Theses and Dissertations

Permanent URI for this collection

https://univendspace.univen.ac.za/handle/11602/2206

Browse

Now showing 1 - 20 of 54

Open Access
Investigating the use of conjuctions in essay writing by selected second-level non-native English students at a South African University
(2023-10-05) Ligege, Mutshidzi; Lambani, M. N.; Nephawe, F. T.; Demana, V.
In academic writing, writers must use appropriate language to articulate their ideas. This includes using appropriate conjunctions to present a comprehensive and logical piece of written work. Therefore, this study investigated the use of conjunctions in essay writing by selected second-level non-native English students at a South African University. The research adopted a mixed method approach because the researcher could combine the findings from qualitative and quantitative approaches. A quantitative approach was used because it uses numbers and percentages, while the qualitative approach identifies an in-depth understanding of a particular phenomenon. Quantitatively, 52 students constituting 20% of the 261 entire population of the University of Venda second-level non-native English students participated in this study. A random sampling technique was used because it gave an equal opportunity for the students to participate in the study. Data were collected using a questionnaire instrument. A Statistical Package for Social Sciences Software Version 22.0 was used due to analyse quantitative data due to its ability to identify trends and patterns of the findings. Qualitatively, further sampling of 10 students was purposively conducted based on the researcher’s judgment. A document analysis was used to collect and manually analyse themes emerging from the participants’ written essays. The study found that the majority of the participants were competent in the use of subordinate conjunctions, coordinate conjunctions, and conjunctive adverb conjunctions. However, they experienced difficulties in the use of correlative conjunctions because they could not produce coherent and cohesive written essays. The present study recommends writing and frequent practice of the use of conjunctions by selected second-level non-native English students at a South African University.
Open Access
Register competence in academic writing: a case study of Third-Level English Students at the University of Venda, Limpopo Province
(2023-10-05) Zitha, Innocent; Lambani, M. N.; Bvuma, V.
The use of unsuitable registers has been a critical concern with students at universities, colleges, and in English Second Language (ESL) contexts. While the appropriate use of registers is essential for coherent spoken and written discourses. However, students in ESL contexts seem to encounter difficulties in the use of appropriate registers due to various factors. The purpose of this study was to explore register competence among third-level students specialising in English Didactics at the University of Venda. The participants were 15 third-level students in the academic year of 2020. This study employed a case study design with a focus on the qualitative research method and a critical discourse and thematic analysis were employed as methods of data analysis. This study adopts a prescriptive grammar in the evaluation of the register competence. The findings of this study reveal that the register knowledge and its suitable usage among the selected third year-level student educators appeared to be an obstacle to their academic writing due to the variations in the use of the five distinct registers, namely, static, casual, intimate, informal, and formal. Furthermore, the following features were present in student educators’ written work, namely, passive voice, lack of parallel structure, colloquialism, slang, use of personal pronouns, and phrasal verbs which are mostly considered inappropriate features for academic writing. Academic writing should be given extensive attention in English curriculum content such that the students master the appropriate writing style and register usage. The pedagogical implications from this study are that the lecturers teaching English second language should enlighten the student educators with appropriate knowledge to enable them to use registers appropriately and advance students’ understanding of differences in the English language registers. This would pave the way for possible research arenas, and strategies to mitigate the inappropriate use of registers.
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.
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.
Open Access
Misappropriation of adjectives by Grade 7 non-native English language learners: A case study of four independent rural primary schools in Manombe Circuit, Mopani District
(2022-07-15) Ticharwa, Addmore; Lambani, M. N.; Bvuma, V. T.
