Numerous transitions in South Africa’s basic education curriculum development have been criticised for failing to meet stakeholders’ expectations. Questions have arisen as to whether the latest Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) is functioning effectively in Foundation Phase classrooms and whether it will improve the quality of education and transform the country’s schools. For an in-depth understanding of educators’ perceptions of the Foundation Phase English Home Language CAPS document and workbook, 13 educators from five English-medium primary schools in Port Shepstone, KwaZulu-Natal, were interviewed. They criticised the structure of the phonics and the highly pressurised programme. In particular, they advocated the return to a more systematic method of teaching phonics and a reduction in the number of assessments demanded. Another issue highlighted by the educators is the over-rigorous pace and rigid structure of the Foundation Phase English Home Language CAPS document, especially for the first two terms of Grade 1. The added value of this study is its bringing on board, for the first time, the views of experienced educators directly involved in the hands-on implementation of the English Home Language CAPS.
{"title":"Educators' perceptions of the Foundation Phase English Home Language Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement","authors":"Radhamoney Govender, A. Hugo","doi":"10.5785/34-1-767","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5785/34-1-767","url":null,"abstract":"Numerous transitions in South Africa’s basic education curriculum development have been criticised for failing to meet stakeholders’ expectations. Questions have arisen as to whether the latest Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) is functioning effectively in Foundation Phase classrooms and whether it will improve the quality of education and transform the country’s schools. For an in-depth understanding of educators’ perceptions of the Foundation Phase English Home Language CAPS document and workbook, 13 educators from five English-medium primary schools in Port Shepstone, KwaZulu-Natal, were interviewed. They criticised the structure of the phonics and the highly pressurised programme. In particular, they advocated the return to a more systematic method of teaching phonics and a reduction in the number of assessments demanded. Another issue highlighted by the educators is the over-rigorous pace and rigid structure of the Foundation Phase English Home Language CAPS document, especially for the first two terms of Grade 1. The added value of this study is its bringing on board, for the first time, the views of experienced educators directly involved in the hands-on implementation of the English Home Language CAPS.","PeriodicalId":43109,"journal":{"name":"Per Linguam-A Journal of Language Learning","volume":"264 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86347726","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper focuses on narratives that are transmitted through South African Broadcasting Commission (SABC) television to the people of Zimbabwe, particularly children with Ndebele as their first language. Today, mainly in towns and cities, children no longer listen to folktales from grandmothers at home as the television has taken over that role. Because the Ndebele and Zulu languages are similar through being Nguni languages, most Ndebele people have resorted to SABC television as the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation offers more programmes in Shona than in Ndebele. This paper traces the relevance of Zulu, which is the language used in the transmission and the Zulu culture which is contained within children’s tales, particularly in YoTV Land, to the cognitive development of a child whose first language is Ndebele. Forty children were selected from two primary schools in Bulawayo as research participants to investigate how they are linguistically and culturally influenced by South African television. The paper ends by showing how narratives are influential in the cognitive development of a child and how the cognitive growth of a child who is exposed to two similar but different cultures and languages may be affected. The major effect is that those children who are below the age of nine years may not get the message being conveyed in the narrative since they have not been adequately exposed to linguistic and cultural variation and diversity.
{"title":"Linguistic and cultural cognitive relevance of televised narratives to the Ndebele child in Bulawayo","authors":"Raphael Nhongo","doi":"10.5785/33-2-683","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5785/33-2-683","url":null,"abstract":"This paper focuses on narratives that are transmitted through South African Broadcasting Commission (SABC) television to the people of Zimbabwe, particularly children with Ndebele as their first language. Today, mainly in towns and cities, children no longer listen to folktales from grandmothers at home as the television has taken over that role. Because the Ndebele and Zulu languages are similar through being Nguni languages, most Ndebele people have resorted to SABC television as the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation offers more programmes in Shona than in Ndebele. This paper traces the relevance of Zulu, which is the language used in the transmission and the Zulu culture which is contained within children’s tales, particularly in YoTV Land, to the cognitive development of a child whose first language is Ndebele. Forty children were selected from two primary schools in Bulawayo as research participants to investigate how they are linguistically and culturally influenced by South African television. The paper ends by showing how narratives are influential in the cognitive development of a child and how the cognitive growth of a child who is exposed to two similar but different cultures and languages may be affected. The major effect is that those children who are below the age of nine years may not get the message being conveyed in the narrative since they have not been adequately exposed to linguistic and cultural variation and diversity.","PeriodicalId":43109,"journal":{"name":"Per Linguam-A Journal of Language Learning","volume":"62 1","pages":"51-62"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87704348","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Achievement rates for black students in South African higher education remain low after 20 years of democracy. Writing academic English according to existing conventions is a complex skill. One aspect of this skill is producing cohesive text. In this article, the writing of a group of isiZulu speakers at Wits is analysed to determine how Hallidayan cohesion is operating therein: how does this language group use conjunctions, lexical cohesion, referencing, ellipsis and substitution when writing in English? From this analysis, it is evident that there are elements of referencing, conjunction use and lexical cohesion which are well developed in their writing. At the same time, evidence of speech-type syntax in the data indicates areas where further development is possible. These findings have led to suggestions on how academic language input could facilitate writing skills development for this language group.
