School of Literature, Language and Media (ETDs)

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A critical review of academic practice and integrated edtech use at a South African University: The ‘real’ level
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-06) Hoosen, Nazira; Agherdien, Najma; Abrahams, Lucienne
This study aimed to investigate and understand how academics’ digital competence and critical digital pedagogy (CDP) knowledge shaped pedagogical practice. Freire (1970), Bhaskar (1978), Archer (1995) and Shulman (1987) were the main authors drawn upon in the literature. A qualitative research paradigm and a multiple case study methodology were employed by drawing on critical realism (CR) and social realism (SR) as a theoretical analytical framework. This entailed exploring structural, cultural and agential emergent properties to examine how each construct developed over time prior to synthesis. The analysis demonstrated that the form of agential mediation to which academics were exposed explained why some of them in the same social structures and culture enacted CDP practices, while others did not. Consequently, three crucial dimensions of CDP knowledge and enactment were made visible through this study’s data and theoretical analytical framework, namely digitally-enabling structures, digitally-informed cultures and digitally-capable agency. From a pragmatic perspective, to enact CDP practice, academics need to connect the digital reality to knowledge work and epistemic practice. In this process, academic agency and digital agency would intersect, requiring reflexive and reflective practice. However, while reflection assists in recognising the need for CDP knowledge and enactment, it is insufficient on its own: embodied action and mindful critique of the world are required. From a theoretical perspective, the concept of ‘critical’, in the literature, is related mainly to the level of social relations. This study demonstrated that there is a socio-cultural stratum and a psychological-cognitive stratum. Both these strata need to be considered as mechanisms that interact with each other to produce the outcomes of CDP practice within a digital reality. Collectively, these contributions do not translate to accepting the digital reality as a predestination. Instead, it highlighted that academics functioned in a layered HE system that required, not a singular, but a unified and pluralistic (collective) vision. Individuals and institutions are limited in their capacity to respond proactively to external change and internal complexity. Therefore, the HE system requires a rerouting from the traditional path, critically reframing learning and teaching through transformative foresight, where all parts within the system work co-terminously. One significant outcome of this study is a developmental higher education systems thinking framework focusing on the promotion of CDP practices.
An analysis of domain-specific terminology for pedagogical lexicographic resources: towards a comprehensive english isizulu life sciences dictionary
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-02) Dladla, Celimpilo Piety; Zungu, E.B.
This thesis examined the structure of published dictionaries as a foundation for creating guidelines for developing a domain-specific lexicographic resource in an African language. The resource developed in the study is directed at Grade 10 to 12 learners as a remedy for the absence of domain-specific lexicographic resources for senior phase learners whose mother tongue was previously marginalised. Subjects are taught in a second language despite the language policy of the Department of Basic Education stating that learners and their guardians are at liberty to choose their language of education (Diko, 2018). The unavailability of these resources deprives potential users of the opportunity of having a choice to use reference material in their home language to understand crucial educational material. This limits their ability to achieve the results they would have had if they had the opportunity of learning in their mother tongue (Osborne & Collins, 2001; Mji & Makgato, 2006). Dictionaries have been identified as assistive resources in increasing learners’ understanding of educational concepts (Ranalli & Nurmukhamedov, 2014; Charamba, 2017). Subsequently, this thesis employed the theory of lexicographic functions to develop guidelines for the development of a bilingualised Life Sciences dictionary in isiZulu with English serving as the source language, as users need the information in English in class and in their examinations. This qualitative study garnered data by means of content analysis of existing English-Zulu bilingual dictionaries by examining their structure and function, as a foundation for developing guidelines for the new resource and the ultimate compilation of the resource. Further, the study interrogated the Life Sciences glossary from prescribed Grade 10 to 12 Life Sciences books from the Department of Basic Education and extracted terminology from these resources. Terminology was then translated into isiZulu employing translation strategies applicable in lexicography as this was not a translation exercise but a lexicographic exercise. Nkomo (2019) asserts that most lexicographic practices had been mistaken for a translation exercise because lexicographic theories are often not employed. For this reason, the study employed the theory of lexicographic functions – studying the needs of users, the user situation and the function of a dictionary (Tarp, 2004; 2008; 2012) to create a dictionary development guideline and additionally, produce a digital dictionary to be made available in a freely downloadable form for use and availability to all users. The dictionary developed was analysed according to guidelines set by Ball and Bothma (2018) for analysing digital dictionaries.
