Doctoral Degrees (General Linguistics)
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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (General Linguistics) by browse.metadata.advisor "Anthonissen, Christine"
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- ItemA critical analysis of corporate reports that articulate corporate social responsibility(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2015-04) Bernard, Taryn; Anthonissen, Christine; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of General Linguistics.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In the last 15 years, growing public awareness of the negative impact of corporate activities has prompted big corporations in the mining, manufacturing and retail sectors to publish reports that communicate their awareness of environmental and social issues. These reports typically take the form of standalone corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports or integrated annual (IA) reports. The publication of these reports is not an isolated event or practice on behalf of each company; the structure and content of the reports are informed by stock exchange policies such as the King Code in South Africa, and reporting frameworks such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) on an international level. The nature of corporate social responsibility and CSR reporting has captured the interest of researchers in diverse disciplines. Scholars such as Jones (1995) and Pedersen (2006), working within business and marketing-related fields, have praised CSR reports as a “win-win” concept which encourages corporations to focus on both their financial and social performance. Conversely, scholars such as Banerjee (2003, 2007) and Redclift (2002, 2005) have criticised CSR for being a new form of “greenwashing” and a mechanism that promotes the continued dominance of financially strong institutions. Critical scholars typically adopt a neo-Marxist perspective of neoliberalism and assert that legitimate environmental protection or social transformation and equality cannot take place within the reigning economic paradigm (see Pepper 1984, 1996). This study is a contribution to applied linguistic research into CSR and IA reports, particularly those originating from the Global South. It draws on methods developed within critical discourse analysis (CDA), systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and corpus linguistics to investigate the 2011, 2012 and 2013 CSR and IA reports of six South African companies located in the mining, retail and food manufacturing industries. Drawing on Halliday’s (1978) three metafunctions of texts, Fairclough’s (1989, 2002) three dimensional framework, as well as the Appraisal Framework (White 2001; Martin and White 2005) this study investigates the textual, representational and interpersonal meanings of the selected reports as ones that represent a new, gradually conventionalised genre within modern corporate discourse. In summary, the study contributes to an understanding of CSR and IA reports in three ways: First, it highlights the significant role of the GRI in prescribing, and thus restricting, the structural and discursive features of CSR and IA reports. Second, the study shows how the six companies draw on a limited set of discourses in the reports which all, in some way or another, embed neoliberal ideologies. This suggests that the South African CSR and IA reports function to maintain an established, dominant ideological and discursive order. Third, the degree of reliability of the information in the reports is dependent on how the companies construct themselves in this report. In this regard, the analysis reveals that the companies use a limited set of linguistic resources to construct themselves as strategic, moral and responsible social actors. In a country marked by widespread social inequality and diminishing resources, the findings ultimately suggest that social transformation and environmental protection are unlikely to be achieved if the sustainability discourses of corporate institutions are not publically challenged.
- ItemA critical analysis of media discourse after a natural flooding disaster in Malawi, in 2015(2018-03) Chikaipa, Victor; Anthonissen, Christine; Bernard, Taryn; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of General Linguistics.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This is a multimodal critical discourse analysis study that investigates the media discursive strategies in the representation of the catastrophic flooding disaster of January 2015 in Malawi. It analyses the representation of social actors in local print and international online websites, investigating which discursive strategies are typically used to present the selected content, and what the overt and covert meanings are that visual and linguistic texts puts out to their respective implied audiences. The theoretical and analytical framework uses a combination of different approaches within CDA, specifically Fairclough’s (1992, 1995) dialectal relational approach, Kress and Van Leeuwen’s (1996, 2006) Grammar of Visual Design, and Van Leeuwen’s (2008) Social Actor Model. Using a multimodal approach, the study analyses articles purposively selected from a data corpus of 308 news articles that incorporated 313 news images gathered from two local Malawian print media, namely The Daily Times and The Nation, and two international online news websites, The Guardian and Daily Mail Online. The methodology is predominantly qualitative although some elements of quantitative paradigm were used to explain patterns, frequency and or volume of media coverage. The data is organised according to emerging themes, and the analysis is done by critical reading of the verbal and visual texts. The findings are that both the local and international media use discursive strategies that negatively represented the floods as destructive without due attention to the possible contribution of unsustainable agricultural activities of humans that are likely to have triggered or exacerbated the disaster and its effects. In addition, overlapping and interlocking discourses, namely humanitarian, hegemonic and expertise discourses, are evident of the dependencies in the global north – south divide. Further, there is a generic positive portrayal of the donor countries and non-profit organisations as effective and with agency, and at the same time a negative representation of the Malawian government and victims of the crisis as passive recipients of the relief aid. Although the multimodal analysis shows how the reporting upholds and perpetuates stereotypes of gender in the media representation of the disasters, this analysis established that there is minimal difference between ways in which men and women are portrayed by the local (insider) as compared to the international (outsider) media. This is significant considering another stereotype according to which the people of the UK are seen to be relatively liberal and sensitive to gender role casting as opposed to the African media that are seen be relatively conservative in subscribing to traditional gender role casting. Overall, the findings reveal that the media representation of the floods is not neutral; rather it is socially constructed with various ideological perspectives. The study contributes greatly to an understanding of the general linguistic and visual discursive tendencies that local print and international media use in the portrayal of participants in a flooding disaster that occurred in a relatively remote country such as Malawi. In addition, it fills a gap that exists in semiotics on the empirical studies that focus on the interplay between verbal texts and images in disaster representations in African contexts specifically, and in the global south more broadly.
