This thesis looks at language as the medium of all our ideas and sentiments. The thesis represents a position statement regarding the development of isiZulu as an academic language. The field of Economics is used to merely illustrate and support the points that are being made in this work. It is argued that each language is viewed as the means of expression of the cultural heritage of its people, and it remains a reflection of cultural groups who speak that particular language. It is a fact that indigenous African Languages have been, for obvious reasons, blatantly understudied during the apartheid years in South Africa (Rudwick 2004). Languages have market value and the desirability of English as the most important global language today has an effect in most Black learners in South Africa. The study examined the development of indigenous African languages, isiZulu in particular, in Zululand University where ninety percent of students and lecturers are isiZulu first language speakers, and came to a conclusion that there is an urgent need for Black South African students to learn academic subjects through their mother tongues. This would help them in thorough understanding and interpretation of analytic text presented in a foreign language such as English. The study advocates that isiZulu, which is the mother-tongue of many students at the University of Zululand, should be a language for upward mobility to these students, but as the situation stands, isiZulu becomes a neglected or marginalised language since it is not the normal medium of instruction and it is not used for effective communication in their education system.

M.A. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

High failure rates in English as a second language at secondary school level have become a concern in the Namibian education sector. From 2005 until 2013, the overall performance of the grade 12 learners in English as a second language on Ordinary level in the Oshana region was unsatisfactory. In fact, only a minority (18.52 percent) of the grade 12 learners obtained a grading in the range of A to D in comparison to the majority (81.48 percent) of learners who obtained a grading of E to U. The poor performance was attributed to: poor sentence structure, syllabification and spelling (Directorate of National Examination and Assessment, 2007-2010). The causes of these low performance rates however, were not scientifically explored in this region. Therefore this study embarked on an investigation in order to identify the reasons behind the low performance rates of the grade 12 Oshiwambo speaking learners of English and to determine whether the impressionistic results from the Directorate’s report correlate with the present study’s findings. In order to understand the dynamic linguistic system of the learners, a contrastive analysis of Oshiwambo and English was done in order to investigate the potential origins of some of the errors. An error analysis approach was also used to identify, classify and interpret the non-standard forms produced by the learners in their written work. Based on the results obtained from this study, a more comprehensible assessment rubric was devised to help identify learners’ written errors. A group of 100 learners from five different schools in the Oshana region was asked to write an essay of 150 to 200 words in English. The essays were analysed using Corder’s (1967) conceptual framework which outlines the steps that a researcher uses when undertaking an error analysis study. The errors were categorised according to Keshavarz’s (2006) linguistic error taxonomy. Based on this taxonomy, the results revealed that learners largely made errors in the following categories: phonology/orthography, morpho-syntax, lexico-semantics, discourse and techniquepunctuation. The study concluded that these errors were most likely due to: first language interference, overgeneralisation, ignorance of rule restriction and carelessness. Other proposed probable causes were context of learning and lack of knowledge of English grammar. The study makes a significant contribution, in that the findings can be used as a guide for the Namibian Ministry of Education in improving the status quo at schools and informing the line Ministry on various methods of dealing with language difficulties faced by learners. The findings can also empower teachers to help learners with difficulties in English language learning, thereby enabling learners to improve their English language proficiency. The study has proposed methods of intervention in order to facilitate the teaching of English as a second language in the Oshana region. In addition, the study has devised an easily applied assessment rubric that will assist in identifying non-standard forms of language used by learners. The reason for designing a new rubric is because the rubric which is currently being used is believed to be subjective, inconsistent and lacks transparency. / Name in Graduation Programme as: Nghikembua, Anneli Ndapanda

