ETD Collection

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Has files: YesSubject: search.filters.subject.Multilingualism--South Africa

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Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Analysis of the constraints to the realization of the aims of the language in-Education policy of South Africa
    (2018) Chitapi, Itai
    The South African Language in Education Policy (LiEP) of 1997 was created to contribute to the transformation of the education sector and of South Africa as a whole, through its promotion of the recognition and use of African languages that were marginalised during the apartheid era. The mechanism of additive bilingualism was identified as the key to achieving the goals of quality education and equitable treatment within a pragmatic framework. However, two decades on, LiEP has not been effectively implemented, nor does its implementation appear imminent. Spolsky’s (2004) framework posits that language policy functions at three levels: ideology, management and practice. Applying this framework, and using a combination of novel documentary analysis of the LiEP itself and eight in-depth expert interviews, this study examines the constraints that have limited implementation of the LiEP. The constraints within the LiEP policy text itself include the ideological separation of education from Black Economic Empowerment; and the policy management decisions within the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to ignore curriculum planning, and to postpone the completion of the LiEP document and regulations. The constraints arising out of the “public” expression of language policy within and beyond the education sector occur at all three levels. At ideological level, constraints include the lack of a unified ideological position within the DBE, and the side-lining of the LiEP by the DBE. At management level, public attitudes against the extended use of African languages are a critical constraint. Inadequate resourcing of the ‘multilingual project’, in terms of teacher and materials development, is a further constraint limiting LiEP implementation. At practice levels, the ongoing hegemony of English and the related collusive practice of elite closure continue to thwart LiEP implementation. The completion of the LiEP, its integration into the DBE’s main programmes and its overt promotion within and beyond education are the key recommendations. These policy management steps should be aligned explicitly and directly with economic empowerment initiatives and imperatives.
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    The relationship between proficiency in multiple languages and working memory: a study of multilingual advantages in South Africa.
    (2018) Espi-Sanchis, Gabriel
    This study explores the relationship between multilingualism and working memory. Multilingual advantages in various executive functions have been established, but little is known about whether multilingual advantages extend to working memory capacity and functioning, or about the effect of speaking more than two languages. In a sample of 189 multilingual young adults in South Africa, this study used a multiple regression design in which numerous aspects of multilingualism - balance in proficiency across and within languages, the age of acquisition of additional languages, and speaking a third language - could be compared with one another while controlling for socio-economic status. Four aspects of working memory (verbal storage, verbal processing, visuospatial storage and visuospatial processing), measured using the Automated Working Memory Assessment (Alloway, 2007), acted as the dependent variables in respective regressions while independent variables measuring multilingualism, including the continuous measures of balance in reading, speaking and understanding proficiency across languages, were based on self-report information from the Language Experience and Proficiency Questionnaire (LEAPQ; Marian, Blumenfeld, & Kaushanskaya, 2007). Balance in proficiency emerged as a strong predictor of the verbal processing component of working memory, while no aspect of multilingualism significantly predicted visuospatial working memory. Combined with other results, this finding suggested that the effect of multilingualism on working memory may not follow the pattern observed in other tasks where multilinguals are advantaged in domaingeneral executive functions (like inhibitory control) but disadvantaged in linguistic tasks. Multilinguals’ experience in storing and processing linguistic information may lead to advantages (possibly through managing attention) that are specific to this kind of information. Keywords: bilingual advantage, executive function, multilingual advantage, trilingualism, working memory !
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    Language experience of multilinguals and its relation to executive functioning
    (2016) Lubbe, Maritza Elize
    Background: South Africa finds itself at the heart of an ever escalating global trend towards increased multilingualism. Along with this realisation has come an ever growing investigation of the impact of bi/multilingualism on our cognitive abilities; both positively and negatively. Aim: This rationale gets explored here in order to investigate whether multilingualism influences the executive functioning ability of South African youth. Method: This was facilitated through the current study aiming to investigate the relationship between the self reported language experience of 30 young adults and their performance on executive function tasks. The four executive functions that were targeted were planning, inhibition, cognitive flexibility and fluency. Results and Conclusion: Taking the unique South African milieu into consideration results indicated that for the characteristics investigated here cognitive flexibility did not show a significant relationship with language experience. In turn planning and inhibition only produced a moderate degree of significance for their relationships with language experience. Finally fluency showed to have a significant relationship to the language experience of these individuals. The South African reality and history was then engaged with in a discussion around these results. The conclusion was then drawn that the South African population in this sample did not perform to the preconceived internationally recorded influence of the multilingual advantage.
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    Secondary school teachers' knowledge of the dynamics of teaching and learning mathematics in multilingual classrooms
    (2016) Adler, Jillian Beryl
    This is a study of secondary mathematics teachers' knowledge of the dynamics of learning and teaching mathematics in multilingual classrooms in South Africa. It probes teachers' articulated and tacit knowledge through a qualitative methodology that includes In-depth interviews, classroom observations, and reflective workshops. The sample is purposive and theoretical, comprising SIX teachers drawn from three different multilingual school contexts. Categories of description and analytic narrative vignettes enable a qualitative, layered analysis of what the teachers said and how they acted.