- ItemThe discourse of liberation: the portrayal of the gay liberation movement in South African news media from 1982 to 2006(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2013-12) Mongie, Lauren Danger; Anthonissen, Christine; Southwood, Frenette; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of General Linguistics.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation reports on a study that straddles the applied linguistic fields of discourse analysis, critical discourse analysis and a sociolinguistic field recently referred to as “queer linguistics”. The study investigated the linguistic construction of gay mobilisation in South African media discourses across a period of almost 30 years. It aimed to identify characteristics of the Discourse that topicalised the gay liberation movement, considering specifically the linguistic means used in articulating on the one hand the need and the right to gay liberation, and on the other hand the public opposition to acknowledging gay rights. It invoked a social theory identified as ‘framing theory’ in analysing the different kinds of views, attitudes, social positions and arguments motivating for or agitating against the institution and protection of gay rights in post-apartheid South Africa. The project takes Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), particularly its applications in considering features and functions of media discourses, as its primary theoretical framework. First, following the insistence of the Discourse-historical approach put forward by Wodak (1990), it gives an overview of the social and historical context against which the recognition of gay rights in South Africa developed. It follows the analytic methodology suggested by van Dijk (1985) in considering issues of ‘language and power’, and the ways in which the access of elites to media attention is drawn on to support and give credence to particular ideologies. Supplementary to the application of CDA methods, an analytic approach from the fields of Social Movement Theory and Collective Action Framing is introduced to make sense of the discursive strategies implemented in the Discourse thematically tied to the South African gay liberation movement, particularly from the early 1980s up to 2006. This period was marked by the movement’s pursuit of social mobilization. Attention went to the ways in which arguments for and against gay rights were instantiated in the media using a variety of different frames. Such analysis could disclose the extent to which the "anti-apartheid" master frame was utilised by actors of the gay liberation movement. Based on their circulation demographics, two local South African weekly newspapers, City Press and Mail & Guardian, were screened in order to identify articles and letters to the editor relevant to the gay liberation discourse. The full complement of published items topicalising homosexuality directly and indirectly were collected as two corpora in order to assess the ways in which they contributed to public discourses of gay liberation. Two analytic exercises were done: first, the content of the full data-set was “tagged” and categorised according to the textual nature of the newspaper item, and the kinds of frames used in its presentation; second, a number of articles and letters were selected from the corpora for detailed analysis that would illustrate the use of the various strategies and frames found to characterise the Discourse. The first more quantitative analysis provided an overview of patterns, trends and editorial practices typically used in the media representations. The second more qualitative analysis provided insight into the finer details of media presention of ideas aimed at affecting the knowledge and attitudes of the intended and imagined readers. The findings of these analyses were presented in terms of quantifiable results as well as detailed descriptions. In broad strokes, the quantifiable findings showed that the Mail & Guardian corpus was significantly more outspoken in advocating for gay rights than the City Press corpus, and that both publications frequently framed homosexuality in terms of “tolerance”, “religion” and “rights”. The quantifiable findings also showed that in their discourses of gay tolerance and gay rights, both the City Press and the Mail & Guardian made significant use of frames typically and widely used by the media in the discourse of political change at the time. The detailed analyses investigated the textual reproduction of the authors’ ideologies, drawing attention to their regular reliance on certain types of arguments used for and against gay rights in the selected newspapers.
- ItemDiscourse strategies of lecturers in higher education classroom interaction : a case at the University Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2013-03) Shartiely, Nikuigize Erick; Anthonissen, Christine; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of General Linguistics.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study investigates how linguistic super diversity is managed in a higher education context in Tanzania. Specifically, the use of language in lectures to large classes made up of students with linguistically diverse backgrounds at the University of Dar es Salaam is in focus. Considering the multilingualism of the students as well as the lecturers, and a language-in-education policy, which prescribes English as the language of teaching and learning, the study is interested in the perceptions and practices of those teaching big numbers of students in large lecture halls. The data comprised eight recorded lectures and interviews with the respective lecturers. The intention was to identify, describe, document and analyse interactional strategies that lecturers use, particularly the discourse strategies that lecturers use in conveying new information at a relatively sophisticated level of academic rhetoric, and to facilitate interaction between them and students. With large numbers of students in the audience, and given that they are first year students new to the university-spoken register, lecturers are likely to make remarkable language choices consciously or unconsciously. Conversational Analysis (CA) and Discourse Analysis (DA) approaches facilitated the identification and analysis of conversational and discursive features of lectures as part of spoken registers that are generically used in university teaching. The analysis particularly considered the linguistic diversity of the participants in the higher education context in Tanzania and how lecturers use language to cater for such diversity. The sample involved eight lecturers, four from each of two departments regarded among those with the highest student numbers in the College of Arts and Social Sciences of the University of Dar es Salaam, namely the Department of Political Science and Public Administration and the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology. The findings indicate that lecturers use a selected number of both propositional and structural discourse strategies during lecture sessions. The three most notable propositional discourse strategies are repetition, use of questions, and use of code switching between English and Kiswahili. Lecturers use phrasal and clausal types of repetition to achieve cohesion, topic continuity and emphasis. They use tag, rhetorical, open and closed types of questions to check for comprehension, to stimulate higher level thinking, to manage classroom behaviour as well as to encourage students' participation and independent study. They also use inter and intra sentential types of code switching to engage with students, to translate some concepts, explain, and manage students' behaviour and to advise or encourage students. Regarding structural discourse strategies, the study shows that lecturers notably use discourse markers so and now as cohesive devices, marking such textual functions as framing, linking and showing consequential relationships. They use the discourse markers so and now to achieve similar communicative goals as those achieved using propositional discourse strategies. In referring to themselves or their audience, they use specific pronouns you, we, and I, to perform different functions. They use the pronoun you not only as an interactive device, but also as an explanatory device of significance in classroom interaction. They use the pronoun we not only as a solidarity device, but like you, also as a strong explanatory device. They also use the pronoun I to mark speaker's knowledge and his or her stance about it, and speaker's circumstance and experience. This study not only describes generic features and language practices in big lectures; it also engages critically with some of the established practices and in so doing adds to the literature on individual and societal multilingualism and how lecturers manage it in an African higher education context.