The study aimed to present an analysis of adjective errors committed by Grade 7 non-native English Home Language Learners, with a special focus on independent rural primary schools in Man’ombe Circuit, Mopani District. Grade 7 is the transitional grade from senior primary phase to high school which serves an important function of preparing learners for further education and training (FET) studies. A mixed research approach (qualitative and quantitative) was used. For the qualitative approach content analysis was employed to collect data, while for the quantitative approach, data was gathered using a standardised test. The population was eighty-one (81) Grade 7, non-native learners ofEnglish Home Language, both as a subject and as the medium of instruction, in four independent schools in Man’ombe Circuit. The participants were selected using systematicrandom sampling and they comprised 25% of the population (20 learners). Boththequantitative and qualitative data show that the errors committed by non-native English Home Language learners were predominantly morphology, comparative degree and adjective identification errors.The quantitative data showed that errors on the use of similar-sounding words (homonyms) (for example, further/ farther), syntactic errors, morphology errors as well as errors in the use of semantically-similar words (latter /last) recorded the highest number of errors, compared to errors on adjectives of quantity, possessive pronouns and adjectives of quality that recorded the least number of errors. The qualitative data showed that the errors made by the participants in this study were mostly morphological and errors on the formation of comparative degree adjectives. In this study, the errors were brought about by both inter-lingual and intra-lingual transfer. The study should be relevant for learners who should be advised to make brief summaries of grammatical rules governing the use of adjectives to improve their written and spoken English. It is also essentialfor learners to be conversant with grammatical rules governing the morphology of adjectives and encourage them to internalize and make use of them when they speak and write. Learners are also advised tofamiliarise themselves with adjective error they commit so that they can work towards the avoidance of such errors.
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.
Open Access
(Re)constructions of the Self and the Nation in Selected Auto/biographies of South African and Zimbabwean Women
(2021-11-19) Mujakachi, Mercy Precious; Mashau, G. S.; Mulaudzi, L. M. P.
This thesis examines and interrogates auto/biographies of six African women in the ways in which their selves and the nation are constructed. The selected autobiographies and biographies are largely by and about African women with some measure of political power and or relatively successful career. The study employed Smith and Watson’s (2001) view that autobiography is self-life writing which is porous in nature, in that it accommodates various narratives. Life narrative genre is fundamental in the literary body to interpret social, cultural and political constructions of South African and Zimbabwean identities. The study supports the notion that the self emerges from its gendered private space into the public domain, inadvertently transforms autobiography to protest writing, as well as a political project. The study explored how auto/biographies enable the recovery of women’s voices silenced by history and the specific forms of identities of selves and nation-hoods that they depict. To achieve that, the study employed a panoply of theories which include autobiography, postcolonial, womanist and feminist theories to argue that the life narratives by women are a quest for gender equity as negotiated within the two specific postcolonial nation states of South Africa and Zimbabwe. The study disclosed that women as writers have to negotiate the multiple binds of gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality and class. The study concludes that it is not possible to deploy a singular self to tell a story but rather to include the lived experience of others differently positioned provides a holistic view of the predicaments and prevailing situation of the society. The study further determines that nationalism is a gendered discourse and that violence against women and resistance are shaped by specific cultural contexts and ideological forces. This research adds value to the existing corpus of knowledge in the field. It focuses on recent auto/biographies by Southern African women as these intersect will liberal notions of democracy and the discourse of human rights. The selected auto/biographies have not been subjected to solemn academic and literary scrutiny. It thus adds a voice to studies that were trailblazers in this area from a new perspective. The study focused on the African patriarchal society and called for its modernization so that women can take their proper place in it. This adds to the calls made by scholars and critics for opportunities to be afforded to women to prove their merit. There is a loud cry for African nations to put structures in their societies to make the system work. This study makes a contribution to the growing field of autobiography in South Africa and Zimbabwe and especially recognizes women's life writing. Also, it further forms part of the critical scholarship that seeks to understand how authors frame various issues affecting women in and how their experiences have contributed to the positive social and political development of Southern African communities.