Audio-visual speech perception amongst bilingual speakers
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024-03) Seedat, Ammaara; Ramona, Kunene Nicolas
Why does a face articulating the syllable [ga] presented alongside an auditory /ba/ syllable result in a perceived /da/ syllable/? Language is more than words, and the human face has shown enormous communicatory significance as a mode of nonverbal communication. Multisensory integration is used in audio-visual speech perception when auditory and visual information are integrated at the same time. This integration, however, can be viewed as an involuntary process that occurs automatically. The audio-visual benefit effect occurs when auditory and visual information is synchronized, this is when the visual cue is congruent with its auditory counterpart. Literature on audio-visual speech perception, states that the magnitude of visual influences on audio-visual speech perception varies not only across languages but also across developmental stages. The reasons underlying cross-linguistic and developmental differences in audio-visual speech perception however remain unclear. With bilingualism becoming the norm rather than the exception around the world (Grosjean & Byers-Heinlein, 2018), strong research foundations for spoken-word comprehension in bilinguals have been carried out. These foundations have been grounded in classical frameworks from monolinguals and formalised in models such as the Bilingual Model of Lexical Access (BIMOLA) (Léwy, 2008) and the Bilingual Language Interaction Network for Comprehension of Speech (BLINCS) (Shook & Marian, 2013). Bilinguals may experience increased audio-visual integration when using their less dominant language because less familiarity with a language creates a greater reliance on the visual channel to make sense of auditory input. This study will therefore examine the extent to which young adult bilinguals benefit from audio-visual speech. We examine how different listening conditions affect how L2 bilinguals perceive audio-visual speech. Participants in this study were L1 English speakers learning L2 isiZulu between 17-29 years of age. Each participant was introduced to four different conditions. Namely, an audio only condition, a visual-only condition an and audio-visual condition and an incongruent condition. In the audio-only condition, the stimuli were only auditory, in the visual-only condition the stimuli were perceived without an auditory stimulus. The audio-visual stimulus was made up of both an auditory and visual stimulus whilst the incongruent stimulus was created through dubbing the audio of one word over the visual of another word. The results of the study highlighted the importance of audio-visual speech in late L2 bilingual acquisition. The differences in the phonetics and phonology of language systems might play an important role in how late L2 bilinguals perceive language in different conditions.
Dante: Traces of the Prophetic
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-06) Mfenyana, Deneo Thabisa; Houliston, Victor
The purpose of this project is the scrutiny of the vocational claims that Dante makes throughout his Commedia. Engaging the prophet-poet dichotomy through gradations of authorial authority, I place Dante within many vocations from prophet to poet, including mystic, philosopher and theologian, settling ultimately on Dante as a sort of seer, one who communicates parables as The Christ is known to do, but, making it expressly clear that his theological inaccuracies place him beneath biblical prophets in authority. The conscious strategies that Dante employs to secure auctoritas for his poem such as employing the biblical mystical senses, and resting on the shoulders of Virgil his philosophical and poetic auctor will be examined, showing intent in Dante to induce suspension of disbelief in his readers pertaining his vocational claims.
Igeza lensizwa as fashioned by ILanga le Theku
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-03-15) Ngwane, Simphiwe Blessing Mthokozelwa; Mupotsa, Danai S.
The objective of this study is to explore, analyse and interpret igeza lensizwa fashion inspired photographs on the back page of the first isiZulu-language lifestyle supplement called ILanga le Theku. These were photographs of street-casted young black men from around eThekwini that were being foregrounded as public scripts of youthful Zulu masculinities. Through a discursive approach to Critical Masculinities Studies, I interrogate how young Zulu men made situated decisions in the fashioning of their masculinities. The study engages other interlocutors that were involved in the fashioning of igeza lensizwa. These were the female-led editorial team, the mostly male photographers that street-casted and photographed young men, the young men that agreed and those that did not agree to be street-casted, and the female readers, as represented by the female persona. All these interlocutors had a hand in shaping the form of igeza lensizwa. The archive of the fashion inspired photographs of amageza ezinsizwa and their accompanying captions were approached as key sites where masculine representations were being articulated and contested. The study demonstrates how ILanga le Theku devised various literary techniques to cater for its two implied readers/audiences of igeza lensizwa. Through analysing these literary techniques, the study crafted two concepts to offer more context-based readings of Zulu masculinities as represented in ILanga le Theku. The study foregrounds a concept of igeza lensizwa as being comprised of ukuzithemba [self confidence] and ukuzizwa [self-regard]. The other concept is, thirst-trap which is achieved if the image of igeza lensizwa complies with ukuheha [to entice] and ukuchaza [to have an affect], in relation to the implied female audience. The study demonstrates how these two concepts offer insights on Zulu masculinities by engaging how young people eThekwini were changing dual gender systems norms and matters of desire. Moreover, the study shows how the section was also a site that challenged the myopic limits of homosocial desire with its limitation of masculine desire only incorporating interpersonal attractions. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that through shifts in spectatorship, facilitated by an auto-ethnographic queer lens as method, I inferred looking relations that, inter alia, explored how young men were asked to introspect, and confront masculine beauty.