- ItemEffects of the second language on the first : investigating the development of 'conceptual fluency' of bilinguals in a tertiary education context(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2012-03) Oostendorp, Marcelyn Camereldia Antonette; Anthonissen, Christine; Van Dyk, T.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Scineces. Dept. of General Linguistics.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study investigates the effect of the increased use of a second language (L2) (English) as language of teaching and learning on the bilingual individual in a specific bilingual higher education context. The specific interest is in the development of conceptual fluency, and the role that bilingualism and the increased exposure to an L2 in a teaching and learning context plays in such development. In order to serve the interest of the study, the theoretical framework includes theories developed in language and cognition, bilingualism and cross-linguistic influence. The theoretical stance that is taken in this thesis is one that: recognises that bilingual individuals cannot be expected to exhibit the same kind of linguistic and conceptual knowledge as monolinguals, investigates the possibility that language can affect certain aspects of cognition, acknowledges that bilingual individuals themselves can contribute to the knowledge about the bilingual mind. The participants in the study are L1 speakers of Afrikaans who finished their secondary schooling in Afrikaans. At university they are increasingly exposed to more English as language of teaching and learning than in previous formal education. The effects of the increased use of English on conceptual fluency, academic achievement and self-perception of language proficiency were investigated. The study used university records, language tests and interviews to collect data. No concrete evidence could be found that English has a significantly positive or negative effect on 'conceptual fluency', academic achievement or self-perception of language proficiency. The study however provided valuable information about how bilinguals use the languages they have in their repertoires. The findings from the study suggest that increased exposure to an L2 leads to a unique form of language competence. This 'multi-competence' enables the participants in the study to use both languages in the understanding and learning of concepts in their respective fields of study. Thus this dissertation provides evidence that bilinguals can transfer knowledge and skills between the languages they know. Theories developed by Cook (1999, 2003) and Jarvis and Pavlenko (2008), that suggest transfer is bidirectional, is partly supported by the findings of the study. The study has various implications for the field of bilingualism in education. It illustrates how a multilingual context such as the one we have in South Africa complicates the use of certain methodologies and theoretical frameworks. This also means that models of bilingual education designed elsewhere cannot be implemented in the South African context without considered modification.
- ItemInterrogating China’s approach to relations with sub-Saharan Africa in official documents (2000-2010) through critical discourse analysis(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2013-12) Ndenguino-Mpira, Hermanno; Oosthuizen, Johan; Anthonissen, Christine; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of General Linguistics.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: China‘s rise as an economic superpower has had important consequences for its relations with African countries over the past 10-15 years. Not only were these relations thoroughly reviewed and significantly increased, but China also adopted a new cooperation policy that its administration describes as being based on mutual benefits and win-win economic collaboration. However, there is a sceptical public opinion in Africa and also in some developed countries about China‘s current engagement with African countries, and in particular with countries from the sub-Saharan region. In fact, China is frequently accused of acting as a new colonizing power and of increasing its relations with African countries simply as a strategy to achieve higher power-politics status and to structure a new global economic order. The present study addresses the question of whether China‘s official discourse about its relations with sub-Saharan African countries from 2000 to 2010 contains any grounds for the sceptical public opinion mentioned above. In more concrete terms, the main objective of the study is to determine from a linguistic perspective, and more specifically from a critical discourse analysis point of view, whether there are any overt or covert messages of power and ideology in China‘s discourse to sub-Saharan African countries which could justify the sceptical public opinion about China‘s current engagement in this part of the continent . The texts representing China‘s discourse about its relations with sub-Saharan African countries that are examined for this study comprise official speeches, statements, and other related official documents delivered by Chinese officials in the period 2000-2010, and published in English on the websites of various institutions, including China‘s official websites. These texts are examined from within the framework of the Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA) as set out by, specifically, Wodak (2001a). The texts are analysed using the DHA three-dimensional procedure consisting of (i) identifying the Content(s) and Topic(s) of the specific discourse, (ii) investigating the discursive strategies used in the specific texts, and (iii) analysing the linguistic means and the specific context-dependent linguistic realizations. On the one hand, the analysis of the Discourse Topics indicates that the relations between China and sub-Saharan African countries are grounded in China‘s pluralist approach to international affairs. From this perspective, then, it could be argued that China‘s current engagement in sub-Saharan Africa does not warrant the sceptical public opinion mentioned earlier. On the other hand, however, the analysis of the discursive strategies used to represent China and sub-Saharan African countries, indicates that such sceptisism is likely warranted. The relations between China and African countries have predominantly been investigated from economic and political perspectives. However, the manner in which these relations are expressed, implied, negotiated, interpreted, distributed, etc. in discourse has not yet received any systematic attention. The present study was therefore undertaken to contribute, from a linguistic perspective, to the knowledge of and the debate about China‘s current engagement in Africa.
