The debate about Afrikaans: then and now

Much debate has occurred on some of the issues relating to the constitutional recognition of 11 official languages, yet only one of the languages – Afrikaans – persistently makes an issue of itself - in the popular press and on the Internet. In fact, this debate has generated something of an industry. This paper proposes to examine the current debate about Afrikaans from a historical point of view, drawing on previous debates of this kind (notably at the beginning of the 20th century) as a counterpoint. The analysis draws on two arguments: 1) Afrikaans, in common with particularly the (other) indigenous languages (and in spite of its predominantly Indo-European linguistic origins) has as its cultural frame of reference a certain spatial / historical experience of Africa; 2) Afrikaans (in common, this time, with English) has politically been the vehicle for a nationalism that addressed itself to the entire country (as opposed to a region or province). The particular intersection of these two arguments is, in South Africa, unique to Afrikaans. The paper offers, finally, an historical insight into the question of the defeat of Afrikaner nationalism as a decisive factor in the future of the language.

BALFOUR R (University of Natal, DBN)
Is English a failed lingua franca?

This paper provides an overview of the media and academic debate concerning the future of English in relation to other languages in South Africa. I argue that the debate misrepresents the position of the language, and suggest that closer attention be paid to research regarding English as lingua franca in other nations where indigenous languages are marginalized

BANDA F (University of Western Cape)

Literacy mediation as (cross-) cultural brokerage: investigating learner-learner and educator/tutor-learner discourse in multilingual higher education.

This paper reports on the ongoing study that investigates multiliteracies and the kinds of ‘experiences’ (linguistic, cultural, academic, etc.) that learners bring to learner-learner dyads and learner-teacher/tutor dyads, in a multilingual and multicultural education setting. Following the framework develop by scholars in New Literacy Studies (Barton, & Ivanic 1991; Baynham, 1993, 1995, 2000; Prinsloo & Breier, 1996), as well as critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 1995; Wodak, 1996, 2000), this paper examines the social power relations, and the influence of institutions and ideologies on individual life histories, that underlie such interactions. This entails an examination of the “evidence” as provided by written texts; literacy artifacts; oral texts (which enable written texts to be constructed/interpreted in literacy events), and participant accounts (which reveal their attitudes, ideologies, and values) (cf. Baynham, 2000; Fairclough, 1995).

BANGENI G N (Unitra)
Literacy orientation of rural Xhosa speaking secondary school learners: Composition writing in Xhosa and English

This paper is the result of a pilot study that is part of a larger ethnographic project that investigates the writing quality of rural Xhosa speaking grade eleven (11) learners, writing in Xhosa and in English. Since senior secondary school learners are at the threshold of tertiary education, they are expected to be in a position to consider the audiences they address in their writing, especially when they write in English which. functions as a language of learning and teaching (LOLT). Observations made from my pilot study, however, suggest that the context of my target writers militates against this expectation. Evidence gleaned from selected passages of narrative and argumentative compositions in the two languages highlights specific features that impact on the quality of the learners' writing. I relate my research context to questions of ideological assumptions that inform L1 and L2 composition pedagogy around issues of literacy education and a plurality of literacies. Interviews with the learners enabled me to determine the effects of these ideological assumptions. Implications of these factors for rural learners on entering higher education are outlined.

BARKHUIZEN (see DE KLERK)

BARNES L (Unisa)

An overview of language shift in South Africa

This paper examines the phenomenon of language shift in South Africa. It reviews the research on the language shifts which have taken place over the last three centuries and attempts to identify patterns of shift as well as current trends.

Three main groups of languages have undergone shift in South Africa: (a) the Khoisan languages, (b) the Indian languages and (c) the Heritage languages of European origin. The most advanced shift that has taken place is that of the Khoisan languages. This shift is intimately tied up with the development of Afrikaans. The study of the shift from Indian languages over the past century reveals insights into the development of South African Indian English (SAIE). Although the on-going shift from the various Heritage languages of European origin (French, German, Italian, Portuguese) share many common features, a number of varying patterns can be identified.

Currently language shift also appears to be taking place in Afrikaans and a number of African languages, but the lack of substantial research precludes the prediction of the outcomes of these trends.

BOTHA S (see NAUDé J A) (University of the Free State)

An instrument for the quality assessment of local government translations

Within LOGTIS, a translation and interpreting service which has been developed in various Free State municipalities, texts are translated on a regular basis according to Nord's functionalist model. The need exists for the assessment of these translations in order to guide local government language practitioners in the improvement of their work. In this paper it is shown how a Total Quality Management Model can be utilized to address this need.

In the first part of the paper a quality assessment instrument for assessing the quality of a translation in terms of the translation brief (that determines the text function for the target audience) will be developed on textlinguistic principles. In order to manage the quality of translations within local government, this instrument should not treat all texts in the same way. Not only should the assessment of translations with a different purpose and function from that of the source text be covered, but also the assessment of notices and letters to the public that should be treated differently from that of internal communication. In the second part of the paper it will be shown how this instrument could be utilized to assess the quality of a source text. Furthermore, it could serve as a checklist for the writing and translating of source texts. The assessment instrument will be illustrated by means of assessing a local government notice and its translation

Botha, WJ (RAU)

Toegepaste kognitiewe linguistiek:

Diversiteit in identiteit, en identiteit in diversiteit

Kognitiewe linguistiek bied ’n beskrywingsmodel van die verhouding wat daar bestaan tussen taal en die menslike waarneming van die wêreld waarin hy (veral) ruimtelik funksioneer; kortom: kognitiewe linguistiek lê verbande tussen taal en kognisie. Sodanige beskouing sluit direk aan by Dirven (1994:5) se omvattender beskrywing van taal: “Language is shaped by our perception of our ecological world, by cognition, by culture.”

Langacker (1993:1) gee ’n meer genuanseerde beskrywing van die genoemde intrinsieke verhouding tussen taal en kognisie in die volgende beskrywing:

“(C)ognitive linguistics … claims … that fundamental cognitive abilities and experientially derived cognitive models have direct and pervasive linguistic manifestations, and, conversely, that language structure furnishes important clues concerning basic mental phenomena.”

Hy noem die volgende belangrike geestesprosesse (“mental constructs”) wat in taal neerslag vind: beeldskematiese strukturering; kragdinamika; subjektiewe versus objektiewe konstruering; verbandlegging tussen kognitiewe domeine, soos in metafore vergestalt of in denkruimtes (“mental spaces”) tot uitdrukking gebring; en kognitiewe verwysingspunte.

Daar moet egter in gedagte gehou word dat taal in die eerste plek kommunikasiemedium is. Taal word dus deur die sprekers daarvan gebruik om die toekomstige gedrag van aangesprokenes te beïnvloed, sy dit deur blote kennisoordrag, direktiewe, verklarings of verbintenistaalhandelinge. Die sukses van sodanige kommunikasie word grootliks bepaal deur die kognitiewe aanraking (“mental contact”) wat bewerkstellig word tussen spreker en aangesprokene. Die spreker se intensie met die taaluiting, gepaard met bepaalde kognitiewe strategieë, is gerig op maksimale kognitiewe invoer ter bevordering van sodanige kognitiewe aanraking.

Die genoemde strategieë – en die kognitiewe ervaring daarvan deur die aangesprokene(s) – hou verband met die gespreksgenote se bewuste en onbewuste belewenis van hulle ekologiese en kulturele omgewings, heg verweef met die bestaanskoördinate identiteit, ruimte en tyd. Soos wat dit die geval is met beeldskemas, berus bepaalde aspekte daarvan op algemeen menslike ervaring – sodanig dat dit aanleiding gee tot die daarstelling van universele prelinguistiese kognitiewe strukture. Dit dien dan onder andere as bron vir die totstandkoming van bepaalde kognitiewe modelle.

Teen die agtergrond van die voorgenoemde uitgangspunte word hierdie referaat gewy aan die intrinsieke verhouding wat daar bestaan tussen diversiteit en identiteit, soos vergestalt in twee taalgebruikskontekste: die konseptuele ontwikkeling van die identiteitskategorie “Afrikaner”, en enkele identiteitskeppende strategieë in Mbeki se “I am an African”-toespraak.

Verwysings

Dirven, René. 1994. Metaphor and Nation. Duisburg Papers on Research in Language and Culture. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.

Langacker, Ronald W. 1993. Reference-point constructions. Cognitive Linguistics, 4: 1-38.

BRUYNSE I (SABC Print & Web)

School TV : A multimedia intervention for multilingual primary school support.

School TV is an innovative broadcast, web and print curriculum resource for South African schools. It offers multilingual resources, and is a response to the mandate of the Broadcasting Act as well as the Languages in Education policy of the Department of Education. This paper will outline the project and its approach to languages in education.

BUTLER B (Pretoria University) (SeeVAN ROOY B)

CHEBANNE A (University of Botswana)
Language policy and Ethnicity in Botswana: National Policy and The Relationship of Autochthonous Linguistic Minorities

The constitution of Botswana acknowledges a monolithic society, and purports to afford its citizens equal rights in all domains of development, and with this perspective, the country gives an impression of a monoethnic and monolingualism, yet it has 23 ethnic and linguistic communities including the Khoe-San. This paper will ethnographically define and examine the relationship of these linguistic minorities in the current language policy context. Recommendations will be made, which, if adopted, should bring about a harmonious development of minority languages and cultures identity.

CHIDI M P (UNIN)

In the hurly-burly of the language classroom: Extracting Theory from Practice

This paper reflects on the ‘hurly-burly’ of the language classroom. It tries to extract therefrom prominent language teaching-learning approaches as found in Outcomes Based Education (OBE). Each of the seven Specific Outcomes (Tiley et al, 1997) in the Learning Area of Language, Literacy and Communication is compared with the data. If they converge, then, the extent to which the 'new' ( OBE) is new becomes a moot point. This paper attempts to argue for the critical self-reflection of teachers, which should be the defining characteristic of the post-apartheid teacher/educator. As Hartshorne argues, ‘no post-apartheid education is possible without post-apartheid teachers' (Christie,1985).

COETZEE-VAN ROOY S (Vaal Triangle Technikon)
The language issue and the transformation of Higher Education in South Africa

Globally and locally, several changes impacted Higher Education in South Africa in the past decade. The most important impact on Higher Education relevant to this paper, is the political transformation of the country. The aim of this paper is to investigate the role of language in the transformation process in Higher Education. The paper will focus on the following questions: What are the transformation outcomes aimed at in Higher Education; what role could language play in this process; and what role is language playing in the transformation process? In order to answer these questions, this paper will consist of two sections. In section 1, government policies aimed at the transformation of Higher Education will be analysed to determine what the transformation outcomes for Higher Education are and what role is foreseen for language in this process. In section 2, the report of the Council on Higher Education (CHE) task team on Language policy in Higher Education will be discussed with some case studies of language planning in Higher Education.

