Faculty of Humanities (ETDs)

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    Investigation of complex multilingual practices of learners and teachers in a Johannesburg school
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-09) Matariro, Mariyeni; Makalela, Leketi
    This thesis investigates the experiences and affordances of using more than two languages for literacy development for Grade 8 learners in a Johannesburg multilingual school. It investigates how languages are used in the teaching and learning of multilingual senior phase learners and what this affords them in the development of literacy in selected subjects. Underpinned by the sociolinguistic view of literacy the study adopted translanguaging and Ubuntu translanguaging as both conceptual and theoretical frameworks. A Johannesburg high school was purposefully chosen as the research site. Adopting an ethnographic case study design a single class was purposefully chosen to participate in this study. Over a period of 16 weeks data was collected in the form of observations, semi structured interviews, metacognitive reflections, focus group discussions and mediated translanguaging. Three teachers who taught this class, Natural Sciences, English, and Social Sciences also took part in this study. Data was collected using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The collected data was analysed using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. In analyzing the collected data, the thesis demonstrated a huge mismatch between the learner’s language practices and the ways they are expected to use language in the school setting. The hegemony of the English language is overpowering even though the context is a rich multilingual space among both the teachers and the learners. This was evident in classroom language use, school notices, classroom display charts and the absence of any other language except English and very little Afrikaans within the school. Besides this, teacher practices indicated a huge monolingual bias which favors English even though both learners and teachers are fluent in the same languages that are not languages of the school. The study also demystifies the myth that learners do not want to be associated or to learn in their own languages. This cohort of learners who participated in this study demanded the use of their languages within the school for teaching and learning. However, for as much as the learners would want their languages included, they are not familiar with the orthography of the languages and as a result they cannot read or write in those languages. The study also found that translanguaging and UT are a good starting point for teaching learners with complex linguistic profiles. However, besides the work on UT there is very little translanguaging work that is informed by research carried out in Africa. Consequently, most translanguaging work refers to the use of two languages, a Western view that does not hold in this context. The study gravitates from this weak view of translanguaging and calls for further research for translanguaging work, which delves deeper into the realities of African contexts to understand and appreciate the pervasiveness of multilingualism in this context and leverage on it as a resource for teaching and learning.
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    Phonetic verbal fluency in Multilingual speakers
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Banjo, Hillary Pelumi; Ferreira-Correia, Aline
    Verbal fluency is a core neuropsychological function that assess a person's ability to locate precise information under specific search criteria. This study aimed to investigate the differences in performance of multilingual individuals who report English as their first language and individuals who report other languages as their first language on a phonemic fluency test assessed by the COWAT FAS. Whilst also investigating the influence of the covariates (age, gender, years of formal education, and code switching) on the performance of these individuals. To address these aims a sample of 60 participants were recruited through purposive and snowballing sampling. The results of the study revealed a statistically non-significant difference in the performance between multilingual individuals who report English as their first language and individuals who report other languages as their first language as well as a statistically non-significant (p >.05) difference in performance between males and females. The Spearman rho correlation revealed a significant correlation (p < .05) between the age of participants and their COWAT FAS total score, while a non-significant correlation was observed between the code switching of participants and their COWAT FAS total score. Similarly, the Pearson product correlation revealed a significant positive correlation between the years of formal education of participants and the COWAT FAS total score. Overall, this study provides fresh insight into the performance of multilinguals in South Africa as well as demographic factors that influence performance on this test which creates a foundation for more studies to be conducted on this topic.