3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item Language choice in business: perceived relevance of code switching among immigrant traders(2016) Olawunmi, Oluwaseun FunmiResearch has shown that language has an impact on commercial growth and is a significant driver of economic performance (Jain, 2011). However, before language can have such impact, it has to be mutually understood within a group of people. Hence, immigrants in a country need to be able to understand the language(s) in the destination business environment to a certain extent in order to be able to make sales or render services. This is known as language contact. Other scholars have suggested that language contact promotes bilingualism within a given community and Code switching is a central part of a bilingual discourse (Appel and Muysken, 1987). Although a plethora of studies have shown the importance and positive relevance of language choice and/or code switching especially in the classroom, there are no conclusive findings or research on the relevance of code switching in small business environments. This study looks at the perceived relevance of code switching among immigrant traders in Johannesburg, a super diverse state in a super diverse South Africa. The study involves identifying the benefits of changing codes generally when dealing with customers and the outcome. To measure the impact and relevance of code switching among selected immigrant traders who own small businesses in Johannesburg, perceptions of such traders is elicited through a questionnaire, an observation schedule and an interview schedule. The results of the perceived relevance is analyzed based on the Halliday and Hasan’s (1985) Framework on the Stages of Service Encounters and Myers-Scotton’s Markedness Model, as well as recommendations are offered at the end.Item SLI or 'slow' to develop English additional language (EAL) learners - how do we know? : an in depth investigation of English additional language learners in the foundation phase with suspected specific language impairment.(2011-10-06) Rijhumal, Meera SurendarBackground: This study formed part of a larger longitudinal research study by Jordaan (2009), who tracked the development of language for academic purposes in grade 1- 3 English Additional Language (EAL) and English First Language (EFL) learners attending English only programmes in Gauteng over a period of three years. These learners attended schools in two different educational contexts where there is a marked heterogeneity in the linguistic backgrounds of both the learners and teachers investigated. Results from Jordaan’s (2009) study revealed that some EAL and EFL learners appeared to be slow in the development of their academic language abilities (as no progress was evident over the period of three years), relative to their peers, and thus these learners may have a language impairment. Purpose: This study investigated in detail, these “slow to learn” EAL and EFL learners in the foundation phase, in order to determine whether they have a language impairment and to determine how the language impairment manifests in these learners. Participants: Sixteen learners (5 EFL learners and 16 EAL learners) who demonstrated no improvement in their academic language abilities from grade one to grade two as determined by their performance on the Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation Criterion Referenced (DELV-CR) test were the participants of this study. Method: The participants were assessed on the Automated Working Memory Assessment (AWMA) test, a Non Word Repetition test (Dollaghan & Campbell, 1998), a Sentence Repetition test (Redmond, 2005) and the Gray Oral Reading Test (GORT-4). Educators were also asked to rate these learners’ oral language, written language and reading comprehension abilities on a scale of 0- 5. The research design utilized was a non experimental, descriptive quantitative design, involving both correlational and comparative components. The data obtained was then analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated to establish whether there was a relationship between the cognitive processing and the language proficiency measures as well as the teacher ratings in order to provide information regarding these tests as assessment tools for EAL learners as well as to further enhance the validity of this study. Independent sample t-tests were also conducted to determine whether there were any significant differences between the EFL and EAL learners’ performance in the two different educational contexts, so as to establish whether bilingual learners with language impairment are more severely impaired than monolingual learners with language impairment. Results: Based on the analysis of these learners’ performance on the DELV-CR test, results indicated that all sixteen participants presented with SLI and were not just “slow to learn”. The EAL-SLI learners in both contexts performed poorly on the reading comprehension test and were rated lower than their aged matched peers on the teacher rating scales. Furthermore, when comparing these EAL-SLI learners’ performance on the DELV-CR test to the performance of the EFL-SLI learners, the EAL-SLI learners as a group appeared to have performed more poorly than the EFL-SLI learners on all three subtests. As significant differences were found between the EAL and EFL learners’ performance on the DELV-CR test, the results suggested that bilingual learners with SLI, who acquire a second language sequentially, are more impaired than monolingual learners with SLI. The EAL-SLI learners also presented with visuo-spatial short term and working memory deficits and even though a large majority of the learners presented with verbal short term and working memory difficulties, not all the learners presented with cognitive processing difficulties. This finding has implications for the theories of SLI. However, the sentence repetition task was found to be a useful tool in differentiating between the “slow to learn” EAL learners and EAL-SLI learners and furthermore this test also positively correlated with various sections of the DELV-CR test which adds to the value of this test as an assessment tool in EAL learners. Positive correlations were also found between the teacher ratings of the EAL-SLI learners and the subtests of the DELV-CR test which indicates that teachers have the ability to correctly identify learners with language learning difficulties. Positive correlations were also found between the digit repetition subtest, the non word repetition test and the sentence repetition test which adds to the validity of this study. Conclusion: The results obtained from this study demonstrated that bilingual learners with SLI who acquire a second language sequentially are additionally disadvantaged compared to their EFL-SLI peers in the acquisition of certain aspects of academic language. Furthermore, although research has shown that cognitive processing measures are less biased in the assessment of linguistically diverse learners, results indicated that the DELV-CR test identified more accurately, learners with language impairment whereas the cognitive processing measures provided contradictory and biased results with the verbal working memory subtest over identifying learners “at risk” for language impairment. Finally, the use of sentence repetition tasks in the differentiation between “slow to learn” and language impaired EAL learners proves to be promising.Item Working memory capacity in English monolingual and Afrikaans/English bilingual grade 1 learners.(2009-09-10T10:15:34Z) Van Rooyen, TahitiMany learners in South Africa first encounter English when it is used as a medium of instruction at the start of formal schooling. This has ramifications for literacy acquisition and academic performance. Working memory is responsible for distributing cognitive resources among the various processing and storage tasks. It has been pivotal in many cognitive theories linking working memory to academic skills like reading comprehension and mathematics ability. In addition, research indicates that both Short Term Memory (STM) and Working Memory (WM) are instrumental in cognitive processing but that in bilinguals their roles are more complex than they are in monolinguals. This research explored the capacity of WM and the role of WM in reading comprehension and mathematical ability in two South African populations: a monolingual English group (L1) and a bilingual Afrikaans/English group (L2). No significant differences were found in the WM capacity of the two groups. In the second part of the study it was found that both reading comprehension and bilingualism depend on the same verbal domain resources of WM, which act as constraining factors for the L2 group. However, in the L1 group, there appeared to be less competition for verbal domain resources and more for visuospatial resources probably due to the phase of literacy acquisition these learners were in. In terms of WM and mathematical ability it was found that bilinguals exceed their storage capacity (STM) before they run out of processing capacity (WM). STM therefore is a constraining factor for this group. However, for the L1 group, visuospatial processing is the constraining factor. The research concludes that bilinguals use WM both for semantic processing of their nondominant language and for complex cognitive processing. While the WM capacity for monolingual and bilingual learners appears to be equivalent, the way the resources are allocated during cognitive tasks differ.