CONDUAH A (University of the Witwatersrand)

‘Looking into the future’: Introducing an African language for teaching and learning at Wits University

The intention of this poster presentation is to show the results of a study in which selected stakeholders at the University of the Witwatersrand were investigated with regard to their attitudes to the introduction of an African language alongside English for teaching and learning purposes. A range of academic staff, academic practitioners, first year and third year students are interviewed in order to elicit their views. It was found that students felt ambivalent about the introduction of an African language. This resulted in conflicting pressure towards, on the one hand, the importance of gaining access to English and on the other hand, showing solidarity with peers and community. The following figure captures this dilemma:

COOPER P & VAN DYK T (University of Pretoria)

Measuring vocabulary: a look at different methods of vocabulary testing

The main focus of the research reported on in this paper concerns the methods used to test students’ understanding of vocabulary, and the validation of these methods. Two vocabulary tests are assessed in terms of their ability to measure the students’ performance, both in general academic terms at subject level and in comparison to their performance on language proficiency tests. As background to this study, we consider some of the principles underlying different methods used to test vocabulary and briefly evaluate different types of vocabulary tests. The subjects used for this study were undergraduate students from the Education Department at Vista, and all first-year students who complete a language proficiency test at the University of Pretoria. The reasons for the establishment of this test are explained, and the method used to assess each student’s language proficiency is outlined. The results of the correlation between the vocabulary tests in particular, language proficiency tests in general and academic performance are then explored. This paper concludes with a few remarks on present concerns surrounding the development of a measure of language proficiency test which can be given to students entering tertiary-level institutions.

DAVIS H & REED Y (Assumption Convent School, Johannesburg) (University of the Witwatersrand)

Assessing Multimodal Texts in Multilingual Classrooms

‘Assessment of multimodal texts in the English classroom is a complex, multi-layered task which makes new demands on teachers’ competencies and has implications for teacher education ’ (Stein & Newfield, 2002). As an alternative to a literary essay, 40 grade 11 learners in two multilingual, multicultural classes in a Johannesburg school designed and made, (i) film story boards and (ii) posters or three dimensional artefacts in response to their readings of Ngugi wa Thiongo’s novel, A Grain of Wheat. Teacher, self and peer assessments of these multimodal responses raise questions that include the following: Is it possible to frame criteria that scaffold a multimodal task and at the same time encourage innovative responses? If a school system requires that marks or symbols be awarded for multimodal responses to texts, should ‘excellence in execution’ contribute to the mark or symbol (as has been the traditional practice in the assessment of essays)? It is possible to shift from the verbal mode in responding to texts, but words are privileged once more in self, peer and teacher assessment. In classrooms where the language used for assessment is an additional language for some or all learners, is using this language likely to have a constraining effect on the quality or ‘accuracy’ of learners’ assessments and on their ‘take-up’ of teacher assessments? If there is such a constraining effect, how can it be mitigated?

DE JAGER D R (Technikon Pretoria)

Die jeugmisdadiger se dialek: 'n sosiolinguistiese perspektief binne die forensiese linguistiek.

Suid-Afrika beleef tans 'n erge belewenis t o v misdaad - en dit bedreig ons persoonlike ruimte en ekonomie. Bekampingsmaatreëls blyk nie oral suksesvol te wees nie - en daarom moet daar na die oorsprong gekyk word om sodoende verloop te voorspel. Misdaad as 'n gedragsprobleem vind sy oorsprong in die jeug en manifesteer homself in jeugmisdaad. As 'n indiepte studie gemaak word van die jeugmisdadiger se dialek, dus sy taalgebruik, is dit moontlik om toekomstige jeugmisdadigers te identifiseer en sodoende proaktief op te tree.
Die jeugmisdadiger se dialek werp noodwendig meer lig op die sosiologiese asook die psigologiese aspekte wat bydra tot die konteks waarin misdaad geskied. Hierdie inligting skep dus 'n betroubare, holistiese profiel van 'n prototipiese jeugmisdadiger. In dié lesing word gekyk na bevindinge t o v die jeugdialek met spesifieke verwysing na bendetaal, flaaitaal ens. Uitkomste t o v korrelasies word ook onder die loep geneem.

DE KADT e & BUSAYO O I (University of Natal, Durban)

Finding ‘space’ in South Africa: constructing identity as a Nigerian

Media reports and public pronouncements frequently draw attention to the small groups of (im)migrants from Nigeria who are currently in South Africa, and generally present them in terms of a very derogatory stereotype. This paper seeks to problematise this xenophobic mythology by exploring some aspects of the ‘reality’ experienced by Nigerian immigrants in South Africa, with a focus on ‘space’, identity and language. Given the current high levels of misinformation, results of a recent publication by the Southern African Migration Project (McDonald, 2000) are summarised. Subsequently, concepts such as xenophobia, ‘space’ and identity are explored and brought into relation to post-apartheid South Africa in its context of globalisation and the AIDS pandemic. On the basis of interviews with nine Nigerians currently resident in the Durban area, the reality of the above stereotype and the resistance offered by these Nigerian (im)migrants are discussed; in a final section, the roles of language and discourse in constructing immigrant identities are considered. It is concluded that the reported resistance to the stereotype does enable Nigerian (im)migrants to construct more adequate ‘space’ on a personal level. Nevertheless, the (im)migrant identities constructed in this way remain transitory and are not in a position to challenge the stereotype which dominates the public domain.

DE KLERK & GARY BARKHUIZEN (Rhodes University)
English in the prison services: a case of breaking the law?

In this article we report on an investigation into the use of English in a prison in the Eastern Cape Province. The investigation consisted of a range of interviews and observations in this institution, aimed at establishing the extent to which the national language policy is actually being implemented on the ground. Findings suggest that the use of English predominates in the high, official domains, that there is a marked avoidance of Afrikaans, and that Xhosa, the main language of the Eastern Cape Province, increasingly occupies the lower, unofficial domains. Tensions between policy and practice are discussed, and it is argued that pragmatism is a much stronger force than ideology. While the roles of Xhosa and Afrikaans appear to be in the process of reversing in the Grahamstown prison, English has emerged as stronger. And because it will continue to be a prerequisite for the mobility and promotion of staff in the country as a whole, and the lingua franca for an increasingly mobile criminal population, everyone will have to have some proficiency in English, which, ironically, will promote and strengthen it even more.

DIXON K (University of the Witwatersrand) Poster presentation

Literacy, Power and Embodied subjects

This poster is the precursor to a larger study examining the relationship between literacy, power and embodied subjects. The poster focuses on the interrelationship between literacy and the body, particularly the formation of literate bodies in the transition made between preschool and Grade 1. Luke (1993) notes that the body is the target of pedagogical power whose aim is to construct docile bodies (Foucault, 1977). Literacy becomes an ‘embodied competence’ where bodily practices are internalised by the habitus (Bourdieu, 1992). Habitus formation in early literacy training is both specialised and spatialised. The poster is relatively interactive: it is constructed to ‘read’ like a book, inviting ‘readers’ to think about how their reading and writing practices have been naturalised. It opens into a centrespread containing contrasting photographs of more regulated literate bodies in a Grade 1 classroom and the less regulated bodies of preschoolers. They are at different levels of acquiring the cultural and symbolic capital that will mark them as literate subjects. Some elements of modern disciplinary power - surveillance, distribution in time and space, totalisation and regulation (Gore, 1995) - can be seen operating in the classroom photographs as opposed to the photographs of the preschoolers

DONNELLY S

"Very Relativised Locality: Extended Toneless Gaps inside Phuthi H Domains".

Phuthi, a Tekela Nguni language, displays hallmark Nguni tone characteristics: H tones are extended rightwards from sponsor position as far as word right-edge conditions allow (some form of anti-alignment constraints apply in almost all verb and noun paradigms) — to the antepenult (1a), penult (1b), or ultima (1c). Also typical for Nguni, Phuthi deflects H from breathy (depressed) syllables, creating local gaps in the H domain (2). Remarkably, however, Phuthi also extends the initial depressor site off the trigger syllable, leftwards to the preceding stem edge (3), resulting in significant expanses of non-H-ness inside a H domain. Using this evidence, I argue that not only must Gafos’ (1997) claims for strict locality in harmony systems be rejected, but the resulting locality in Phuthi must at best be relativised even further than the usual claimed non-participation of intervening consonants, to include a string of ineligible vowels (but which should be eligible H tone sites).

1. H expansion rightwards

[bá-yá-límé]lana they cultivate for one another

a. si-ya-bóní]sa we show

b. [bá-bónísá] they showed

2. Local depression gaps

a. [kú-v-u-lé]lana to open for one other

b. [bá-yá-v-u-lé]lana they open for one other

c. [kú-g-u-d-z-i-sé]lana to help shear for each other

3. L (depression) expansion leftwards

[kú-lad-z-e-lí]sana to cause to follow one another

[kú-limag-e-lá]nisa to help cultivate indiscriminately for one another

DU PLESSIS T (Universiteit van die Vrystaat)

Die taalpolitiek van die Vrystaatse Regering. Die nommerplaatkwessie.

Die instelling van ‘n Engelse nommerplaatstelsel vir die Vrystaatse Provinsie in 1979 het heelwat opspraak verwek en het in die jongste tyd weer ter sprake gekom met die bekendstelling van nog ‘n nuwe nommerplaatstelsel in die Vrystaat. Die nuwe nommerplaatstelsel is ‘n oorskakeling na ‘n prentjie-nommerplaat en is weer eens Engelstalig. Hierdie stappe dui op ‘n bepaalde taalpolitiek by die Vrystaatse regering en sal vermoedelik op ‘n negatiewe manier ontvang word onder bepaalde taalgemeenskappe van die Vrystaat. Wat ons hier duidelik sien, is wat in die literatuur beskou word as die manipulering van taal by identiteitsvorming, iets wat al eerder as problematies uitgewys is.

In hierdie referaat sal die impak van hierdie taalpolitiek van die Vrystaatse regering ondersoek word aan die hand van ‘n verteenwoordigende opname wat onlangs gemaak is onder Vrystaatse motoreienaars. Daar sal vasgestel word watter rol taal by identiteitsvorming in die proses speel en ‘n beoordeling sal gemaak word of die taalpolitiek van die Vrystaatse regering in hierdie geval produktief is. Die vraag word gestel teen die agtergrond van die Vrystaatse regering se verbintenis tot die bou van ‘n nuwe identiteit in die Vrystaat.

FOTHERINGHAM R (University of Natal, PMB)

How 'communicative' do teachers want communicative?

This paper draws on the presenter's experience as editor and contributing author of an English additional language series developed by a national publisher for the Senior Phase of Curriculum 2005. It discusses the communicative language teaching principles which underpin the materials and explores the following questions which have arisen from informal research with users of the materials: What kinds of shifts in practice might the materials require teachers to make? How do teachers unfamiliar with the methodology perceive the materials? How do they perceive the materials in relation to outcomes based education? What kinds of identities (of teachers and learners) and particular world-views are created by the materials? How do these identities and views 'fit' with teachers' self-perceptions and beliefs? Explorations around these questions and insights that have arisen from this informal research suggest areas for further, formal research that the presenter plans to undertake.

