Submitted in compliance with the requirements for the Doctor’s Degree in Language Practice, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2016. / Even after political liberation in South Africa, a mismatch exists between the principles of freedom of religious observance taught in Religion Education and the actual religious observances in public schools. Anglican hymns, prayers and observances are still being used in schools where the religious ethos has changed from one of Christianity to include Hinduism, Islam and Judaism, as well as Shembe and Zionist religions. The Draft Policy on Religion Education stipulates that there should be a distinction between home religions and the school’s official religious instruction. School religious observances, particularly observances which reflect the oppressive nature of past colonial impositions, should not give offence to learners from other religious denominations, or belittle their own practices. This thesis investigates the hegemonic influence of colonial religious observances and their possible effect on school populations. Within a critical linguistic approach, which explores the ways in which language both sets in place and reflects the relations of power implicit in social functioning, a critical discourse analysis was carried out on current and topical media texts reporting on contentious issues involving religious observances in schools. Community members were also consulted by means of surveys and interviews so as to provide an overview of the social context of the wider community within which the schools were situated. The resulting data could then be used to triangulate data obtained from the discourse analysis, and either confirm, modify or challenge the latter. The results suggest that, not only is there a strong hegemonic influence present in schools, as a result of the lingering vestiges of traditional colonial Christianity, but that modern Christian movements are also beginning to exert a persuasive influence on non-Christian populations. The issue of religious observance in schools is a highly complex and potentially controversial issue, but one which merits study in view of the fact that the stakeholders’ right to freedom of religious observance may be violated on a daily basis. / D

<p>The study investigated the practice of codeswitching within the Cape Flats speech community of Cape Town. Members of this speech community have always been exposed to both English and Afrikaans in formal as well as informal contexts. Due to constant exposure to both languages, as well as historical and political experiences, members of the speech community have come to utilize both languages within a single conversation and even within a single utterance. Codeswitching is an integral part of the community's speech behaviour. The main purpose of this research was to uncover and analyze the motivations behind codeswitching in the bilingual communities of Cape Town, while also providing a strong argument that codeswitching patterns evident in their speech do not always correspond completely with linguistic constraints that are regarded as 'universal'.</p>

M.A. (Applied Linguistics) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

This thesis explores gender and impoliteness in the multilingual and multicultural context of the University of Natal, South Africa. My study uses respondents' perceptions of impoliteness to investigate how male and female students of different African cultures and language backgrounds construct and reconstruct their identities through their choices to use the languages available at the University of Natal. The study was motivated by a perceived dearth of research into gender-sensitive accounts of multilingual situations. The goal of this study is to contribute to the understanding of the invention of identities in a multilingual, multicultural and multiracial environment, while interrogating the relationship between impoliteness, whether perceived or intended, and the gendered identities available to the different African subgroups at the university. Hence the thesis reviews recent theoretical approaches to intercultural communication, impoliteness and gender, and attempts to identify a suitable framework for the understanding of gendered aspects of multilingualism in the university. A combination of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies was adopted for the study. I used several modes of data collection which included indirect observation carried out through the reporting of perceived impoliteness, questionnaire surveys for evaluations of instances of impoliteness and focus group discussions with different categories of students. Discourse analysis was drawn on for the presentation of the data. The body of data reveals that while there are some general perceptions of impoliteness amongst the students that transcend culture and language diversity, differences in the perceptions of and responses to impoliteness impact greatly on the ability of individuals to communicate effectively. The study shows that the different groups identified in the study: Zulu bradas, dilute males, Model C guys, diverse males, modern Zulu women and decisive females, whilst they are attending university, decide on and construct their identities according to their preferences. This is not necessarily a matter of their original cultural identity, especially in the case of the modern Zulu women, decisive females and Model C guys. A range of different identities from which the individual may choose is made possible at the university, given that the university has its own, non-ethnic culture. The preferred identity varies amongst the students: for instance, the Zulu bradas' desire to be seen as 'traditional' pushes them to construct a 'traditional' - as they see it - Zulu identity. The decisive females in contrast are far less culture-conscious and construct an identity that is related to their personal needs. Consequently, some respondents construct communal and others individual identities. The students' interpretations and judgements of impoliteness reveal that the preferred identities influence their evaluations of behaviour. Similarly, the gender of perceiver or speaker may influence the interpretation and assessment of the degree of impoliteness. A majority of the male respondents draw on gendered cultural expectations in their judgements, while the female respondents were more egalitarian in their approach. Identity in this study emerges as crucial for the understanding of impoliteness. The study further shows that whenever the individual's constructed identity is seen to be under attack, a student may respond with equal impoliteness to defend him/herself. While this research is specifically located in the context of the University of Natal, it is relevant to the South African workplace today, where linguistic and cultural diversity may enhance or impede racial integration and gender equality. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2007.

