Department of English, Media Studies and Linguistics
Permanent URI for this community
Browse
Browsing Department of English, Media Studies and Linguistics by Title
Now showing 1 - 20 of 55
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Open Access The accessibilty to English as the Second Language of learning and teaching in selected Public Primary schools of Vhembe District(2017-08-18) Madima, Shumani Eric; Phaswana, N. E.; Klu, E. K.See the attached abstract belowItem Open Access An evaluation of the English Language component of the mature students' entrance examinations into selected Ghanaian Universities(2021-06-23) Asafo - Adjei, Ramos; Klu, E. K.; Adika, G. S.K.; Maluleke, M. J.In Ghana, there are two main ways of gaining admission to the undergraduate university system. These are the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and the Mature Students’ Entrance Examinations. The latter examination is mainly conducted internally by the universities in order to select the successful applicants for enrolment. This is on condition that the test takers have prior working experience in the fields that they want to attain their respective certificates and aged twenty-five years and above. This study mainly sought to evaluate the nature and scope of the English language component of the Mature Students’ Entrance Examinations into selected Ghanaian universities. The present study adopted the multiple case study design as its primary technique. The sources of data used were responses from in-depth interviews and the past questions of the English language component of the Mature Students’ Entrance Examinations. Thematic content analysis and document analysis were employed to analyse the data. Berry’s (2018) test development model underpinned this study. The sample for the study (mainly the lecturers who set the English language component of the Mature Students’ Entrance Examinations questions and the past questions of the English language component of the Mature Students’ Entrance Examinations) were drawn from six universities. It was found that the English language component of the Mature Students’ Entrance Examinations fell short of both the WASSCE and the IELTS standards in areas such as the uniformity of the questions set, the basic language skills tested, the criteria used for setting the questions and the topical areas (competences) tested in the examination. It is recommended that a formal regulatory body be formed by Ghana’s Ministry of Education to control and coordinate the English language component of the Mature Students’ Entrance Examinations as WAEC does for the WASSCE in order to enhance the standards of the examination.Item Open Access Analysis of English language errors in the writing of second year students in a Ghanaian university(2021-06-23) Mandor, Evelyn Joyce; Klu, E. K.; Adika, G. S. K.; Lambani, M. N.The writing of undergraduate students in universities across Ghana has been described as pitiable by many researchers. To be able to communicate effectively and succeed in an academic discourse community, a student requires sufficient competence in the use of the English language, which is the medium of instruction in universities across Ghana. However, it is observable that most of the students’ writing in the English language tends to be fraught with some recurrent errors. Data collected were in the form of written compositions. A mixed-method comprising both qualitative and quantitative procedures was used. The qualitative aspect looked at error taxonomies and the quantitative aspect employed statistics to obtain error frequencies. The errors in the writing of Second Year students of a Ghanaian university were analysed using Error Analysis procedures. The findings revealed that students demonstrated poor writing skills with inherent grammatical errors and a lack of cohesion and coherence. A total of 16 error categories were detected with 25% (expression, omission, spelling, capitalisation) of the total errors ranking very high in terms of frequency of occurrence. This was followed by plurality, addition, choice of words and concord making up another 25% of the total errors detected. Errors such as tense, punctuation, preposition, pronoun, faulty parallelism, fragment, wrong transition and article although ranked low, made up a total of 50%. Based on the findings, the study suggested a revision of the academic syllabus and the methods of learning and teaching English language, especially at the tertiary level to enable students to demonstrate competence concerning English language compositions.Item Open Access An analysis of the land issue as portrayed in selected novels by Ngugi wa Thiong'o(2011-11) Mondo, LystaSee the attached abstract belowItem Open Access An analysis of written concord errors among Grade 12 First Additional Language learners in Vhembe District of Limpopo Province, South Africa(2017-05) Nndwamato, Ndivhudzanyi Michael; Lambani, M. N.; Klu, E.;Learning English as a second language by the South African learners of English First Additional Language (FAL) causes many challenges, such as committing errors in concord as there are differences between the learners’ mother tongue and the target language. Even at Grade 12 level, which is the exit point to institutions of higher learning or to the workplace, learners still display some deficiencies in the mastery of the English concord. This happens despite the fact that, in many South African