Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The dissertation is a comparative analysis of the structural (generic/cognitive) and ideological properties of Zimbabwean news reports in English, Shona and Ndebele, focusing specifically on the examination of the proliferation of authorial attitudinal subjectivities in ‘controversial’ ‘hard news’ reports and the ‘objectivity’ ideal. The study, thus, compares the textuality of Zimbabwean printed news reports from the English newspapers (The Herald, Zimbabwe Independent and Newsday), the Shona newspaper (Kwayedza) and the Ndebele newspaper (Umthunywa) during the period from January 2010 to August 2012. The period represents an interesting epoch in the country’s political landscape. It is a period characterized by a power-sharing government, a political situation that has highly polarized the media and as such, media stances in relation to either of the two major parties to the unity government, the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T). Couched in the theoretical explications of Appraisal Theory, specifically the ‘reporter voice’ configuration, the study sought to investigate the proliferation of journalistic ideological subjectivities in ‘hard news’ reports – a genre of news reporting that is largely characterised by claims of ‘objectivity’ and/or ‘neutrality’ and dispassionate journalistic reporting positions. The study, also assuming the orbital structure model developed by Iedema, Feez and White (1994) and White (1997, 1998) in the analysis of ‘hard news’ report in English broadsheet reporting, furthermore sought to investigate whether the textuality and cognitive/rhetorical structure of ‘hard news’ reports in news reports from the three Zimbabwean language journalistic cultures are organised around the same structure. The corpus of news reports analysed in this study were examined for the proliferation of instances of observable authorial ideological positionings by focusing how the choices made in terms of lexical, lexicogrammatical and syntagmatic resources signal evaluative keys that betray authorial ideological subjectivities. The texts were, thus, subjected to close textual analyses in terms of generic structure and journalistic voices. The study shows that Zimbabwean news reports in English, Shona and Ndebele generally share the same structure as expressed by the orbital model, in which authorial subjective evaluations are curtailed through a variety of strategic impersonalisations – largely ‘attribution’. However, despite these similarities, significant differences were observed with regards to the textuality of news reports as well as the uses made of attributed materials. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die verhandeling behels ʼn vergelykende analise van die strukturele (generiese/kognitiewe) en ideologiese eienskappe van Zimbabwiese nuusberigte in Engels, Shona en Ndebele, wat veral op die ondersoek van die proliferasie van subjektiwiteite in die houdings van outeurs by ‘kontroversiële’ ‘hardenuusberigte’ en die ideaal van ‘objektiwiteit’ fokus. Die studie het dus die tekstualiteit van Zimbabwiese gedrukte nuusberigte uit die Engels koerante The Herald, Zimbabwe Independent en Newsday, die Shona-koerant Kwayedza en die Ndebele-koerant Umthunywa uit die tydperk Januarie 2010 tot Augustus 2012 vergelyk. Dié tydperk verteenwoordig ʼn interessante tydvak in die land se politieke landskap. Dit is ʼn tydperk gekenmerk deur ʼn magsdelende regering, ʼn politieke situasie wat die media tot ʼn groot mate gepolariseer het en as sodanig mediastandpunte in verband met enige van die twee belangrikste partye in die eenheidsregering, die Zimbabwe Africa National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) en die Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T). Uitgedruk in die teoretiese uiteensettings van teorie van waardebepaling, in die besonder die ‘stem van die verslaggewer’-konfigurasie, het die studie gepoog om die uitbreiding van joernalistieke ideologiese subjektiwiteite in ‘hardenuusberigte’ – ʼn beriggewingsgenre wat grootliks deur aansprake van ‘objektiwiteit’ en/of ‘neutraliteit’ en posisies van emosielose joernalistieke beriggewing gekenmerk word – te ondersoek. Die studie, wat ook die orbitale struktuur-model ontwikkel deur Iedema, Feez en White (1994) en White (1997, 1998) by die analise van ‘hardenuusberigte’ in Engelstalige breëbladberiggewing gebruik het, het verder daarna gestreef om ondersoek in te stel daarna of die tekstualiteit en kognitiewe/retoriese struktuur van ‘hardenuusberigte’ in drie joernalistieke kulture in Zimbabwe om dieselfde struktuur heen georganiseer is. Die korpus nuusberigte wat in hierdie studie ontleed is, is nagegaan vir die proliferasie van gevalle van waarneembare ideologiese posisionerings van die skrywers deur