The context for this study is the period leading up to and the four years since the first democratic elections in South Africa in 1994. It is a critical exploration of black students' responses to university discourses as they begin their degrees, and an analysis of the extent to which Critical Language Awareness can be used to facilitate a greater understanding of institutional conventions and practices. It includes a brief consideration of students' school experiences and then explores their perceptions of the university as a whole as well as of individual texts. The way in which language encodes asymmetrical power relations and is used to construct students' subjectivities within the institution is of central concern. The research methodology adopted here is critical action research. The study consists of two research cycles, a short pilot study and a longer eight week language teaching programme. This second cycle was carried out in 1991 at the University of Natal during a time marked by unprecedented political fluidity and the establishment of new institutional and social structures. The impact of these changes has been felt at every level as racial separation, uniformity and ethnic homogeneity, which were once dominant social norms, have been replaced by the movement towards an integrated social order defined by its diversity, difference, and multiplicity. Because the research process is inseparable from its socio-political context, a theoretical perspective which attempts to theorise multiplicity and contradiction has been adopted here. Insights from postmodern thought are therefore central to this work and have facilitated the interrogation and, at times, the rewriting of many aspects of critical social theory, critical pedagogy and critical action research. The immediate context for this study is Learning, Language and Logic, a first-year course whose primary aim is the acquisition of academic literacy. Over a period of four years, the two action research cycles were developed and integrated into the curriculum. The first was a short intervention during which students analysed three university texts and the second, central cycle was an eight week programme which introduced them to the central principles of Critical Language Awareness. It was designed to provide students entering the university with the opportunity to explore unfamiliar aspects of the university environment and to analyse a range of texts drawn from its discourses. The primary method of analysis of the data was Critical Discourse Analysis but a content analysis of some of the data was also undertaken. The results of this research provide a strong indication that the integration of the principles of Critical Language Awareness into a first year course in academic literacy adds a crucial dimension to students' understanding of the university environment. It provides them with linguistic insights from which they can further develop the ability to analyse their educational context, to respond critically to academic texts and to understand the roles that they can play within the university. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1998.

Reading plays a pivotal role in terms of learners' comprehension and understanding of what is taught in schools. Reading, as part of nation building, provides rapid and ready access to new information and knowledge that will help us in life-long learning (DoE, 2008, p.5). In the context of South Africa, where the legacy of apartheid can still be felt almost 20 years after its collapse, having literate learners becomes particularly important. This is more so the case considering the linguistic diversity of South Africa – many learners in multilingual schooling contexts of South Africa encounters reading difficulties as they are taught in a language foreign to their mother tongues. If learners cannot read there is a greater likelihood of poor academic achievement. It was therefore the intention of this study to explore how teachers who speak English as a first language teach reading to Grade Three learners in multilingual contexts. The study examined the methodologies Grade Three teachers employed in teaching reading, as well as the support they offered to Grade Three learners generally and also specifically to those learners who may not speak English as a first language. This study followed a qualitative approach and was interpretive in its paradigm. The study's methodology was that of a case study of three Grade Three teachers in one public primary school in Durban. Observations were conducted, so as to offer detailed descriptions of Grade Three teacher's actions, behaviours, and full range of interpersonal interactions between teachers and learners. The researcher also interviewed and observed teachers teaching reading. The findings revealed that teachers who speak English as a first language, in a multilingual school, experience several challenges in teaching reading to Grade Three learners - such as: teachers having to ask a lot of questions because children battle with comprehension, it takes time for English second language learners to grasp phonic sounds, and teachers have to spend a lot of time helping struggling readers. Hence a sound whole-school approach around reading can greatly smooth the process of teaching. The study found teachers who were not only competent in the teaching of reading, but who also ensured that support was given to all their learners, particularly those whose mother tongue is not English. Some key factors that helped them to overcome their challenges were: the availability of reading materials, knowledge of the reading process, planning and consistency across the grade, support from school management and the preparation of intervention strategies. The teachers also employed a variety of methods and strategies while teaching, thereby ensuring comprehension and support for the learners. The study recommends that schools should take reading seriously since it had been proven that many South African learners have poor reading abilities. This means that a whole-school approach towards reading is required. If learners are able to read well, all subjects in the school benefit. / Thesis (M. Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