{"title":"How isiZulu speakers use cohesion in their academic writing in English","authors":"A. Drummond","doi":"10.5785/33-2-700","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5785/33-2-700","url":null,"abstract":"Achievement rates for black students in South African higher education remain low after 20 years of democracy. Writing academic English according to existing conventions is a complex skill. One aspect of this skill is producing cohesive text. In this article, the writing of a group of isiZulu speakers at Wits is analysed to determine how Hallidayan cohesion is operating therein: how does this language group use conjunctions, lexical cohesion, referencing, ellipsis and substitution when writing in English? From this analysis, it is evident that there are elements of referencing, conjunction use and lexical cohesion which are well developed in their writing. At the same time, evidence of speech-type syntax in the data indicates areas where further development is possible. These findings have led to suggestions on how academic language input could facilitate writing skills development for this language group.","PeriodicalId":43109,"journal":{"name":"Per Linguam-A Journal of Language Learning","volume":"17 1","pages":"76-93"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87231562","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
While it is of utmost importance to scrutinise reading literacy development practices at South African schools where learners are failing to progress in their reading development in the primary school years, it is also beneficial to explore the practices and processes in schools where learners successfully develop reading literacy in depth. In this paper, the processes and practices for reading literacy development in a school with a high Grade 4 class average performance from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2006 are explored in detail. The school had the highest Grade 4 class average performance of six purposively selected case study schools with varying contexts and performance levels aligned to achievement benchmarks from the PIRLS 2006. Data were collected from multiple sources for this case study as part of a larger mixed methods study. In this article, however, only interviews with teachers and the Foundation and Intermediate Phase literacy leaders at the school are reported and reflected on. Specifically, school-level reading literacy development initiatives in the form of planning, monitoring and collaboration, across-grade and -phase reading literacy programme coordination, and parental involvement strategies are discussed. Socioeconomic realities and historical inequalities play a huge role in learner performance across schools in South Africa. Although this specific school, which features pre-primary, primary and high school grades, is highly privileged, which likely also plays a role in the learners’ achievement, the reading literacy development processes and practices implemented at the school can be learnt from and applied in less privileged contexts.
{"title":"Learning from the best: reading literacy development practices at a high-performing primary school","authors":"L. Zimmerman","doi":"10.5785/33-2-740","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5785/33-2-740","url":null,"abstract":"While it is of utmost importance to scrutinise reading literacy development practices at South African schools where learners are failing to progress in their reading development in the primary school years, it is also beneficial to explore the practices and processes in schools where learners successfully develop reading literacy in depth. In this paper, the processes and practices for reading literacy development in a school with a high Grade 4 class average performance from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2006 are explored in detail. The school had the highest Grade 4 class average performance of six purposively selected case study schools with varying contexts and performance levels aligned to achievement benchmarks from the PIRLS 2006. Data were collected from multiple sources for this case study as part of a larger mixed methods study. In this article, however, only interviews with teachers and the Foundation and Intermediate Phase literacy leaders at the school are reported and reflected on. Specifically, school-level reading literacy development initiatives in the form of planning, monitoring and collaboration, across-grade and -phase reading literacy programme coordination, and parental involvement strategies are discussed. Socioeconomic realities and historical inequalities play a huge role in learner performance across schools in South Africa. Although this specific school, which features pre-primary, primary and high school grades, is highly privileged, which likely also plays a role in the learners’ achievement, the reading literacy development processes and practices implemented at the school can be learnt from and applied in less privileged contexts.","PeriodicalId":43109,"journal":{"name":"Per Linguam-A Journal of Language Learning","volume":"230 1","pages":"36-50"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88996426","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article interprets the new Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement for Further Education and Training for teacher education as an opportunity for creating communities of practice, which means viewing teaching and learning as socially situated (Barton, 1994: 68). A transliteracies framework for language development was used (Stornaiuolo, Smith and Phillips (2016: 4), which refers to resemiotisation. Guiterrez (2008) implies that, in an institutionalised learning context, it is acknowledged that multiple discourses come together around a specific task, such as in this case, English education. Multiple intersecting discourses are at play, and individuals develop meaningful connections to each other in the process of collaborative negotiation of meaning. In these communities, certain practices originate, and are developed, perpetuated and discarded, or adapted with the intention of expanding student linguistic and intellectual development. The content of the specific English teacher education curriculum design discussed here, is on globally pertinent issues of political, social and ecological ethics, in an attempt to address existing and persistent hierarchies of power while developing agency, voice, empathy and reflexivity, qualities which may enhance community development. A strong emphasis on critical reading, collaborative argumentation and engagement with text production is proposed, as a means of building community in the classroom.