FUMBA N (Zanolwazi Secondary)

Development of a language policy at a South African secondary school

This study explores the development of a language policy at a SA secondary school in Peddie in the Eastern Cape. An ethnographic method is used to establish what is taking place in the school with regard to the language practices and preferences of learners, teachers and parents. Findings are that, Xhosa is the only language to which the learners are exposed. They only have exposure to `chunks’ of English in class. These findings are set against the history of Language in Education policy in South Africa and against theory of the relationship between language and learning. Drawing on the work of Cummins (1980; 1981; 1986), the latter is explored insofar as it sheds light on the various options for LOLT and for bilingual/multilingual programmes. Six principles are suggested as a base from which to inform the SGB in formulating a school language policy that is sustainable, and that will be able to blend policy and practice. It should also be one that incorporates some kind of self-evaluation mechanism into its structure.

GXILISHE S (University of Cape Town.)

The order of emergence of click consonants amongst Xhosa-speaking children

Studies in Language Acquisition are, and have predominantly been, based

on English and other Indo-European languages. This has resulted in serious gaps

in child language acquisition research. This paper discusses the development of click sounds, which are unique amongst the indigenous people of Southern Africa. Clicks are probably the most salient consonants found in a human language. The paper focuses on the acquisition of click consonants by 1-3 year old unilingual Xhosa-speaking children . It is the first longitudinal study on click acquisition to be done, starting from onset of first words in African languages. Interesting findings emerge from the data collected from 10 children. The present research is focussed on emerging abilities, whereas previous research was focussed on errors. It provides groundwork for stimulating further work on clicks and the acquisition of the phonology of African languages.

GROENEWALD J (see VAN DER WALT)

HUNT S (Rhodes University)

The Beginning of Female Friendship: The Beginning of a Study

This paper will report on the initial stages of a study into the development of female friendship using conversation analysis. Coates (1996) has studied the features of conversation between women extensively, but her studies typically focus on the conversation of women who are already good friends. The current study takes instead a longitudinal approach, using as data the informal conversations of young women over several months, beginning a few weeks after they first met. As the subjects are university students in residence, their contact with each other is frequent and it may be argued that friendships form rapidly and intensely in this context. At this stage, only the first four months of data have been collected and so the paper will explore an initial qualitative analysis of this, the beginnings of friendship, focussing on aspects such as topic choice, self-disclosure, directives and questions.

JACKSON F (University of Natal, PMB)

Effective Writing for Commerce: Macro and Micro Factors Impacting Upon The Curriculum Design of a Tertiary Writing course

This paper builds upon a work-in-progress presented earlier this year at the Writing Development in Higher Education Conference in the UK. 2001 saw the launch of “Effective Writing for Commerce”, a course designed by the recently established School of Language, Culture and Communication for 300 first year commerce students at the University of Natal (Pietermaritzburg. This was the first “School” created course and drew together a curriculum development team comprising members of the disciplines of English Studies and Applied Language StudiesOpening with a brief socio-political and institutional contextualisation, I critically evaluate the design and implementation of the course using qualitative data drawn from lecturer interviews, student evaluations and final reflection papers. Participating lecturers had prior experience in discipline based writing courses – some drawing more on American based theories of composition studies (e.g. Graves 1984) ; others in British and Australian based sociolinguistic and genre theories (e.g. Clark and Ivanic:1997, Swales:1990, Widdowson: 1990). The challenges arising from collaboratively constructing and teaching a course from starting points of varying pedagogic assumptions, are carefully analysed. I conclude with consideration of the macro and micro factors of institutional dynamics that facilitated and hindered the launch of the course, along with recommendations for future m curriculum development.

JENKINSON A (Universiteit van die Vrystaat)
Taal in beweging: metalinguistiese manipulasie?

Besoedeling, die vernietiging van die natuurlike habitat en genetiese manipulasie kan ekologies rampspoedig vir ons planeet wees en die rol van menslike faktore word erken. Minderheidstale verdwyn en die res wat nie onmiddellik uitwissing in die gesig staar nie, word deur globalisering gemarginaliseer, maar dieselfde besorgdheid vir die mens se aandeel daarin word bykans nie wetenskaplik verreken nie. Ekoloë maak op internasionale kongresse alarm oor die mens se bedreiging van die biodiversiteit en Krauss (1992: 4) wys op die vergelykbare taalbedreigingsituasie, maar word die mens se aandeel – die overte en koverte ideologiese agenda – met erns bejeen en taalwetenskaplik nagevors en beskryf? Die teendeel is meermale waar, aangesien kommunikasie op internasionale vlak deur 'n wêreldtaal soveel voordele vir almal inhou. Aannames – meer en minder waar soos: dit is goedkoper, dit voorkom verdeeldheid en konflik en bevorder kulturele harmonie - word dikwels gemaak. Só word soms beweer en 'n evolusionistiese analogie kom hier handig te pas – in 'n mededingende kulturele ekosisteem geld ook natuurlike seleksie in die menslike milieu, die oorlewing van die sterkste; die wat in die oorlewingstryd die beste aangepas is, oorleef. Die rol van sosiale ingryping ("social enginering"), etniese suiwering en genetiese manipulasie word egter in die relevante wetenskappe nagevors, beskryf en bevraagteken. In die linguistiek bestaan daar wel vergelykbare ingrepe soos normering, standaardisering, leksikale uitbreiding, terminologieskepping en taalbeplanning – almal terme wat 'n positiewe linguistiese betrokkenheid suggereer, maar wetenskapsfilosofies beskou reflekteer dit nie die objektiewe stand van sake nie, dus nooit die verliese nie.

Hierdie referaat het ten doel om aan te toon dat metalinguistiese manipulasie wel wins (nie noodwendig taalwins nie) tot gevolg mag hê, maar ook taalmutasies met taalfunksionele tekortkominge opgelewer het. Die reduksie van die werkwoordelike vervoeging van Afrikaans is hiervan 'n voorbeeld.

JONES J (University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand)

Afrikaans word order: a performance-based account

Word order is commonly claimed to be a largely grammatical phenomenon, but Hawkins (1994) suggests that it can be explained by reference to performance considerations. His principle of Early Immediate Constituents (EIC) is a performance theory based on syntactic processing. He claims that the ordering of elements is motivated by a need to recognise underlying syntactic structure rapidly and efficiently online. In this paper, data is presented which tests various EIC predictions on some parts of the grammar of Afrikaans, including a multiple branching structure in the post-verbal domain and rearrangements of three basic word orders: NP-PP rearrangements in the middle field; extraposition from an ‘om...te’ infinitive phrase; and rearrangement of the separable verbal prefix and PP in the VP. Texts analysed include samples from popular Afrikaans adult fiction and children’s literature. On the assumption that children’s literature is thought to be less complex than adult literature (and therefore less likely to exhibit word-order rearrangements that are not optimally efficient for processing), and given that EIC displays a preference for simpler structures, it is expected that EIC scores will reflect a higher frequency of less complex structures in the children’s literature sample text, but this is not found to be the case. However, it is found that EIC predictions for performance and grammar are largely supported in the Afrikaans data.

JOOSTEN A (Rand Afrikaans University)

Reporting-Writing as Surveillance: A Case Study of a South African NGO

This paper examines the effects of the dominant discourses of a government department and a corporate donor body on the textual and institutional discursive processes and practices of a non-governmental organisation (NGO). Through a critical discourse analysis of representative texts from each of the discursive domains, the institutional power relations, together with their effects on the texts, the organisation, and the employees of the NGO, are revealed. These power relations are seen to determine not only the conventions of language and genre, but also the content of the reports. There are consequently serious implications for the accuracy of the data collection of the reports, and thus for their claims to authenticity, veracity, and objectivity. Two discourses predominate in the texts of these powerful institutions: unification and competence, with their respective goals of redress and progress. These become mechanisms of control and surveillance of the NGO. In prioritising their own choices of signification, the controlling institutions can be seen to marginalise the voices and devalue the knowledge of the fieldworkers – the people who gather the information on the ground. The literacy practice of report writing becomes a contested terrain, a discursive struggle over whose knowledge becomes truth. There are broader and potentially grave ramifications of these power relations, which reside in the discourses of South African policy and legislation.

JOSEPH M & RAMANI E (University of the North)

Accessing mainstream assignments through Foundation assignments: the way to an integrated AD curriculum

One response to the New Academic Policy (NAP) perspective on Foundation courses has been strong advocacy for 'extended and integrated curricula' at first year and beyond. Such curricula rely crucially on collaboration between mainstream lecturers (subject specialists), English lecturers (language specialists) and AD practitioners (learning specialists). However for historical, institutional and epistemological reasons, such collaboration is often difficult to establish and maintain. In this paper, we describe and theorise our experience of obtaining information on mainstream assignments from first-year students that could lead to the development of 'extended and integrated curricula'. The context for this initiative is ENGL 132: English for Academic Purposes, a core Foundation module being offered at UNIN. One of the ENGL 132 assignments we have designed requires students to submit a marked assignment from a mainstream module. They also reflect on various aspects of their mainstream assignments using a questionnaire. The data thus obtained is used to demonstrate to students the links between cognitive challenge, assignment/ task-type and the kinds of learning/doing needed to accomplish different tasks. In the context of this ENGL 132 assignment, Bloom's taxonomy is effectively used to raise metacognitive awareness among learners.

JOSEPH M & RAMANI E (University of the North) Poster Presentation
Turning non-readers into book lovers: an experiment in extensive reading at the University of the North

Our poster will visually represent an exciting process we have initiated at UNIN in which an existing module, ENGL 131: Introduction to basic academic literacy is used as a context for introducing extensive reading (or reading for pleasure). The process of setting up a book club, enlisting student volunteers to run it, and evolving assessments related to reading for pleasure will be described. The major assignment for ENGL 131 involves students in searching for and interviewing a book lover, using qualitative research methods. Students then write up a report to demonstrate the insights gained from doing this assignment. The assignment is also the context for introducing aspects of academic discourse. The best ENGL 131 reports on the Profile of a book lover from 2001 and 2002 will be on display.

KAMUANGU G K (University of the Witwatersrand)
Teaching writing in three secondary schools and one university department in South Africa

The research project discussed in this paper sought to understand the writing experiences of African learners of English as an additional language in two secondary schools in Soweto and one in Hillbrow and in the first-year Foundation course of the Applied English Language Studies (AELS) Department at the University of the Witwatersrand. The main findings were that, (i) teachers at two of the three school sites still use form-focused approaches to writing and inappropriate textbooks (produced 25 years ago for Afrikaans first language speakers), and (ii) at all three school sites discursive essay writing is ignored, and speech-like and unreflective routinised tasks are emphasised as a way to guarantee good results in the Senior Certificate Examination, and thus teachers' positions in their schools. Learners at the schools in the research sample are not adequately prepared for the writing demands of tertiary studies. In the fourth site, lecturers in the AELS Foundation course use a process approach to writing to build up higher order thinking skills on text organisation and content and to help learners to develop autonomy in academic discourse writing. However, findings from this research suggest that further improvements could be made so that learners get more guidance and opportunities to practice academic writing.