te fokus op hoe die keuses wat gemaak is ten opsigte van leksikale, leksiko-grammatikale en sintagmatiese hulpbronne bewys lewer van waardebepalende sleutels wat ideologiese subjektiwiteite van die outeurs verklap. Die tekste was dus onderworpe aan noukeurige tekstuele analises ten opsigte van generiese struktuur en joernalistieke stemme. Die studie het aangetoon dat Zimbabwiese nuusberigte in Engels, Shona en Ndebele in die reël dieselfde struktuur deel as wat deur die orbitale model uitgedruk word, waarin subjektiewe evaluerings deur die outeur beperk word deur ʼn verskeidenheid strategiese onpersoonlikhede – hoofsaaklik ‘toeskrywing’. Ondanks hierdie ooreenkomste is beduidende verskille waargeneem met betrekking tot die tekstualiteit van nuusberigte asook die gebruik wat van toegeskryfde materiaal gemaak word. / Deep gratitude goes to the Graduate School (Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences – University of Stellenbosch) for the funding/scholarship extended to me through the African Doctoral Academy (ADA), which has made this work see the light of day

Thesis (M.A. (African Languages))-- University of Limpopo, 2014 / The study was intended to investigate the influence and the impact which Sepulana as a dialect has on the learning of Sepedi as the standard language. The findings included among others: Sepulana has a negative impact on the learning of Sepedi as a standard language in Sabie circuit, Bohlabela district of Mpumalanga Province. Secondly, most Sepedi educators who speak Sepulana use the dialect to offer Sepedi in the formal classroom situation, and as such, learners become confused on whether to use Sepedi or Sepulana words. The study recommends that teachers of Sepedi be encouraged to teach Sepedi and not Sepulana in class, and also that teachers should upgrade their Sepedi qualifications to enable them to have in-depth knowledge of the language.

A research report submitted to the School of Literature, Language and Media, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Publishing Studies, 2017 / This study has aimed to investigate what reading materials commercial publishers and education NGOs currently offer to Foundation Phase learners in the nine official African languages and also the extent to which these materials are marketed and made available to the general public by the publishers. It has been guided by two research questions. The first is as follows: What is available for early readers (learners) to read in their home languages? This question seeks to address the issue of what kind of reading material is available for Foundation Phase learners to use in early literacy, in the nine indigenous South African languages, ranging from readers, to fictional and non-fiction information books which are likely to develop their interest in reading and their literacy skills. In addition to what is available for learners, the second main question is: How do people find out about materials that are being published? How are the materials being marketed by the publishers? Who knows about them and how do they know about them? How would people get access to the materials if they wished to purchase them? The study is in two parts. The first part involved a survey of published reading materials and the second part was a personal investigation of accessibility, in terms of ease or difficulty of finding and/or purchasing these reading materials. One of the main findings is that outside the mainstream educational publishers there is reluctance on the part of many publishers to publish texts in African languages for young readers. At present, much of the reading material published by the mainstream educational publishers for Foundation Phase readers conforms to the requirements of the CAPS curriculum. The limited variety may discourage children from reading in their home languages. The limited availability to the general public of existing texts in African languages is another of the key findings of this study and the lack of information about freely available texts is third. One encouraging development is that education NGOs are finding creative ways to make interesting texts available to young readers in a range of languages. / XL2018

