M.Ed. (Curriculum Studies) / Many changes are taking place in our country. One aspect that must be emphasized, is provision for proper education. The demands on our country and its citizens, necessitate change in education. In South Africa there are still many defects concerning education. There are for example many uncertainties about curriculum, and attempts are made to eliminate defects in syllabi. One of the curricula concerned, is that of Afrikaans First Language. Due to current changes multi-cultural schools have been founded. Thus the curriculum must change in order to accommodate everybody. A new and better curriculum for Afrikaans First Language will have to be brought about to benefit all mother tongue speakers of Afrikaans. This study clearly shows that a relevant first language curriculum is necessary for Afrikaans First Language. This study will point out that certain needs exist among learners and teachers of Afrikaans First Language, which can contribute towards a new and better Afrikaans First Language curriculum. A literature study has been done on curriculum design. Here is shown what a curriculum is and what curriculum design entails. This is done according to the design principle and is carried into effect in first language teaching. There is concluded that Afrikaans First Language must be conceptualised and that attention must be given to subject matter.

No description available.

Magister Artium (Psychology) - MA(Psych) / South Africa's Language-in-Education Policy is one of additive multilingualism, but in reality this policy is not adhered to, in that most black children are being educated through the medium of English from Grade 4. This type of instruction affects the development of academic language proficiency in their primary language, as these children are not engaging in cognitively demanding tasks in their primary or first language. The Woodcock Muñoz Language Survey (WMLS) is a test to assess academic language proficiency in Additive Bilingual Education, and is extensively used in the United States of America (USA) for this purpose. It is important to note that the proposed study is a sub-study of a larger study, in which the original WMLS (American-English version) was adapted into English and Xhosa, to be used in South Africa to assess additive bilingual programmes. For this sub-study, the researcher was interested in examining the overall equivalence of the adapted English version of the WMLS. Owing to insufficient tests evaluating academic language proficiency in the South African context, the significance, as well as the overall aim, of the study is to ensure that the issues of group difference and item bias have been assessed to ensure that the adapted English version of the WMLS is suitable to be used across English first-language and Xhosa first-language speakers. Because this is a sub-study, the researcher (of the sub-study) has conducted an exploratory quantitative study with the use of Secondary Data. The researcher has used the framework of equivalence as a theoretical framework in order to examine the research question. Given the use of existing data, the procedures of the collection of the data by the researcher of the larger study have been outlined in the Methodology section of the present study. The sample consisted of 198 English and 197 Xhosa first-language speakers. / South Africa

This dissertation provides evidence to suggest that teaching/learning difficulties with geography in Std 3 are largely attributable to textbooks which fail as well constructed discourse and include uninterpretable illustrations. The discourse properties most likely to affect the readability of textbooks intended for ESL/EFL pupils are identified. Selected passages from two widely used Std 3 geography textbooks are analysed in terms of these properties, and are shown to fail extensively as well constructed discourse. Following classroom observation and informal interviews which confirmed the inappropriacy of the texts for Std 3 pupils, the passages were re-written, following the necessary properties of well constructed expository discourse. The readability of these two sets of texts was then tested on a group of nine Std 3 teachers in two structured interviews. The findings reveal that the re-written passages are significantly more readable than the textbook passages. Recommendations that affect education authorities, curriculum designers, syllabus makers, textbook authors, publishers and teacher training colleges are provided

This study is about the analysis of perceptions and attitudes concerning the study of isiXhosa at tertiary level Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) in Port Elizabeth. The objective of this study is to investigate negative attitudes of African students with special reference to isiXhosa. Chapter One looks at the objectives of the research, the research problem, and its theoretical framework, as well as the literature review, the significance of the study, the research methods and definition of terms. Chapter Two deals with language planning and the current negative attitudes towards African languages, with special reference to isiXhosa. Chapter Three deals with status planning, the teaching of isiXhosa, language maintenance and multilingual education policy. Chapter Four discusses corpus planning, the role that Xhosa educators and students should play in the development of the language. Chapter Five discusses acquisition planning, the attitudes towards isiXhosa language and the maintenance of the language. Chapter Six concludes the study by presenting the summary and recommendations for the future research.

