The purpose of this research was to investigate strategies employed by primary teachers to support the non-isiXhosa speaking learners of Mthatha Education District. This was the researcher’s observation and concern emanating from the difficulties displayed by her non-isiXhosa speaking learners, as the medium of instruction in these schools is not their mother tongue. The language of learning and teaching (LOLT) is isiXhosa in the school where the research was conducted. The school is composed of non-isiXhosa speaking and isiXhosa speaking learners. The research sought to address the following questions: 1 What strategies are employed by Mthatha district teachers to support non- isiXhosa speaking learners? 2 What challenges do Mthatha teachers face in supporting the non-isiXhosa speaking learners? 3 How do Mthatha teachers overcome the challenges they face in supporting the non-isiXhosa speaking learners? The qualitative design approach was used in this study. The study was a case study of one Mthatha primary school. Face-to-face interviews were used to collect the data from the six female teachers who teach from Grade 1 to Grade 6 and one male teacher who is the principal of the selected school, and who teaches English and Life Orientation from Grade 7 to Grade 9. The interviews were tape-recorded. The data collection process began after all the ethical consideration requirements were fulfilled and approved by the relevant stakeholders of the research. The thematic approach was adopted as data analysis of the study was guided by the responses given to the questions asked of interviewed teachers. The research showed the following results which surfaced from the data provided by the respondents: (i) Teachers employed few teaching strategies to support the non-isiXhosa speaking learners in their multilingual classroom. The interviewed teachers expressed their challenges as stemming from the large numbers of learners in their classrooms; (ii) IsiXhosa as a language of learning and teaching was a challenge for the non-isiXhosa speaking learners. (iii) Absenteeism and indiscipline by non-isiXhosa speaking learners (iv) Limited or non-involvement of parents in the education of children The data also showed that there was limited support to empower teachers to deal with multilingual classrooms. The study made the following and other recommendations based on the results: teachers should use many teaching strategies in linguistically diverse classrooms. The school management teams (SMTs) should admit learners in relation to the number of teachers available in a school. It is also recommended that schools implement the language policy as it relates to the learners in each classroom. The DoE should increase parental involvement in the education of their children and also provide professional support to teachers.

This study is on standard isiXhosa in a multilingual classroom and includes an interpretation of both urban and rurual learners’ literary texts. An attempt is made to examine a selection of isiXhosa texts in order to interprete the state of affairs of the isiXhosa language in the 21st century. Organization of the study This dissertation was organized in the following manner: Chapter one includes an introduction to the study, its aims and objectives as well as the research methodology. Since the isiXhosa language is the focal point of the study, it is discussed in some depth. In chapter two, the researcher concentrates on the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB) "Imibono yethu". Imibono yethu is an anthology of learners' writings. The learners were invited to enter a competition by using various genres, e.g. short stories, poems, one-act dramas, rap songs, kwaito, essays, and melodic poems. The researcher wanted the learners to use whatever genre inspires them, to put it colloquially, "what turns them on!" Any aspect of the urban lifestyle could be explored within the theme of each entry and fell under the following headings: • Standard language. • Standard isiXhosa. Chapter three investigates non-standard language varieties with special reference to isiXhosa and the language policy of South Africa. In this chapter, a comparison was drawn between non-standard language and standard language. vi In chapter four, the researcher discusses the overall findings of the competition, comparing the results emanating from the Eastern Cape and Gauteng. Chapter five deals with achievement of the objectives and highlights of the research. / African Languages / M.A. (African Languages)

Within medical facilities in South Africa, including the Western Cape, language barriers often exist between healthcare professionals and their patients. This can cause a barrier to efficient patient treatment. In order to address this problem, educational institutions in the Western Cape have started to introduce Xhosa language facilitation for healthcare professionals. In order to facilitate the learning of this additional language, the use of e-learning as a complement to traditional classroom lectures was investigated. The students who participated in this Xhosa language facilitation were specifically identified. This study was quantitative in nature and questionnaires were used. It was concluded that the combination of lectures and the complementary e-learning component helps to improve the student’s ability to learn an additional language, in this case Xhosa. Recommendations were made that would possibly alleviate the problem of language barriers in healthcare settings in the Western Cape. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / M. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)