<p>The study investigated the practice of codeswitching within the Cape Flats speech community of Cape Town. Members of this speech community have always been exposed to both English and Afrikaans in formal as well as informal contexts. Due to constant exposure to both languages, as well as historical and political experiences, members of the speech community have come to utilize both languages within a single conversation and even within a single utterance. Codeswitching is an integral part of the community's speech behaviour. The main purpose of this research was to uncover and analyze the motivations behind codeswitching in the bilingual communities of Cape Town, while also providing a strong argument that codeswitching patterns evident in their speech do not always correspond completely with linguistic constraints that are regarded as 'universal'.</p>

D.Litt. et Phil. / This thesis explores some issues relating to the sociolinguistic situation in South Africa, attending especially to language variety and language attitudes. The focus is on the teaching of language, specifically English, and on the relevant education of language teachers in a multicultural country such as South Africa. In school systems such as the South African education system which has for many years provided real access to education and power for a limited group of students only, the demands of modern society for greater language and cultural knowledge imply radical adjustments to literacy teaching and the training of language teachers. In the first chapter of the study, comments relating to conducting and reporting 'scientific research' are made, referring to the ideas of some philosophers of science and to qualitative and quantitative research approaches. Issues relating to language and society, language varieties and attitudes are reviewed in the second chapter. Chapter Three investigates traditional language teaching programmes and language awareness programmes and deliberates whether the latter could possibly influence language attitudes. Chapter Four contains the empirical section of this study. Firstly, the attitudes of several groups of English teacher trainees towards the use of four varieties of South African English in education were assessed. Thereafter, each group of trainees participated in a group discussion and lecture given by myself, the researcher. The lectures and discussions aimed at raising awareness of language varieties, especially as they relate to language learning at school level, and of questions of standard and evaluation and how they influence teachers and students. Then, the same attitude assessment questionnaire was administered to measure the attitudes of the post-test sample towards the use of the same four varieties of South African English. The data collected and impressions gained from observation of the respondents and the researcher's participation in the research situation were analysed and interpreted with the help of statisticians. The results of the pre-test and post-test were compared to determine if the attitudes towards the varieties of English had changed between the two administrations of the questionnaire. Following analysis and interpretation of the research results, Chapter Five explores the field of language teacher education and proposes a framework for a curriculum that would be relevant for the training of language teachers in South Africa. The chapter makes some suggestions as to how language awareness and critical language studies that extend to a critical awareness of genre could contribute to the effective preparation of language teachers.