schools, English is used as a medium of instruction and learnt as a First Additional Language (FAL) especially at high schools. Through the analysis of the written concord errors committed by the 72 of the 720 sampled Grade 12 English FAL learners in Vhembe District, the study answered to two questions which formed its cornerstone which are: what are the most common types of written concord/ subject-verb agreement errors which are committed by Grade 12 FAL learners and what are the causes thereof? The study employed both the quantitative and the qualitative methods to pursue the primary question. Learners responded to the questionnaires and the researcher also analysed their teacher-marked English FAL composition scripts with the focus on concord/subject-verb agreement usage. The findings were that concord/subject-verb agreement was a challenge to the majority of the participants. There was not even a single question which recorded a 100% correct entry. The question on collective nouns was found to be the hardest to the participants while comparatively, the singular indefinite pronoun question recorded the best results. The learners’ written compositions were also found to have been marred by concord/subject-verb agreement errors. In most instances, the learners had resorted to simple sentences avoiding the complex sentence construction as those would have required complicated application of concord/ subject-verb agreement usage. Based on the findings, the following recommendations were made: teaching of grammar should be intensified, and that teachers of English should be retrained even if it will be through the in-service programmesItem Open Access The application of command responsibility in informal civilian relationships for international crimes - lessons from the ICTR(2017-02) Tapiwa, Agripa MhuruSee the attached abstract belowItem Open Access Aspects of Written English Language Errors Made by Level-One Students in a South African University(2023-05-19) Demana, Vincent Ndishunwani; Klu, E. K.; Maluleke, M. J.; Kaburise, P.Several researchers have raised concerns regarding the perpetual decline of the standard of English proficiency of South African university students in their written production. To be able to cope with university studies and everyday communication in English, a student must have the required proficiency in English language usage for tertiary education. Majority of them, however, still produce erroneous English utterances in their oral and written performances. As a result, this study was intended to investigate the errors in a corpus of essays written by level-one students at a South African university. To achieve the objectives of the study, fifty (50) essays written by level-one students who had registered for English Communication Skills (ECS1541) in the 2021 academic year were analysed. Cluster sampling was used to select the research participants. The study adopted document analysis technique in which data were collected by means of an essay task on a given topic. The study adopted a combination of the Linguistic category and the Surface structure taxonomies to allow a more comprehensive examination and description of errors from different analytical perspectives. The findings revealed that the students committed a total of 445 errors in their written productions. They were errors of omission (41.35%), addition (26.29%) and misformation (32.36%).These errors were further broken down to the following language aspects: copula ‘be’ and other auxiliaries 92 (21%), third person singular 81 (18%), pronoun 79 (18%), preposition 62 (14%), plural marker ‘-s/-es’ 59 (13%), article 32 (7.2%), coordinating conjunction ‘and’ 16 (3.6%), apostrophe ‘s and possessive ’s 14 (3.1%) and past tense markers 10 (2.2%). The possible causes of errors committed were ascribed to a variety of factors including cross- linguistic differences between English and the students’ L1, overgeneralisation, carelessness on the part of the student, insufficient mastery of the English language system and hypercorrection resulting from the students’ strict observance and over-caution regarding the English language structure. Based on the study findings, the study recommends strategies that may offer invaluable insights to English language teachers, module facilitators and curriculum designers operating in similar contexts.Item Open Access Assessment of the Medium of Instruction on Pupils Academic Performance in Literacy: a Study of Selected Lower Primary Schools in Ghana(2017-05-18) Ansre, Margaret Ama; Klu, E. K.; Kaburise, P. K.; Mulaudzi, L. M. P.This research assesses how the choice of a particular medium of instruction supports Primary Class Three (P.3) pupils’ academic performance in literacy. The need for this research has been occasioned by the inconsistencies that exist in Ghana’s language-in-education policy. The current language-in-education policy allows for only the dominant language of the community, in which a school is situated, to be used as medium of instruction, even when pupils speak different languages in one P.3 classroom. The research adopts a mixed methodology approach and uses purposive sampling technique to select a total sample of 317 participants. This number comprises pupils, teachers, parents and other stakeholders in education from 8 schools within 3 municipalities in the Greater Accra region of Ghana. Five (5) of the schools use English medium of instruction and three (3) schools use Ghanaian language or mother-tongue. Data collection tools for the research are interviews, participant’s observations, video recordings and diagnostic tests. The main finding, based on the test results of the research, establishes that when mother-tongue and English are compared as mediums of instruction from Kindergarten One (KG1) up to P. 3, there is no significant difference pupils’ academic results in literacy. In view of this, the research advocates for further debate on other factors that support pupils academic performance in literacy, in addition to mother-tongue and English medium of instruction in lower primary schools.Item Open Access Attitudes of youth towards television news broadcast in the indigenous african languages: the case of students at the University of Venda(2022-07-15) Sathekge, Suzan Manki; Chari, T,; Makananise, F. O.; Madima, S. E.On average, youth in South Africa are more inclined to watch and listen to news broadcast in English language than in indigenous African languages. This trend is likely to contribute to underdevelopment, and extinction of the indigenous African languages in South Africa. However, these concerns are based on casual observations rather than scholarly investigations. This study explores attitudes of the youth towards news broadcast in indigenous African languages at the University of Venda in Limpopo Province, South Africa. An exploratory sequential mixed method was utilised to firstly establish trends in attitudes of youth towards news broadcast in African indigenous languages and later explain the underlying reasons for the language preferences. A self-administered questionnaire was used in the first phase and focus group discussions were used in the second phase to collect data from purposively selected students in the School of Human and Social Sciences at the University of Venda in Limpopo Province, South Africa. Quantitative data was analysed descriptively through Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 26 while qualitative data were analysed using Thematic Content Analysis. The study revealed that most youth are inclined to watch news broadcast in the English language because of the perceived benefits and content richness. On the other hand, news broadcast in African languages were shunned due to limited socio-economic benefits associated with these languages. The study provides important insights into possible strategies for enhancing promotion of indigenous African languages in South Africa through further their development and incorporation into the socio-economic practices.Item Open Access The choice of English as a language of learning and teaching (LOLT) in selected public primary schools of Vhembe District(2019-09-20) Mudau, Angeline Thikhathali; Dube, B.; Madima, S. E.The study investigates why English is chosen as a language of learning and teaching by School Governing Bodies in selected public primary schools in Vhembe District. Historically, only English and Afrikaans were regarded as official languages that could be used as media of instruction in schools. The advent of democracy in 1994 saw nine most spoken languages in South Africa, besides English and Afrikaans, being elevated to the level of official languages. These languages included Tshivenda, Sepedi, Xitsonga, Sesotho, Seswati, isiZulu, isiXhosa, Setswana and isiNdebele, Since the South African constitution guarantees equal status to all the eleven major languages that are spoken in South Africa, one would expect to find schools choosing other languages, besides English, as a language of learning and teaching. The Language-in-Education Policy Act of 1997 stipulates that, for the first three years of schooling, learners should be taught in home language. The South African Schools Act number 84 of 1996, gives the mandate to determine the language of learning and teaching to School Governing Bodies (SGB). Amidst this freedom of choice, English remains the language of choice in public primary schools of Vhembe District. Studies have indicated that learners cannot cope with the sudden switch from home language to English, and that they end up failing or even dropping out of school. This study aimed to find out why English remains the language of choice for learning and teaching despite the fact that SGBs have the power to choose indigenous languages. The study was undertaken in the following municipalities: Collins Chabane and Makhado. A collective case study was used as a research design. Twelve respondents, from six selected schools, namely; six SGB chairpersons and six school Principals participated in the study. Respondents were purposively selected because they were the ones responsible for school governance matters. Three data collection methods were used, namely; observations, interviews and document anlysis. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Findings revealed that SGBs lack capacity to execute their duties as school governors, and that English remains the language of choice because of the status it has in the economic and academic world. The study also found that SGBs cannot choose African languages because they are not developed as languages of science and technology. Conclusions drawn from this study are that SGBs do not participate in the v drafting of the language policy because most members are illiterate and are not aware of the power vested in them by SASA to determine the language policy of their schools. The study also concluded that home languages are not chosen as media of instruction because there are no learning and teaching materials in those languages, and also that home languages are not used as media of instruction in secondary schools and tertiary institutions that admit learners from these primary schools. A major recommendation of the study is that indigenous languages should be developed into languages of science and technology if they are to be used as languages of teaching and learning, and that there should be a programme designed to assist grade 4 learners with the transition from using home language as medium of instruction, to using English as medium of instruction.Item Open Access Deconstructing the image of the African women: A study of selected works by Yvonne Vera(2018-09-21) Mabuto, Ann Marevanhema; Sewlall, H.; Oduwobi, O. A.; Motlhaka, H. A.The prevalence of patriarchal norms and the privileging of the African man in African literary works gradually led to an erasure of women‘s identities, thereby leaving them to hold peripheral positions. This has motivated African women critics to engage in linguistic and performative methodologies to restructure African women‘s status in postcolonial writings. Using feminist literary theory, Marxist literary criticism and postcolonial theory, among others, this study explores the changing images of women as depicted in a selection of Yvonne Vera‘s works, namely: Butterfly Burning (1998); Under the Tongue (1996); Without a Name (1994) and Nehanda (1993). Close reading and textual analysis are employed in examining the strategies devised by Vera to assess patriarchal attitudes that suppress women as well as reconfiguring their identities. This study is inspired by the desire to investigate the techniques employed by an African woman writer in speaking against marginalisation, exploitation and oppression of women in a postcolonial literary environment. Of primary concern to this study, is an examination of how Vera unleashes, re-writes and re-negotiates the potential of an African woman in her novels. This study distinctly shows that, as a subaltern writer, Vera reconfigures her female characters‘ identities through social and economic liberalisation. It is clear in this study that economic liberty has a great impact on the life of an African woman. This study contributes to the growing body of works that appreciates women writers‘ efforts in transforming, reifying and reinstating the image of African women in fictional works.Item Open Access The depiction of female experiences in selected post-2000 South African narratives written by women(2016-05) Nyete, L. T.; Dube, B.; Ramaite, P. E.See the attached abstract belowItem Open Access The depiction of Homelessness in K. Sello Duiker's Thirteen Cents and Phaswane MPE's Welcome to Our Hillbrow(2018-05-18) Mahori, Freddy; Nengome, A. Z; Rafapa, L. J.In this study, I explore the depiction of homelessness in K. Sello Duiker’s Thirteen Cents (2000) and Phaswane Mpe’s Welcome to Our Hillbrow (2001). Against the background of post-colonial and transcultural theories, I explore the effects of homelessness on select characters depicted in the two novels, particularly how homelessness and its effects impact on the characters’ identity and human dignity, as some of the themes which the two authors deal with. I achieve this through a close analysis of themes, characterisation and style as well as a demonstration of how the metaphor of the plight of the homeless is drawn from the experiences of the homeless characters portrayed in the novels. I establish, through this study, that the two novels depict characters on whose identity and human dignity, colonialism had an adverse impact. I argue that the corroded dignity and identity of the select homeless characters can be restored through the application of the tenets of transcultural theory. I consistently identify the central morals of the two novels under study as highlighting the need for society to address the plight central to the two novels’ major themes of homelessness, poverty, identity and human dignity against the backdrop of postcoloniality and transculturalism.Item Open Access The depiction of migration and identity in Zimbabwean Literature from 1980-2010(2015-08-05) Musanga, Terrence; Manase, I; Muponde, RItem Open Access Determinants of performance in English First Additional Language in the FET Phase of Grade 12 learners: a case study of selected schools in Vhembe District, Limpopo Province(2017-09-18) Maposa, Benjamin; Kaburise, P. K.; Klu, E. K.; Lambani, M. N.See the attached abstract belowItem Open Access (Dis)Locations, (Dis) Placements and (Un) Belonging in Zimbabwean White Farmer's Auto/biograhies 1995 to 2010(2021-06-23) Tshuma, Pios; Ndlovu, I.; Muchemwa, K.This study interrogates white auto/biography and exposes the ambivalences, ambiguities, paradoxes and dilemmas that arise in the claims for belonging and the premises for the authority behind such claims. It gestures to white autobiography and biography writing as an opening to what in Zimbabwe has been suppressed as dangerous apocryphal writing. The thesis focuses on the interweaving of autobiographies and biographies and that although this interweaving generates polyphonic narratives that refuse totalizing discourse, this compromises claims to belonging by the authors’ claiming to be legitimate figures whose writing espouse the white community’s contestation of the