main findings: First, it was found that the respondents generally favour the use of African languages in education. That is, the majority of respondents favoured the early introduction and continued use of isiZulu as a language of instruction. Second, some of their responses are self-contradictory to this attitude in that the teachers equally wanted English to be used early in education as well. Some of them envisaged a future where English will continue to dominate the lives of African people. There is a strong evidence of language shift from isiZulu to English. If the results of this study are anything to go by, then there are serious implications for the new language policy in education. The survival and success of any educational policy depends on the extent to which it is understood and embraced by the practitioners, in this case educators. Given my findings that most teachers are ambivalent about the new policy, the 'language in education' is in serious trouble. Based on collected data, it is clear that the teachers were not familiar with the new policy. The policy is likely to fail unless some intervention strategies are taken to address this problem. This made me to recommend that black educators (and parents in general) need to be given an awareness of the current language in education policy and what it attempts to redress. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2001.

This study explores the strategies implemented by grade one isiZulu Home Language (HL) teachers when teaching reading. One of the fundamental skills of education for learners involves the development of reading in the early stages of schooling. The CAPS document was recently introduced in order to help introduce teachers to a variety of explicit strategies in the teaching and assessment of reading. However, practitioner experience and research indicate that most teachers find it difficult to implement the strategies suggested for a variety of reasons. The study adopted the qualitative approach based on an interpretive approach. The objective of choosing the qualitative method for data collection was to get deeper insight into how teachers teach reading to learners. The strategies employed to gather data with efficiency and minimum bias involved the adoption of the semi-structured interview. This research used the semi-structured interviews with three grade one teachers in the Pinetown district as respondents. Research findings indicate that teachers have significant difficulties in implementing the reading strategies to achieve the levels of competencies as required by the CAPS document. The respondents in this research found that they were significantly challenged when it came to implementing the recommended CAPS strategies to learners. It was also observed that there are distinct gaps in the teaching of reading to learners in the foundation phase. Moreover, teachers struggled with the interpretation of the reading methods as laid out in the policy framework. In order to address these problems it is recommended that teachers in the schools be trained thoroughly on how to implement strategies recommended by the Department of Education as stipulated in the CAPS document. The respondents realized that they needed extensive knowledge and specialised skills which were not offered during the training. All the three teachers taught the different aspects of the language in isolation, and not in the integrated approach as espoused in the CAPS. The findings also suggest that support from school management in mentoring is required to assist teachers to implement the strategies with efficiency and understanding. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2013.

South Africa has undergone many political changes since the apartheid era. A recent one has included the adoption of a new language-in-education policy recommending, among other things, the use of African indigenous languages as languages of learning and teaching (LOLT). The country has moved into a system in which learners and schools are entitled to choose their preferred LOLT. However, there have been few concrete changes to accommodate this choice. In particular, the above language-in-education policy has not yet been adequately implemented in schools. This study investigates learners', educators' and parents' attitudes towards the use of English or /and isiZulu as the medium of learning and teaching in Durban in KwaZulu-Natal province. I ascertain if there are similarities and differences, if any, in the responses of the three groups of stakeholders from two secondary schools. I also demonstrate the implications of the attitudes of these stakeholders for the implementation of the current language-in-education policy. Lastly, I make recommendations that will assist language policy makers regarding the current language-in-education policy. The study shows that there are mixed feelings regarding the LOLT issue. It was found that the respondents largely favour the use of English as the medium of instruction, yet some of the responses are self-contradictory, in that they simultaneously want isiZulu to be used as early as grade 1 as LOLT. Most respondents still envisage a future where English will continue to have political, educational, social and economic power over isiZulu. There is thus an urgent need for the Department of Education to review the current language-in-education policy and address issues that might be hindering its implementation. The policy is likely to fail unless some intervention strategies are taken to address these problems. It is hoped that this study will help to highlight issues that can be further investigated in this area. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2004.

Early Childhood Development (ECD) programmes are important in the promotion of intellectual development and school readiness in children. Equally important is the opportunity to learn in one‟s mother tongue. This study aimed to determine the value of using the multilingual television series Takalani Sesame as a Life Skills educational resource in specific South African schools, amongst Grade One learners. The focus lay on researching a possible mechanism for allowing children who had not attended quality ECD programmes to „catch up‟ in terms of knowledge they may be lacking, as well as providing a form of mother tongue instruction to African learners in schools where the language of instruction is English. A field experiment and a reception study were carried out at a primary school in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Two groups of twelve Grade One learners (from two different Grade One classes at the same school) were included in this research, which spanned a period of 6 months. The children in the test group watched a television series of Takalani Sesame (with guided viewing) and completed related activities including post viewing and homework activities. The children in the control group were not shown the series at school. Both groups were administered the same questionnaire both pre- and post-test in order to determine changes in Life Skills related learnt data. Other research methods included participant observation, focus group discussions, interviews with parents/caregivers and interviews with educators. These used Social Cognitive Theory as their basis, taking constructs that impact on behaviour change, such as modelling, outcome expectancies and behavioural capabilities into account. The research included a large focus on interpersonal communication between researcher and learner, and caregiver and learner, plus a concentration on the children‟s knowledge of and attitudes surrounding HIV/AIDS. Results showed satisfactory levels of attention to the series, as well as high levels of engagement with and enjoyment of the series. Levels of identification with characters were also noted to be high, increasing the possibilities of learning and behaviour change taking place. Decoding of messages was, for the most part, in line with the intentions of the producers, although oppositional readings, erroneous and creative decoding were also noted in some instances. The guided viewing component did well to increase levels of attention to the episode as well as allow for erroneously decoded messages to be corrected almost immediately. Positive changes in learnt data in the Life Skills areas of HIV/AIDS, Nutrition and Safety and Security were identified and these were noted to be impacted on by the homework activities which were included in the intervention to promote parent/caregiver-child communication. The research intervention was deemed to be a success in the selected school, and could possibly be recommended for use in similar South African primary schools where learners are taught in a language which is not their mother tongue. Possible areas for future related research were outlined. This research study contributes to the body of Entertainment Education (EE) research by identifying a new and valuable application for an EE intervention in the South African setting. This highlights the important aspects of localisation, in the South African context, promoting mother tongue learning and ECD. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.