In die verre noorde van Suidwes-Afrika is n aantal inboorlinggebiede gelee wat vanaf die weskus tot by die Caprivistrook in die ooste strek. In die weste, met die Kunenerivier as noordelike en die Atlantiese Oseaan as westelike grens, le 'n ruwe bergagtige gebied wat as die Kaokoveld, of deesdae Kaokoland bekend staan. Dit is die tuisland van die Hererosprekende Himba. In die ooste, afgesien van die nog verder oos gelee Caprivistrook, le die Kavango-tuisland. Hier woon die Kwangali, Shambyu, Gciriku en Mbukushu. Tussen hierdie twee gebiede le Owambo, tuiste van die Wambo. Dit is verreweg die digsbewoonde gebied in S.W.A. en het 'n bevolking van meer as 300,000. Ofskoon polities en etnies saamgesnoer, word die Wambo in agt stamme verdeel waarvan die KWANYAMA en Ndonga, hoofsaaklik vanwee hul getalsoorwig en as gevolg van sendingaktiwiteite, die vernaamstes is. Indien die.grens tussen Angola en S.W.A. buite rekening gelaat word, sou die KWANYAMA na skatting twee keer soveel as die Ndonga kon tel, ongeveer 140,000 teenoor 70,000. Die tale van die onderskeie groepe is dialekties aan mekaar verwant en is onderling verstaanbaar. Sowel KWANYAMA as Ndonga word in Owambo as amptelike tale erken. Die vernaamste verskille tussen die twee le in die eerste plek in die klankstelsel en fonologie en in die tweede plek in die woordeskat, terwyl die morfologie slegs enkele wesenlike verskille toon. In hierdie studie sal verwysings na Ndonga soms onvormydelik wees. 'n Aanhaling uit 'n uitgawe van "Bantu-Studies" (Doke, Maart 1933, p.26) mag die toestand van ons kennis van prof. Doke se suidwestelike Bantoetaalgroep paslik illustreer: "We confess, however, that in this field we are sadly lacking in information, as to the population involved and the relative importance to-day of these languages, and can make no definite suggestions of value until the necessary survey has been undertaken. Die behoefte aan meer ontsluitende kennis van genoemde taalgroep bestaan in 'n groot mate vandag nog. Ofskoon die selfstandige naamwoord in KWANYAMA maar een aspek is, en daar slegs aan geraak word, mag dit moontlik 'n bydrae tot ons kennis van die Suidwestale lewer. / African Languages / M.A. (Bantoetale)

<p>In this study, I emphasize the agency of the Malian arabisant community (individuals usually trained in médersas who use Arabic as their first language of communication and who often identify first and foremost as Muslims) in creating, maintaining, and improving an education system which provides the tools needed for young Malians to be pious Muslims and productive citizens of the Republic of Mali. By creating an extensive médersa system over the years, in collaboration and confrontation with the successive governments in Mali and abroad, Malian arabisants have answered the need for a new definition of what it is to be a modern Muslim democrat in a secular democracy. I suggest that the specific formation of the educational system in Mali is related to the development of the uniquely Malian configuration of what it is to be an arabisant.</p> <p>I show how médersas have allowed and still encourage the development of a new mentality that gives Malian Muslims the tools necessary to re-define themselves in their own environment. Malian arabisants have reformulated their religious practice and sociability towards what has been called Islam mondain: a moralization of the mundane. One's energy is focused on morally purifying daily life in order to render it “islamically” sound while living in an environment that is not Islamic <em>per se</em>. It is an internalization of faith that allows the believer to enjoy the benefits of a rapidly modernizing environment by re-imagining both modernity and tradition as compatible and complementary. Islam mondain offers a model for virtuous socio-economic comfort, and an islamization of the benefits of globalization and modernization that renders them morally pure.</p> <p>This research thus contributes to the theoretical and anthropological study of Islam as a lived faith in a secular democracy; such a study is central to an understanding of the developing relationships between Islam, modernity, and secular democracy across the Muslim world. It also speaks to the very current issues faced by Muslims living in “Western” countries and vice versa. This research illustrates the agency of the Malian arabisants in defining their relationship to modernity and democracy, and thus engages with the variety of research that shows other Muslim communities in the world also engaged in such a re-definition of themselves and of their tradition.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>This dissertation proposes that the American literary trope of the "tragic mulatto" has both roots and resonances in sub-Saharan Africa. The concept of the mulatto, a person of mixed black and white heritage, as a tragic, ambiguous Other evolved primarily from nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century American fiction. I argue, however, that the mulatto occupies a similarly vexed discursive space in the historiography of sub-Saharan Africa and contemporary African literature. After contextualizing the American trope through such postbellum novels as James Weldon Johnson's The Autobiography of an ExColored Man (1912) and Nella Larsen's Quicksand (1928), I track the emergence of specific racially mixed populations in sub-Saharan Africa as a result of