- ItemInvestigating literacy development among learners with a second language as medium of education : the effects of an emergent literacy stimulation program in Grade R(Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2009-12) Olivier, Johanna M.; Anthonissen, Christine; Southwood, Frenette; University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of General Linguistics.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Addressing the low literacy rates in South Africa poses a mountainous challenge. However, identifying children at risk for reading difficulties and providing timely and preventative intervention might be a good starting point to addressing this challenge. This study aimed at making a contribution to the existing body of literature on emergent literacy skills of learners who are educated in a second or additional language. The study investigated English Language Learners’ (ELLs) emergent literacy skills prior to entering Grade 1 and evaluated the effectiveness of an evidence-based stimulation program in the South African context. The main research question this study attempted to answer was: “What is the effect of a stimulation program for emergent literacy skills in Grade R on the development of literacy of English Language Learners in Grade 1?” In a quasiexperimental design, ELLs’ emergent literacy skills were assessed with an adapted version of the Emergent Literacy Assessment battery (Willenberg 2004) and were compared to those of English first language (L1) and of ELL control groups, both prior to and after an 8-week purpose-designed stimulation program. Results indicated that while learners showed significant improvement on six out of the eight subtests, the particular intervention program did not significantly improve ELLs’ emergent literacy skills (those pertaining to alphabet knowledge, phoneme awareness, print awareness and oral language skills, amongst others) when compared to learners in the respective control groups. When controlling for receptive language abilities, English L1 learners did not perform any better than their L2 peers on any of the eight measures of emergent literacy prior to intervention. Furthermore, upon entering Grade 1, there was no statistical significant difference in the performance of the English L1 learners and ELLs on any of the eight subtests after intervention. Possible independent variables contributing to the dearth of intervention effect included socio-economic status, learners’ L1, and teacher and classroom specific characteristics. These variables were addressed, and clinical implications for speech-language therapists with regards to assessment, intervention, service delivery and outcome measures were highlighted.
- ItemLanguage discordant HIV and AIDS interactions in Lesotho health care centres(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2013-03) Sobane, Konosoang Mabafokeng; Anthonissen, Christine; Huddlestone, Kate; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of General Linguistics.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This PhD study investigated the organisational structure of medical communicative facilities and the related communicative experiences of health care providers and patients in HIV and AIDS care centres where there is language discordance between physicians and patients. Such discordance refers specifically to communication in contexts where patients and health care providers speak a number of different, mostly mutually unintelligible first languages (L1s) and where speakers have varying levels of proficiency in a lingua franca such as English. This study considers key moments within the organisational communication structure to assess how well the structure meets its communicative aims. The sites of care that provided empirical data in this study, were a public health clinic which is a division of a state hospital, and a privately run day care clinic both located near Maseru, the capital city of Lesotho. The participants were drawn from four categories, namely physicians, nurses, lay interpreters and patients. Data collection was done through semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and direct observations of the study sites. The data was later transcribed interpreted and analysed according to insights gained from Organisation Theory on the one hand and Thematic Analysis and Qualitative Data Analysis on the other hand. The most important result of the study is the recognition of organisational fragmentation of care into different units which helps to facilitate communication where patients and physicians show marked language discordance. Further results illuminate several challenges that are encountered by participants in mediating and making meaning where language diversity is such that physicians’ linguistic repertoire does not match the repertoires of patients and local HCPs. The study highlights several institutional and interpersonal strategies that are used to overcome these challenges and to assure effective communication in the particular institutions. It also shows how some of these strategies fail to fully address the communicative challenges identified. The findings of this study suggest that in multilingual clinical contexts there is a need for more dedicated attention to interpreting practices, to the kinds of material distributed among patients and, more generally, to make consultative decisions on improved systems to put in place in order to facilitate communication related to quality health care.