This thesis reports on an investigation of the schemata of trainee teachers from a range of different ethnic and language groups in KwaZulu-Natal who had been educated in racially segregated school systems. Informed by the insight that schemata are the products of life experience and that they constrain linguistic choices (see Tannen 1979), it was hypothesised at the outset that different ethnic groups have some different assumptions of what constitutes appropriate classroom behaviour and that this schematic knowledge is reflected in the surface linguistic forms used by teachers and pupils in classroom discourse. These differences in schemata could have unfortunate consequences for pupils of a different ethnic group from their teacher, and, in particular, those pupils from historically disempowered groups. Data was collected using an eclectic mix of quantitative and qualitative methods. Firstly, students responded to a questionnaire which elicited responses concerning pupil and teacher roles. This was followed by interviews with selected student teachers during which they were asked to comment on those statements in the questionnaire which exhibited the greatest differences between respondents who attended schools administered by racially different educational authorities. Finally, a story recall experiment was conducted. Respondents/subjects were all trainee teachers at a multi-racial college of education. The analyses of the findings of the quantitative questionnaire revealed significant differences between subjects from different education systems. The interview data, however, revealed that the differences were less marked than the findings of the questionnaire suggested. The analyses of the recall experiment suggested that while some differences between the subjects who had attended schools administered by racially segregated authorities do exist, these are not as great as initially hypothesised. Teachers need to be made aware of the problems inherent in cross-cultural encounters, and this awareness should be extended to pupils. This awareness, together with goodwill, should ensure that pupils having different schemata from their teacher and/or other pupils in the classroom will not be disadvantaged. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, 1997.

The end of apartheid in South Africa in 1994 triggered unprecedented changes in the country's institutions including the school. In the city of Durban one such change was the influx of Zulu-speaking pupils into previously "Indian" and "White" schools in their quest to learn through the medium of English only. The majority of these students are less proficient in English and therefore find it difficult to participate in classroom activities. Drawing on questionnaires, interviews and personal observations of classroom interaction, this study reports on one teaching method, peer tutoring, that some teachers at Southlands Secondary use to attend to the communicative needs of these students. In particular, the study reports on how peer-tutoring works at this school, what its benefits are to the learners, what the learners' attitudes are toward this teaching method, and what its implications are for the English-only argument. The study shows that contrary to the English-only argument, using the students' native tongue, Zulu, in an English-only classroom can assist rather than impede ESL learning. Peer tutoring not only contributes to the academic development of Zulu-speaking pupils and fosters friendships and meaningful contacts between Zulu-speaking and Indian pupils, but it also provides the latter with opportunities to learn Zulu and to appreciate the language as a resource in an English-only environment. It is hoped that this study, which is very much pilot in nature, will help highlight issues that can become the subject of more detailed studies in this field. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, 1999.

The aim of this dissertation is to contribute towards research in the area of Second Language Learning and Teaching, with particular focus on English Second Language (ESL) Learning and Teaching in the context of a South African distance college. This report investigates the notion of 'best practice' in language classrooms and compares this notion with a sample of teachers' own views about what constitutes 'best practice' in language teaching. Included in this report are critical discussions regarding language teacher education and the pervasive influence of different language policies in South Africa with regard to the way such policies have influenced teachers' beliefs about their practice. There is also a focus on the debate surrounding the prescription of a single 'best practice' in teacher education. The investigative approach used in this research was essentially qualitative and this report includes details on the benefits and challenges of the narrative task as a research tool, as well as much authentic material in the form of student responses. This investigation found that while many teachers do support practices which are in keeping with official notions of 'best practice' as described in the South African language-in-education policy and Curriculum 2005, there are significant numbers of teachers who advocate practices for language teaching which seem to contradict the notion of 'best practice' including Subtractive Bilingualism, Audiolingual methodology, rote learning and even coersion. Based on these findings, recommendations for the upgrading of existing teacher education programmes and the development of new programmes include the following: • information on changing policies and practices. • credibility in change through practice. • enactment of a process syllabus. • skills development in general classroom practice. • language development as part of teacher education. • acceptance that there is no 'best method'. • the development of broad critical reflexive practice in teachers. / Thesis (M.A.) - University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2001.

This study explores the process that occurred between a group of language lecturers and disciplinary specialists at a tertiary institution in South Africa as they negotiated common understandings of an integrated approach to the teaching of academic literacies. The focus of the study is on both the process underpinning this approach, as well as how the participants understood this process and constructed themselves within it. The unit of analysis in this study is the co-ordinated integrated approach to the teaching of academic literacies. This is a retrospective case study that engaged participants in a process of reflection on their interactions, over the three-year life of an institutional project, which resulted from the collaboration of language lecturers and disciplinary specialists. The overarching approach to data production was narrative methodology. Drawing on life history research methods, various strategies (such as participant observation, survey of documentation, analysis of policy documents, stimulated recall, individual interviewing and focus group sessions) were used to collect data about participants' experiences retrospectively. Three levels of analysis were applied to the primary data set, which comprised the narrative interviews, freewrites and focus group sessions. The findings from the study suggest that sustained interaction between language lecturers and disciplinary specialists is an important process in reshaping how both parties construct their roles and academic identities within higher education, a necessary element in shifting mindsets regarding the practice of academic literacy teaching in higher education. The most important factors in bringing about this shift are presented in the report as a theoretical model for the process of integrating academic literacies into disciplines. These factors and the processes linking them, represent important considerations when designing integrated approaches to the teaching of academic literacies, and are instrumental in bringing about changes regarding the practice of academic literacy teaching in higher education. The data suggest that the creation of productive institutional discursive spaces, which transgress narrow disciplinary boundaries, could bridge the separate academic Iifeworlds of language lecturers and disciplinary specialists. In a shift away from the 'study skills' view of academic literacy which supports an autonomous model of literacy, and the 'acculturation' view of academic literacy which supports an uncritical academic socialisation model, this study proposes a critical understanding of the teaching of discipline-specific academic literacies and introduces an inside/outside model of academic literacy teaching. This model proposes that disciplinary specialists need to be working within their disciplinary Discourse communities, while simultaneously having a critical overview of this 'insider' role, from outside of it. It is in engaging with language lecturers who are 'outsiders' to their disciplinary Discourses that disciplinary specialists find themselves at the margins of their own fields, and are able to view themselves as insiders from the outside, as it were. This shifting location from a purely insider perspective, to an insider perspective from the outside, shifts lecturers towards a critical understanding of the teaching of discipline-specific academic literacies. This model, and the· study informing it, theorises the process by which this dual critical identity can be crafted in practice. / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2006.