South African indigenous language teaching and learning materials do not provide sufficient information to help additional language learners learn the target languages effectively. While there are institutions that are tasked with developing and sharpening the skills of students in speaking South African indigenous languages, such students hardly, if at all master the art of speaking them eloquently. Students who study these languages in order to converse proficiently with their mother-tongue speakers experience insurmountable difficulties, in spite of various efforts made by the teachers who train them to read books on their own. Passing their examinations does not mean that the students’ ability to communicate with mother-tongue speakers will improve to the extent of eliminating the prevailing misunderstanding between the two groups. The persistence of this problem reveals a discrepancy between the studies of indigenous languages in South Africa and the way of speaking them, whereby important linguistic elements that make communication more authentic are excluded in language materials. This study analyses the use and significance of CIFWs in daily interactions by investigating the two Xhosa CIFWs words wethu and bethu. The overall aim of this study is to explore the use of a corpus in the examination of CIFWs in general, and wethu and bethu in particular. Both a quantitative approach based on the Gothenburg-Unisa spoken corpus and a qualitative approach based on Allwoods’ ACA theoretical framework were used in the analysis and description of the functions and significances of wethu and bethu as communicative and interactive function words. / Linguistics / MA ((Applied Linguistics)

Within medical facilities in South Africa, including the Western Cape, language barriers often exist between healthcare professionals and their patients. This can cause a barrier to efficient patient treatment. In order to address this problem, educational institutions in the Western Cape have started to introduce Xhosa language facilitation for healthcare professionals. In order to facilitate the learning of this additional language, the use of e-learning as a complement to traditional classroom lectures was investigated. The students who participated in this Xhosa language facilitation were specifically identified. This study was quantitative in nature and questionnaires were used. It was concluded that the combination of lectures and the complementary e-learning component helps to improve the student’s ability to learn an additional language, in this case Xhosa. Recommendations were made that would possibly alleviate the problem of language barriers in healthcare settings in the Western Cape. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / M. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)

This study looks at language policy and practice at two Eastern Cape schools. It further explores the link between language learning and teaching. Language implementation strategies were the main focus of this study. The Language-in-education policy of the Republic of South Africa (1997) promotes the use of all nine African languages, which have been afforded the status of official languages. This study looks at the language teaching practices at two Grahamstown primary schools, where isiXhosa and Afrikaans have been used as media of instruction. Qualitative methods were used, and the study took the form of interpretive case studies. / Thuto e, e ikaelela go tshegetsa patlisiso e e ka ga gore dipuo tsa Selegae tsa Seaforika mo Aforikaborwa di tshwanelwa ke go tsewa ka maemo le mokgwa o o lekanang go ya ka Molaotheo wa Aforikaborwa. Ka jalo, e tlaa utolola,e ribilole ditsela le go batla malepa a puso ya Aforikaborwa e ka fitlhelelang setšhaba se se kwa magaeng, se bokgoni jwa kitso ya Seesimane bo leng kwa tlase mo go bona. Bothata ke gore Aforikaborwa e laolwa bogolo ke tiriso e e kwa godimo ya Seesimane mme puso e tshwanelwa ke gore e tlose dikgoreletsi tse di leng teng ga jaana tsa puo. E bowe gape e thibele go se lekalekaneng ga botshelo ka kakaretso mo loagong go go tlholwang ke go sa lekalekaneng ga kitso ya dipuo mo setšhabeng ka kakaretso. Ditshwanelo mo puong fela jaaka ditshwanelo dingwe le dingwe tsa botho, di tshwanelwa ke go sireletswa, jaaka di akareditswe mo Molaotheo o mošwa wa temokerasi wa Aforikaborwa.

There are many inequities that exist in health-care that stem from culture related communication misunderstandings. In most cases where doctors and patients from different cultural and linguistic background interact, doctors use medical language which is different from everyday language used by patients. Patients enter this communication context with anxiety because they depend on the physicians to give them accurate information concerning their health, but they do not always understand all the terms used by physicians to inform them about their conditions. In some cases interpreters are used but their expertise is often inadequate and the interpreting of the patient’s statements to the health staff is also prone to distortion by interpreter / doctor because of the lack of proper understanding of the messages / languages. This may result in a deterioration of the patient’s health condition and unavoidable complications.