Igxathu Likamaskandi Ekulweni Nokucwaswa Kwabantu Abamnyama Ngaphambi Nangemuva Kwenkululeko Eningizimu Afrika: Umfaz’omnyama, Uphuzekhemisi Kanye Nezingane Zoma
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-06) Buthelezi, Xolani Norman; Mhlambi, Innocentia Jabuliseli
IQOQO Kuloku kucubungula kuvezwe lokho okutholakele nokumele ngabe kwenzeka ngesikhathi kwenziwa ukucubungula ngeqhaza lomaskandi ekulweni nokucwaswa kwabantu abamnyama ngaphambi nangemuva kwenkululeko eNingizimu Afrika. Kuyagqama ngaloku cubungula ukuthi bakhona ababhali okuthe ngesikhathi sobandlululo baqoka ukubhala izingoma ezikugxekayo okube yimiphumela nemithelela emibi yokunganyelwa ngenkani ngabamhlophe kwezwe laseNingizimu Afrika nezwekazi lonke lase-Afrika. Kucacile futhi ukuthi uMfaz’Omnyama, uPhuzekhemisi neZingane Zoma babhalile kakhulu bekhala ngayo le miphumela nemithelela yokucwaswa kwabantu abamnyama ngaphambi nangemuva kwenkululeko eNingizimu Afrika. Izingoma zabo ziyahlukaniseka ngokwezindikimba ababekhononda ngazo. Kukhona lezo ezikhononda ngokuthathwa kwezwe laseNingizimu Afrika ngenkani, ukuhamba kobaba emakhaya isikhathi eside abanye bangabe besabuya, ukungabi nabuntu kwabamhlophe nalabo asebengamele izwe okungosopolitiki, ukulahleka kwamasiko nenhlonipho kubantu ngenxa yemfundo yabamhlophe. Ayavela futhi namazinga okukhononda njengoba kuvelile ukuthi kukhona izingoma zabo ezivezayo nje kuphela ukuhlupheka kwabantu boMdabu nabesifazane, kube khona lezo ezigxeka osopolitiki ziphinde zihambisane nabo ngenxa yenkece namandla abanawo ekuthuthukiseni labo abangenalutho, bese kuba khona lezo ezishoshozela ukuba kwenziwe okuthile ukuze kuguqulwe isimo sempilo nenhlalo yabantu eNingizimu Afrika.
