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published_or_final_version / Language Studies / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

Completely couched in and steered by the qualitative research method, this study examines the linguistic constraints on the code-switching of the bilingual Shona-Xhosa speakers in Cape Town. The views of the key research participants obtained through participant observation, interviews and questionnaires were heavily relied on. The motivations for the code-switching of the bilingual Shona-Xhosa speakers in Cape Town were explored in this study, including the Shona-Xhosa interlink. Myers-Scotton‟s Markedness theory was scrutinized to discern the assorted social variables motivating the bilingual speakers to code-switch in Cape Town while the Matrix Language Frame Model was used to determine that Shona is the base language and isiXhosa is the embedded language in the Shona-Xhosa code-switching in Cape Town. Diverse linguistic constraints were examined in the context of the Shona-Xhosa code-switching and their universality was disputed. Similarities between Shona and Xhosa were unearthed and the researcher recommends that further Shona-Xhosa studies be pursued. / African Languages / M.A. (African Languages)

Thesis (MA (African Languages))--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / This study examines data from communication-theoretic refusal in isiZulu, relating to pragmatic theorists’ argument that every human interaction to a large extent carries with it an element of threatening one or both participants’ face. The speech act of refusal has been identified as one of the most effective speech acts to be employed for this phenomenon in this study. Every speech act is influenced by contextual, cultural and many other background factors associated to age, gender and rank, to mention a few, which contribute towards the composition of speech act. The issues relating to the theory of politeness prompted this study in the extent to which politeness plays a role in refusals in educational contexts of Zulu speaking students. The study has evaluated Brown and Levinson’s (1987) theory of politeness as a universal phenomenon against the findings of my data, in that the universality advanced by these theorists does not quite fit with this study. The variable percentages in this data, especially in refusals, indicate that politeness does not always exist in terms of positive and negative face in the participants’ mind but other considerations related to the goal of the speech act are the main source of the speech act. In this study, refusal in the Zulu context has demonstrated that politeness has been employed as a strategy for encoding distance between speaker and solicitor.

Thesis (MDram (Drama))—University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / The spoken language usually consists of the formal and standardised component and an informal colloquial language. The colloquial language may include some language variants. These variants are forms of the language that show deviations when compared to the standardised form of the language and are usually spoken by a specific group of people. Sometimes these colloquial variants are used in writing. This study looks at the use of these colloquial variants in theatre scripts. The variants are implemented for various functions in these scripts, which include the metaphoric, the comic, the realistic, the poetical and the political uses as well as the documentation of specific variants. In this research project I discuss the use and functions of a few Afrikaans variants in plays. Other areas of interest include sociolinguistics, the influence of English on Afrikaans and its impact on the future of Afrikaans, as well as a brief discussion of the problematic term Standard Afrikaans.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Numerous studies have evaluated and confirmed many benefits of errorless learning and fluency-based procedures. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the benefits of combining an errorless learning procedure, stimulus shaping, and fluency-based procedures to teach see/say letter sound discriminations to three preschool children. Participants were taught 6 letter sounds using a hear/point stimulus shaping procedure followed by a see/say fluency-based procedure. A second letter set was taught using only the fluency-based procedure. Results showed that combining the procedures reduced the amount of teaching time by up to 40% and the percent of errors by up to 50%. This preliminary evidence shows exceptional promise in application of this combination of procedures to teach letter sounds to preschool children.

This research is observational and descriptive. Its primary purpose is to provide data on the extent to which, and how, Non-Native Speakers (NNSs) of English engage in error correction of their peers when participating in classroom oral group work. In addition, it shows to what extent these learners self-correct their own errors in the same situation. The over-arching focus of the study is to examine the role of second language learners to determine whether they possess the potential to play a more active and productive part in their own language learning. Nine beginning level adult university ESL students are the subjects of this research. They were placed in small groups and asked to perform specified classroom tasks designed to generate maximum oral interchange among the participants. The ensuing discussions provided the basis for the data which were collected via tape recording each group's proceedings. The data samples were listened to and coded per an error typology and any correction that took place. The data were then statistically analyzed via SYSTAT. The findings are consistent with the results of other research and indicate that while many errors are not treated, a significant number of them are corrected clearly and accurately. These results lend credence to the idea that second language learners may have much more to learn from each other than they think, and that they do have the potential to play a greater role in their own language learning. Much more research is indicated in order to better understand the multi-faceted phenomenon of second language learner error and its treatment.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 130-142).