trade, migration, and colonialism. My historical survey of such mixed race communities as the AfroPortuguese lanr;ados of Senegambia and the Coloured people of South Africa brings to light the remarkable currency of (tragic) mulatto stereotypes across time and space. Having established the circulation of mulatto stereotypes in (pre-)colonial sub-Saharan Africa, I consider how two contemporary mixed race South African writers engage with such stereotypes in their work. This study argues that twentieth-century Coloured writers Bessie Head and Arthur Nortje realize the trope of tragic mixedness in their respective lives and writing. Head and Nortje reflect the rigid apartheid ideology of their native South Africa and assign universality to the "plight" of being mixed race in a segregationist society. But both writers also use their (gendered) identities as "tragically mixed" to challenge the policed racial categories of apartheid, subverting fixity through paradoxical performances of Self. I conclude my study in the post-civil rights and post apartheid arena of the twenty-first century, using my own experiences as an African "mulatta" and the current field of mixed race studies to illustrate how paradox itself is indispensable to progressive readings and imaginings of mixed race identity.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the application of OBE principles such as the learner-centred approach, teacher facilitation and integration of knowledge in the teaching of African languages in the senior phase. The study was conducted in Vhembe and Mopani District in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. Data were collected through observation, an interview schedule and documentary analysis. The constructivist grounded theory provided a theoretical framework for this study. Data were analysed simultaneously with the data-collection process informed by the constructivist grounded theory. This investigation revealed that teachers do not apply the investigated OBE principles in the teaching of African languages in the senior phase. Instead, they still teach in the manner they used before the introduction of the OBE approach. There were many reasons advanced by teachers for their failure to apply these principles in their teachings. A lack of knowledge and skills necessary to apply this new approach was prevalent. This lack of knowledge could be attributed to the inadequate teacher training received and noncommitment to OBE approach by the teachers. The study found that the investigated principles were not applied because of a lack of application strategies, the failure to interpret policy documents and resistance to change by teachers. In view of the findings in this study, the researcher deemed it imperative to make recommendations which could be used for further studies in order to achieve the proper application of OBE principles in the teaching of African languages. / D. Ed. (Didactics) / Educational Studies

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the application of OBE principles such as the learner-centred approach, teacher facilitation and integration of knowledge in the teaching of African languages in the senior phase. The study was conducted in Vhembe and Mopani District in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. Data were collected through observation, an interview schedule and documentary analysis. The constructivist grounded theory provided a theoretical framework for this study. Data were analysed simultaneously with the data-collection process informed by the constructivist grounded theory. This investigation revealed that teachers do not apply the investigated OBE principles in the teaching of African languages in the senior phase. Instead, they still teach in the manner they used before the introduction of the OBE approach. There were many reasons advanced by teachers for their failure to apply these principles in their teachings. A lack of knowledge and skills necessary to apply this new approach was prevalent. This lack of knowledge could be attributed to the inadequate teacher training received and noncommitment to OBE approach by the teachers. The study found that the investigated principles were not applied because of a lack of application strategies, the failure to interpret policy documents and resistance to change by teachers. In view of the findings in this study, the researcher deemed it imperative to make recommendations which could be used for further studies in order to achieve the proper application of OBE principles in the teaching of African languages. / D. Ed. (Didactics) / Educational Studies