Just Me and You, Ms W
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-03) Hoffman, Alexandra Laurel; Law-Viljoen, Bronwyn
Literary and visual representations of queer ecologies in South Africa’s maritime and terrestrial environments
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-09) Dimond, Harvey Lewis; Hofmeyr, Isabel
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“People is people”: African personhood in the works of Bessie Head
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-08) Castrillón, Gloria Ledger; Hofmeyr, Isabel
From the vantage point of Bessie Head’s oeuvre as a whole, I trace the development of her approach to personhood. Rooted in a post-oppositional view of love expressed as acts of ubuntu, she develops a new paradigm of African personhood distinct from western conceptions of the person. In Nguni languages, ubuntu is the term given to the view that personhood derives from a network of relationships, encapsulated in the saying “I am because you are; we are because you are” (Ogude, 2018, p. 1, emphasis in original). Rejecting the forms of literary and political protest of her time and focusing on the rural context, Head applies three narrative tools to lever change. These are, love-based relationships between individuals; love as acts of ubuntu between people; and sage philosophers who mediate history, embedding Head’s view of personhood in Africa’s history. Chapter 1 places Head’s works in context and sets out the parameters of the relationship between law and human rights. The chapter examines the post-oppositional approach which informs Head’s attempts to deviate from binary-based views of tradition and progress, western and African, from which she proposes her particular view of African personhood. Chapter 2 examines Head’s life, works and critical reception. Chapter 3 examines human rights with specific reference to South Africa’s Freedom Charter. The Charter and the political pressures surrounding its generation were central to Head’s contemporaries’ protest literature. Head rejects this genre, so the chapter also surveys her political outlook. In Chapter 4, the roots of Head’s re-envisioning are examined in The Cardinals and When Rain Clouds Gather. In these early novels, Head uses love as the stimulus for personal and communal change. In The Cardinals, love is individual, and change is limited to two characters. In When Rain Clouds Gather, love expands in scope and, realised through acts of ubuntu, provides the foundation for the marriages and other individual relationships. Together, these enable the realisation of personhood in the context of community. In Chapter 5, the operation of love extends further in Maru and A Question of Power. In Maru, love is tasked with overturning the foundations of racism and reversing the tyranny of tribal, hereditary supremacy. In A Question of Power, love is set against its biggest foe: evil and Satan. By the end, however, it is clear it is unable to perform the transformative social work Head assigns it. Thus, in the last three books, she galvanizes a set of semi-fictional, semi-historical sage philosophers whose words and actions typify her post-oppositional reconceptualisation of Serowe’s history. Chapter 6 examines the liminal position of The Collector of Treasures as it bridges the transition from the first four to the last two texts. In it, diverse storytellers debate the incongruities and ambiguities in the African and western traditions. Chapter 7 examines how Head’s sages become more overt spokespeople for her argument that change is essentially African and animated by love and ubuntu will give rise to an African personhood. In Serowe: Village of the Rain Wind, Khama the Great, Tshekedi Khama and Patrick van Rensburg are actualised African persons as they effect love-grounded, ubuntu motivated change, creating the basis of Africa’s future. In A Bewitched Crossroad, Head uses the fictional interpolations of her most developed sage, Sebina, to mine both the ‘real’ history of Southern Africa and western ways to develop a post-oppositional African vision. In the Chapter 8, Head’s efforts to breathe life into a new ‘race’ of Africans are summed up. Head proposes that ‘African’ is not defined by race, colour or ethnic identity, but by post-oppositional responses, the ability to transform the lives of others, and leadership qualities needed for the future. Identifying the common thread across the texts clarifies Head’s articulation personhood as embedded in Africanness and not in the western presumptions underpinning the novel form.
Phonological memory and sentence processing in South African L2 English-speaking children
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-08-25) MADZIWO, ALEXIA RUVARASHE; Kunene, Ramona Nicolas
Out of the many factors that have impacted the state of education in South Africa (resulting in low literacy rates and high rates of academic failure), it is critical to investigate the linguistic implications on education. Comprehension has been pinpointed as a site of further research and intervention; therefore, this current study aimed to investigate the possible contributions that phonological short-term memory (pSTM) has on spoken sentence comprehension of South African second language (L2) English-speaking children from southern African Bantu language backgrounds. Discourse has claimed pSTM – a temporary auditory information memory store – to be an independent language process system from that of comprehension. However, it presents an interesting focal point for a few reasons including the following: i) L2 English-speaking children from southern African Bantu languages are confronted with the phonologically distinct English language in educational spaces; ii) children need to store sentences to process and respond to them; and iii) children’s complex linguistic skills have not yet been developed – thus, there is dependence on lower-level linguistic skills. In this study, 25 children from Polokwane, Capricorn District, participated in tasks to identify the effects of pSTM in relation to sentence processing. The researcher then analysed the developmental aspects of these processes. The corpus fell into two separate groups: i) the Grade 1, 6–7-year olds and ii) the Grade 4, 9–10-year-olds. Three tasks were presented to the participants: i) the nonword repetition task to assess their pSTM capacity, ii) a sentence-repetition task, and iii) a sentence-picture naming task. The results indicated that pSTM capacity was present from age 6 and improved with age. However, there was no clear contribution to sentence processing; despite high pSTM capacity results, sentence comprehension and repetition results remained low. In this study, we also found the following: i) syntax was a marker for comprehension issues; ii) sentence repetition showed better results than comprehension, indicating a possibly stronger link between pSTM and sentence repetition; iii) possible language interactions during pSTM disyllabic recall were noted.
