Browsing by Author "Guzula, Xolisa"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    'Heteroglossia in IsiXhosa/English bilingual children's writing: a case study of Grade 6 IsiXhosa Home Language in a Township School
    (2020) Matutu, Samkelo Nelson; Mckinney, Carolyn; Guzula, Xolisa
    The South African constitution recognises 11 official languages, of which isiXhosa is one. IsiXhosa belongs to the Nguni language family which also comprises of isiZulu, isiNdebele, and siSwati. IsiXhosa is mostly spoken in the Eastern and Western Cape Provinces. Those that regard isiXhosa as their home language (HL) are referred to as amaXhosa. However, as a teacher of isiXhosa HL, I have observed that there is often a mismatch between the isiXhosa used by the students and the one used in the schooling context. Thus, this study explores and investigates the written language varieties Grade 6 isiXhosa HL students use in their formally assessed and informal writing. The theoretical framework used in this study reviews literature on discourse/language and literacy as social practice, language ideologies and identity, heteroglossic and translingual practices, as well as primary school children's writing in South Africa to understand the complexities of students' language varieties. Moreover, this study explores the way in which the isiXhosa HL students represent their varied language resources through use of a language body portrait. Further, issues of language standardisation in relation to children's literacy are also reviewed. This study takes the form of qualitative case study in design. Students' Formal Assessment Task (FATs), language body portrait and informal paragraph writing about their linguistic repertoire were collected and analysed. Data analysis revealed the following themes: language ideologies, linguistic repertoires, use of urban and everyday language varieties, Standard Written isiXhosa (orthography), language borrowings, as well as unconventional spellings. Themes and categories are intensively analysed in Chapters four and five of this study. This study displays evidence of hybridity and fluidity of named languages, as well as heteroglossic practices that the students employ. Analysing the students' writing was effective in helping understand how bi/multilinguals engage in writing and that, while the adopted curriculum approach to language and FAT is monoglossic, children's writing is heteroglossic (see also Bakhtin, 1981; Krause and Prinsloo, 2016). The implications of teaching languages as bounded, fixed and separate entities are explored and problematized. Chapter six of this study concludes the study and offers recommendations that are important for deliberation when teaching writing in isiXhosa/African language contexts.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    Interactive reflective journal writing as a tool for mentoring and teacher professional development : a case study
    (2011) Guzula, Xolisa; McKinney, Carolyn
    This dissertation explores interactive reflective journal writing as a tool for teacher professional development and mentoring. The aim of this case-study is to ascertain whether and how one grade two teacher's practice developed as a result of keeping an interactive reflective journal during the process of on-site coaching.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Open Access
    Komiesa ko speel: Heteroglossia and Multimodality in bilingual children's play in a pre-school space
    (2023) Daniels, Sharon; Guzula, Xolisa
    This study examines teachers' and parents' language ideologies which in turn influence the choices about languages they choose for socialising young emergent bi(multi)linguals and determining their identities. It also explores bi(multi)lingual children's heteroglossic practices and multimodal communication in their play in a pre-school setting and contrasts them with the teacher's language and literacy practices. The first part of this theoretical framework examines language ideologies such as monoglossia, monolingualism, Anglonormativity and raciolinguistic ideologies and how these position children as language learners. These ideologies are juxtaposed against the concept of heteroglossia to highlight how a paradigm shift offers a different way in which we could position children. The second part explores language and literacy as social practice from the NLS theoretical conceptualisation including, orality, multimodality and materiality and their relevance for children's language and literacy development and their personal development in general. It also draws on the sociocultural theory of Vygotsky with particular reference to playing and learning and concepts such as mediation, scaffolding, the Zone of Proximal Development (the ZPD) and self-regulation. The combination of these two strands of sociocultural theory enables one to understand the holistic development of children as the concepts encompass a greater spectrum of not only the children's sociocultural doings, communication and interaction with the environment but also how it affects how they are taught and how they learn. The research methodology encompassed working within language and literacy as a social practice and the research design for this study was implemented as an exploratory, descriptive, interpretive and qualitative case study that draws on linguistic ethnographic data collection and analytic tools. Thus, it is not a full ethnographic study but draws on the important tenets of ethnography. The research reveals that language ideologies of monoglossia, monolingualism, Anglonormativity and raciolinguistics are practised and propagated daily even though colonialism and apartheid have been seemingly abolished. Furthermore, it has shown that standardised languages are promoted and have a value attached to them as well as the belief that should people master said languages, their economic and social status would improve. One of the consequences of these ideologies is foregrounded through the conflict experienced by the participants as, due to the negative attitudes towards Kaaps, they do not want to be perceived as uncultured and uneducated. That teachers socialise the children to conform to school rules and are sometimes prescriptive in their pedagogy, which stifles their language development and communicative ability, has been illustrated in this study. It also shows how the children rebel against the stringent orderliness of the rigours of classroom practice when they are released to play is depicted. Moreover, the enormous value of play to children's holistic development highlights how it is irreplaceable for young children's development. The study challenges the view that some languages or vernaculars are superior to others and argue for opportunities to incorporate the concept of Heteroglossia to offer a different way in which we could position the children. Also, multilingualism should be embraced and normalised in communities and schools and not be relegated to demarcated spaces of usage. I also argue for a greater understanding of the children's language and literacy learning and how it is embedded in their daily socio-cultural ways to inform pedagogy from below. As children are accomplished at play, this activity should be encouraged, as opposed to it being restricted or used only as a reward. Furthermore, as play has been increasingly substituted by teacher-led academic instruction, it is important to research this aspect of pedagogy to try a find a balance. Lastly, this study highlights how important it is to listen to, observe and involve children in their development so that they are not overlooked and simply assimilated into the adult way of doing things.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Open Access
    Language ideologies and Stakeholder responses to the proposed implementation of Mother Tongue-Based Bilingual Education in Grade 5 Natural Science.
