Browsing by Author "Esterhuyse, Jan"

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    A critical analysis of the linguistic and educational challenges facing Border-straddling speech communities, with special reference to the Nyanja-Chewa-Mang'anja cluster of Southeastern Africa
    (2003) Nkhoma-Darch, Agnes Georgina Che-Jika; Esterhuyse, Jan
    The dissertation argues for the adoption of a new socio-linguistic concept, the "Border-Straddling Speech Community" in place of the more commonly used 'cross-border' or 'trans-border languages'. The concept is to be understood to refer to socially defined speech communities divided by political borders, and implicitly in Africa almost always applies to perceived 'minority' languages. Such African languages are partially invisible, disguised or hidden by the arbitrary nature of the colonial borders of African states. The dissertation examines some European and some African examples of border-straddling speech communities and identifies some of their typical characteristics. The fractured Nyanja-Chewa-Mang'anja speech community of Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique is examined in detail, in terms of its history and its present educational potential. The language is also spoken in Tanzania and Zimbabwe. In this case, the total number of speakers, although spread across five countries, would justify the wider use of the language in education if meaningful inter-state co-operation could be achieved. Finally the dissertation discusses the possible application in Africa of an educational policy favouring mother tongue education across state borders.
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    Curriculum 2005 and (post)modernising African languages : the quantum leap
    (1999) Mahlalela-Thusi, Babazile; Esterhuyse, Jan
    This study examines the status of ALs in the school context. In this thesis I argue that AL syllabi and textbooks are not at the same cognitive, affective and psycho-social level as their English counterparts. The important role of the mother tongue as a powerful platform for cognitive and psycho-social development of the African child is also discussed. My argument is that the low status of the ALs is visible in the textbooks that are in schools. With the introduction of the new Curriculum, there arises a need to write new AL textbooks. As the expertise is lacking among AL speakers to write postmodern textbooks as envisaged by Curriculum 2005, I propose a collaboration between AL and English practitioners as a necessary and feasible transitory step in the development of new AL textbooks.
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    Exploring the role of the postmodern feminist voice in the development of the school language text
    (1997) Perumal, Juliet Christine; Esterhuyse, Jan
    Commencing with an abbreviated herstorical review of the various strands that comprise feminism's rich tapestry, this study proceeds with an enquiry into the postmodern feminist challenge against patriarchal ideological extravagances that have valorized Enlightenment significations of knowledge. Building on the postmodern feminist insight, that the discourses that constitute women as deficit Other permeate every aspect of the social configuration, language as a social and cultural construct is examined with a view to ascertaining the extent to which it has aided and abetted in the definition, deprecation and exclusion of women and our realities in a male supremacist society. In surveying the sexual/textual pedagogic terrain, the study proceeds from the premise that texts as cultural artifacts are crucial in the transmission of cultural attitudes, values, and the construction of gendered identities. Exploring the Communication, Literacy and Language component of the Outcomes-Based Learning document, and the interim core English second language syllabus, currently at the centre of educational debate, the study attempts to show that despite the documents' rhetoric to promote gender sensitivity and inclusivity, their allegiance to androcentric multilingual and multicultural concerns entrench phallogocentric binarism, thus making them complicit in furthering patriarchal ideology. The study concludes with a few recommendations for further research in the area of feminist pedagogy.
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    Language education and national identity : a comparative study of Flemish and Afrikaans L1-instruction materials since 2000
    (2003) Kusendila, Bénédicte; Esterhuyse, Jan; Cuvelier, Pol
    In an attempt to answer the question as to what views on national identity can be found in language textbooks, this study examines the categories and nature of themes and situations that appear in a recent Flemish and Afrikaans language school textbook. Central to the study is the clarification as to which themes the situations and texts in these books are linked. Since 1991, a gradual political move towards New Right has been made 'visible' through democratic elections with sweeping victories for right-wing parties. Halfway around the world, South Africa was gradually moving out of the Apartheid-era. With a democratic win for the African National Congress in the 1994 national elections, this period seemed to be closed and relegated into history. However, based on the assumption that traces of these socio-political developments and consequent evolutions should be found in recent textbooks, I set out on this study.
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    The language textbook in a post-apartheid education system
    (1994) Lague, Peter Ernest; Esterhuyse, Jan
    Using the English language textbook as its focal point, this study attempts to determine the extent to which educational publishers are in a position, through their practices, to assist in the transformation of South Africa. The centrality of language to both the creation of individual consciousness and to the shaping of society inform this investigation. Regarded as integral to these processes is the premise that education is the primary terrain into which language, and its fundamentally moulding potential, is locked. Furthermore, the impact of not only the transition in south Africa, but also of the fluidity of the wider global backdrop on both language and education are acknowledged as crucial influences on all spheres of private as well as public life. In this context, the study endeavours to locate and define those elements which comprise and inform the practices of educational publishing. It attempts to demonstrate that the broader socioeconomic, political, educational and cultural processes, from which educational publishing takes its signals, severely restrain its capacity for participation in social transformation. The study concludes with some recommendations for the publishing of English language textbooks in a post-apartheid terrain, and suggests a few areas of research pertinent to such an undertaking.