Thesis (MPA)--Stellenbosch University, 2001. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This assignment is based on the principles of the sociolinguistic theory. Exponents of the sociolinguistic theory focus on the social dimension of language. They argue that language planning is part of social change, and as such it is subjected to the rules of social change. Language planning does not take place in a vacuum and therefore, the exponents of the sociolinguistic theory also focus on the broader societal factors such as the economic, political, demographic and psigological factors that influence language planning during the planning phase. This study investigates the manner in which the University of Stellenbosch dealt with multillingualism through its language policy. In this regard the investigation aims to establish whether the University of Stellenbosch is doing enough in terms of its language policy to promote multilingualism through developmental programmes, in order to make the university more accessible for non-Afrikaans speakers from the community it serves. This study also investigates the historic background of the university and nationalism in dealing with the lingusitic and Afrikaans character of the University. In this regard the focus is on the role of Afrikaner Nationalism, the role it played in the language policy, and also how it influenced the broader political goals of nation building and reconciliation. Against this backdrop a critical analysis is made of the language policy of the University of Stellenbosch based on the provisions of the constitution and language ideological models. Lastly this study aims to make recommendations for a language policy at Stellenbosch University which will promote multilingualism, by recognising all the official languages, through this the university will be more accessible for non-Afrikaans speakers, especially those in the Western Cape. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die werkstuk is gebaseer op die beginsels van die sosiolinguistiese teorie. Voorstanders van die sosiolinguistiese teorie plaas die fokus op die sosiale aard van taal. Taalbeplanning is deel van sosiale verandering, en is as sulks onderhewig aan die reëls van sosiale verandering. Taalbeplanning geskied nie in 'n vakuum nie, en daarom fokus voorstanders van die sosiolinguistiese teorie ook op die breër sosiale faktore soos die ekonomiese, politieke, demografiese en psigologiese faktore wat taalbeplanning beinvloed tydens die beplanningsfase. Hierdie studie is 'n ondersoek na die wyse waarop veeltaligheid aan die Universiteit van Stellenbosch hanteer word. In hierdie verband word ingegaan op die kwessie of die Universiteit van Stellenbosch in terme van sy taalbeleid, genoeg doen om veeltaligheid deur ontwikkelingsprogramme te bevorder sodat die universiteit meer toeganklik kan wees vir nie-Afrikaanssprekendes uit die gemeenskap wat dit dien. Die studie ondersoek ook die historiese agtergrond van die universiteit en nasionalisme in die hantering van die taal- en Afrikaanse karakter van die universiteit. In dié verband word spesifiek gefokus op die rol van Afrikanernasionalisme, asook die wyse waarop die breër politieke strewes van nasiebou en versoening die formulering van die universiteit se taalbeleid beïnvloed het. Teen hierdie agtergrond word 'n kritiese analise gedoen van die taalbeleid van die Universiteit van Stellenbosch aan die hand van die bepalings van die grondwet en taalideologiese modelle. Laastens word aanbevelings gemaak vir 'n taalbeleid aan die US wat veeltaligheid sal bevorder deur erkenning te gee aan alle amptelike tale veral in die Wes-Kaap sodat die US meer toeganklik kan wees vir nie-Afrikaanssprekendes.

Multilingualism has always been a feature of South African Education. It is only in recent years that a particular form of linguistic diversity has become unmanageable for schools implementing the official English/Afrikaans bilingual model associated with the previous regime. The subject of this study is a remedial language enrichment or support programme instituted as a response to multilingualism in the junior primary section in a parallel medium primary school in the Western Cape.

Dissertation submitted to the Department of African Languages and Linguistics in fulfilment of the requirement for Master of Art's Degree in Humanities The University of the Witwatersrand, School of Literature, Language and Media, March 2016 / The gradual decline in the use of Black South African languages (BSALs) has been a concern for the past 20 years in both the South African civil population and academia. The last census data of 2011 informs this phenomenon by showing how language use has changed nationally over the years. In an effort to counter this decline, some researchers have called for the improvement of existing non-standard language varieties, which could serve to improve some of these decreasing Black South African languages (Ditsele, 2014). Non-standard language varieties are ‘languages’ largely spoken in black townships around South Africa. They are sometimes referred to as stylects, sociolets or speech varieties, due to their structures and functions (Bembe & Beukes, 2007). Applying a psycholinguistic approach, this study seeks to compare the standard language Sesotho to a non-standard language variety, Mamelodi Lingo. This study looks at the discursive behaviour focusing on speech and gesture. Previous literature on South African language varieties focuses on the semantic and pragmatic description of the words in use (Calteaux, 1996; Hurst, 2008; 2015; Rudwick, 2005; Ditsele, 2014), and very few have incorporated co-speech gesture, which form an integral part of non-language varieties (Brookes, 2001; 2005). The present study presents the results of an empirical investigation that compares 20 narratives produced by Sesotho and Mamelodi Lingo speakers. Using the methodology used in the elicitation of speech and gesture by Colletta et al., (2009; 2015), participants watched a speechless short cartoon and were then asked to retell the story they had seen to the interviewer. Using the language annotation tool, ELAN narratives were annotated for language complexity, length, and type of clause, syntax, as well as story grammar memory-recall. Narratives were also annotated for gesture: type of gesture and function of gesture. The focus was on the discursive performance of speech and gesture. Results show a significant use of meta-narrative clauses from the language variety compared to the standard language as well as a higher use of non-representational gestures by the non-standard language. The findings also show an interesting use of interactive co-speech gestures when retrieving lexical items that are not present in the repertoire of Mamelodi Lingo / GR2017