KILPERT, D (Institute for the Study of English in Africa)
Using Systemic Functional Grammar For Teaching

It is perhaps not sufficiently recognised that simply being able to speak and write English is not a guarantee of being able to teach it well. The teacher needs a technical understanding of the material. In this paper I demonstrate some concepts from Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG, associated with M.A.K. Halliday) that I believe are useful for teaching tertiary students to write effective academic paragraphs. I explain how the management of the evaluative stance, an aspect of the interpersonal function of language, might be taught by linking it to the management of structure. I draw on the concept of phase, and include some detail from Appraisal Theory. I suggest that learning to do text analysis can make teachers aware of the expected patterns and ‘voice’ of specific genres and provide a technical language for talking clearly about them. I argue that this knowledge is essential for properly informed language teaching and that approaching writing as a teachable skill rather than guesswork will give all students a fair chance, regardless of background.

KRUGER JC (Technikon SA)

A powerpoint/poster presentation on the compilation of the first tutorial letter for the subject: afrikaans practical: policing’s activities and assessment procedure

The presentation will address the following:

· The outcomes of the action research workshop with industry

· The compilation of the activities and the outcomes thereof

· The assessment strategies

· The layout of the tutorial letter

· The content of the workbook

· Assessment sheets

· Examples of assignment 1

Examples of each aspect will be available.

MALAN K C (see SUZMAN)

MANKOWSKI P (Durban Institute of Technology)
Group work as divisive or co-operative learning

Academic Literacy practitioners believe that students benefit by changes in methodology that empower the latter to engage with academic discourse. Group work is usually considered to be one of these empowering activities. However the process of taking on proactive learning roles in formal lecture time requires much more than a willingness to change on the part of students and facilitators. This paper examines the introduction of group work and other student-centered OBE principles and methodologies to certain Foundation and first-year classes in Academic Literacy at the Durban Institute of Technology. The writer discusses facilitator and student expectations and realities in the classroom where traditional and transmission notions still predominate and influence both staff and students. This qualitative research interrogates the advantages and disadvantages experienced by group work facilitators. Students approach group work methodology with enthusiasm, grudging acquiescence or outright rejection. In confronting her own preconceptions and the stereotypes of her students, the writer discovers how entrenched learning assumptions are. Based on facilitators’ observations; individual structured interviews with students; and student evaluations of peers, methodology and facilitators, the writer of this paper explores group work theory, examines practice, and proposes alternatives in the action research cycle.

MATHONSI N N (University of Natal, DBN)

Stem and Root problem revisited

The aim of this article is to analyse the root and stem/word relationship. The article explores the manner in which root and stem definition has been handled by Doke’s school. I am far from being convinced that the war about stem-root is over and that there have been problems with regard to the way these have been treated, hence the ongoing uncertainty about whether it is the stem or word tradition that should be employed in the Zulu dictionaries to make them user-friendly (van Wyk 1995, Nkabinde, 2001). I hypothesise that those who claim they are using the stem tradition are sometimes caught between root, stem and word traditions. This could be due to a lack of clear-cut demarcation between the two, the root and the stem. I therefore propose re-opening the issue by raising the argument that a class prefix (base prefix) be considered part of the noun stem. By this I hope to provide solution to the problem of user-unfriendliness of Zulu dictionaries, both the monolingual and the bilingual dictionaries.

MCCORMICK’S K

“Now you see it, now you don’t”: perceptions of language difference in Cape Town’s District Six

English and Afrikaans are the two languages used in the small pocket of District Six which was not was destroyed during the apartheid era. There is a paradox at the heart of its sociolinguistic eco-system which this paper explores.

In the hearts and minds of the neighbourhood’s residents, the two languages are strongly polarised in terms of what they have represented socially, economically and politically. However, in vernacular speech they are inextricably interwoven, so much so that people don’t always know which words are English and which are Afrikaans. Sometimes the two languages are used contrastively in bilingual conversations to achieve social or rhetorical effects. At other times speakers’ awareness of drawing on two languages seems to be subliminal or absent. (This kind of variability in levels of awareness has been documented for other bilingual communities – see for example the papers in the collections by Milroy and Muysken 1995 and Auer 1998.) What is particularly interesting in this community, is that it is not only in vernacular speech that awareness of language difference is sometimes prominent and sometimes absent, this is also the case at a social level. Definition of self and other as “English-speaking” or “Afrikaans-speaking” can be a strong indicator of in-group / out-group status, one on which people act. However, it need not carry this weight. It can be ignored, over-ridden by other considerations. It can even be unremarked, as in cases where siblings had chosen different language-based identities for themselves.

In seeking to account for the inconstant awareness of languages as different, I draw mainly on my research in three fields: the history of language contact in Cape Town; the role of schools in the construction of awareness of language difference; the effects of social class stratification and racial segregation (and resistance to them) on perceptions of the two languages.

MCHAZIME H & MTAMBO A (University of Malawi)

Making literacy development meaningful and enjoyable for learners: An

Experience from Malawi

Educationists recognise that the first four years of schooling are crucial to a person's life because this is the period when most children acquire basic literacy and numeracy skills. On the other hand, failure to master basic literacy skills blights many lives in the world today. The need for acquisition of basic literacy skills in the world was epitomised by the World Conference on Education for All held in Thailand in 1991. Following the Jontiem Conference, Malawi has made basic education a priority. In 1994 it declared primary education free and it has stood by this policy of providing education to all its young citizens. Although the country is working hard to consolidate its weak infrastructure and to provide sufficient teaching and learning materials in order to provide better learning environments, one of its biggest challenges is the provision of skilled teachers in literacy development. The majority of primary school teachers are untrained and the teaching strategies they use encourage rote learning, chorus answers and chanting or ‘barking’ at print. This paper argues that with small, short but incremental training, the classroom atmosphere can be animated and learning become more interactive than it is today. The paper draws on a small pilot study on interactive initial reading done in the Machinga district conducted by the Malawi German Basic Education project with the support of German Technical Cooperation in Malawi. The paper examines the training process and classroom procedures before it presents results of the pupils' performance in the study. It then argues that short but regular in-service courses coupled with regular field support can transform classroom practice and turn learning into meaningful and enjoyable activity for learners.

MCHUNU T (Mangosuthu Technikon)

Sources of asynchrony between different sociolinguistic groups in South Africa

The ushering of South Africa into a new democratic era implies that there have to be more interlinkages and interaction between different sociolinguistic groups. This paper attempts to point out some sources of asynchrony in intercultural encounters. It examines the way in which sociolinguistic elements combine as causal factors of asynchrony. A better understanding of these sources of asynchrony could lead to a better understanding of different racial groups and a realisation that miscommunication has in some cases led to pejorative cultural stereotypes. In discussing the sources of asynchrony in intercultural encounters, it is important to understand the historical context in which they take place. Thus, a broad outline of a few sociopolitical and sociolinguistic aspects of South African history, which give rise to the present intercultural relationships, will be briefly outlined. The paper concludes that a better understanding of each others’ communication conventions can result in intercultural tolerance between different sociolinguistic groups in the country

MESTHRIE R (University of Cape)
Town.Fanakalo - an upside down pidgin?

Most of the pidgins studied within the discipline of creolistics evolved outside Africa. Yet these frequently involved an African or Austronesian populace as learners (substrate population) of a European language (the target language or superstrate). Arising out of this formula (superstrate over substrate), certain prototypical features of pidgins are believed to exist, especially in expanded pidgins (like copula deletion, multiple negation, reduplication, bimorphemic question words, and so on).

Fanakalo, a crystallised pidgin of southern Africa, arose out of the reverse situation: the superstrate languages in an African one (Zulu or, earlier, Xhosa), whilst the substrates are European (specifically Germanic i.e. English and Afrikaans). The social roles are thus inverted: the question raised in this paper is whether the outcomes of the `learning formula' are similarly inverted. The paper will take a first look at some of the salient features of Fanakalo in order to see whether they support or contradict prevailing conceptions of `pidginness' in the literature.

Although some of the evidence is ambiguous, I argue that Fanakalo may well cause us to revise these notions of what constitutes a typical pidgin.

MEYER W (University of Natal, PMB)

An investigation into the discourses of theology students: Applying and extending James Gee’s theory of discourse to students of the School of Theology at the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg.

This paper builds on work done for my PHD Thesis in which I applied and extended James Gee’s theory of primary and secondary discourses. In the course of my research I proposed an extension of this model to include a third level of discourse which I called tertiary discourse. I argued that the discourse of the university, in this case the discourse of critical theological studies, should be considered a third level position because it calls into question both the primary and secondary discourses which the students bring with them from their families, churches and schooling. In proposing this extension of Gee’s theory, I used the positioning theory of Romano Harré which posits three levels of discourse. In Harré’s theory discourse takes up a series of positions, where the second position resists and questions the first position, while the third position questions both the former positions. In my paper I will provide examples from my data which illustrate my extension of Gee’ s theory. In addition, I will show how the questioning of primary and secondary positions inherited from family, church and schooling can induce in the student’s a crisis or clash of discourses which has a profound effect on their ability to cope with and adapt to the discourse of critical academic theology.

MOLETSANE J R (University of North West)

Selective error correction in English Second Language (ESL) writing instruction: A report on work in progress.

This paper seeks to report on an ongoing study on error correction in academic essays. One of the roles of teacher correction is to help students improve their writing skills. Comprehensive error correction is perhaps the most common approach to error correction used by teachers in writing classes. The purpose of this study is to examine various approaches to error correction and to suggest selective error correction as an effective means of improving students’ writing skills. The paper will try to justify the use of selective error correction and suggest ways of using this approach.

MOYO J (Vista University)
English for Specific Purposes (ESP): Is it the future of English Studies (ELT)?

Issues raised by this article will pertain to the particular threat posed on Literature and Language studies, as they have constituted English studies in most academic institutions. Amongst the suggestions that are in currency as to the future of the studies are that they be skills-based (teach communication skills of all sorts) and encompass something called ‘tourist literature’, obviously encouraged by the growth of tourism in this country. All possible considerations will be discussed herein, and the merits of each evaluated.

MOYO T (University of Zululand)

Perspectives for a SADC language policy: A sociolinguistic view for multilingual communication in the region.

The SADC region has been a multilingual and multicultural society since time immemorial, before the inception of the community itself. There are problems which anthropologists, demographers, sociolinguists and others have recognised regarding its complexity and diversity. The region is an inevitable community for regional inter-dependence in politics, economy, media, culture and language. It is therefore important for these countries to forge a clear language policy, which would contribute tremendously to resolving the apparent politicolinguistic conflict of the region. Once this is addressed, we would then hope that there would be a smooth socioeconomic and political growth, as many languages will have been recognised as useable, where each situation demands their use. This paper looks at multilingualism as a resource ,rather than as a handicap, for political functions of communication in a changing sociocultural setting owing to people’s mobility.

MWEPU D (University of Cape Town)

‘ Am I in control ?’ An investigation on the power relation in a few texts and their translations.

Translation Studies as an interdiscipline draws on the paradigm of various fields and sub-fields. Critical Discourse Analysis seems to be an interesting locus for the evaluation of translated texts. The examination of the texts’ conditions of production, distribution and consumption can reveal intricate power relations. The present research analyses the strategies of power control both in the source texts and the translated texts. There appears to be various levels of power control, including: Translator versus Source text writer; Source text writer versus audience; Translator versus audience. Translation has an ideological inscription. The power relation is ideologically embedded but it is scripturally manifested. The translator’s socio-cultural framework bears on the surface level of linguistic realisation. This relationship may account for the power struggle between the translator and the Source text writer.