Written and oral second language pedagogy have undergone a major shift from the traditional focus on form and end-product to a focus on the process of creating meaning. However, recent research indicates that a reliance on process alone is insufficient, and that specific linguistic and knowledge-related demands must be made within a process if second language learners are to develop proficiency in oral and written expository discourse. Interactive decision-making activities in the classroom may present such demands, but the pre-constructed, somewhat artificial tasks typically included in adult ESL classes are generally directed toward the limited goal of stimulating more talk, without verifying their value for generating the language that is cognitively linked to decision-making. While collaborative revision of compositions has been used to aid decision-making during writing, its potential as a language learning activity has not previously been explored. The current study examines collaborative revision of compositions as a tool for eliciting oral decision-making language in the ESL classroom. Eight adult ESL students participated in two collaborative composition-related tasks and two interactive "constructed decision" activities. Using repeated measures ANOVA, the composition related activities were found to be at least as effective as the constructed decision activities for eliciting decision-making language as measured by five categories of decision-making moves. Qualitative examination of the discourse indicated that the composition activities also offer a context for conscious reinforcement of principles of grammar and rhetoric. The present results indicate that this activity may offer a natural alternative to pre-constructed decision-making tasks, and in doing so provides a context for the integration of oral and written language learning. In addition, by evaluating the discourse of activities in language terms, this research may help provide a bridge between processes and products not only for writing but for communicative language teaching. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

M.A. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Also covers linguistic error hierarchy.

The major finding of this project is that through the use of multiple sign systems, monolingual teachers can support their bilingual students. These strategies employ the use of comprehensible input from the teacher, peer interaction, extended lanuage and activities for the students whose primary focus is to help the students make connections from the text to their own lives.

This study investigates student and instructor perceptions of the causes and effects of anxiety and motivation's effect on a student's ability to learn a second language. The study focused on the participant's perceptions of the causes and effects of anxiety, and relationships between anxiety and motivation, in both short-term and long-term learners.

Outgoing students have the advantage over quiet students in oral class participation. Our problem was to determine whether this relationship was the same in the medium of writing by studying differences in quantity and quality of writing between a quiet and an outgoing group.

Orientador: Douglas Altamiro Consolo / Banca: Solange Aranha / Banca: Viviane Aparecida Bagio Furtoso / Resumo: Neste estudo teve-se como objetivo final, de caráter aplicado, sugerir conteúdos para itens de teste oral no Exame de Proficiência para Professores de Língua Estrangeira, o EPPLE, no que tange à área de português como língua estrangeira (PLE). Tais itens objetivam avaliar a proficiência do professor de PLE para fazer uso de sua língua de docência para explicá-la, respeitando o conhecimento das regras de comunicação e das formas socialmente aceitas da língua portuguesa, em sua variante brasileira. Para tanto, foi realizado um levantamento das dúvidas linguísticas de duas turmas de aprendizes de PLE, nível iniciante, em um contexto representativo desta área na Universidade Estadual Paulista, campus de São José do Rio Preto: o Projeto de Extensão "Português Língua Estrangeira". Os dados foram gerados por meio de gravações em áudio de aulas presenciais de duas turmas denominadas PLE I: uma do segundo semestre de 2013 e a outra do primeiro semestre de 2016. A investigação, a partir da transcrição dos dados coletados, propôs, mais especificamente: identificar e quantificar os tipos de dúvidas levantadas pelos alunos em relação à língua portuguesa, enquanto aprendizes dessa língua, e identificar as questões mais recorrentes nas duas turmas, de modo que fosse possível embasar a criação de itens de teste oral para o EPPLE-PLE, pautados em um contexto real de ensino e aprendizagem de PLE. A análise dos dados nos permitiu identificar que se destacaram dúvidas acerca de definição e... / Abstract: The ultimate purpose of this study was to suggest content for oral test items in the Proficiency Examination for Foreign Language Teachers (EPPLE), in relation to the area of Portuguese as a foreign language (PFL). These items aim to evaluate the oral proficiency of PFL teachers using teacher language to explain the target language, in other words, the metalanguage in the context of PFL teaching, respecting the knowledge of rules in oral communication and of the socially accepted forms of Portuguese in its Brazilian variant. In order to do so, a survey of the linguistic doubts of two classes of PFL learners, at a beginner level, was carried out in a representative context of PFL teacher education at the Universidade Estadual Paulista, São José do Rio Preto campus: the Extension Project "Portuguese as a Foreign Language". The data were generated through audio recordings of face-to-face classes from two classes called PLE I: one from the second semester of 2013 and the other from the first semester of 2016. The investigation, based on the transcription of the collected data, proposed, more specifically: identify and quantify the types of doubts raised by the students regarding the Portuguese language as learners of that language, and identify the most recurring doubts in both classes, so that we could base the creation of oral test items for the EPPLE-PLE guidelines in a real context of teaching and learning PFL. The analysis of the data allowed us to identify that doubts ... / Mestre