A dissertation submitted to the School of Language, Literature and Media, Faculty of Humanities for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, March 2017 / Although the burgeoning fields of linguistic and semiotic landscapes (LL and SL) studies provide extensive coverage of urban settings around the globe, it lacks a focus on urban development and the associated phenomenons such as gentrification, with the notable exception of Lou (2016). This dissertation looks at the neighbourhood of Marshalltown, located in the inner city of Johannesburg. Marshalltown is known as the mining district because of its proximity to the original goldmines that sparked the growth of the city. The neighbourhood’s SL has radically shifted from a place of urban decay to a trendy neighbourhood since the late 1990s, after urban development efforts financed by the private sector made the area stand out from the rest of the inner city. The developers working in Marshalltown have purposefully filled it with signs indexing the mining heritage its businesses which tend to cater to the middle-to-upper-classes, thus excluding poorer residents which make up most of the inner city’s population. Against this backdrop, the dissertation aims to answer the following three research questions: 1) How is Marshalltown constructed as a space of heritage, both in its materiality and in its representation in a corpus of media texts? 2) Considering that heritage entails a selection process from a more general historic field, which sections of history are curated in Marshalltown’s SL, which are silenced, and what are the implications for the narratives displayed in the context of post-apartheid South Africa? 3) How is Marshalltown’s urban environment experienced by social actors in a context of globalized trends in urban design which rely on heritage and authenticity to market formerly ignored city centres? The data for this study consists of a corpus of 25 media articles from various outlets, 255 photographs of Marshalltown and its vicinity, ethnographic field notes written between 2012 and 2016, as well as interviews with developers, heritage architect, a deputy director of immovable heritage at the City of Johannesburg, shop owners and people who work in the area. This dissertation aims to contribute to the young field of SL studies, while bringing forth Scollon and Scollon’s (2003) methodological toolkit of geosemiotic which allows for an analysis of signs in place and how people interact with them to draw a pertinent analysis of the construction of place. Geosemiotics is coupled with specific themes for each analytical chapter which brings forth a new way of analysing a SL. Those themes are 1) the language of urban development which drawing on Markus and Cameron (2002) helps analyse the representation of city neighbourhoods; 2) heritage, which brings a temporal perspective to SL studies that I call a chronoscape; 3) authenticity, which brings a visual analysis addition to the recent debate on the topic within sociolinguistics scholarship (Coupland 2003, Bucholtz 2003 and Eckert 2003) and its focus on the discursive construction of what counts as authentic. This study argues that Marshalltown’s post-apartheid SL is carefully designed by a majority of (white) developers wanting to give the area a heritage feel, borrowing from the mining history of the city; thus anchoring a European influenced heritage within their own interpretation of what an African city should look like. The heritage feel of Marshalltown is part of a broader plan to reclaim the city, which means changing the image it acquired previously during an era of urban decay as a dangerous no-go area, into an attractive tourism-friendly urban space. Those changes are achieved by inserting development efforts into the market for authentic urban lifestyle which Marshalltown can provide thanks to its preserved history. The neighbourhood stands out from the rest of the inner city by being privately controlled and maintained thus distancing itself from the popular discourse of inner city Johannesburg and instead developers redesign it as an ideal space for consumption. / XL2018