- ItemListening in HIV counselling and testing: hearer signals in rural patient-counsellor HIV consultation(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2016-12) Theron, Janina; Anthonissen, Christine; Meyer, Bernd; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of General Linguistics.AFRIKAANS OPSOMMING: MIV en VIGS is sedert die 1980s ’n kommerwekkende nasionale gesondheidskwessie in Suid-Afrika. Na beraming het daar teen 2014 ʼn getal van 6,8 miljoen mense tussen die ouderdomme van 15 en 49 met MIV geleef (UNAIDS, 2015). Vrywillige Berading en Toetsing (VBT) is in 2004 landwyd geïmplementeer om die verspreiding van MIV te beperk. Die VBT-dienste is ingestel om die MIV-status van individue te bepaal en om diegene wat positief toets met berading by te staan ten einde tydige toegang tot die nodige behandeling en gepaardgaande verbetering van lewenskwaliteit te bied. Binne die groter genre van mediese diskoerse, is mediese konsultasie uitgewys as ʼn belangrike diskoerstipe wat reëlmatig gestruktureer is en dus in eie reg bestudeer behoort te word. So is daar reeds wetenskaplike aandag aan verskillende instansies van kommunikasie tussen gesondheidsorgdeskundiges en pasiënte gewy. As ’n gespreksubtipe binne mediese diskoers, is pre-toets MIV-berading in VBT tot dusver nie in wetenskaplike publikasies beskryf nie. Die protokol waarvolgens pre-toets VBT-berading gedoen word, verplig beraders om pasiënte in te lig aangaande verskeie MIV-verwante onderwerpe terwyl hul ook moet verseker dat pasiënte genoegsame begrip van hierdie informasie toon om ’n ingeligte besluit te kan neem rakende hulle instemming tot MIV-toetsing. Die doel van hierdie studie is om die generiese eienskappe van hierdie spesifieke mediese gesprekstipe te identifiseer. Hierdie studie is gesetel in die terrein van Taalwetenskaplike Pragmatiek en bied ’n kwalitatiewe analise van data wat ingesamel is by twee staatsbeheerde gesondheidsorginstansies in landelike dorpe in die Wes-Kaapse Wynlanddistrik. Die data bestaan uit 14 pre-toets MIV-beradingsessies wat in Afrikaans uitgevoer is. Die deelnemers is beraders en pasiënte. Beraders is in die plaaslike gemeenskap gewerf; hulle het geen mediese opleiding nie, maar het minstens graad 12 geslaag. Hulle het wel beperkte, MIVberadingstoegewyde voorbereiding vir die werk wat hulle in die klinieke doen. Pasiënte vertoon diversiteit ten opsigte van die rede vir hulle besoek aan die kliniek. Verder verseker die ligging van die klinieke ʼn redelik hoë mate van talige diversiteit onder die pasiënte. Met behulp van metodes ontwikkel binne die teoretiese raamwerk van Gespreksanalise (Conversation Analysis (CA)) (sien Sacks, Schegloff & Jefferson, 1974), ondersoek hierdie studie die organisatoriese elemente onderliggend aan die opeenvolging van taalhandelinge ten einde herhalende patrone te herken op grond waarvan generiese kenmerke van pre-toets MIV beradingsgesprekke geïdentifiseer kan word. Die manier waarop beraders deurentyd die rol van spreker inneem en gesprekke oorheers deur die meerderheid taalhandelinge te sentreer en orden rondom die oordrag van inligting, verseker ’n ongelyke verdeling van spreekbeurte. Aan die pasiënte wat nie met die konteks en prosedures vertroud is nie word dan ’n passiewe luisteraarsrol in die gesprek toegeken. In só ’n geval waar die pasiënt primêr ʼn luisteraarsposisie inneem, bestaan hoorderbydraes tipies uit betekenisvolle tekens wat as “hoordertekens” aan die spreker gerig is. Aangesien hierdie gesprekstipe kenmerkend ʼn hoë konsentrasie van sulke hoordertekens bevat, word hierdie tekens gekarakteriseer met verwysing na hulle vorm en funksie. Binne dié hoordertekens word verbale en nie-verbale kategorieë onderskei wat op kontekstuele, pragmatiese en intuïtiewe vlak op verskeie maniere bydra tot die gesprek. Die meerderheid van hierdie tekens is nie-verbaal (soos kopknikke of kort spraakklankuitings) en word meestal geproduseer ter erkenning of bevestiging van die sprekerbydraes, in aanmoediging van die voortsetting van die gesprek of in reaksie op spesifieke taalstimuli van die spreker/berader. Om op te som: sowel die analises van die generiese eienskappe van VBT-gesprekke as van die hoordertekens wat in die pre-toets MIV-beradingsgesprekke voorkom, bevestig dat hierdie gesprekke oorweldigend beradergesentreerd is. Beraders se rigiede strukturering van hierdie gesprekke om protokol na te kom, plaas beperkinge op die gesprek wat die pasiënte tot passiewe deelnemers reduseer wat almal eenders behandel word ten spyte van waargenome diversiteit in terme van kennis en behoeftes. Hulle word byvoorbeeld selde ’n spreekbeurt gegun, word maklik in die rede geval of verplig om hulle beurt vinnig te beëindig. Gevolglik is bevind dat beraders nie die kommunikatiewe doelwitte van die gesprekstipe ten volle verwesenlik nie. Hierdie studie bied ’n gespreksanalitiese karakterisering van VBT-konsultasies en ’n pragmatiese karakterisering van hoordertekens wat voorkom in VBT. Dit kan bydra tot beter begrip en bestuur van ’n area in MIV-sorg waar die behandeling van kwesbare pasiënte afhanklik is van wedersydse begrip tussen gespreksdeelnemers. Die bevindinge kan toegepas word in byvoorbeeld die ontwikkeling van nuwe opleidingsprogramme met die oog op toerusting van VBT-beraders om ’n pasiëntgesentreerde benadering in konsultasies te volg. Dit sal behels dat die fokus van die konsultasies verskuif van ’n geroetineerde vorm van inligtingoordrag na die skep van geleenthede waarbinne pasiënte op bevryde wyse meer onafhanklike bydraes tot die gesprek kan maak.