Open Access
Exploring vocabulary teaching competencies Grade 10 English First Additional Language teachers of Thohoyandou Cluster in Vhembe East District
(2021-03-02) Nndwamato, Ndivhudzannyi Michael; Lambani, Matodzi Nancy; Klu, Ernest
Teachers of English First Additional Language are critically important in the learners’ vocabulary learning trajectories. Learners need a significant vocabulary repertoire for their academic commitments, comprehension of content and articulate expression of their responses, especially in tests and examinations. Despite these imperatives, Grade 12 learners’ vocabulary level remains unsatisfactory, and this paucity explains their low performance in the English FAL. This study explored the vocabulary teaching strategies, resources, and vocabulary teaching activities used by teachers in the Thohoyandou cluster of Vhembe East District. A parallel-convergent research methodology using pragmatism paradigm and mixed-methods approach was conducted to explore vocabulary teaching competencies of forty-six Grade 10 English FAL teachers in the Thohoyandou cluster of Vhembe East District, Limpopo Province. As part of the quantitative research methodology, all 46 teachers responded to a questionnaire while 10 of these teachers constituted a purposive sample observed teaching vocabulary in class. Data were captured using an observation checklist. The same 10 teachers who were observed were further engaged in structured interviews which were recorded as part of the qualitative data. The research findings established that the majority of the participants were aware of the CAPS’ expectations regarding the teaching of vocabulary. Participants were competent in using English as a medium of instruction throughout their lessons. Even though almost all the participants knew the effective vocabulary teaching strategies, had the resources and designed valid activities, only a few of these could translate their knowledge into practice. Most teachers preferred teaching vocabulary using synonyms and antonyms; they relied heavily on reading texts as teaching resources, and they engaged learners selectively in very short responses to predictable questions. Teachers did not exhibit dynamic teaching strategies for vocabulary development and extension, and it emerged that there were significant challenges in their intervention strategies. The study’s conclusion was that Grade 10 English FAL teachers’ vocabulary teaching competencies were not convincing. The teachers’ limitations in teaching vocabulary effectively may be attributed to a lack of capacity regarding vocabulary teaching and in-service training sessions for teachers that could bridge the gap between knowledge gained from teacher training institutions and the latest trending practices. This study proposes that there should be regular intensive in-service training sessions for teachers designed to keep teachers abreast with trending teaching practices.
Open Access
Violent Crimes in Selected Post - 2000 South African Novels
(2021-06-23) Masete, Ditshego; Ndlovu, I.; Mulaudzi, L. M. P.
Through an examination of Angela Makholwa’s Red Ink (2007) and Black Widow Society (2013), Deon Meyer’s Blood Safari (2009) and Trackers (2012), Margie Orford’s Daddy’s Girl (2009), and Water Music (2013), Sifizo Mzobe’s Young Blood (2011) and finally Lazola Pambo’s The Path Which Shapes Us (2012)-eight post-2000 South African crime novels, this study is positioned within major discourses about crime and violence in the country today. The study examined South African crime fiction by writers of different genders, race and social classes and from different literary generations. This enabled me to grapple with multiple current perceptions of violent crimes in South African from different backgrounds. Clearly, the background of these writers influences the way they depict violence, criminality, and the various fictitious ways they portray these uncomfortable realities. Through a post-colonial, feminism, Neo-Marxist lens and theories of space, the study explored the many ways South African crime writers narrate contemporary realities of violent crimes in the country today. The post-apartheid crime novel is a significant tool in helping the country understands its traumatic and violent criminal past which has spilled over into the post-apartheid period in many ways. The novels examined in this study showed that the crime novel can be appreciated both for its aesthetic quality and allegorical value. Furthermore, the post-2000 South African crime novel provides readers with a fictitious space where they see their deep-seated desires for justice fulfilled, law and order restored and maintained through the disruptive power and flexibility of the crime novel in creating a parallel universe of im/possibilities. The dissertation also notes that the burgeoning of crime fiction in South Africa today is an attempt by many writers to respond to the alarming levels of gender-based violence, eco-crimes, spatial crimes and how the political instabilities of the post-apartheid continues to drive the masses into various forms of criminality and violence.