本文将新的《继续教育和教师培训课程和评估政策声明》解释为创造实践社区的机会，这意味着将教学和学习视为社会情境(Barton, 1994: 68)。使用了语言发展的音译框架(Stornaiuolo, Smith and Phillips(2016: 4))，指的是类似化。Guiterrez(2008)暗示，在制度化的学习环境中，人们承认，围绕一个特定的任务，多种话语聚集在一起，比如在这种情况下，英语教育。多个交叉的话语在发挥作用，个体在意义的协作协商过程中相互发展有意义的联系。在这些社区中，某些实践产生，发展，延续和丢弃，或适应扩大学生的语言和智力发展的意图。这里讨论的具体英语教师教育课程设计的内容是关于政治、社会和生态伦理的全球相关问题，试图解决现有和持久的权力等级，同时发展能动性、发言权、同理心和反身性，这些品质可能会促进社区发展。建议强调批判性阅读、合作论证和参与文本制作，作为在课堂上建立社区的一种手段。
{"title":"Communities of practice in the design of a curriculum for student teachers of English","authors":"Hanlie Dippenaar, Liesel Hibbert","doi":"10.5785/33-2-717","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5785/33-2-717","url":null,"abstract":"This article interprets the new Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement for Further Education and Training for teacher education as an opportunity for creating communities of practice, which means viewing teaching and learning as socially situated (Barton, 1994: 68). A transliteracies framework for language development was used (Stornaiuolo, Smith and Phillips (2016: 4), which refers to resemiotisation. Guiterrez (2008) implies that, in an institutionalised learning context, it is acknowledged that multiple discourses come together around a specific task, such as in this case, English education. Multiple intersecting discourses are at play, and individuals develop meaningful connections to each other in the process of collaborative negotiation of meaning. In these communities, certain practices originate, and are developed, perpetuated and discarded, or adapted with the intention of expanding student linguistic and intellectual development. The content of the specific English teacher education curriculum design discussed here, is on globally pertinent issues of political, social and ecological ethics, in an attempt to address existing and persistent hierarchies of power while developing agency, voice, empathy and reflexivity, qualities which may enhance community development. A strong emphasis on critical reading, collaborative argumentation and engagement with text production is proposed, as a means of building community in the classroom.","PeriodicalId":43109,"journal":{"name":"Per Linguam-A Journal of Language Learning","volume":"9 1","pages":"63-75"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74565106","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Curriculum implementation ought to be considered the main driving force for achieving the envisaged teaching and learning objectives. However, a major gap seems to exist between curriculum stipulations and actual classroom practice in many disadvantaged South African public schools. The CAPS prescribes both text-based and communicative approaches for English FAL and provides a description of the text-based approach, including several teaching guidelines. The authors believe that this form of prescriptiveness is advantageous as similar operational standards are given across the board. This article presents an account of a doctoral study that explored text-based teaching for communicative competence in Grade 4 in three public schools that offer English to learners whose mother tongue is not English. The study, which adhered to research ethical standards, intended to narrow the existing gap by interrogating curriculum knowledge and practice of the prescribed EFAL approach within a specific context. While the research did not intend to investigate the departmental language intervention strategy implemented during the period, empirical evidence revealed that the execution of the text-based approach was fundamentally influenced by the strategy. Whereas the participants acclaimed the text-based approach, they had limited knowledge and understanding of curriculum matters and the prescribed approach. Due to contextual limitations, the results were not to be generalised. Recommendations for future research on policy development and implementation were put forward.