NARISMULU P (University of Durban-Westville)

Reviewing curriculum development and research in Language and Gender

Language and Gender is a new module in UDW’s Programme of Languages and Literature. Located in the new discipline of Sociolinguistics, it serves as a programme module. The paper reflects on the challenges of curriculum development and assessment and suggests that the module could play a significant role in reaching students who have not traditionally been attracted to Sociolinguistics. Such an area of study could strengthen the position of Sociolinguistics in the new school structure and influence the development of interdisciplinary work, which is lacking not just in language studies, but in gender studies as well. This is apparent in the openness of syllabus topics - such as domestic violence, HIV/AIDS or social movements - to the collaborative work of intellectuals from a range of disciplines. For example, research into social movements is being led by a visiting academic with presentations by local intellectuals and activists in areas such as civil rights, women’s interests, masculinity, labour, HIV/AIDS, and cultural and rural development. Student interest in this area at a graduate level focuses attention on the development of the theoretical frameworks of language and gender research.

NAUDE J (University of the Free State)

The Consonantal Root in Semitic Languages

Introductory works to linguistics, such as that of Fromkin & Rodman (1998:502) employ a Semitic language like Arabic as a textbook example of a language where consonants constitute the root of most words: the consonants ktb in Arabic form the root of words associated with writing. For instance katab means ‘to write’, aktib means ‘I write’, kitab means ‘a book’, and so on. Inflectional and derivational processes are expressed by different vowels inserted into the triconsonantal roots. English, however, is unrelated to the Semitic Languages, and its structure is of such a nature that vowels are crucial. The direct and circumstantial evidence supporting the notion of the Semitic consonantal root as an independent morphological/lexical item is challenged in recent literature. The assumption that words should be exclusively dismantled to morphemes leads to the conclusion that direct reference to an entity such as a consonantal root is an essential component of grammar. It is shown that this is not a necessary assumption and that the Semitic languages resemble non-Semitic languages in this regard. This paper will provide an overview and evaluation of a selection of the evidence for and against the existence of a consonantal root in Semitic languages.

NKWE T (see PRETORIUS E J)

PIENAAR M (RAU)
Kan die kognitiewe linguistiek ’n bydrae lewer tot vertaalteorie?

In haar artikel, ‘Image in translation: a case study of three Polish Hamlets’, maak Tabakowska (1997:3) die stelling dat die Kognitiewe Linguistiek (KL) belowende perspektiewe inhou vir vertaalkunde in dié sin dat dit enersyds die gaping tussen literêre studies en linguistiek kan oorbrug en tweedens dat dit moontlikhede bied vir ’n koherente teoretiese raamwerk vir ’n oorkoepelende vertaalteorie.

In hierdie referaat sal een van die primêre aannames van die KL, naamlik dat taal ’n weerspieëling van ’n mens se werklikheidsbelewing is, ondersoek word. Dit gaan in die besonder om die rol van die konseptualiseerder: taal verwoord bloot dit wat deur die individu gekonseptuliseer word. Hieruit ontwikkel die konsep subjektifikasie (tegnies, gebruik soos Langacker, 1990:5) waarvolgens elke individu subjektief vanuit sy eie beheersende punte na die wêreld om hom/haar kyk.

Die insigte wat die KL bied wat betref subjektifkasie sal verkennend in verband gebring word met sekere vertaalteoretiese uitgangspunte en in die besonder met die konsep kulturele filter soos beskryf deur House .

Daar sal aangetoon word dat die Kognitiewe Linguistiek (in ooreenstemming met Tabakowska se siening soos hierbo uiteengesit) inderdaad interessante moontlikhede inhou vir die uitbreiding van teoretiese vertaalkunde.

Verwysings:

House, J. 1981 A Model for Translation Quality Assessment. Tübingin: Gunter Narr.

Langacker, R.W. 1990. Subjectification. Cognitive Linguistics, 1 (1), pp.5-38.

Tabakowska, E. 1997 Image in Translation. A case of three Polish Hamlets. In

Smieja, Birgit, Tasch, Meide (eds.) Human Contact though Language and Linguistics (Duisburg Papers on research in Language and Culture 31). Frankfurt: Peter Lang, pp. 167-186.

PLUDDEMANN P (University of Cape Town )

Literacy, orality and assessment: drama in the language classroom

The last two decades have seen a shift in conceptualisations of literacy from literacy-as-technology to the literacy-as-social-practice approach of the New Literacy Studies (NLS). In the curriculum revision process in South Africa, core elements of the latter have found their way into the Languages learning area of the revised Curriculum 2005. The Languages learning area also encourages oral work in recognition of the need for multi-faceted assessment in increasingly linguistically and culturally diverse classrooms. These developments present new challenges for teacher training, particularly in the additional-language classroom. This presentation reports on, and shows footage of, a literacy/orality event that took place within the context of an accredited teacher in-service course that attracts mostly L1 Xhosa-speaking primary school educators. The event in question was generated in the Afrikaans-as-an-Additional-Language classroom in which participants were required to demonstrate their proficiency in Afrikaans by writing and performing a workshopped drama skit. The major discrepancy between one group's written script and the (oral) performance creates a challenge for the assessment of language proficiency, and the relationship between literacy and orality. It also highlights issues of language, power and diglossia in a diverse and still-divided post-apartheid South Africa.

POSTMA M (Atteridgeville Technical College)

Mother tongue, other tongue?

The argument posed in this paper offers the points of view of an educator involved with learners completing their Grade 12 examination in South Africa, and a second or additional language user of English in South Africa. The main problem is that these learners, mostly African, are disempowered by the requirements of the dominant first language narrative. Learners do not often have a choice about the first or primary language required on this level: they are forced to use English, even though this is not their mother tongue. In this paper, an argument will be developed to support the hypothesis that the requirement of a first or primary language should be dropped and replaced by the possibility for learners to operate in three languages at different levels. This hypothesis is based on the principles of multiliteracies and the recognition of prior learning. African learners in particular are familiar with at least three languages, a fact which is not acknowledged in the education system at present. Empowerment for these learners would require full acknowledgement of their prior learning. This hypothesis is in line with the post-modern critique of the dominant narratives and opens the route for marginalised narratives to participate in the global conversations of cultures.

PRETORIUS E J & NKWE D T (UNISA)

‘I don’t understand this story, Ma’am’: an exploration of reading skills in the school context
When students have difficulty reading to learn, it is often assumed that their comprehension problems stem from limited language proficiency. This reflects an underlying assumption that language proficiency and reading ability are basically ‘the same thing’ and that improving the language proficiency of students will also make them better readers. In this paper we explore the relationship between language proficiency and reading ability. Findings from a reading project undertaken at a high school in Tshwane are presented and the results of reading tests in English and Tsonga discussed. In conclusion, some pedagogical implications that follow from these findings are considered.

PRETORIUS E J (UNISA) Poster Presentation
The family Literacy Project: getting adults and children hooked on books

Due to the high rate of illiteracy among the adult population and the lack of a reading culture within South Africa, many thousands of children start school with little concept of what reading means and without having developed preliteracy skills that ease their subsequent acquisition of language, literacy and cognitive skills, which form the basis for success in the learning context. The Children’s Literature Research Unit (Department of Information Science, Unisa) and the Academic Literacy Research Unit (Department of Linguistics, Unisa) have been working together on the Family Literacy Project since 2000. The aim of this project is to get parents, as well as caregivers and teachers at creches and Grade R schools, involved in their children’s education by motivating them to read storybooks to their preschool children. In partnership with Project Literacy (a non-governmental organisation that operates nationally in the field of adult literacy), several family literacy sites have been established in disadvantaged areas of Gauteng, Eastern Cape, Kwa-Zulu Natal and Limpopo Province. Reading workshops are held on a regular basis to show parents how to read storybooks to their children. In so doing, the parents are also made to realise how storybook reading helps children develop their language and literacy skills. The project provides childrens’ books in the African languages to the creches to build up their ‘libraries’, and to provide a range of books which the parents can borrow to read to their children on a weekly basis. The project lays a strong emphasis on developing early literacy skills in the children’s home languages.

PRINSLOO M (University of Cape Town)
Children's literacy is/as child's play

Children's emergent literacy is a complex social process, located in home as well as school dynamics, and starting well before formal instruction in the classroom. Research in the Anglo-world in particular, and in South America, has drawn attention to what children bring with them to school in the way of language and literacy resources, however non-school based these might be. The consequences, particularly for 'non-mainstream' or 'minority' children of schools misrecognising such resources as absences (of appropriate pre-reading skills, or 'reading-readiness') have been highlighted, and such neglect has been criticised to the extent that it both produces school failure and simultaneously shifts blame for failure onto individual children, and their purported deficits. In this light, this paper is concerned with the kinds of differences South African children bring to and how those differences encounter the teaching of reading and writing in schools and the models for interacting around text that are set up and encouraged by schools. I explore examples of recorded interaction in homes and schools that were studied as part of the Children's Early Literacy Learning (CELL) Research Project, which is a current three-year ethnographic-style study of 'home and school influences' shaping children's early literacy learning in multiple contexts.

PROBYN M (Rhodes University)

Language and science teaching: what's happening in second language science classrooms?

The Third International Mathematics and Science Survey (TIMSS-R) of 1999 found that South African pupils who study mathematics and science in their second language had difficulty both in comprehending several of the questions and in articulating their answers to open-ended questions. This points to the difficulties that the language of learning and teaching poses for many learners and teachers in the classroom. However there has been scant official recognition of such problems and little training for teachers in this area. This paper describes a research study undertaken to explore the perceptions and practices regarding the language of learning and teaching (LoLT) of six Grade 8 science teachers and their learners, who are teaching and learning science though the medium of English as an additional language in Eastern Cape schools where teachers and learners share Xhosa as their home language. Learners' language practices and perceptions were identified through a questionnaire; lessons were videotaped and transcribed and teachers were interviewed, using the videotapes and transcriptions for stimulated recall, to make explicit their classroom practice; lesson transcripts were used to analyse classroom language interactions. The intention of the research is to provide an informed basis for the development of appropriate teacher-training for teaching and learning through the medium of English as an additional language.

RASANA C (ISEA: Rhodes University)

Let’s all read together

This survey investigates learners’ reading preferences at selected Eastern Cape secondary schools where English is taught as a second language. It seeks to understand the reading patterns and interests of Grade 11s, and the role played by parents, teachers, school and public libraries in promoting love for reading. Focus group interviews and questionnaires were used to gather data over a period of six weeks. All Grade 11 learners from eight Grahamstown secondary schools where English is taught as a second language participated. Data was analysed using Biomedical Data Programme Statistical Software (BMDP). Chi-square (X ²) tests EDRwere used specifically to determine significant differences in the groups (i.e. schools effect, gender effect, language effect, etc.). The data suggest that ESL Grade 11s: 1) do have preferred reading material; 2) have preferred authors; 3) have a preferred language they read in; and 4) read for information. Limited access to reading material affects their reading patterns and ability.