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.

Relationships between the terms culture and education are often taken for granted in educational research. This study challenges some of the taken for granted assumptions around the term culture in educational contexts, particularly in secondary language arts education. It examines these assumptions through an analysis of three debates from the contemporary culture wars in education. The implications of these debates on uses of the term culture in secondary language arts education are examined through Othello as a secondary school text. I am arguing that these debates, namely, on the literary canon, multicultural education, and cultural literacy, represent intractable conflicts over definitions of the term culture. In light of these conflicts, the aim of this study is to provide language arts educators with analytical tools for developing greater theoretical rigour when defining the term culture in language arts education. Drawing on recent theoretical writings on culture, concepts of cultural capital, cultural rights, and cultural reproduction are proposed as analytical tools. I then apply these to develop a methodological approach by which to structure my analysis of Othello as a school text. The study makes a theoretical contribution by bringing into sharper focus ways in which the ideological opposition between expressions of cultural right versus cultural left perspectives is articulated in language arts education, as well as illustrating that claims about culture in the canon debate reflect competing normative assumptions; in the multicultural education debate they reflect competing essentialist constructions; and in the cultural literacy debate they reflect competing empowerment goals. Such cultural debates have a long history and thus the study also situates the contemporary culture wars in education within a wider historical context by tracing related conflicts in the history of literary criticism on and performances of Othello over the past four centuries.

Interactional feedback has received a lot of attention recently in the field of second language acquisition (SLA). In particular, the literature on the effects of recasts (correct reformulation of a learner’s utterance) has produced conflicting results. The object of the present study is to contribute to the recent investigation of interactional feedback on L2 acquisition by examining the effects of recast, elicitation, and recast plus elicitation on the development of question formation by ESL learners in a typical classroom environment. The study followed a pre-test/post-test design and was carried out over 7 weeks. Results provide some support for short-term effects of recasts, long-term effects of elicitations and delayed effects for recasts in combination with elicitation. These results suggest that recasts and elicitation may both be effective forms of feedback in different ways. As well, the results also imply that recasts may be most effective when their saliency is enhanced in some manner.

El nostre treball de recerca té dues parts: una part teòrica inicial i l’estudi empíric que presentem a continuació. Obrim el bloc teòric amb un capítol dedicat a l’objecte d’estudi que centra la nostra investigació: la presència de l’L1 a l’aula de llengües estrangeres, en el qual abordem el tema des dels diferent àmbits que hi conflueixen: mètodes d’aprenentatge i teories lingüístiques; teories d’adquisició i d’aprenentatge, la sociolingüística i l’anàlisi conversacional (codeswitching). En el següent capítol ens centrem en la teoria del desenvolupament cognitiu des de l’òptica de la qual ens situem per al tractament del tema d’estudi: la Teoria Sociocultural, les bases de la qual se situen en l’obra de Vigotski. N’explicarem els orígens i els postulats principals que tenen una repercussió directa tant en la interpretació que hem donat a les nostres dades, com en el disseny que hem triat per a la nostra recerca, així com en els mètodes de recollida i d’anàlisi de dades que hem emprat. En el tercer capítol aprofundim en un dels aspectes més importants de la teoria vigotskiana, directament relacionat amb el nostre estudi: el llenguatge en tant que instrument mediador per al desenvolupament cognitiu humà. De totes les implicacions que es deriven d’aquesta idea, ens centrem en el paper mediador fonamental del discurs privat en l’autoregulació. Finalment, recollim en el darrer capítol del bloc teòric una revisió dels treballs més importants en l’àmbit de la recerca en l’aprenentatge de segones llengües, que observen el discurs dels aprenents des d’una perspectiva sociocultural i que s’han centrat en la incidència del discurs privat i/o de l’L1. Estudis que han estat referències directes per al plantejament i el desenvolupament de la nostra recerca, així com per a la interpretació que hem fet de les nostres dades.