{"title":"Policy, practice, purpose: the text-based approach in contemporary South African EFAL classrooms","authors":"Ntombi Mohlabi-Tlakam, L. Jager, A. Engelbrecht","doi":"10.5785/33-2-713","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5785/33-2-713","url":null,"abstract":"Curriculum implementation ought to be considered the main driving force for achieving the envisaged teaching and learning objectives. However, a major gap seems to exist between curriculum stipulations and actual classroom practice in many disadvantaged South African public schools. The CAPS prescribes both text-based and communicative approaches for English FAL and provides a description of the text-based approach, including several teaching guidelines. The authors believe that this form of prescriptiveness is advantageous as similar operational standards are given across the board. This article presents an account of a doctoral study that explored text-based teaching for communicative competence in Grade 4 in three public schools that offer English to learners whose mother tongue is not English. The study, which adhered to research ethical standards, intended to narrow the existing gap by interrogating curriculum knowledge and practice of the prescribed EFAL approach within a specific context. While the research did not intend to investigate the departmental language intervention strategy implemented during the period, empirical evidence revealed that the execution of the text-based approach was fundamentally influenced by the strategy. Whereas the participants acclaimed the text-based approach, they had limited knowledge and understanding of curriculum matters and the prescribed approach. Due to contextual limitations, the results were not to be generalised. Recommendations for future research on policy development and implementation were put forward.","PeriodicalId":43109,"journal":{"name":"Per Linguam-A Journal of Language Learning","volume":"108 1","pages":"22-35"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74569195","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Poetry instruction in South African English Additional Language (EAL) classrooms is in sharp decline, while little empirical research exists to shed light on this situation. This paper describes what happened to poetry pedagogy in a Grade 10 EAL classroom in rural KwaZulu-Natal when teacher and learners were forced to engage with a poem inappropriate to the context, learner level and teacher content knowledge. This paper applies a sociology of knowledge lens, Legitimation Code Theory, to the task of describing EAL poetry pedagogy in a resource scarce context of high difficulty. The analysis shows how the difficulty level of the poem obstructed epistemic access to the poem’s global meanings, generating pedagogic incoherence. Implications and recommendations for further research are presented.
{"title":"Plotting pedagogy in a rural South African English classroom: A Legitimation Code Theory analysis","authors":"Fiona Margaret Jacskon","doi":"10.5785/33-2-682","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5785/33-2-682","url":null,"abstract":"Poetry instruction in South African English Additional Language (EAL) classrooms is in sharp decline, while little empirical research exists to shed light on this situation. This paper describes what happened to poetry pedagogy in a Grade 10 EAL classroom in rural KwaZulu-Natal when teacher and learners were forced to engage with a poem inappropriate to the context, learner level and teacher content knowledge. This paper applies a sociology of knowledge lens, Legitimation Code Theory, to the task of describing EAL poetry pedagogy in a resource scarce context of high difficulty. The analysis shows how the difficulty level of the poem obstructed epistemic access to the poem’s global meanings, generating pedagogic incoherence. Implications and recommendations for further research are presented.","PeriodicalId":43109,"journal":{"name":"Per Linguam-A Journal of Language Learning","volume":"85 12","pages":"1-21"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72371394","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The purpose of the study was to determine the efficacy of an integrated cognitive and affective approach to improve students’ reading proficiency by improving their affective levels and strategy use. A survey was conducted by means of a questionnaire completed by both control and intervention classes before and after the intervention. The participants were 195 first-year university students in both high risk and low risk groups. The data were analysed using t-tests. The findings from the independent and paired t-tests show that students’ affective reading levels and their use of appropriate reading strategies increased significantly. The effect sizes were mainly medium to large , as determined by Cohen’s d. These findings corroborate other studies that have shown an improvement in students’ affective reading levels and their ability to comprehend what they read when the integrated approach is used. The paper argues for an integrated approach to students’ reading development in order to achieve optimal improvement in their reading proficiency.
{"title":"Efficacy of a reading intervention for first-year university students","authors":"Naomi Boakye","doi":"10.5785/33-1-710","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5785/33-1-710","url":null,"abstract":"The purpose of the study was to determine the efficacy of an integrated cognitive and affective approach to improve students’ reading proficiency by improving their affective levels and strategy use. A survey was conducted by means of a questionnaire completed by both control and intervention classes before and after the intervention. The participants were 195 first-year university students in both high risk and low risk groups. The data were analysed using t-tests. The findings from the independent and paired t-tests show that students’ affective reading levels and their use of appropriate reading strategies increased significantly. The effect sizes were mainly medium to large , as determined by Cohen’s d. These findings corroborate other studies that have shown an improvement in students’ affective reading levels and their ability to comprehend what they read when the integrated approach is used. The paper argues for an integrated approach to students’ reading development in order to achieve optimal improvement in their reading proficiency.","PeriodicalId":43109,"journal":{"name":"Per Linguam-A Journal of Language Learning","volume":"55 1","pages":"1-14"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74123522","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper seeks to explore the potential significance of additive multilingualism in South Africa’s multilingual society. Additive multilingualism treasures the principle of equality among all 11 official languages. Therefore, our point of departure is the South African Constitution and various policy provisions that advocate for a multilingual mode of operation. The paper is premised upon the potential value of multilingualism that encompasses indigenous African languages and the view of language as a resource. This concurs with the language policy of the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), which seeks to promote a multilingual society. Perceptions and experiences of a group of part- time LLB students regarding the learning of isiZulu as an additional language at UKZN were solicited in this study. The ‘ language as a resource’ framework was employed as the theoretical approach of the study. The study established an acknowledgement of the resourcefulness of isiZulu as instrumental in fostering social cohesion, breaking communication barriers , and dispelling misconceptions about the value of these languages.