Orientador: Anna Regina Lanner de Moura / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Educação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-24T09:40:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Nakamura_EricaMitsue_M.pdf: 1522924 bytes, checksum: 6b41f87480f7d0fe029e4186857bfe65 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / Resumo: As práticas pedagógicas instituídas na cultura escolar, em sua maior parte, consideram os conceitos como algo fixo em um plano abstrato, com uma essência a ser apropriada pelos alunos de maneira gradativa. Mesmo os professores denominados polivalentes, que atuam nos anos iniciais do Ensino Fundamental, acabam reproduzindo a disciplinarização do conhecimento, característica dos anos finais e do Ensino Médio. Desconstruir essa cultura é o objetivo da problematização indisciplinar de práticas socioculturais, inspirada na segunda fase do pensamento filosófico de Wittgenstein. O presente trabalho insere-se em um projeto didático de integração disciplinar, chamado de Projeto Integrado (PI), formado por três disciplinas do curso de Pedagogia de uma universidade pública, que tratam dos fundamentos do ensino de Ciências, de Matemática e do estágio supervisionado. Neste contexto, esta pesquisa busca compreender que usos estudantes-futuros professores fazem da problematização indisciplinar de práticas socioculturais em seus campos de estágio e/ou em uma disciplina do curso de Pedagogia; mais especificamente, que usos da relação teoria-prática são mobilizados neste contexto. O corpus da pesquisa foi constituído por meio de observação participante especialmente em uma das disciplinas (mas também em momentos coletivos do Projeto Integrado), por registros videografados das aulas, narrativas produzidas pelos estudantes e entrevistas semi-estruturadas. A análise deste corpus foi realizada tendo como inspiração as noções de terapia filosófica de Wittgenstein e de desconstrução de Derrida, compondo um movimento de terapia gramatical desconstrutiva. / Absctract: The majority of pedagogical practices instituted in the school culture considers concepts as having some kind of essence to be gradually appropriated by the students, thus becoming something fixed at an abstract level. Even polyvalent teachers, working with the first grades of elementary school, end up reproducing disciplinary knowledge, characteristic of the final grades and of high school. To deconstruct this culture is the purpose of indisciplinary problematization of sociocultural practices, inspired by the philosophical thought of Wittgenstein¿s second phase of its development. This study was developed in a didactic project involving disciplinary integration, called Projeto Integrado (Integrated Project), comprised of three disciplines of the Pedagogy course at a public university. These disciplines encompass math teaching, natural sciences teaching and supervised internship. In this context, the present research aims to comprehend which uses future teachers make of the indisciplinary problematization of sociocultural practices in their internships and/or in a discipline of Pedagogy course. More specifically, we are interested in seeing how they apply the relation theory-practice. Research corpus was constituted by participant observation especially in one of the disciplines, but also in common activities of Integrated Project, by video registers of the course, narratives written by the students and semi-structured interviews. The analysis was inspired by Wittgenstein¿s notion of philosophical therapy and Derrida¿s notion of deconstruction, resulting in a deconstructive grammar therapy. / Mestrado / Ensino de Ciencias e Matematica / Mestra em Multiunidades em Ensino de Ciências e Matemática

Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-01T18:24:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao_luciene_santos.pdf: 3436567 bytes, checksum: e3944dbd5f05d5c9c76118cf9b73e418 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-12-21 / Distance learning (ODL) has been seen by public universities as an important modality to promote the internalization and democratization of higher education. In this sense, the Federal Government has invested heavily in creation and maintenance of distance learning courses. In this development there are several aspects that need to be considered in offering a course in modality, among them we highlight the teaching resources to be available, in particular, the teaching material printed. In this sense, in this present research, carried out a study on the production of textual materials for distance education, focusing especially the teaching material printed once a there is a demand for the production of these institutions. Therefore, as a general objective is to offer subsidies to author teacher s that the help to make the text production of printed educational resource. Thus, were established the following specific objectives: to identify the author teacher s conception of language; the linguistic strategies used by them in textual production and verify the receptivity of a particular type of teaching material next to the students and identify the main demands of the students towards the material printed. The research was based on the analysis of teaching materials commonly used in distance learning courses, interviews, tests preference applied with students, author teachers and pedagogical coordination of courses in ODL of Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco. The work includes, above all, the textual linguistics and the prospects sociointeractionists and sociocognitivist as a theoretical basis. At the end of the research, some possibilities are indicated for the elaboration of texts appropriate to the modality. The results achieved can expand our studies in language, in line with the issues linked to the technological context / A educação a distância (EAD) tem sido visualizada pelas universidades públicas como uma modalidade importante para promover a interiorização e democratização do ensino público superior. Nesse sentido, o Governo Federal tem investido fortemente na criação, expansão e manutenção de cursos a distância. No bojo desse desenvolvimento há diversos aspectos que precisam ser considerados na oferta de um curso na modalidade, dentre eles destaca-se os recursos didáticos a serem disponibilizados, em especial, o material didático no formato impresso. Nesse sentido, na presente pesquisa, realiza-se um estudo sobre a produção textual de materiais didáticos para educação a distância, focando, sobretudo, o material didático impresso uma vez que existe uma demanda das instituições pela produção destes. Assim, como objetivo geral, tem-se oferecer aos professores autores subsídios que o auxiliem a realizar a produção textual do recurso pedagógico impresso. Para tanto, foram estabelecidos os seguintes objetivos específicos: identificar a concepção de linguagem dos professores autores; as estratégias lingüísticas utilizadas por eles na produção textual; verificar a receptividade de determinado tipo de material didático junto aos alunos e identificar as principais demandas dos alunos em relação ao material impresso. A pesquisa teve como base a análise de materiais didáticos comumente utilizados em cursos a distância, entrevistas e testes de preferência aplicados com alunos, professores autores e coordenação pedagógica de cursos de EAD da Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco. O trabalho contempla, sobretudo, a linguística textual e as perspectivas sociointeracionista e sociocognitivista como base teórica. Ao final da pesquisa, indicam-se algumas possibilidades para a elaboração de textos adequados à modalidade. Os resultados aqui alcançados poderão ampliar os estudos na área de linguagem, em sintonia com as questões atreladas ao contexto tecnológico

Thesis advisor: C. Patrick Proctor / Traditionally strict language separation policies in dual language bilingual education (DLBE) programs reflect parallel monolingualism and have been criticized as failing to recognize the sociolinguistic realities of bilingual students (García & Lin, 2017). To leverage bilingual learners’ full linguistic repertoires as resources, this study explored how Sánchez, García, and Solorza’s (2018) translanguaging allocation policy could be strategically and purposefully designed in a third grade Mandarin/English DLBE classroom where the majority of the students were English-dominant speakers. Taking the form of participatory design research (Bang & Vossoughi, 2016), I (as a researcher) and a Mandarin teacher worked together to co-design translanguaging documentation, translanguaging rings, and translanguaging transformation spaces across different content areas – Chinese Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies. During the process, we also engaged in equitable forms of dialogue and listening to openly discuss, negotiate, and develop our translanguaging co-stance in iterative ways. Data collection included classroom and design meeting recordings, observational field notes, and teacher and students’ artifacts and interviews throughout the school year of 2018-19. Inductive and deductive coding were adopted for data analysis. Findings revealed that translanguaging pedagogies took many shapes based on contextual factors, such as the different pedagogical purposes and curricular demands across content areas. Students were able to develop deeper content understandings, build cross-linguistic connections, and develop their bi/multilingual identities and critical consciousness in those flexible bilingual spaces. Findings also demonstrated that the ideological (re)negotiation between the researcher and the teacher was a bumpy and discursive journey, replete with tensions, confusions, and difficult conversations. Overall, it was a balancing act to create translanguaging spaces while maintaining the language-minoritized (Mandarin) space and privileging students’ use of Mandarin given the societal dominance of English. This study provides implications for new theoretical and pedagogical understandings of translanguaging, and suggests that researcher-teacher collaboration provides a promising way to generate evidence-based, practitioner-informed, and context-appropriate knowledge for DLBE curricular and pedagogical improvements. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