Open Access
A Study on multimodal affordances and the interpretative perspectives of level 300 Media Studies Students
(2021-06-23) Sikitime, Thifhelimbilu Emmanuel; Klu.E. K.; Lambani, M. N.; Maluleke, M. J.
Multimodal representation is a pervasive feature characterising contemporary communication practice. Immersed in a visual culture, contemporary students and digital natives are as a result inundated with a plethora of texts that come with peculiar semiotic designs and unique affordances. This may suggest a potential textual shift with new requisite literacies in both public and academic domain. This study aimed to explore and describe the affordances of semiotic designs as ensembles and also to evaluate the interpretative repertoires on selected multimodal texts. The study adopted semiotics, social semiotics and a multimodal critical discourse analysis approach to establish the communicative functions of semiotic modes and their semantic significances on selected multimodal texts. Relevance theory in line with Forceville (2014) was adopted to interpret and evaluate respondents’ interpretative perspectives and the aptness of inferences given in the context of a given multimodal text. The study adopted a context-based, qualitative action research methodology with explorative and descriptive design orientation. Purposive sampling was used to identify University of Venda level 300 Media Studies students as study’s respondents. For data collection, the study used an administered test adapted in line with Chan and Choo’s (2010) Multimodal and Multiliteracies Assessment Framework. The test evaluated respondents’ interpretations of semiotic designs and the communicative functions of semiotic modes as used on a given multimodal text. This was delimitated on respondents’ interpretations of: typographic features of linguistic design, affordances of colours as a visual semiotic element; inferential meaning given to the affordances of space and position as elements of spatial semiotic design. The study also evaluated respondents’ interpretations of literary devices and their narrative effect on a given multimodal text. . The study established that, semiotic modes can be used to convey both implicit and explicit meaning. Semiotic modes as ensembles make up compositional, ideational and relational meaning of a text and these may not be easily available to novice readers. It is for this reason that, respondents’ inferential implicatures in this study were mainly incongruent to the central meaning as evaluated in the context of a text. Decoding texts v with multiple semiotic designs is a nonlinear process which requires a heightened level of critical literacies with developed cognitive and perceptual skills. The study recommends the adoption of a multiliteracies pedagogy that accounts to all semiotic designs and modes in addition to the dominant linguistic semiotic design which characterises the monomodal print based literacy offering. The study also recommends the adoption of a social semiotic perspective in the reading of both monomodal and multimodal texts as a preparatory base to requisite critical literacies associated with multimodal epistemological pedagogy.
Open Access
Range and variability of reporting verbs in Doctoral Theses of Humanities students
(2021-07-23) Banini, Shirley Eli; Klu, E. K.; Adika, G. S. K.; Mulaudzi, L. M. P.
This study examined the occurrence, use, and function of reporting verbs in the literature review sections of fifty-two (52) doctoral theses written by students in the Humanities, examined and passed by the University of Ghana within the academic period of 2010 to 2018. The focus was on the literature review sections, because in this section of the thesis, the researcher (as the writer) presents the views of other scholars, presents his/her views, and supports them by citing earlier authors, criticising and laying claims using reporting verbs. Reporting verbs are an important rhetorical device in academic writing, which carry different nuances and are used to effectively communicate the writer’s opinions about issues. The appropriate use of reporting verbs in scholarly research, such as a doctoral thesis, is important for the effective communication of the researcher’s critical views on other scholarly works. Social Constructionism and Systemic Functional Grammar were the theoretical underpinnings that guided this largely qualitative study because the use of reporting verbs in the construction of text is a shared experience, negotiated within a social and cultural setting. Data analysis software, AntConc, was used to determine the frequency of reporting verbs and resultant outcomes plotted. The reporting verbs were categorised using Hyland’s (2002) taxonomy. Analysis reveals that reporting verbs in Discourse Acts category were employed more frequently (58.28%) compared to those in Research Acts (28.7%) and Cognitive Acts (13.02%). Students employed a variety of reporting verbs to achieve various discourse functions. It is recommended that lecturers of academic writing use corpus-based data in teaching reporting verbs. Further, training of faculty is recommended to better assist students in the effective use of reporting verbs in the construction of academic texts. Also, at the onset of their doctoral programmes, students must be given refresher courses in the correct use of citations and reporting verbs to make their writing more persuasive and impactful.