Precarious spaces: intersections of gendered identity and violence in Zimbabwean literature
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2022-12) Chando, Aaron; Nyanda, Josiah; Muponde, Robert
This thesis examines ways in which selected Zimbabwean literary works expand understandings of the cultural production and deconstruction of precarity. It seeks to advance the claim that a cross-section of Zimbabwean writers espouses a ‘precarious aesthetic’ to reimagine the nation by deconstructing cultural practices that produce and sustain precarity. I postulate that precarity is ideologically produced at the intersections of gendered identities and institutionalised forms of violence, such as ethnonationalism, heteropatriarchal policing, ableism, homophobia, and misogyny, where notional understandings of masculinity and femininity become central to the politics of (un)belonging. I draw on premises from precarity, gendered identities, and intersectionality studies to make a case for a space-bound understanding of precarity that recognises Zimbabwean textual nuances and environmental specificities. By deploying Western-based theorisations of precarity to address dynamics of disempowerment in a Zimbabwean context, I seek to demonstrate that precarity discourses are in a constant process of becoming and to expand discursive space on a subject that has been predominantly approached through tropes of drought and hunger. A cross-cutting premise in precarity studies is that the experience of marginalisation promotes radical thinking, which enables victims to weaponise their condition. This underwrites my assumption that all marginalising impulses leave spaces for pushback, strategic surrender, and self-affirmation. Therefore, throughout the five core chapters of the thesis, I adopt a close reading strategy to offer context-specific evaluations of refusal politics undertaken by precarious subjects in different sites of displacement. I propose that exploring overlaps among marginalising ideologies and pushback mechanisms can unravel new insights about the political function of vulnerability and bring forth a new grammar with which to talk about precarity. Overall, I argue that the literary front constitutes a site of reinvention where precarious subjects are radically written into existence and where diversity and difference are recast as indices of social hygiene.
Students’ motivation on learning Portuguese as a Foreign Language Course: A case study on the University of the Witwatersrand and University of Mpumalanga
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-02) Adão, Roberto; Campos, Marta
Motivation is one of the most significant and determining factors in language learning, therefore it is important to study the different ways in which motivation influences students in their foreign language studies. This dissertation investigates university students’ motivation for learning Portuguese as a foreign language course at two South African universities. This study aimed to identify the principal factors which motivate students to study Portuguese as a foreign language at two universities: along with determining the possible similarities and differences between the students’ sources of motivation for learning Portuguese at each respective university as a foreign language. The study took place at two universities namely, the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and the University of Mpumalanga. Both universities currently offer Portuguese as a language course within their respective Bachelor of Arts degrees. Through the application of a questionnaire and obtaining quantitative data from the student’s responses, in addition to the use of the Likert scale and descriptive statistics (mode, mean and standard deviation), students’ sources of motivation were possible to assess and interpret in a numerical form, as regards their learning of Portuguese with the objective of expanding their proficiency in the Portuguese language.
The effects of embracing multilingualism on the academic performance of learners in primary science education in botswana
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-12) Kereeditse, Dumelang Lorato Thomas; Inggs, Judith
In Botswana, primary school learners perform better in Setswana as a subject than in the science subjects. This trend can be observed in the annual Primary School Leaving Examinations results despite the country’s high literacy rate. Since these learners are emergent multilinguals, this study sought to determine the effects of embracing multilingualism on Botswana learners’ academic performance in science as a subject at primary level. Considering that using translation as a pedagogical strategy has never been fully recognised as a useful way of scaffolding in lower levels of education, the translanguaging perspective was employed to determine the effects of translation in multilingual contexts. This was done to enhance comprehension of fourth year primary science texts using bilingual texts because, in the Botswana education system, codeswitching is usually practised as a communication strategy, but textbooks and assessments are printed monolingually in English from Standard 2. The study acknowledged the benefits of both English and Setswana in the education system and on learners’ cognitive development. Therefore, it employed a cognitive theory of communication in translation coupled with the translanguaging theory to develop bilingual science texts that could enhance pedagogic strategies for emergent multilinguals. A quasi-experimental design was used to assess the effects of using bilingual texts on learners’ academic performance. Three participating schools from different language communities in Botswana were selected via non-proportional stratified sampling. The control group received a monolingual science topic with content as usual, whereas the experimental group received the same text translated and presented bilingually in English and Setswana. Both groups attempted a written comprehension exercise after reading the same topic. Data were analysed statistically using SPSS Statistics and qualitatively using moment analysis to determine the significance of differences between 2 the control and the experimental groups. Learners in the minority language speaking school showed a considerable improvement as well as a significant difference in the performance of learners who used monolingual texts compared to those who used bilingual texts. Other schools showed an insignificant difference between the performance of the experimental group and the control group. These results show the potential of bilingual texts in the creation of translanguaging space in the classroom. They support the ostensive multilingualism pedagogy which brings together translanguaging pedagogy and relevance theory in translation to open translanguaging spaces in science education.