abrogation of their citizenship and mastery in economic production while that legitimacy is queried by counter narratives in the same books. Through poststructuralism, deconstruction and Levinas’s alterity theory, identity and (un)belonging are posed as unstable and schizophrenic. Both autobiography and biography are investigated as already primed to disband centers of totalizing discourses which are discourses that restrict or mute the voice of the subaltern. Identity as heterogeneous is promoted as this thesis privileges identity as provisional and seeks to oppose teleologies and ideological closures. Using the selected texts, the study explores and analyses concepts and conceptualizations of ideology and space, intertextuality as the intersecting of biographies and autobiography, fiction and nonfiction and authorial detachment/attachment.Item Open Access The emergence of social media discourse among Ghanainan University Students: implications for the acquisition or academic literacy(2017-05-18) Anku, Joyce Senya Ama; Klu, E. K.; Adika, G. S. K.; Mulaudzi, L. M. P.Language, in general, has always been evolving and dynamic; the same can be said of the English language. Spontaneously, but not unexpected though, since the beginning of this 21st century which saw the introduction of the internet, there have been noteworthy manifestations in the structure and use of varied forms of the English language on social media. This study aimed at exploring, describing and explaining the linguistic features associated with the new communicative order – social media – and their communicative functions, vis-à-vis their impact on Ghanaian university students’ acquisition of academic literacy. To do this, the study adopted a qualitative method and an ethnographic approach in understanding the netnographic realities on social media. In addition, the sociocultural theory and the theory of error analysis served as the philosophical underpinnings which guided the research. Participants of the study (largely undergraduate students) were drawn from two universities in Ghana – the University of Ghana, and Valley View University. The total sample size was one hundred and eighty eight (188). It was found that frequent and prolonged use of social media discourse does impact negatively on the academic literacy of students. The findings also indicate that social media use overtime becomes addictive and this directly results in limited time span and low attention span of students. Again, the study found that over engagement on social media discourse leads to a general breakdown in both sentence and discourse structure of academic writing resulting into uncontrolled deviant spellings, omission and misuse of punctuation marks and capitalisation, as well as a high level of colloquialism. Despite these negative influences, it was found that there are some positive potentials of social media that can be harnessed to support academic literacy. The study, thus, recommends that the affordances of social media communication should be retooled to support the teaching and learning of academic literacy.Item Open Access The emmergence of social media discourse among Ghanaian University Students: Implications for the acquisition of academic literacy(2017-02) Anku, Joyce Senya AmaSee the attached abstract belowItem Open Access English language profiency challenges of primary school teacher trainees at Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Polytechnic in Zimbabwe(2017-09-18) Khoza, Trenance; Neeta, N. C. K; Mulaudzi, L M. P.See the attached abstract belowItem Open Access Evaluation of sentence construction in English essays: A case study of Grade 10 learners of Malamulele Northeast Circuit(2021-06) Khosa, Mzamani Steven; Lambani, M. N.; Sikitime, E. T.Sentence construction in essay writing seems to be a problem that students face in secondary schools. This has been shown consistently in English First Additional Language Paper 3 examination results. Hence, the purpose of the current study was to evaluate sentence construction in English essays written by Grade 10 learners in Malamulele Northeast Circuit. The objectives of this study were to identify the types of sentences used by Grade 10 learners in the Malamulele Northeast Circuit in their essays, explore the usage of grammar and examine how different types of conjunctions were used in English sentences by Grade 10 learners in the Malamulele Northeast Circuit. The study was underpinned by the Communicative Competence Theory by Swain and Canale (1980) and qualitative research methods were employed. The study further used thematic analysis to analyse data obtained. The target population of the study was Grade 10 First Additional Language learners in the Malamulele North East Circuit in the Malamulele Township, Vhembe District of the Limpopo Province. Stratified random and purposive sampling techniques were used to select the sample for the study. The data were collected from English essays written by the sampled Grade 10 First Additional Language learners in the Malamulele North East Circuit. The study established that although Grade 10 learners in Malamulele Northeast circuit used different types of sentences, their structural composition were often syntactically inadequate. Common errors displayed included incorrect punctuation, concord error, vague expression, dangling participles as well as incorrect ad overuse of connective devices.
- «
- 1 (current)
- 2
- 3
- »