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.
Open Access
Hedging in the multidisciplinary postgraduate theses of students in a Ghanaian University
(2021-06-23) Oyewale - Johnson, Dorian Odolina; Klu, E. K.; Mulaudzi, I. M. P.; Adika, G. S. K.
Research on hedging in recent times has concentrated on works of expert writers to the exclusion of neophytes in academic writing. The limited research on hedging in students’ academic writing could thus impede language instructors’ efforts to determine how appro-priately novice writers who happen to be students, employ caution in the making of their claims. There is minimal research on hedging in the Ghanaian context, therefore, the aim of the study was to explore hedging in postgraduate theses across seven disciplines in a Ghanaian university. It explored linguistic strategies that are employed as hedging in the Findings/Discussions, Interpretation/Analysis and Conclusions/Recommendations sec-tions of theses from seven departments of the Schools of Languages, Arts and Performing Arts from a Ghanaian university. The qualitative research method was employed and the study sample comprised postgraduate students’ theses. Forty-two (42) thesis chapters of postgraduate students were selected through multi-stage sampling. Only those who had more than two pages of Findings/Discussions, Interpretation/Analysis and Conclu-sions/Recommendations were considered. Content analysis was employed to analyse the data; and the findings revealed variations in each rhetorical section and confirmed varia-tions across disciplines in the appropriation of hedges. The results also revealed that the most used categories of hedging were modal auxiliaries and compound hedges. It was also established that the Findings/Discussions sections were the most heavily hedged sections; and the most hedged discipline was Philosophy/Classics. The study can be used to enhance postgraduate students’ appropriate use of hedging in writing in Ghana and in other non-native English speaking countries.
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.
Open Access
Readability index assessment of non-prescribed supplementary English language textbooks selected Ghanaian Private Senior High Schools
(2021-06-23) Vera, Esenam Fordjour; Mulaudzi, L. M. P.; Klu, E. K.; Adika,G. S. K.
Considering students’ reading level when choosing text is a crucial decision for teachers and authors to make if, their goal is to get their readers to read with ease and comprehend the text that match their readability levels. The ability to match texts to the readability levels of readers requires knowledge of the readability levels of reading materials. Readability of English Language textbooks has thus attracted the attention of researchers and textbook evaluators. In Ghana, a number of studies have been conducted on readability of prescribed textbooks however, those studies did not focus on supplementary English Language readers in private SHSs. This study thus assessed the readability levels of non-prescribed supplementary English Language textbooks used by some private Senior High Schools (SHSs) in Ghana and how they affect the learning outcomes of their students. To achieve this, the study adopted the mixed method approach specifically, the concurrent nested design. The sources of data used were responses from interviews conducted for with twelve participants from five private SHSs, three Monitoring and Supervision officers from GES-Adentan and a Curriculum Officer for Languages. The study subjected ninety-one comprehension passages from four commonly used supplementary English Language textbooks to seven readability formulas to determine their readability levels and age appropriateness for SHS students. The results were further subjected to descriptive statistical analysis using SPSS version 21 and compared to comprehension tests scores obtained from a test administered to a sampled size of 492 SHS 1-3 students from five selected private SHSs. It was found that most of the comprehension passages were either too high or too low for the readability levels of the SHS students. In addition, the criteria used by National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) and private SHSs to prescribe and select the textbooks are not scientific. It was also found that readability could not predict the overall performance of SHS students based on the comprehension tests. Based on these findings it is recommended that NaCCA should collaborate with the District Education Offices to enforce the use of prescribed textbooks in all pre-tertiary institutions especially private schools.