- ItemManaging linguistic diversity in literacy and language development : an analysis of teachers' attitudes, skills and strategies in multilingual Kenyan primary school classrooms(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2013-03) Nyaga, Susan Karigu; Anthonissen, Christine; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of General Linguistics.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study investigates teachers' language practices in multilingual classrooms with regard to their attitudes, skills and strategies in their management of linguistic diversity among learners in their first year of primary school. Both the critical interpretive theoretical paradigm adopted and the qualitative research approach employed in the execution of the study presupposed gathering rich data, which a case study design of research assured. The data for the study was gathered from four year one classrooms purposively selected based on parameters that were deemed of interest in this study. These included, but were not limited to, the location of the school, the linguistic diversity among learners in the classrooms and the literacy traditions of the first languages spoken by the learners in the target classrooms. Although the specific context provided real input to the study, the findings may be relevant to language-in-education issues in many other African countries, and even in multilingual communities beyond. The study reveals yawning discrepancies between language policy and practice; between teachers' beliefs about linguistic diversity and their actual language behaviour in the classrooms; and between the definitions of mother tongue provided by the Ministry of Education and teachers' re-interpretations of these definitions in the various contexts studied. The study further indicates that teachers are working in an environment that is not supportive of effective policy implementation. This very limited policy implementation support is reflected in teacher training and preparation, teacher placement criteria, text book production and school examinations. This study indicates that even a sound understanding of linguistic diversity among teachers and their best intentions to give learners a sound foundation, is only the beginning of literacy development of young learners in Kenya. It recommends a new and incisive look at critical aspects of the education system in an effort to synchronise the different levels at which policy and practice need to meet. Various well-informed choices need to be made in the creation of a supportive environment for effective policy implementation. This should include among other things a change in the language-in-education policy to move away from early-exit to late-exit mother tongue education, and more first language maintenance in bilingual or multilingual classrooms. If learners are to benefit from mother tongue instruction in line with current research in the field, much needs to be done. Based on the insights gained in this study, a revision of teacher education curricula to include the management of linguistically diverse learners and improved language awareness is suggested, as is flexible curriculum delivery, scrapping of formal examinations in the early years and introduction of alternative assessment methods in these levels. In later years, bilingual (in some cases even multilingual) tests are bound to lower the drop-out rate and produce more understanding and less rote learning. The aim should be to assure multilingual, multiliteracy development and academic achievement for all learners regardless of their particular linguistic backgrounds.
- ItemMultilingualism in the workplace : communicative practices between store owners and assistants in Chinese shops in Cape Town(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-12) Thompson, Miche Chanelle; Anthonissen, Christine; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of General Linguistics.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Since the introduction of representative government in 1994, South Africa has seen a significant influx of Asian and African migrant workers, and their presence in South Africa has become part of the diverse population of most towns and cities. Most of these newcomers find employment in the informal sector, doing unskilled labour in areas such as construction, transport, agriculture, domestic work, hospitality or, as is particularly relevant to this study, various forms of trade. One community that has become well-known for success in establishing such trade occupations and managing them profitably, is the one of Chinese origin. This is illustrated in the sizable number of new informal shopping centres in South Africa settled specifically by groups of Chinese traders, known as China Towns. The established pattern is that these traders employ African migrants or local unemployed people as shop assistants. This makes China Town a multilingual and multicultural hub, no matter where it is located. The study reported here investigates patterns and strategies of business communication in a China Town centre near Cape Town in the Western Cape. The variety of first languages of the various role players, predominantly Mandarin Chinese among shop owners, and Lingala, French, Swahili, Edu, and isiXhosa among shop assistants, emphasises the communicative dependence of this community on a lingua franca. In conformity with the rest of South Africa, this community relies on English as a workplace language, even though they speak different “Englishes” with varying levels of proficiency. The study therefore undertakes to explicate the ways store owners of Chinese migrant origin and their store assistants of African migrant origin draw on their linguistic repertoires to communicate in the workplace where English is the lingua franca. This study is a Linguistic Ethnography in which Conversation Analysis, Discourse Analysis, and Critical Discourse Analysis are used to obtain different and integrated perspectives on informal workplace communication. To analyse the intersection between language and the social context within which the communication occurs, this study draws on Gumperz’s (2001) Interactional Sociolinguistic approach to the analysis of discourse and conversation. This approach is significantly contextual and focuses on “situations of speaking” by using ethnographic methods of inquiry. Conversation analysis addresses the micro-specifics of how participants conduct workplace communication; and discourse analysis is used to interrogate the forms and strategies of talk that “articulate” the power relations between shop owners and assistants. Through audio-recorded spoken interaction of the participants throughout the work day as the primary source of data, aligned with field notes and observations, this study illustrates the creative forms of language that emerge in a grassroots multilingual workplace. Communication between the shop owners and their assistants is shown to portray the kind of language contact phenomena that typically develop in informal workplaces where there is an apparent need for a common trade language. Specifically, the study illustrates the forms of language and the communicative strategies that develop in a communicative context where various non-mutually intelligible languages are present.