REED Y (see Davis)

RIDGE E (University of Stellenbosch)

Old wine in new bottles or outcomes blighted education?

(Subcategory: Language learning and teaching)

This paper argues that there is a danger that a structuralist approach to language will dominate teaching in schools under the OBE system. The paper begins by drawing parallels between England and South Africa. The rejection of the LINC materials by the Ministry of Education (characterised by concern with linguistic and cultural diversity) and subsequent more “traditional” approach to the teaching of language will be compared with moves in South Africa at University level towards a focus on language use, grammars of English, genre-based teaching and language awareness as opposed to the de facto adoption of a.traditional approach to language teaching.In the face of this, it can be argued that there is a disjunction between pre-service teacher education and school practice.

The argument is developed in the following way. First a brief critique of the relevant Critical Outcomes and Specific Outcomes is used to show their limitations. Next, data drawn from the examination papers of candidates doing an in-service certificate is used to show the difference between the philosophy nominally espoused by these teachers and their practice as reflected in their examination answers. Finally three examples of language activities from popular commercial leaning material are used to explore the view of language which underlies some of the modules used at schools. These signs of what is happening in practice point to the blighting of the outcomes ideal.

The paper concludes with some questions that require serious attention in the interests of both linguistic and cultural diversity.

RIENER I (see SHARIFF)

RIENER I

Ways of Working Critically with Writing: a Montage

This poster presentation is a represenation of the critical writing pedagogies examined by Barbara Kamler in 'Relocating the Personal' (2001). It explores the role of the personal in the transformation of texts and writers' subjectivities, and uses physical space as a metaphor for issues of spatiality in writing. The poster takes the form of a mobile in order to depict the diverse and flexible writing pedagogies with which Kamler works, and movement and images are used to express the locatedness of the body and the personal in writing across a range of educational sites. A criticism of the genre-process debate is revealed as the poster presentation serves to illustrate ways of integrating approaches to writing.

RODSETH V

The HOME LANGUAGE PROJECT

The HOME LANGUAGE PROJECT (HLP) operates in six former Model C schools in Johannesburg, from Grades 1 to 9. The project is experimental over 3 years, with a longer life anticipated.

Its aims are to: 1. improve the quality of African Home Language instruction (3 Nguni and 3 Sotho languages). The standard of African L1 instruction is very poor; a major shift to CALT (Communicative African Language Teaching) is required. 2. use peer assistance, and other means, to improve the quality of African language Al 2 instruction, also very poor. 3. use evaluation reports to help establish the bona fides of the project. Leslie Foster of L-Map has already conducted an informal assessment, and pronounced very positively. A more formal assessment will be conducted from 3-7 June by Herman Kotze, the results being available for inclusion in the conference.presentation. 4. establish a base for INSET in partnership with the GDE (Gauteng Department of Education). Traditionally disadvantaged schools will be catered for. 5. create a base for university-registered post-graduate research. One project has already been established - an investigation into whether writing skills (coherence and cohesion) can be transferred form isiZulu into English; 6. contribute to the case for Additive Multilingualism, needed for debate with the "straight for English" school. In essence, the methodology used in the project follows the principles of: * learner-centredness; * development of CALP through text-based, task-based learning (DART - Directed Activities Related to Text); * encouraging the transference of skills; * supporting the African Renaissance through promoting African languages and cultures.

SABEL J (University of Frankfurt/ZAS-Berlin, Germany)
(see Zeller J, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa)
Asymmetries in wh-question formation in Southern Bantu

In this talk we address a well-known asymmetry that can be observed with respect to wh-questions in Southern Bantu languages, which are wh-in situ languages, as illustrated by (1). However, wh-phrases can also appear sentence-initially in cleft constructions, consisting of a copula and a wh-phrase which is modified by a relative clause, (2):

(1) a. U-bona ini? (U-bona-ni?)

2ndSg-see what-9 2ndSg-see-what 'What do you see?'

b. U-bona ubani? (U-bona bani?)

2ndSg-see whom-1a 2ndSg-see whom 'Whom do you see?'

(2) a. Y-ini o-yi-bona-yo?

Cop-what Rc2ndSg -Oc9-see-Rel 'It is what that you see?'

b. Ng-ubani o-m-bona-yo?

Cop-who1a Rc2ndSg -Oc1a-see-Rel 'It is who that you see?' (Zulu)

In contrast, wh-subjects cannot remain in situ, (3a). The only possible way to form subject questions is by using a cleft, (3b):

(3) a. *Ubani u-banga lowo msindo?

who1a Sc1a-cause Dem3 noise3

b. Ng-ubani o-banga lowo msindo?

Cop-who1a Rc1a-cause Dem3 noise3

'It is who who is making that noise?'

(Zulu)

Sabel (1998, 1999) shows that wh-movement can be triggered both by focus features and by wh-features, with typological differences between languages being the result of different strength of these features. We first provide a careful discussion of the properties of the wh-construction in Southern Bantu, which leads us to the claim that wh-phrases in cleft constructions are not base-generated in their fronted position, but have undergone wh-movement which is triggered by the focus features associated with the cleft. We then suggest that the contrast between (3a) and (1) is due to the fact that the subject position in Bantu is incompatible with a focus interpretation. As is well-known, arguments in subject position tend to be definite and Topics (cf. e.g. Givón 1975). Since wh-phrases are inherently focused and indefinite, they cannot remain in subject position, but rather force the insertion of strong focus features that trigger movement of the subject and its realization in a cleft.

SARINJEIVE D (VUDEC:Vista University)
Teaching English in the Postmodern Coca-Cola Age - a Vista Perspective

At Vista these days, in order to be and have value, lecturers in the English Department have had to extend the literature, theory and academic reading and writing repertoire to include new modules, such as ENG5009: Reading and Writing Skills for Business English. Students study the workings of groups in business, how to identify and manage conflict situations, conduct meetings, compose notices, agendas, minutes, reports and presentations and how to manage time. In this paper I seek to show that from a postmodernist perspective, ENG5009 is to some extent a response to the local context, a 'small narrative' in its own right and, simultaneously, traceable to the 'grand narratives' of English Studies produced and reproduced continuously since its inception as a field of study. And as a 'grand narrative', post-apartheid offspring, ENG5009, the type of English now demanded both locally and globally, will be shown to be laissez-faire in complicity with neo-colonialism.

SCHÄFER L (Potchefstroom University for CHE)
(see VAN ROOY B)

Evaluation of part of speech taggers for L2 English data

Part of speech (PoS) tagging is an important part of corpus analysis as it lays the foundation for syntactic analysis. The purpose of this research is to efficiently carry out PoS tagging on a South African second language corpus, namely the Tswana Learner English (TLE) corpus. To this end three PoS tagging programmes are evaluated in terms of their tagsets and accuracy by applying them to a subcorpus of the TLE corpus. An uncorrected subcorpus of approximately 2000 words is tagged with the Brill tagger, CLAWS and TOSCA-ICLE. Tagging errors are categorised to indicate whether a tagging error is due to a mistake on behalf of the learner or whether it is a genuine tagger error, or a combination of the two. The following hypotheses are tested in the course of the research: (1) A PoS tagger designed specifically for learner corpora may be more accurate than a PoS tagger intended for first language corpora; (2) A probabilistic tagger may be more accurate than a rule-based tagger. After evaluating the taggers and establishing to which extent the hypotheses are true a conclusion is made regarding the most efficient way to PoS tag the entire Tswana Learner English corpus.

SHARIFF P & RIENER I (University of the Witwatersrand)

Getting wired for the information age: the challenges of implementing tertiary online curriculum

This presentation explores the challenges of online teaching and learning in the context of the Internet Literacies second year course at WITS University in 2001. The reconfiguration of conceptions of control, access and design in the online classroom is explored at the intersection of theory and practice. The design of the curriculum was intended to bridge the divide between print-based and digital modes of representation and knowledge production. The degree to which scaffolded reading and writing tasks were successful in supporting the students’ collaborative production of the Knowledge Worker website is evaluated. A critical reflection of the pedagogic practices of this classroom challenges the traditional understandings of the roles and responsibilities of teachers and learners and implies a revision of the construction of the protagonists. In addition, the relationship between students’ sociocultural backgrounds, their control over information technology and prior access to it, is also critically examined.

SMALLBONES M (Scientific and Industrial Leadership Initiative SAILI, Western Cape)
Caught in the middle: Dilemmas in trying to address the ‘language problem’ in multilingual primary schools from a teacher-trainer / facilitator’s perspective.

The debate around language in education and the role of different languages in the classroom is complex. Those involved in education, including teachers, parents, teacher trainers and policy makers, are often confronted with seemingly conflicting perceptions of the situation and ways of addressing related problems. Drawing on the notion of ‘teaching dilemmas’ developed by Adler (1998, 1999, 2001), this paper identifies some of the conflicts which emerged in the process of trying to address language-related problems and needs of schools participating in the SAILI primary school development programme. The paper then looks at how these conflicts shaped my practice as a teacher trainer / facilitator working in these schools.

SPOFANA D (University of the western Cape)

Whose language is it anyway? Attitudes as an important factor in learning an additional language.

Attitudes develop early in childhood and are the result of parents’ and peers’ attitudes, contact with people who are different in a number of ways and interacting affective factors in the human experience (Brown, 2000). The new Language in Education policy in South Africa is aimed at facilitating communication across the barriers of colour, language and religion. Among the “so called 11 official languages”, English continues to be seen as the best language for economic, social and technological advancement. As a result of this, many people in our society send their children to the English medium schools. The paper looks at attitudes as an important factor in learning an additional language. Attitudes in general will be examined, where emphasis will be on educator’s attitudes and learner’s attitudes. Influences on learner attitudes will also be examined. The paper will conclude by providing some certain suggestions in remedying poor attitudes especially in learners (Smith, 1982).

SPRACKETT M (ML Sultan Technikon)

Bridging the Gap – integrating content and language

The integration of language and content in teaching can broadly be defined as the provision of linguistic access to content knowledge. Many subject lecturers have realised that they need to become teachers of the language used in their discipline as well as of its concepts and content. These subject lecturers are having to become more familiar with the language and learning needs of their students for whom English is not a first language. Language/communication lecturers, on the other hand, are having to familiarise themselves with enough of the content of the subjects they service to ensure that they are teaching communication skills in a context which is relevant to students within particular disciplines. This paper will explore the different ways in which I, as a language/communication lecturer at M.L. Sultan Technikon, have worked with content lecturers in the departments I service to ensure that language and content development are not regarded in isolation from one another but, by using an integrated approach, provide improved access to content knowledge through language.

SUZMAN S & MALAN K C (University of the Witwatersrand) & (University of Cape Town)
Beyond the Oral Tradition : Rural and Urban Children’s Narratives in Transitional South African Society

Children’s narratives in Western societies are well documented (e.g., Peterson & McCabe, 1983; Bamberg, 1987; Berman & Slobin, 1994). Much less is known about narrative in transitional countries like South Africa with historically strong oral traditions and evolving more-Western urban cultures. Berman’s (1997) theoretical framework for the analysis of narrative, based on narrative, evaluative and informative elements, is used here to analyze children’s retelling of the “Vava” story, a culturally appropriate adventure story similar in nature to the “frog story” used by Western researchers. Forty-five pre-school children, 15 rural Zulu, 15 urban Zulu and 15 urban Cape Flats children, participated in the study. Preliminary findings include (1) qualitative and quantitative variability in narrative and informative elements used by individual children, (2) differences in evaluative elements used by rural Zulu children compared to both urban groups, only the former reflecting structure of oral narrative. Finally, similarities and differences between data sets are discussed in terms of the dynamics of transitional South African society and related to wider issues in child narrative studies.