Open Access
Zimbabwean short stories in English: An Exploration of Post - 2000 Narratives
(2020-07-10) Sibanda, Nhlanhla; Ndlovu, I.; Abodunrin, O.
This thesis explores selected post-2000 Zimbabwean short stories in English from edited and individually authored anthologies dealing with what has been called the Zimbabwean crisis. An upsurge in the publication of these short stories from the year 2000 in Zimbabwe is a phenomenon that deserves critical literary attention, yet there has been very little critical work, if any, to date, that refers to the short story genre in its peculiarity. Most of the selected stories are commenting on the turbulent “crisis period” in Zimbabwe that began in 1997 and climaxed in 2008 and was subsequently followed by the so-called “Transitional Period” from 2009 onwards through a deployment of various short story stylistic techniques. Representing the crisis in fictional narratives occupies a contested and discursive space in debates about the post- 2000 Zimbabwean crisis and so-called Zimbabwe’s “lost-decade”. Based on the textual analysis approach, the eclectic theoretical framework was adopted in the thesis thereby providing the researcher with a favourable critical position to evaluate the representation of the crisis in Zimbabwe in the post-2000 period from various theoretical perspectives. Through an application of Bakhtin’s chronotope theory as the overarching theory, this thesis contends that, taken at one level to mean the organisation of value-laden space-time in a literary text, and also at another level, the spatio-temporal relationship between a text and its socio-historical context, the chronotope concept is useful in analysing the selected short stories. The study uses various strands of post-colonial theory to think through the selected fictional texts. The study argues that the potential in literary works, particularly the short story, to deconstruct and transform dominant elitist narratives of the crisis and offer alternative and more representative narratives of the excluded groups’ experiences is made possible through an affective appeal. In addition, the encoding of time in fiction is indissolubly linked to the writer’s literary intent, for he/she exists in a particular time-space, whether in the homeland or the Diaspora. All these aspects are connected and their space-time configurations as experienced or imagined in actual life are artistically embellished and give rise to an identifiable genre, certain narrative structures, themes, chronotopes, and smaller chronotopical scenes and motifs vis-à-vis the Zimbabwe crisis.
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.
Open Access
An exploration of the implementation of language policies for community radio stations in Vhembe District of Limpopo Province
(2019-09-20) Mashau, Pfunzo Lawrence; Sadiki, M. F.; Juniper, W.
The question of the use of languages in radio broadcasting is of particular importance in multilingual communities in Vhembe district of Limpopo province. The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) issues broadcasting licenses, and further regulates conditions of implementation of these licenses. The purpose of this study is to explore the extent to which community radio stations in Vhembe district adhere to ICASA language policies and guidelines stipulated in their licenses. Literature was drawn from government language policy documents (Acts, rules and regulations), broadcasting legislative framework manuals (ICASA), government gazettes, books, journals, magazines, and newspapers. The design for the study is exploratory, whereas the target population comprised of seven (7) community radio stations, fifteen (15) radio programmes, and station managers of community radio stations in the Vhembe district. Purposive sampling was used to select three community radio stations, three programmes per station and station manager of each sampled station. Non-participant observation, documents analysis and tape recorder were used as instruments for data collection, whereby the researcher observed, recorded a total of (nine) 9 talk format programmes. The researcher further analysed documents (broadcasting licenses and programme schedules), from sampled radio stations, to examine stipulated language quotas by ICASA. Lastly, the researcher employed unstructured interviews to collect data from the station managers of community radio stations, in the Vhembe district. The sampled data was analysed through qualitative content analysis and interpreted subsequently. Findings from data analysis determined that community radio stations partially adhere to the policies stipulated in their licenses.
Open Access
Exploring Grade 11 English first additional learner's competence in the use of tenses: a case study of selected schools in the Vhumbedzi Circuit, South Africa
(2019-09-20) Nephawe, Farisani Thomas; Lambani, M. N.; Klu, E. K.; Malululeke, M. J.