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    Language variation in the Transkeian Xhosa speech community and its impact on children's education
    (1993) Nomlomo, Vuyokazi Sylvia; Esterhuyse, Jan; Gxilishe, D S
    This study investigates language variation in the Transkei Xhosa speech community, focusing on the different dialects spoken in this geographical area and their impact on the education of children. As the study focuses on children's education, it is hypothesized that there is a possible correlation between the dialect spoken and the student's academic achievement and life's chances. It is the sociolinguistic view-point that there exists an intimate relationship between the relative status of a speaker's language and his socio-political status. The Transkeian Xhosa speech community comprises various tribes with different speech patterns (i.e. Gcaleka, Bomvana, Tembu, Cele, Ntlangwini, Baca, Hlubi, Mpondo, Xesibe). In the educational context some of these speech forms are labelled as dialectal or as deviations from the norm and therefore stigmatised. This implies that children enter the school setting as winners or losers depending on the dialect or variant they speak.
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    Looking again : a critical reappraisal of visual literacy in the curriculum
    (2001) Moore, Heather; Esterhuyse, Jan
    In this study I examine the concept of visual literacy and the way it is incorporated into, and interpreted by Curriculum 2005, from the perspective of the educational illustrator. In order to come to a better understanding of the notion of visual literacy, I explore the extensive body of literature on this topic, from which it is evident that there is little consensus regarding an academic understanding of visual literacy. An analysis of the way the notion of visual literacy is interpreted and implemented by Curriculum 2005 reveals a considerable lack of clarity on the part of curriculum designers. One of the main reasons for this is the problematic use of a "literacy" analogy in their engagement with the visual mode.
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    Rethinking the African language curriculum (with special reference to SiSwati) : a theoretical and empirical study
    (2005) Mahlalela, Babazile; Esterhuyse, Jan; Hannon, Peter
    The field study based on a questionnaire, classroom observation and a range of interviews with government officials and teachers confirmed a deeply negative attitude towards the way SiSwati is being taught, resulting in negative attitudes towards the language itself. Other findings pointed to a resistance to the cultural content of the curriculum as dictated by the power elite in Swaziland, the outdated emphasis on linguistics rather than sociolinguistics as an informing discipline and the absence of social and negative literacy skills embedded in subject content. The field study reflects an overall climate of despondency governing the teaching and learning context.
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    School textbooks and teachers' choices : a contextualizing and ethnographic study
    (1997) Reynolds, Mary Jane; Esterhuyse, Jan
    This study provides evidence that most teachers choose their class textbooks haphazardly and without evaluating them. As a result, bad textbooks are as likely to be chosen and to succeed commercially as good ones are. One consequence of this is that many publishers and authors continue to get away with producing bad textbooks. The study begins by describing the context in which school textbooks are chosen. It gives an overview of the textbook's role, and concludes that it is an indispensable part of an effective education system, especially where other resources are lacking. The study then considers the degree to which South African textbooks fulfil their roles; it concludes that most textbooks in schools are poor, many being incomprehensible to their audiences, but attention is also drawn to some positive textbook development that has taken place. The study next considers how and why so many poor textbooks have been selected by educators: it summarises the part played by education departments and publishers, and reviews the state of textbook evaluation as a discipline. It concludes that South African educators are poorly equipped to evaluate and select textbooks. Against this background, the study describes an investigation of how teachers select textbooks for their classes. The findings are that choice is haphazard and that evaluation, in the rare instances when it takes place, is usually unsystematic and superficial. In conclusion, the study recommends that research into textbook development is done to provide a theoretical framework for effective evaluation, and that training and other support in textbook evaluation for teachers is established to improve selection practices. The study hypothesises that the resulting demand from a broad base of well-informed textbook-selectors in schools will give authors and publishers a more powerful incentive than any other pressures can to produce materials that withstand systematic, critical and wise evaluation.
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    The teaching of oral literature in Swazi secondary schools : a critique
    (2000) Dlamini, Phindile Alice; Kaschula, Russell; Esterhuyse, Jan
    The significance of oral literature as a container for communal wisdom in the past cannot be overemphasized. The attitudes of society, particularly the older generation towards it is testimony of its relevance in Swazi traditional society. Oral literature was highly regarded in traditional education because it was believed to mould morally sound citizens as well as encapsulating the essential values of the community. This study is an investigation of the problems and challenges facing the teaching and learning of oral literature in Swaziland's contemporary secondary schools. The nature of the problems is distilled from the interviews conducted on both learners and teachers concerning their attitudes and views to the teaching and learning of this subject.