SUZMAN S (University of the Witwatersrand )

The Effects of English Education on Home Language Competence

Research into language in education is a matter of national priority in South Africa. Results of a comparative study of possible effects of English instruction on home language competence (Zulu) in Gauteng former Model C schools, Soweto schools and schools in the Kwa-Zulu Natal (KZN) Midlands are presented in this paper. Language interaction is investigated, using school-based tasks based on key concepts in language and mathematics in the OBE curriculum for Grade 7. To assess the learners' understanding of concepts in English and Zulu, an assessment test was constructed in English and translated into Zulu. The test in the two languages was given to 181 Zulu-speaking (preferred language) Grade 7 learners in urban and rural contexts on different days. As predicted, language dynamics varied in the different schools. Additive bilingualism was found in Soweto schools with subtractive bilingualism characterizing former Model C and in KZN schools. Subtractive bilingualism in urban former Model C schools means that learners are losing Zulu in favor of English while subtractive bilingualism in KZN means that English is not being learned adequately to meet the expectations of the OBE curriculum. These and other findings are presented in the paper and discussed in terms of their educational implications.

TUMELOTLE T (University of North West)

Language preferences of primary school teachers in the Mafikeng district of the North West province: Reflections on the implementation of the language-in-education policy.

The language-in-education Policy that is based on the National Language Policy makes provision for learners and their parents to have a choice of languages taught to their children, and the languages of learning and teaching. One of the reasons for such a policy was the promotion of previously marginalised languages. The language-in-education policy at school level, however, does not seem to have brought any significant changes especially with regard to the language of learning and teaching. This paper attempts to give the results of and comment on a pilot study carried out in the Mafikeng district to determine the level of implementation of the language-in-education policy at primary schools.

TWALA N L (University of the Witwatersrand)
Untitled abstract

Following Rothstein (1994), I propose that subjects must be treated as a property of syntactic predicates and not clauses. Further, I argue that the specifier features of the subject in Bantu. Instead, I propose that there is a predicate projection, namely, PredP that dominates all syntactic predicates (verbs, adjectives and the genitive). The function of the projection is to check the specifier features of the subject and the subject agreement features of syntactic predicates. Further, I argue that in SiSwati Predo is always strong. Consequently, the head of the syntactic predicate raises to Predo prior to Spell-Out to check subject agreement features. The specifier of PredP is lexically marked as either weak/strong or it is not marked for feature strength. A specifier that is marked as strong attracts a subject prior to Spell-Out, resulting in the subject agreement feature being checked prior to LF. On the other hand, a specifier that is marked as weak cannot attract a subject prior to Spell-Out. Hence, only the default subject agreement prefix is licensed in such environments. For a specifier that is unmarked for feature strength, raising a nominal to the SpecPredP prior to Spell-Out is optional. That means both the default subject agreement and the feature bearing subject agreement prefix can occur prior to Spell-Out. Whereas both SiSwati and English obey the Predicate Condition (Rothstein 1994), they exhibit different saturation patterns. In English, syntactic predicates are saturated by a structural subject at Spell-Out even if one is not required semantically, as in the construction: “It is cold.” in SiSwati, saturation does not require a syntactic subject at all. It can be achieved morphologically through the default subject agreement (ku-), as in the nominal predicate construction: “Ku-makhata” (it is cold). The analysis proposed in this paper accounts for three crosslinguistic subject types:

1. Obligatory overt subject e.g. English

2. Covert subject (pro-drop language) e.g. Italian, Bantu (SiSwati)

VAN DER BERG D (University of Natal, PMB)
Linguistics and translating

The purpose of this paper is to indicate how theories about translation are linked to the concept of what communication is. The way we see the world and the way we think about language determines the way we will translate and what we will regard as a good translation. The divine origin of language according to the Judeo-Christian tradition has had a tremendous impact on Translation Studies and is in a sense still with us in the equivalence debate.

A growing realization of man’s fallen state and its linguistic implications, symbolised by the Tower of Babel, happened as soon as Europe was born as a bunch of peoples speaking different tongues. European culture reacted by seeing this not as a beginning but as the end of lost harmony, a new Babel-like disaster, so that a remedy for linguistic confusion needed to be sought.

With Rousseau’s explanation for the origin of language as ‘cries of nature’, God was replaced by man as the creator of language, and communication seen as an interactive process, but with the sender still central to the process. Some therefore translated trying to stay as faithful as possible to the original intention of the author and were strong supporters of the 19th century positivism while others wanted a ‘free’ translation. Literary theory focused on an expressive approach or psychologism with biographical explanation for the true meaning of a certain text as an important focal point.

After De Saussure gave the scientific approach to linguistics a huge push and translating became a separate discipline three main approaches to translating can be distinguished: 1) Theories focusing on the Message (product); 2) Process orientated models (Sender); 3) Descriptive reception orientated models (Receiver). This paper discusses these approaches and their implications for translating.

VAN DER MERWE T (Universiteit van Stellenbosch)
'n Etimologiese perspektief op semantiese veranderinge in die Afrikaanse leksikon

Diachroniese taalstudie bring aan die lig dat die leksikon van alle lewende tale voortdurend 'n geleidelike semantiese evolusieproses ondergaan. Sommige woordsoorte is in 'n hoër mate hieraan onderhewig as ander. In hierdie referaat word 'n oorsigtelike beskouing gegee van verskillende tipes semantiese wysigings in die geskiedenis van die Afrikaanse leksikon. Die meeste leksikale items wat betekenisverandering ondergaan het, het 'n wysigingsproses met verskillende stadia deurloop. Terwyl dit aan die gang was, was dit meestal nie duidelik waarneembaar nie. Verskuiwingskragte was egter wisselvallig. Baie semantiese wysiging is ook in een enkele stap teweeggebring. Wat die aard van die veranderinge betref, het daar by baie leksikale items 'n wysiging binne dieselfde semantiese sfeer of kader plaasgevind wat neerkom óf op betekenisverruiming, óf op betekenisverenging. Daar is ook gevalle waar dit by nabetragting lyk asof 'n algehele betekenisverskuiwing plaasgevind het, sodat daar op die oog af geen verband tussen die nuwe semantiese waarde(s) en die oue(s) bestaan nie. Hoewel daar 'n wetmatigheid in die semantiese ontwikkeling te bespeur is, is daar ook sprake van uitsonderings. Nog 'n aspek wat onder die loep geneem sal word, is die verskillende faktore wat by semantiese veranderinge 'n rol speel. Verskeie taalinterne en -eksterne redes vir semantiese wysigings sal aangetoon word.

VAN DER WALT C & GROENEWALD J (University of Stellenbosch)
Contributing to the achievement of Higher Education goals through language policies

This paper is concerned with the ability of higher education institutions to increase their through-put in the complex linguistic circumstances provided for by the newly constituted South African democracy, while maintaining quality education. Against the background of the provisions for language in the Constitution, subsequent legislation on education, some recent higher education policies and the higher education language policy, on the one hand, and theoretical perspectives on mother-tongue and multilingual education, on the other, the paper examines how institutions might devise individual language policies to respond to the changed linguistic needs of their staff and students in the increasingly multilingual environment that South African campuses have become. It concludes that although the difficulties in determining such policies are considerable, institutions should accept and imaginatively address the sociolinguistic and psycholingusitic challenges brought about by diversification.

VAN NIEKERK A (Universiteit van die Vrystaat)
Morfologiese produktiwiteit: operasionele parameters

Die referaat poog om ‘n aanduiding te gee van die talige grense waarbinne Morfologiese produktiwiteit funksioneer deur primêr Afrikaanse data uit die media te gebruik. Daar word waar nodig ook na Engelse data verwys. Daar sal aan die hand van voorbeelde getoon word dat die markrotaalsisteem, by name die Semantiek, Pragmatiek, Sintaksis, Fonetiek en Fonologie, Sosiolinguistiek, Ortografie? in diens van Morfologiese porduktiwiteit staan Voorts word daar op grond van die wesenlike onderskeidende aard van die data ‘n onderskeid getref tussen nuutskeppinge, geleentheidskeppings en nomenklatuur met subkategorieë binne elkeen van die groeperinge. Die volgende voorbeelde vertoon almal eiesoortige Morfologiese prosesse: Kobaltblou, naweekminute, spierewaaier, voetstoots (sportskoene) tusserizza, kalenderheld, polisiekoffie, ge-bostik, Brekfisbek, Kar-ikature(promosie vir motors), Kwik-fit, Bon Aqua, Johannesberger, Prominet Paints, Woodoc. Die analise en kategorisering van die data vertoon soveel patroonmatigheid dat die soort kreatiewe vaardighede ingeoefen en onderrig kan word. Dit behoort veral van waarde te wees vir studente wat ‘n loopbaan in die breë reklamebedryf beplan.

VAN NIEKERK J (Technikon Pretoria)
Sportkommentaar – sintaktiese aspekte van registervariasie

Sportkommentaar (= sports announcer talk) is ‘n diskoersgenre soortgelyk ann enige ander vorm van diskoers: ’n drama, ‘n sonnet of glansartikel.

As kontemporêre massamediakoers is dié genre deeglik gestruktureerd. Die doel van dié lesing is egter nie ‘n uitgebreide struktuuranalise van die genre nie, maar fokus eerder op taal en taalgebruik wat sportkommentaar kenmerk; meer spesifiek, die sintaktiese en semantiese eienskappe van die register.

Ses tipiese sintaktiese kenmerke word breedvoering bespreek:

Sinsvereenvoudiging- veral bewerkstellig deur prisiopesis, ellips van die onderwerp:…en Donald boul van die oorkant af… (‘n bal) kort van ‘n lengte… en (die bal) skiet skadeloos verby …

Inversie-veral adjektiwiese predikate:…aan die linkerkant kom Pieter Rossouw vinnig deur x …Pieter Rossouw kom vinnig aan die linkerkant deur…

Resultatiewe uitdrukkings- veral deur ‘n setselgroep met vir: …en Japie Mulder duik oor vir sy drie… Cullinan haak hom vir ses …

Hewige modifikasie- o a naam, tekenend van spel en prestasies:…en Donald, 3 (paaltjies) vir 20 (lopies), regterarm oor die paaltjie..ook fokusverplasing: …en die man wat verlede Saterdag die wenlopie geslaan het, maak gereeld: Gary Kirsten…

Tempus- in teenstelling met Engels word die beperkte teenwoordige vorm vir alle sporttipes gebruik en is die gebruik van momentane en duratiewe werkwoorde van belang: … Pollock boul, Waugh kap mis en die bal spat deur na Boucher …en dit terwyl Rhodes (besig is om) die grens man-alleen (te) patrolleer…

Roetinefrases- geroetineerde frases: …die koeël is deur die kerk… ‘n drie word gedruk wat met die syfer 3 niks te make het nie …dwarslat is meer geroetineerd as dwarspaal … interessant, hoe spannender die spel raak, hoe frekwenter die clichés…

Sintaktiese inkorporasie: … maak die bal staan x …maak staan die bal

Semantiese aspek-sportleksikon is meestal verrykend: hinkstap, plettervat, kuipe … interessant, in Nederlands het die sportleksikon feitlik gestagneerd geraak.