South African indigenous language teaching and learning materials do not provide sufficient information to help additional language learners learn the target languages effectively. While there are institutions that are tasked with developing and sharpening the skills of students in speaking South African indigenous languages, such students hardly, if at all master the art of speaking them eloquently. Students who study these languages in order to converse proficiently with their mother-tongue speakers experience insurmountable difficulties, in spite of various efforts made by the teachers who train them to read books on their own. Passing their examinations does not mean that the students’ ability to communicate with mother-tongue speakers will improve to the extent of eliminating the prevailing misunderstanding between the two groups. The persistence of this problem reveals a discrepancy between the studies of indigenous languages in South Africa and the way of speaking them, whereby important linguistic elements that make communication more authentic are excluded in language materials. This study analyses the use and significance of CIFWs in daily interactions by investigating the two Xhosa CIFWs words wethu and bethu. The overall aim of this study is to explore the use of a corpus in the examination of CIFWs in general, and wethu and bethu in particular. Both a quantitative approach based on the Gothenburg-Unisa spoken corpus and a qualitative approach based on Allwoods’ ACA theoretical framework were used in the analysis and description of the functions and significances of wethu and bethu as communicative and interactive function words. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / M.A. (Applied Linguistics)

The use of cellphones has increased all over the world. That invites many academics to conduct research on the usage of these devices, especially by young people, since young people join Social Network Sites (Facebook, Mxit, 2go, Whatsapp) and use a shorthand language. Most studies are related to the use of English and other languages that are recognised by computer software. There are few studies, if any, that have been done in relation to the use of African Languages on these sites. This research therefore aims to seek to explore the use of African Languages, especially isiXhosa, in assessing how technology might help in language development through the usage of SNSs that learners already use to equip them with educational material in their mother tongue. This study was conducted in two high schools, Nogemane Senior Secondary School in a disadvantaged and remote rural community with limited access to additional educational material such as magazines, newspapers, and television. The school also lacks basic study materials such as textbooks from the Education Department and they have no access to a library and laboratory. They also only have very few subjects to choose from. Nombulelo Senior Secondary School is in Grahamstown. This school has good infrastructure and learners have access to different technological devices and they can access libraries. What is common between learners in both schools is that they are all doing isiXhosa as a first language and are using SNSs to interact with each other. This study has found that learners enjoy using SNSs rather than reading the printed books. Furthermore, they enjoy and prefer interacting in isiXhosa in their conversations. Learners also use the web to post and show their creative writing, regardless of the shorthand form writing they use on the SNSs. This study has found that learners are not well equipped with basic isiXhosa skills when reaching the FET phase. They lack the understanding of standard isiXhosa idioms and proverbs. That clearly means that they are equipped in the more modern forms of literature rather than the traditional oral forms. IsiXhosa teachers also see SNSs as the better platform to engage with learners and they suggest that there must be a section in the subjects at school that teaches about cyber bullying and being safe online. This thesis also presents examples of new and contemporary forms of SNS-speak that are used by learners in both the rural and urban schools. This study is more concerned with SNSs for literacy development and to assess whether the shorthand writing has negative or positive effects in writing isiXhosa. This is done against the backdrop of a literature review which explores new literacies, computer mediated communication, social identity models as well as language policy and planning.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the challenges in teaching IsiXhosa home language in rural secondary schools. Learners from Grades 8 to 12 perform poorly in IsiXhosa grammar, essay writing, literature and oral work. The researcher sampled 40 learners from each of two senior secondary schools, eight parents and eight IsiXhosa subject specialists (two district based and six school based) to take part in the research. Data for this study were collected during cluster moderations in one of the secondary schools by using document analysis, interviews and questionnaires. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used by the researcher to analyse IsiXhosa results from Grade 8 to Grade 12. Analysis of documents such as mark schedules and marks for formal and informal tasks gave evidence that learners perform poorly in grammar, literature, oral work and essay writing. Scarcity or non-availability of distinctions (levels 6 and 7) in Grade 12 final exams as well as in Grades 8 to 11 proves that the language demands special attention for its teaching and learning in the secondary classroom situation; the conclusions were therefore drawn and recommendations made. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / D. Ed. (Curriculum Design and Development)