- ItemA Narrative Enrichment Programme in literacy development of Afrikaans speaking Grade 3 learners in monolingual rural schools(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2015-12) Brand, Irene; Anthonissen, Christine; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of General Linguistics.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study is motivated by existing information on the discontinuity between home literacy practices and school literacy expectations of learners who typically speak a local variety of their mothertongue which is in various ways different from the standardised language of learning and teaching (LoLT). In this particular case the study refers to Afrikaans as a home language and language in education. The main concern is that these learners typically perform below par in standardised South African literacy tests such as the Annual National Assessment (ANA) and the Systemic Evaluation Test. They show slower achievement of literacy milestones, higher school drop-out rates and less achievement of access to higher learning opportunities (Lahire, 1995; Siegel, 2007). A Narrative Enrichment Programme was developed as a means of investigating questions concerning learners’ levels of language awareness, their understanding and use of different spoken and written genres, registers and varieties of Afrikaans (including their own), and their general appreciation for spoken and written forms of language in narrative and in other everyday uses. The purpose of such an investigation is to better understand the apparent discontinuity between home language practices and school language expectations, and to suggest new ways of addressing difficulties that arise in literacy development as a result of such discontinuity. The first part of the Narrative Enrichment Programme provided learners with an enriched reading, listening and writing environment in which they could engage with novel stories and work towards producing their own little books. The second part of the programme consisted of supporting exercises that addressed narrative structure issues that arose in the course of the first part. Specifically, exercises of picture-sequencing, picture-sentence matching and an exercise called Beginning, Middle and End were used to assess how learners recount the various components and the chronology of a story that was presented to them in the form of a set of topically connected pictures, and in a longer narrative that was read to them. Findings show that learners have a keen appreciation of the spoken form of language in that they loved listening to the stories. One group showed special enthusiasm for retelling stories that they had heard at home. Another aspect of the programme to which learners responded enthusiastically, was the activity of illustrating little books; this they appeared to enjoy more than writing them. Enthusiastic responses of learners are attended to because learning is much more likely to proceed successfully if learners enjoy the developmental activities. Levels of linguistic awareness with regards to genre, register and grammatical aspects such as spelling differed from learner to learner. Learners showed varying degrees of dependence on the already familiar genres of fables and fairy tales. Regarding writing conventions they also showed varying degrees of awareness of (e.g.) appropriate punctuation. Interesting examples of regional language use which included phonological awareness of the spoken form are discussed in considerable detail. There were unexpected findings regarding the influence that learners’ life experiences have on their narrative products. The picture sequencing activities reflected learners’ use of familiar everyday events and artefacts rather than reference to ones unfamiliar to them, which were apparently intended in the set of pictures. The rich and varied data that was collected, illustrates theoretical positions regarding the different kinds of habitus learners encounter, the ways in which educational systems privilege some linguistic resources above others, the connections between language and identity, and the ways in which new forms of literacy may assist in better facilitating learners’ emerging literacy and the learning that such literacy should facilitate.
- ItemProfiles of multilingualism in Kampala: An analysis of language biographies and language repertoires of University students(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2016-03) Bayiga, Florence Tendo; Anthonissen, Christine; Van Dulm, Ondene; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of General Linguistics.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This is a sociolinguistic study that investigates the language biographies and repertoires that underpin the kinds of linguistic knowledge students in Kampala, Uganda have acquired by the time they enter university. The study relates such biographies and repertoires to the status of the various languages represented in the study. The concepts of ‘multilingualism’ and ‘linguistic repertoire’ are central to this study as they are relevant to multilingual African communities where a wide variety of indigenous languages are recorded. The study highlights the difficulties of applying standard definitions of these concepts to speakers and communities in countries that have a highly mobile multilingual population. Insight into the linguistic resources students bring to the tertiary classroom could assist in explaining much of the communicative practices encountered among multilingual students, and in developing their linguistic resources for adequate use in academic and professional domains. An overarching objective of this research is to characterise the nature of multilingualism(s) of selected students at a Ugandan university. It also considers how their language biographies gave rise to and shaped their linguistic repertoires, and it shows how these are related to the status of different languages in local communities. The project recorded manifestations of multilingualism among University students in Kampala, investigated how various skills associated with the respective repertoires developed, and analysed how language biographies and linguistic repertoires disclose particular effects of different languages with different kinds of status in Uganda. Research data of three kinds was collected among a group of students at Makerere University, namely (i) meta-data and biographical information for which a questionnaire was used, (ii) multimodal figures in the form of coloured body shapes which participants annotated, and (iii) narratives of a selected number of participants, speakers of different L1s, collected in interviews. The triangulation of data provided by these instruments gave a holistic image of the individuals as social actors, and of the languages they use in the different social contexts in which they enact their lives. The findings of the study give an impression of the variety of languages represented amongst a sample of University students in an urban, tertiary educational setting. It also gives an indication of the mobility of the participants, which had an effect on when and how their Stellenbosch linguistic repertoires were acquired. Perceptions of and attitudes towards the official and indigenous languages including their home languages have been recorded. Informally assigned status of the languages in the country has emerged as part of the detailed profile of the multilingualism of the participants. The study indicates that many conventional definitions of ‘multilingualism’ and how it manifests in individual and community language practices need to be revised to fit linguistic realities as they exist in an African community such as in the urban setting of Kampala.