The impact of Black South African English speaker’s accent on the quality of interpretation
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-08) Lebogo, Constantin Désiré; Leal, Alice; Parkins-Maliko, Natasha
As one of the three cognitive activities of interpreting, listening comprehension is key for ensuring quality in interpretation (Kamel, 2015). Listening comprehension requires a deliberate effort of hearing and comprehending the produced utterance by a speaker (Gile, 1995), and can, therefore, be affected by several variables, including the speaker’s accent. Besides other difficulties involved in interpreting, this study focuses on challenges related to listening to and understanding an accented Black South African English (BSAE) speech. It is assumed that a heavily accented speech by a Black South African English speaker will pose a challenge to an interpreter with no or little exposure to the specific variation of BSAE which, consequently, might impact performance and quality. This study seeks to investigate if an accented BSAE, might affect the quality of interpretation, and if so, to what extent. The questions raised here are addressed by comparing the level of accuracy and completeness of interpretation provided by two groups of professional interpreters with French (first language) and English (second language) as their language combinations. Interpretations into French by 13 participants of a video recorded speech, and the transcription of the same, read with a Standard British English accent were recorded. Thereafter, participants’ outputs were evaluated. This data including a questionnaire, was analysed using the mixed methods approach to test the hypothesis. The results suggest that the strong BSAE accent influenced the rendition of the message, as participants of the experimental group did not perform as well as those of the control group. The questionnaire elicited that accent and related factors, such as phonemics and prosody, represented the greatest challenge during the interpreting process. The study finally presents the strategies proposed and used by participants to mitigate accent impact on the process of interpreting and the quality of the output.
The ‘madness account’: An examination of madness and writing within the fictional and autobiographical works of Bessie Head and Janet Frame
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-08) Hovelmeier, Sinéad Katherine; Van Schalkwyk, Simon
Bessie Head and Janet Frame are two writers who have not been read comparatively. Despite this, both authors engage in writing about ‘madness’. Bessie Head presents madness in her fictional work A Question of Power (1973) as well as in her various life-writings (letters). Janet Frame presents madness in her fictional work Faces in the Water (1961) and her autobiography An Autobiography (1982). The current field labels these fictional works as ‘autobiographical’, and it pays close attention to madness as one area where the supposed commonalities between life experiences and fictional accounts justify this labelling. Current research on autobiography is divided along the individualist tradition of ‘male’ autobiography and the newer forms of autobiography, which not only employ the ‘autobiographical pact’ but stretch the conventions of autobiography into a whole host of emerging subcategories (autofiction, confessional literature, faction etc.). The current field does not consider that equating a ‘mad’ author with a ‘mad’ character in fiction is a limited approach to representations of madness. Focusing on ‘scriptotherapy’ and the ‘madness account’, my research addresses this gap in the literature. Reading the texts comparatively produced varied results for ‘madness’; Frame’s account of madness is richest in the fiction she decidedly claimed as not autobiographical, while Head’s life-writings reveal her fictional account of ‘madness’ as autobiographical but dissatisfying, it fails to express her real-life experiences accurately. Reading all four texts together and applying ‘scriptotherapy’ to each provides insights into the role of ‘madness’ within each text and its impact on each author. This research fills a gap in the current research by revealing a broader view of ‘madness’ in the works of both Frame and Head.
