The aim of the thesis is to undertake primary and secondary market research for a well established company selling musical instruments. The theoretical part of the thesis is focused on explaining the problems of marketing research and business environment of the enterprise. The practical part of the thesis is engaged in the implementation of primary research focused on the analysis of customer´s satisfaction. In addition to primary research, practical part deals with the secondary research, which focuses on the comparison of services offered by analyzed company and its competitors.

Despite South Africa’s constitutional commitment to multilingualism, literacy in English is important in education and the economy. English is widely perceived as the language of opportunity, and many South African primary schools have chosen English as their language of learning and teaching (LoLT). In terms of South Africa’s 1997 Language in Education Policy, this choice means that such a school has to comply with English Home Language curriculum requirements. In situations where few learners (or teachers) have English as a home language, the choice of English as LoLT poses particular challenges, perhaps most crucially in the early years of literacy development. This investigation explores the work of an intermediate phase teacher working in the Eastern Cape province at a “no-fee” school where English is the chosen LoLT, but where the majority of learners have isiXhosa as their home language. A qualitative interpretive approach was used to focus on the teacher’s strategies for developing her Grade 5 learners’ reading literacy in English. Data were derived via lesson observation and in-depth interviewing. Fourteen of the teacher’s English lessons were observed and she was interviewed twice. Analysis of the data shows that few learners meet the reading literacy levels outlined in National Curriculum Statement guidelines. The teacher, working as she is in what are essentially subtractive bilingualism circumstances, is poorly equipped to cope with the task of developing her learners’ reading literacy. I argue that educational policy, contributing as it does to the ongoing displacement, by English, of many South African children’s home languages, not only undermines the post-apartheid Government’s attempts at linguistic equity, but also contributes significantly to unequal reading literacy achievement across South Africa’s different socio-economic sectors. Department of Basic Education officials, academics and others involved in decision-making around teacher education and development need to work together to interrogate policy and put in place more effective support structures to help teachers better cope with the exigencies outlined above.

This study is an exploration of contextual environmental learning through integrated life skills and literacy in a Foundation Phase classroom. It attempts to document, explore and clarify some of the challenges of situated environmental learning in a Foundation Phase classroom through an integrated program of life skills learning and literacy acquisition. The research draws on a rich but often overlooked cultural historical context of embodied intergenerational healthy living practices in a rural Eastern Cape context to construct a learning platform for a more carefully situated and potentially relevant education. The integrated life skills and literacy acquisition program thus unfolded as a contextual process of situated learning within a developing blend of listening, writing and reading to learn in a Grade 3 program of additive bilingualism. The data generated in the study and represented in Chapter 4 suggests curriculum contextualisation in an integrated Foundation Phase program can contribute to environmental learning with enhanced relevance and literacy skills. The evidence from working with learner knowledge and experience in a community context appears to be a key to meaningful curriculum contextualization in an integrated Foundation Phase programme producing enhanced literacy and relevance. It was noted that engaging elders (gogos) enabled the process of opening up local knowledge to link with learner experience and school knowledge to foster relevance, appeared to contribute to more meaningful learning across other learning areas. There is evidence that acquiring literacy skills is a lengthy process that is supported by learner interest and the relevance of what they are learning especially when it is acknowledged by the teacher and the community. The findings of an exploratory study such as this cannot be conclusive beyond the experience that I had of working with learners who were engaged in learning as well as acquiring literacy skills literacy skills. My personal enthusiasm and work with the Gogos and with a community focus were key factors that strengthened environmental learning across school, home and community. The experience has convinced me that this is the way we must work to enhance relevance and literacy in our Foundation Phase teaching.