- ItemThe relationship between narrative skills and reading comprehension : when mainstream learners show signs of specific language impairment(Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2011-03) Klop, Daleen; Anthonissen, Christine; Tuomi, S. K.; University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of General Linguistics.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The attainment of literacy is crucial for survival in a modern industrialised, knowledge-driven society. Children with poor language skills are at risk for academic failure because of the differences between oral language used in daily interactions and the language skills needed to succeed in a formal school environment. The impact of poorly developed oral language skills on the successful acquisition of reading skills, particularly reading comprehension, is often underestimated in the education of young learners in South Africa. Narrative skills form the bridge between oral language and literacy by providing experience in using the extended and decontextualized discourse units that children will encounter in written language. This study investigated the relationship between narrative skills and reading comprehension skills in young learners who are developing literacy. Specific linguistic markers of literacy in the narratives of a group of Grade 3 learners from communities with low socio-economic status were examined. The main research questions this study attempted to answer were: “How do linguistic deficits of learners with poor reading comprehension and specific reading comprehension deficits manifest in their oral narratives?” and “Are there linguistic markers that decisively distinguish between learners with specific reading comprehension deficits and learners with general poor reading skills as compared to learners with normal reading comprehension?” In a quasi-experimental research design, the Grade 3 participants in this study were assigned to three groups: Readers who are competent at word level and comprehension (good reading comprehension group), readers who are competent at word level but poor at comprehension (specific comprehension disorder group) and readers who are poor at both word level and comprehension (poor reading comprehension group). Measurement protocols were used to assess the linguistic variables of interest, namely vocabulary, narrative micro- and macrostructure structure, cohesion, coherence and other aspects of oral language. The results of this study confirmed the relationships between language skills and reading comprehension. It was found that readers with general poor reading skills performed significantly poorer on a variety of linguistic measures than readers with good reading comprehension. The group identified as readers with specific reading comprehension disorders were, in general, not significantly different from the other two groups. This study therefore did not provide clear evidence that readers with specific reading comprehension disorders presented with linguistic markers that could differentiate them from the other groups. The clinical implications for speech-language therapists and educators with regards to assessment and intervention were highlighted.
- ItemScaffolding academic literacy using the reading to learn methodology: an evaluative study(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2016-03) Millin, Tracey Jane; Anthonissen, Christine; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of General Linguistics.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The primary aim of this study was to test and assess the efficacy of an innovative literacy development intervention, Reading to Learn (RtL), with Grade 11 students at two schools within the Winelands District of the Western Cape. The RtL intervention, originally designed to address inequitable literacy development outcomes of students from marginalised communities in Australia, was undertaken against the backdrop of increasingly serious concerns regarding literacy development in primary and secondary education in South Africa. Recent research has confirmed that poor literacy performance at school cannot be divorced from social conditions and educational practices that may exclude some and privilege other learners. In this study, RtL was designed purposefully to scaffold the development of more advanced academic literacy skills, with special support being offered to students with the greater need, whilst still providing sufficient stimulation for better performing students. A characterising feature of RtL is its affordance of equal opportunities to students from outside mainstream Discourses, by providing explicit access to the Discourse of formal schooling. The theoretical conceptual framework of RtL is derived from the work of Halliday (language as a text in a social context), Vygotsky (learning as a social process) and Bernstein (education as a pedagogic device for maintaining inequality). The two central research questions considered (i) whether RtL could be effective in a smallscale South African secondary school context, and (ii) whether RtL outcomes in such a context would be comparable to other studies of RtL conducted elsewhere. Using a long-term action research design, this mixed methods inquiry into academic literacy development worked with students’ writing portfolios collected throughout the RtL intervention. A linguistic biographical questionnaire was used to gather student-specific data. Student work was assessed, codified and given numerical literacy scores which allowed for descriptive and more advanced statistical data analysis. A number of cases were closely analysed to illustrate the nature of the intervention and students’ levels of literacy pre and post intervention. Triangulation of the various kinds of data revealed how general data patterns emerging from the small-scale statistical analysis relate to contextual features specific to local social and educational conditions. The findings of this study showed that students’ academic literacy skills improved over the duration of the RtL intervention. The greatest area of improvement across all students (regardless of school context) was evidenced in more advanced schematic structuring of both the narrative and academic essay genres. From a cross-sectional (across schools) perspective, the greatest overall improvement in written literacy skills was among the weaker cohort of students from the peri-urban township school. The phenomenon of weaker students making greater overall gains was also evidenced from a time series (within school) perspective. This encouraging finding indicates a possible convergence (or ‘catch-up’) effect, for students previously categorised as academically weak, regardless of school context, meaning that the documented convergence effects also seemed to occur irrespective of students’ socioeconomic circumstances. Furthermore, the findings of this study, with regards to the efficacy of RtL, are comparable to findings from other studies conducted globally, those in Australian studies, in particular.