Thesis (MA (African Languages))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This mini-thesis examines the features of a range of communication tasks in Xhosa that characterize lecturer-student conversations in tertiary context as regards problems of some individual students assuming the Task-based Theory of second language learning and teaching. The study is motivated by the need that exists for the development of specific purposes language courses for African languages like Xhosa in South Africa in the light of the constitutional provision for multilingualism and the advancement of the African languages. The introduction of multilingualism and the advancement of the status and use of the African languages are also specified in the National language policy for Higher Education. In order to commence on the kind of research on syllabus design required for quality second language courses for Xhosa within tertiary context the nature of lecturer-student communication relating to the problems of individual students is investigated in this study. The study focuses in particular on the issue of task design, i.e. the features posited by Pica et al (1993) relating to the interactant relationship between the participants, the interactant requirement (one-way or two-way), the communication goal orientation (i.e. convergent or divergent), and the goal outcome option (i.e. one or several outcome options). The analysis of the Xhosa communication tasks is of crucial significance for syllabus design, course design and pedagogic task design for task-based language teaching. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie mini-tesis ondersoek die kenmerke van ‘n verskeidenheid kommunikasietake in isiXhosa wat dosent-student gesprekke in hoër onderwys kenmerk betreffende die probleme wat individuele studente ervaar. Die raamwerk van Taakgebaseerde onderrig en leer-teorie word aanvaar. Die studie is veral gemotiveer deur die behoefte wat bestaan vir die ontwikkeling van spesifieke doeleindes taalkursusse vir Afrikatale soos isiXhosa in Suid-Afrika in die lig van die konstitusionele voorsiening wat gemaak word vir veeltaligheid en die bevordering van die inheemse Afrikatale. Die invoer van veeltaligheid en die bevordering van die status en gebruik van die Afrikatale word ook gespesifiseer in die Nasionale Taalbeleid vir Hoër Onderwys. Ten einde te begin met die tipe van sillabusontwerp vir gehalte tweedetaal-onderrig kursusse vir Xhosa binne tersiêre konteks, word die aard van dosent-student kommunikasie buite die klas, betreffende die probleme van individuele studente ondersoek in hierdie studie. Die studie fokus in die besonder op die vraagstuk van taak-ontwerp, dit is, kenmerke voorgestel deur Pica et al (1993) betreffende die deelnemers, die interakteerder-vereistes (een-rigting of twee-rigting), die kommunikasiedoel oriëntasie (d.i. konvergent of divergent), en die doel-uitkoms (een of verskeie uitkomste). Die analise van die Xhosa kommunikasietake is van sentrale belang vir sillabus-ontwerp, kursus-ontwerp en pedagogiese taak-ontwerp vir taakgebaseerde taalonderrig.

Thesis (MA (African Languages))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / This study explores the theoretical work in the articulation of the motivations and conditions for account-giving in isiZulu. In this context, accounts are similar to narratives and can be retained at the level of private reflections or written diary entries or for others to read and refer to from time to time. The account-giving process, according to Waldron (1997), is like a “life in motion” in which individual characters are portrayed as moving through their experiences, dealing with conflicts or problems in their lives and, at the same time, searching for resolutions. It is the quest to understand the major stresses in each individual’s mind that is at the core of this study. The why-questions that are the result of the daily experiences of destitution, depression, death, disability, etc. are also addressed here. Narrative accounts form the basis of moral and social events and, as such, stories have two elements through which they are explored. They are explored from the point of view of, firstly, the way in which they are told and, secondly, the way in which they are lived within a social context. These stories follow a historically or culturally based format and, to this effect, Gergen (1994) suggests narrative criteria that constitute a historically contingent narrative form. Narrative forms are linguistic tools that have important social functions to fulfil satisfactorily, such as stability narrative, progressive narrative and regressive narrative. According to Gergen (1994), self-narratives are social processes in which individuals are realised on the personal perspective or experience and, as such, their emotions are viewed as constitutive features of relationship. The self-narratives used and analysed in this study portray the contemporary culture-based elements or segments of a well-formed narrative.