Graduation - 2024 - December (Open Access)

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Browsing Graduation - 2024 - December (Open Access) by Author "Basson, Earl Ray"

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    Die herstandaardisering van Afrikaans: Die insluiting van Kaapse Afrikaanse idiome in Afrikaans taalhandboeke
    (Stellenbosch University, 2024-12) Basson, Earl Ray; Odendaal, Gerda; Feinauer, Ilse; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Afrikaans and Dutch.
    This study explores the contribution that the inclusion of Cape Afrikaans idiomatic expressions in Afrikaans language textbooks can make to the restandardisation of Afrikaans. The discourse on the restandardisation of Afrikaans began in the 1980s when roleplayers in the education sector increasingly questioned the validity of Standard Afrikaans as representative of the entire Afrikaans speech community. Researchers such as Van den Heever (1988), Botha (1990), Van de Rheede (1992), and Van Rensburg (1992) have reported that learners who speak colloquial varieties such as Cape Afrikaans are alienated by Standard Afrikaans. Subsequently, role-players in the education sector stated that Standard Afrikaans must undergo a renewal, which includes that the language be disentangled from the Afrikaner ideology and that Standard Afrikaans reflects the entire Afrikaans speech community. Despite enthusiasm for such a standard variety, no practical projects have been executed to advance the restandardisation of Afrikaans. This gap results from varied restandardisation proposals that have led to different interpretations of the concept of restandardisation and uncertainty about how to conduct a restandardisation project. Furthermore, these restandardisation proposals failed to recognise the productive possibilities of the school system as a space for language planning. Given Haugen’s (1987:631) view that language renewal is channelled through educational institutions, Odendaal’s (2012:462) restandardisation framework was used as a theoretical departure to illustrate how the inclusion of Cape Afrikaans idioms in a lesson series can legitimise this variety and ultimately advance the restandardisation of Afrikaans. Due to the ongoing and multifaceted nature of the research problem, the study is situated within the pragmatic paradigm. The study was carried out cyclically to tackle the different levels of the research problem. Each cycle answered a different subresearch question, and the findings were reported on in four research articles. The first cycle sheds light on what restandardisation entails. The second cycle offers a theoretical application of the way in which a restandardisation project should be executed. In the third cycle, an empirical investigation was carried out in two parts to apply the theoretical proposals made in cycle two. In part one of the empirical investigation, a qualitative analysis was undertaken to identify the gains and gaps regarding the democratisation of Afrikaans in two Afrikaans language textbooks. Part two of the empirical investigation followed a mixed method research design, during which a lesson series containing Cape Afrikaans idiomatic expressions was designed. This lesson series was presented to role players in the teaching and learning of Afrikaans to gain their perspective on the contribution that the inclusion of Cape Afrikaans idiomatic expressions in a lesson series can make to advance the restandardisation of Afrikaans. Based on the findings, the participants believe that the inclusion of Cape Afrikaans idiomatic expressions in a language textbook can raise the status of Cape Afrikaans, establish Cape Afrikaans as a legitimate language form of Afrikaans, develop language pride in Cape Afrikaans-speaking learners, and finally, broaden the current standard variety of Afrikaans.