In South Africa, in July 2001, the National Department of Education released White Paper 6 which underpins the notion of inclusive education. It states that the needs of all children should be catered for within the South African educational framework. Subsequent guidelines from the Department (2005; 2012) also provide a strong focus on understanding individual children’s learning styles and explain the concept and application of children’s multiple intelligences. However, on closer examination, it seems that the inclusive education, as well as barriers to learning referred to in the abovementioned guidelines, are indicated to mean catering for children at the lower-ability end of the learning spectrum. This research begins to explore the notion that high potential children might require special attention, though not at the expense of those with learning impairments. An education system that provides inclusive education to children at both the lower and higher ends of the learning spectrum would be more equitable, and would give all children an equal chance of reaching their full potential. One possible strategy for accommodating the diverse needs of learners is through differentiation (Department of Education, 2005). Differentiation is a way of teaching that aims to provide stimulating and enriching learning environments to a diverse group of children within a classroom. This might be achieved by separating the class into smaller groups based on ability, or by providing children with different tasks at the same time, with the same learning objectives but at differing cognitive levels (Rogers, 2007). Vygotsky’s work on the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and mediation provides a theoretical framework for proposing differentiation as a strategy. The data was gathered through an in-depth examination (using a combination of classroom observations, document analysis and teacher interviews) of mathematics teaching in Grade 1 in three schools in Grahamstown. My analysis was based on Vygotsky’s theories (the main tenets of which were the ZPD and scaffolding, as well as the role of socio-culture in learning), using Tomlinson’s (1999) differentiated instruction framework to provide structure to the study. The following themes emerged from the data: a focus on the teachers’ understandings of differentiation; the use of grouping as a superficial form of differentiation; a lack of teacher preparation and understanding in relation to task differentiation; and an underlying sense of ‘sameness’ in teachers’ understanding of their learners. In addition to the above, I did not observe evidence of real differentiation for high potential children and hope that this research contributes to extending teachers’ training (both academic and in-service) in this area, convincing teachers of the existence and importance of critical thinking abilities in our youngest learners, and initiating a move towards the drafting of Individual Education Plans for all our learners. During the period of my research I have been convinced that the use of differentiated instruction in classrooms is the way forward in educational thinking, particularly as it relates to the notion of inclusive learning. Clearly there are challenges to be addressed in terms of school timetables, curricula, teachers’ time frames and past education system inequalities such as we have here in South Africa.

This thesis reports on research into micro-interactions within the reading literacy event Reading on the Mat in three Grade One classrooms. This event is the core of literacy learning in Foundation Phase classrooms in formerly ‘white’, government-funded primary schools in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, and takes place daily for every child. It is literacy practice resembling Group Guided Reading. The research focused on teachers’ identity-forming decisions, actions and discourses as a way of examining micro-interactions within the literacy event. Hymes’s work on the ethnography of communication provided categories for the investigation. Using an ethnographic approach, I entered the sites of the study as a participant observer. There I focused on the central literacy event, in which a group of children and the teacher sit in close proximity. I made field notes, video recordings and audio recordings in three sets of visits spanning the full school year. These were supplemented by teacher interviews, consideration of reports and assessments, and an analysis of the text types used on the Mat, for example, graded readers, flash cards and phonics primers. Beginning with Hymes’ S.P.E.A.K.I.N.G. mnemonic, cycles of analysis using multiple instruments foregrounded the data. The central finding of this research is that in Reading on the Mat children are offered identities through strong normative work and embedded practices. Teachers promote positive identities for children as successful readers and create positive affect for reading activities. This positive positioning work is however undercut by three factors: first, the fact that activities on the Mat focus on decoding text fragments rather than interrogating whole texts. The resultant identity offered to children is one of code breakers alone. A finding subsidiary to this, but important for pedagogic practice, is that teachers’ choice of text types is the most powerful determinant of children’s code breaker identity. A second factor that undercuts children’s identity as successful readers is that, although they are active, they have little agency. This derives from the strong assessment focus of teachers on the Mat and their questioning practices. A third factor which undercuts the positive identity children are offered in this literacy event is that, by focusing primarily on decoding fragmented text and on assessment opportunities, teachers avoid engaging with issues of differentiation and disregard cultural and linguistic differences. Teachers’ choices, therefore, while creating a positive climate in the classroom and developing emergent readers who are effective decoders, construct children as limited literate subjects. The same choices enable teachers to ignore learner diversity. / Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in

The master’s thesis is concerned with the proposal of marketing strategy of individual entry into the business of language education in Brno. The thesis contains primary and secondary research of the market. The secondary research is focused on competition and informal education of adults. The primary one inquires into consumer, the needed data were obtained through online questionnaire survey. Consequently, the marketing strategy is defined with emphasis on marketing mix.