Learning English as a second language by the South African learners studying English First Additional language (EFAL) presents many challenges, such as poor competence in the use of tenses, because of the differences between the learners’ first and second languages. In Grade 11, which is the closest point with regard to the exit point to institutions of higher learning or to the workplace, learners still display certain discrepancies in the mastery of the English tenses. These discrepancies occur despite the fact that in many South African schools, English is used as a medium of instruction and is learnt as a First Additional Language. The study used pragmatist research paradigm to collect data from the sampled respondents. The study answered four questions based on the types of errors committed in the use of tenses, the description and evaluation of errors, establishment of the causes of errors; and remedial measures for the errors committed by the Grade 11 EFAL learners in the use of tenses. Thus, Error Analysis Approaches were applied to find learners’ errors committed in written tasks. The types of errors identified include the inter-lingual transfer, overgeneralisation, false concept hypothesised, inadequate learning, fossilisation and ignorance of rule restrictions. Learners’ errors occurred in the domains of the simple present, the simple past, the present perfect and the past perfect tenses, regular and irregular verb inflectional morphemes, third person singular and plural subjects; and subject-verb agreement. In essence, this study reveals that some learners still face challenges in the use of tenses. Thus, remedial measures were suggested for the errors committed.
Open Access
Exploring experiences and perspectives of health, illness and death in selected contemporary African postcolonial texts
(2019-09-20) Nyete, Liberty Takudzwa; Mashau, G. S.; Mulaudzi, L. M. P.
This study explored the depictions and perspectives of health, illness and death in selected postcolonial texts written after the year 2000. Although tantamount attention has been directed to notions of health, illness and death in literary texts (medical narratives) largely from scientific and clinical perspectives, the study primarily focuses on memoir accounts of experiences and perspectives of health, illness and death. In response to the dearth of critical work, which primarily refers to body and its wellbeing socially integrating clinical diagnosis and the socio-natural human factors. The study interrogates how memoirs depict the health, illness and death subjective experiences and perceptions of people in typical African communities. My argument is that literature and memoirs in particular, are a site where conceptions of perspectives and experiences of people (Africans) are (de)constructed. The experiences of health, illness and death are not an exception. In reading the selected texts, I focused on how a merger of factors such as culture, gender, beliefs (African and Religious), age, society, and social status are drawn from the personal narratives in the selected memoirs (re) conceptualise the notions of health, illness and death in a typical African community. The discourses in memoirs challenge the norms and the construction of human and social expectations in dominant ideological discourses such as culture, beliefs, gender, race, class, democracy, post colonialism, Afrocentrism among others. The study enters into a critical conversation with the postcolonial personal (memoir) representation of health, illness and death as a human social context. Using discourse analysis and literature review, I have placed Postcolonial, Afrocentric and bio-political perspectives of several writers in conversation with the health, illness and death defined practices voiced in the selected texts. The discursive debates in the study allow us to consider personal or individual experiences and perspectives as chambers, sites and conceptions of knowledge production in a typical African community and this either silence or make visible the minority and marginal African social ideals and interpretations of health, illness and death as well as body agency. The study established that, the hybridity of perspectives and experiences in personal narratives (memoirs), the subject, and discourses are in the ‘third’ space from where the writers challenge the norms which dictate over the nature of how the body (subject) and the other social factors decipher health, illness and death. Thus, my thesis concludes that the perspectives and experiences examined in the selected texts, the socio-cultural factors of human existence premise the interpretations of the clinical understanding of the body as the point of departure, but socio-cultural interpretations of the body pre-occupy perspectives and experiences of health, illness and death. The clinical aspects and interpretations of the human body are then perceived through the social production of information. The selected texts are Our Kind of People: A Continent's Challenge, A Country's Hope (2005) by Uzondimna Iweala, Eloquent Body (2012) by Dawn Garisch, The Last Right (2013) by Marianne Thamm, Postmortem (2014) by Maria Phalime , Holding My Breath (2016) by Ace Moloi.