Ten slotte: pittige sêgoed wat in die hitte van die oomblk kwytgeraak is en wat alle sintaktiese en semantiese reëls oortree.

VAN DYK T (see COOPER)

VAN PLETZEN E (University of Cape Town)
Developing critical discourses of race and culture in a South African institution of Higher Education

Working within the theoretical framework of critical antiracist pedagogy, this paper will look closely at discourse features and strategies which emerged in an English Studies classroom at a South African university when students and their tutor engaged with teaching materials involving issues of race, culture and social inequality. The particular location within which the study was undertaken was the University of Stellenbosch in the Western Cape, an institution which has a predominantly white and Afrikaans-speaking student body. This paper will argue that the institutional culture characterising this location, as well as the way it is situated in the broader landscape of Higher Education in South Africa, create sets of overlapping and often conflicting discourse situations which inhibit the distribution and development of new critical discourses of race and culture in the classroom. The paper will describe how, despite radical political changes in South Africa over the past ten years, the University has remained an institution of political and economic privilege, while it is at the same time closely associated with a minority culture which has lost its position of political and cultural dominance in South Africa. Within this context the paper will argue that frequently used terms of cultural theory like “majority”, “minority”, “dominant” and “marginal” discourses become problematic in analysing discourse situations and the distribution of discourses in this particular location.

VAN ROOY B (see SCHÄFER L) (Potchefstroom University for CHE)

VAN ROOY B (Potchefstroom University for CHE) (see BUTLER B) (Pretoria University)
The perception of English phonemic contrasts by first and second language speakers in South Africa

One hypothesis for phonological differences between varieties of English in South Africa is that second language speakers do not perceive all the phonemic contrasts in the 'standard' phonology, and consequently neutralise some contrasts in their production of English (e.g. Van Rooy, Wissing & Van den Heever, 2000; Wissing, 2002). This hypothesis has not been tested on a sizeable number of users of English; the range is between 16 and 62 speakers in previous studies. In this paper, we examine the ten words used in a spoken word identification task of the ELSA test, developed at the University of Pretoria, covering a range of possible phonemic misperceptions. This test is administered to all first year students wishing to follow their tuition through the medium of English. The responses of all first year students who completed the test in 2002 (just more than 2500 students) are analysed to determine the accuracy of perception of various contrasts, as well as the nature of misperceptions. This sample includes speakers of all eleven official languages. The types of contrasts that are under threat during perception are identified, and the implications of these for the existence of different phonological systems in different varieties of English are examined. Variables taken into consideration are the status of the respondents as first or second language users of English, their geographical origin, type of secondary education received (private, former model-C, former DET or other), the first language and the overall English proficiency as measured by the entire test.
References

Van Rooy, B., Wissing, D. & Van den Heever, M. 2000. The perception of the vowels of Tswana-English. South African Journal of Linguistics, Supplement 38: 89-112.

Wissing, D. 2002. Black South African English: A new English? Observations from a phonetic viewpoint. World Englishes, 21(1):129-144.

VUYOKAZI N (University of the Western Cape)

Parents’ and teachers’ perceptions of the use of isiXhosa as a medium of instruction in the Western Cape schools

South Africa has a very progressive language-in-education Policy that enables learners or their parents and guardians to choose the language of instruction. However, schools catering for learners who are speakers of African languages still use English as their medium of instruction from the fourth grade. Research conducted in this country has described the results of such practices as disastrous (cf. Desai, 1999; McKay & De Klerk, 1996; Webb, 1999). This paper reports on the results of a research study conducted in the Western Cape schools on the possibility of using isiXhosa as a medium of instruction in schools. It shows that parents still choose English as a medium of instruction as it is associated with social and economic mobility. In conclusion, the paper highlights the benefits of mother tongue education.

WALLMACH K (University of South Africa)
Professional interpreting in South Africa: the gap between theory and practice

At worst unacknowledged and unnoticed, at best stigmatised as the necessary production of imperfect, subordinate reproductions of reality, the process of interpreting remains on the margins of society. Even in a multilingual society such as South Africa, the gap between original and interpreted text remains largely uncharted, and its influence on our perceptions of identity and nationhood unexplored. At the same time, there is another interpretive gap which opens up and should be examined, the gap between the actual practices and processes of interpreting, the expectations of users and the “how to’s” and “musts” of the ethical standards for the profession. It is this last interpretive gap and its implications for practising interpreters and for interpreter trainers that I aim to explore in this paper. In my argument, I draw on upon aspects of simultaneous and liaison interpreting practice in various contexts.

WATKINSON J (University of Natal, PMB)

The effect of teacher interaction styles on the acquisition of scientific literacy

Scientific discourse has been defined as a specific style of academic language (Clay, 1996), or a belief system with specific notions about constitutes knowledge and how this is expressed (Moore, 1998). Learning scientific discourse can be compared to learning a foreign language (Parkinson, 2002). English Second Language (ESL) students may find that they are underprepared to cope with the demands of academic literacy, especially in science subjects. According to Gee (1999), input by teachers needs to be comprehensible to encourage comprehensible output from the learners. Various studies have demonstrated a link between teachers’ interaction styles and the learning of scientific discourse (Hsiao-Ching and Fisher, 2000; Rivard and Straw, 2000). The focus of this study will be on the relationship between teachers’ interaction styles, or communication behaviour, and the acquisition of scientific discourse. This poster reports on the first stage in this exploratory study. Questionnaires were administered to twenty demonstrators doing biology practicals in the Science Foundation Programme at the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg to establish a base line with regard to their styles of interaction. A focus group was also established with demonstrator volunteers to investigate teacher attitude, interaction styles and effects on language learning (Diaz-Rico and Weed, 1995).

WEIDEMAN A (University of Pretoria)
Resistance to change in language teaching: some African case studies

A number of recent studies of language teaching on the African continent (Tesfamariam, 2000; Shaalukeni, 2000) have investigated how teachers manage to retain old styles of language teaching in the face of new approaches that have been introduced by the education authorities that employ them. The ingenuity with which this is accomplished in itself would make a mockery of the casual explanation often given for this state of affairs, viz. that teachers somehow lack initiative, are ‘lazy’, or lack training and are unskilled. The conviction with which teachers justify their traditional styles of teaching also suggests that they do not teach without deliberation. This presentation looks in some detail at two investigations that serve as case studies for this phenomenon. Is resistance to change in language teaching unique to the African continent? It appears not, for there are other studies from further afield that have yielded similar results. The paper suggests that a coherent reason, or set of reasons, for this has up to now eluded us, and that we may need to look elsewhere for an answer.

WILLIAMS E (University of Reading)

Social inclusion and linguistic exclusion – or the other way around?

In the UK, broadcast media were until recently largely the preserve of standard English. However, deregulation has generated considerable exposure for non-standard varieties. In this paper, we exemplify with examples drawn from phonology, syntax and lexis, while an extended illustration on the pragmatic level is provided by the present perfect. However, the use of non-standard pragmatics with the present perfect does not constitute a change in standard English, but merely reflects the fact that UK broadcast media have become more socially inclusive. In the UK educational domain, by contrast, standard English remains the expectation, although many working class children speak non-standard varieties. This paper then moves on to invite a comparison between the situations in England and South Africa, along the dimensions of linguistic and social inclusiveness or exclusiveness in broadcast media. There are also some revealing differences concerning official views on language in the educational domain in both countries, although the outcomes - namely a relatively high degree of educational difficulty for marginalised groups - are similar. The paper closes by considering the role of language in social change.

WINBERG C (Peninsula Technikon)

The role of situated learning in acquiring academic discourse

The New Literacy Studies (NLS) have helped language teachers to reconceptualise learning as interactive and collective, rather than as individual and independent. The basic premise of the NLS is that reading and writing need to be understood in the context of the larger sociocultural practices of which they are a part. The NLS has, in common with many other movements, taken a ‘social turn’ towards an understanding of learning as situated within social practices and contexts. In this paper, I explore whether these theories are able to inform practice at tertiary levels of study in a meaningful way. The paper is based on work done in the ‘Language and Content Integration Project’ at Peninsula Technikon. This is a research based project which is exploring ways of enabling students to develop content knowledge in different fields of study through developing expertise in the discourse of the discipline.

YATES S (University of Natal)

Descriptive Internet Linguistics

The Internet plays an important role in our lives. Families can stay in contact much more efficiently, students can correspond with their lecturers, professionals can share information resources and collaborate on projects, and business people can contribute to the economies of their countries. All this is possible due to the different communication tools available on the Internet, such as email, Internet Relay Chat, MOOs, video-conferencing, newsgroups, etc. The Internet has been identified as a powerful tool and resource for learning language and for learning in general. The social and cultural characteristics of different speech communities are also influential in any language-learning programme. The Internet has become one such sociolinguistic domain, the importance of which has already captured the interest of linguists, such as Crystal. Just as business people, politicians or academics use language in different ways when they conduct business, write speeches or deliver conference papers so that their peers will understand and accept them, so Internet users also use language in certain ways in the different environments on the Internet. This paper is a brief descriptive overview of the different language contexts on the Internet and the kinds of language that are produced in these different contexts.

YOUNG D & MBATHA T (CALLSSA, University of Cape Town)

Teaching and learning with two tongues: Swaziland’s dilemma

Swaziland’s language-in-education policy and its implementation in primary schooling are contextualised and problematised within the wider African landscape. Comparative case studies of several African countries’ language-in-education policies are presented

in an attempt to explain Swaziland’s apparent devaluation of Seswati as a language of instruction in favour of English. Data are given from a survey of urban and rural Swazi primary schools’ teachers’ and learners beliefs’, attitudes and practices, in relation to how these are influenced by curriculum development and textbook publishing agendas.

ZELLER J (University of the Witwatersrand) (see SABEL J - University of Frankfurt / ZAS-Berlin, Germany)

ZIEGLER R (Peninsula Technikon)
Student’s language preferences in Engineering

The language choice of students wanting to embark on tertiary studies in South Africa is rather limited as the medium of instruction is either English or Afrikaans. The Peninsula Technikon is a case in point, as the medium of instruction is English. A large number of the student population do not speak English as a first language which makes this institution one that is linguistically and culturally diverse. Even though these students do not have a choice as to the language of learning, it cannot be assumed that they do not have language preferences in this regard. This paper focuses on the language preferences of entry and exit level Mechanical Engineering students at Peninsula Technikon. It critically evaluates whether students at the two levels of study have similar language preferences. The findings are based on information obtained by questionnaires relating to language attitudes of the above students. Suggestions will be made as to how students’ language preferences can be accommodated.