Towards the Development of a Monolingual Sesotho Learner’s Dictionary
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-01) Mahloane, Malefu Justina; Setshedi, Quinn Thelma Malakabane
Sesotho practical lexicography commenced over 160 years ago and up to the time when this research was initiated, there had not been a single monolingual or online learner’s dictionary produced for the language. As a result, this research aimed to develop a Sesotho monolingual learner’s dictionary with the ultimate goal being to make the dictionary available online. To achieve this, the research investigated the different factors to consider when developing a dictionary with these characteristics. The objective of this research was to use Corpus Linguistics methodology to develop the dictionary. The methods used are both qualitative and quantitative. The contents of the dictionary are extracted from a c.a. 100 000-word corpus that was compiled specially for this research – as a corpus is the object of study or a tool in Corpus Linguistics. The corpus was processed using various language processing methods and tools, the main being the TshwaneLex Suite. The study managed to develop a prototype of the Sesotho monolingual learner’s dictionary and it is attached as Annexure 1, and the dictionary will continue to be developed beyond this research. It is anticipated that, the developed prototype dictionary presented here, will serve as evidence that there are effective means that Sesotho Lexicographers can adapt to produce other types of dictionaries beyond the usual bilingual/translation and paperback dictionaries that are the norm in Sesotho lexicography.
Transferring Culture: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of the Translation of uMongo KaZulu into The Marrow of the Zulu NationMziz
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-03) Mzizi, Asanda; Hlengwa-Selepe, Bongeka B.
This study adopts a theory of Descriptive Translation Studies to execute a comparative analysis of transferring culture in the translation of Prince Bhekizizwe Zulu’s uMongo KaZulu (2005) into The Marrow of the Zulu Nation (2005). It investigates and examines the transfer of culture by evaluating the different translation strategies employed by Zulu to transmit these diverse phenomena. This includes the investigation and examination of the book cover, the title, terms of address, idiomatic and proverbial expressions, customs, proper names, and figures of speech such as similes, metaphors, and personification. The study found that Zulu utilised literal translation, transliteration or adoption, adaptation, explicitation, implicitation, and translation by paraphrasing using related words, exotism, cultural transplantation, addition, and omission as translation strategies. The findings also revealed that in resorting to these translation strategies, literary translation often involves shifts in text function. A text from a foreign culture invariably takes on an informative function. Yet, if the informative function is overly accentuated in the target text, it may compromise the source text's cultural identity and intended purposes. Consequently, the negotiation between the source-oriented and target-oriented functions may be considered a translation process.
Translanguaging with ‘Monolingual’ Teachers and Heterogeneous Multilingual Learners: Forging New Pedagogies with Shakespeare
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-10) Ritchie, Linda Anne; Newfield, Denise; Thurman, Chris
Despite the multilingualism of most South Africans, and the use of two or more languages by many teachers and learners in South African classrooms, there is a particular sector of the formal education system that is characterised by White English ‘monolingual’ teachers who only use English to communicate with their multilingual learners, some of whom do not speak English as a home language. Such monolingualism deprives many multilinguals of the social and educational benefits of learning in their home languages. The dissertation investigates a pedagogy that can be implemented to address the linguistic injustice in this educational sector. Within the broad understanding of the concept of ‘multiliteracies’, it adopts the New London Group’s (1996) Pedagogy of Multiliteracies as its framework because the pedagogy’s emphases on social justice and linguistic inclusivity make it particularly well-suited for addressing the linguistic inequalities in this sector. However, while highlighting the importance of multilingualism, Multiliteracies pedagogy does not emphasise the lingually complex scenarios in the sector on which the study focuses. To accommodate this issue, the study investigates the inclusion of translanguaging pedagogy as a linguistic component that can be integrated into the four pedagogical components of Multiliteracies pedagogy, when and as required. Specifically, it examines the efficacy of translanguaging pedagogy when it is implemented by a ‘monolingual’ teacher (a teacher who only communicates in a single language) in a class with heterogeneous multilinguals (people who speak multiple, often unrelated languages). To obtain the data for the study, practitioner-based research was conducted in a private secondary school in Johannesburg with a class of heterogeneous multilinguals. Using a mixed-method design, a range of translanguaging activities were implemented during the teaching and learning of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. A Shakespearean play was used because the frequency with which Shakespeare is taught in South African secondary schools necessitates an urgent transformation of its pedagogy. Furthermore, the comprehension difficulties associated with the teaching and learning of Shakespeare’s Early Modern English require a form of translation, which facilitates the introduction of translanguaging pedagogy in the sector on which the study focuses. The results of the study indicate that translanguaging in this educational setting raises learners’ awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and facilitates their understanding of Macbeth. These findings suggest that translanguaging can and should be implemented in this educational sector as much as possible. Perhaps counterintuitively, the implementation of translanguaging in the pedagogy of Shakespeare also provides a way to narrow the educational divide between the global north and the global south by empowering learners to provide uniquely (South) African contributions to global discourses on Shakespeare.

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