Includes bibliographical references. / An hypothesised relationship between levels of proficiency in English of ESL (English as a Second Language) students and the approaches to learning which they adopt, in situations in which English is the language of instruction, is the focus of this study. An attempt was made to identify the extent to which students, who are required to learn in a second language, adopt undesirable approaches to learning as a consequence of linguistic or cultural factors. Such students appear to adopt reproductive strategies to pass examinations and retain only isolated pieces of information for practical application. In a sense, they graduate but remain unqualified. Quantitative responses of 307 students, relating to their contextualised perceptions of the demands of the learning situation, were gathered and analysed using a learning approach categorisation procedure. Qualitative responses of 120 students, relating to their descriptions of the context and content of learning, were gathered in semi-structured interviews to supplement and enrich the quantitive data collected. Levels of proficiency in the language of instruction were measured using integrative tests of comprehension of spoken discourse and written texts presented in actual lecture situations. Students were given the opportunity to rate the lectures and reading material from which they were expected to learn and self-esteem was measured as a construct considered likely to affect perceptions of the demands of the learning situation. Concurrently with the above, a group of students from each of 3 year groups was taught a new topic over a short series of lectures and tested for understanding in the language of instruction. Balanced groups, from each of the 3 year groups, were taught the same topic and tested for understanding in the mother-tongue. This procedure was subsequently replicated with a second topic of similar complexity, across all three year groups, with languages switched. Critical aspects of the teaching/learning situation were kept constant. These procedures provided compelling evidence, after analysis of quantitative and qualitative data, of a relationship between proficiency in the language of instruction and the ways in which students engage in learning tasks. Difficulty with the language of instruction appears to increase the demands of the learning situation and the likelihood of adopting reproducing strategies, which are not normally associated with success in terms of learning outcomes.

Thesis (Ph. D.(Translation and Linguistics Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2017 / This thesis assesses the use of Northern Sotho as an official language in the Capricorn and Mopani District Municipalities of Limpopo Province. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa stipulates clearly that all eleven official languages are equal. The study argues that Northern Sotho, as one of the 11 official languages of the Republic of South Africa, deserves to be treated with respect. It (the study) has shown that Northern Sotho is currently not enjoying the proper status that is afforded to it by the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (1996). The business world does not make use of Northern Sotho as it is regarded as an inferior language which is associated uneducated people. Furthermore, the study has discovered that many of the public and private sector companies communicate with their employees and members of the public in English, while most of these employees and members lack the necessary linguistic proficiency. Information that is directed to employees and members of the public only serves the purpose if it is distributed to them in the languagethat they best understand. The main factor with regard to the use of Northern Sotho in all spheres of life is that many Northern Sotho speakers feel ashamed of speaking the language, particularly in public. This is not surprising because many, mainly educated African people, despise their indigenous languages because they consider them backward, inferior and under-developed. English is still used as a dominant language. The researcher drew on theories of scholars such as Piaget, Laswell, Weaver and Schramm to ground this study. Ethnolinguistic vitality theory is also considered as the study of minority languages and more specifically, Northern Sotho, involves language vitality issues. The researcher has used qualitative research methodology designed through document analysis, observations and individual interviews. Research findings confirm that the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (1996) indicates that all the 11 official languages should be used in all spheres of life with equal regard and consideration. This implies, among others, the entrenchment of the right of learners and students to be taught in the language that they best understand. The 12 participants from Capricorn and the 12 from Mopani Districtv Municipalities stated that the use of English should not be tampered with. All the other remaining respondents concurred that Northern Sotho should be granted its rightful status in all official communication. Northern Sotho was found to have linguistic vitality in that majority of Capricorn and Mopani District Municipalities’ residents are Northern Sotho speakers who deserve to be afforded their constitutional right to be served in the medium of Northern Sotho as their indigenous language of choice