{"title":"Embracing African languages as indispensable resources through the promotion of multilingualism","authors":"N. Ndimande-Hlongwa, Hloniphani Ndebele","doi":"10.5785/33-1-692","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5785/33-1-692","url":null,"abstract":"This paper seeks to explore the potential significance of additive multilingualism in South Africa’s multilingual society. Additive multilingualism treasures the principle of equality among all 11 official languages. Therefore, our point of departure is the South African Constitution and various policy provisions that advocate for a multilingual mode of operation. The paper is premised upon the potential value of multilingualism that encompasses indigenous African languages and the view of language as a resource. This concurs with the language policy of the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), which seeks to promote a multilingual society. Perceptions and experiences of a group of part- time LLB students regarding the learning of isiZulu as an additional language at UKZN were solicited in this study. The ‘ language as a resource’ framework was employed as the theoretical approach of the study. The study established an acknowledgement of the resourcefulness of isiZulu as instrumental in fostering social cohesion, breaking communication barriers , and dispelling misconceptions about the value of these languages.","PeriodicalId":43109,"journal":{"name":"Per Linguam-A Journal of Language Learning","volume":"2003 1","pages":"67-82"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83017931","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
An ethnographic case study on Deaf culture was done at the Thiboloha Special School in a rural area of the Free State province in South Africa. Two Deaf learners and three Deaf teaching assistants participated in this study. Although they were all part of the hearing Sotho culture, they were also full participants in the Deaf community. The study was done by means of video recordings, interviews, and questionnaires. The study reveals the diversity of the Deaf community with a vibrant and unique culture associated with this school, which gives them a sense of belonging. The analysis of the questionnaires, interviews, and recordings in this study shows how significant it is for the Deaf to be part of a Deaf community and culture, as well as part of a hearing community. It is important for them to be Deaf (with a capital ‘D’) and have a Deaf identity. It became evident in this study that Deaf people prefer to use Sign Language for communication purposes in the Deaf community. The study also shows the key role the school plays in introducing Deaf learners to Deaf culture and community, and South African Sign Language, which connects them to a wider Deaf and hearing community. The school became the participants’ new community where they found their Deaf identity, their own language and culture. The school fulfilled its role to realise the importance and value of Deaf culture and community and succeeded in de-pathologising deafness. This study confirms the responsibility of and opportunity for schools to educate their Deaf learners about their culture and community.
{"title":"Language and culture in the Deaf community: a case study in a South African special school","authors":"Marga Stander, Guy Mcilroy","doi":"10.5785/33-1-688","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5785/33-1-688","url":null,"abstract":"An ethnographic case study on Deaf culture was done at the Thiboloha Special School in a rural area of the Free State province in South Africa. Two Deaf learners and three Deaf teaching assistants participated in this study. Although they were all part of the hearing Sotho culture, they were also full participants in the Deaf community. The study was done by means of video recordings, interviews, and questionnaires. The study reveals the diversity of the Deaf community with a vibrant and unique culture associated with this school, which gives them a sense of belonging. The analysis of the questionnaires, interviews, and recordings in this study shows how significant it is for the Deaf to be part of a Deaf community and culture, as well as part of a hearing community. It is important for them to be Deaf (with a capital ‘D’) and have a Deaf identity. It became evident in this study that Deaf people prefer to use Sign Language for communication purposes in the Deaf community. The study also shows the key role the school plays in introducing Deaf learners to Deaf culture and community, and South African Sign Language, which connects them to a wider Deaf and hearing community. The school became the participants’ new community where they found their Deaf identity, their own language and culture. The school fulfilled its role to realise the importance and value of Deaf culture and community and succeeded in de-pathologising deafness. This study confirms the responsibility of and opportunity for schools to educate their Deaf learners about their culture and community.","PeriodicalId":43109,"journal":{"name":"Per Linguam-A Journal of Language Learning","volume":"113 1","pages":"83-99"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80726792","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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