    (2025) Leeuw, Ignacious; Guzula, Xolisa
    This study investigates Grade 5 natural science teachers', learners and parents' language ideologies and responses towards Mother Tongue Based Bilingual education that has been proposed by the Department of Basic Education starting in 2025. First, it probes teacher's linguistic repertoires, their understandings of bi/multilingual education and their responses to the minister's proposition of Mother Tongue Based Bilingual Education (MTBBE) for 2025. Secondly, it investigates learner's linguistic repertoires and probes how bi/multilingual learners use their linguistic repertoires as resources for meaning making to engage with the curriculum. Lastly, it examines parents' language ideologies and responses to Mother Tongue Based Bi/multilingual education. The study draws on language as a social practice theoretical framework, dominant language ideologies, as well as alternative concepts such as heteroglossia, linguistic repertoires, multilingual repertoires, language as a resource and translanguaging to challenge monoglossic as well as anglonormative ideologies which position learners with multiple language resources as deficient. The research design and methodology comprise of an interpretivist and qualitative approach which involved purposive sampling of participants to gather their linguistic repertoires and language ideologies and responses to the proposed MTBBE. Thus, the research focuses on people's experiences, languages uses and ideologies about the MTBBE phenomenon. The main data collection tools were interviews and questionnaires. The findings of the study reveal that language ideologies such as monoglossia, monolingualism and anglonormativity are imbedded in learning materials provided in school and formal assessments administered by the schools. Furthermore, it shows that colonial ideologies of some teachers and learners continue to be a stumbling block for African language speaking learners who come from linguistically hybrid township environments where language diversity is a norm. However, not all teachers, learners and parents harboured these monoglossic and anglonormative ideologies. There were contrasting views from teachers, learners and parents who believe in the socio-economic emancipation that English provides yet asking for the promotion and resourcing of African languages as languages of teaching and learning alongside English. Teachers admit to teaching bilingually already, though this remains mainly in oral discourse. They welcome MTBBE as a new model for teaching bi/multilingual learners, if training and resources are provided. Furthermore, parents play a huge role in the promotion and preservation of African languages as they continue to speak their home languages with their children. Parents go to great lengths to translate mathematics and natural science contents from English to Setswana/isiXhosa and Afrikaans to their children and see the value of mother tongue based bilingual education (MTBBE). The study shows learners having multilingual repertoires, with the learners speaking between 2-5 languages. However, despite their self-reported multilingualism, the learners show a great preference for English over their first languages/mother tongue and as they have been socialised to believe that their African languages are not valuable enough to be resourced for content subjects such as natural science and that only standard English is acceptable. These ideologies have presented learners with negative perceptions towards African languages and is forcing them to choose English over their most familiar languages. However, there were a few learners who showed excitement about being taught in more than one language. The strength of the study has been in the way that the research questions were posed, not as a binary between African home languages and English as mediums of instruction, but in asking teachers, learners and parents about how they would feel, if education was to be provided in both HLs and English. The response has been overwhelmingly positive towards MTBBE than previous studies that have only focused on presenting the languages in opposition.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    The ‘four resources model' in South Africa: An analysis of an in-service teacher training intervention for literacy at foundation phase level and its uptake by teachers at a Cape Flats school
    (2020) Cairns, Deborah; Kell, Catherine; Guzula, Xolisa
    Despite a wide range of teacher training literacy interventions in South Africa at foundation phase level, literacy results have declined according to local and international tests. This research outlines the basis of these interventions and then compares them with a new teacher training intervention based on what has been called “the four resources model” (Luke and Freebody, 1990). This intervention, designed by a specialised teacher trainer and offered by a Western Cape based NGO, is currently taking place in some schools that have achieved poor literacy results at foundation phase and is sponsored by the Western Cape Education Department. The research outlines what an intervention based on the four resources model involves, where the approach is compatible with the CAPS specifications for literacy teaching and where it diverges from the CAPS, and explores how foundation phase teachers at one school respond to the intervention in their teaching. This programme has not yet been researched and is the only teacher intervention programme in South Africa that is based on the four resources model. It differs from other interventions because it emphasises the importance of meaning making and of writing (particularly shared writing) in literacy development, as well as the role of higher order thinking, as opposed to decoding and comprehension which are emphasised in the literacy curriculum and pedagogy and in other teacher intervention programmes. Data was collected through observations of teacher workshops and classroom visits of the teacher trainer, teacher trainer interviews, classroom observations and teacher interviews. Refracted through the reflections of the teacher trainer on her decades of experience in literacy training and on the current programme design, the analysis probes the value of experimenting with an enlarged understanding of literacy as outlined in the four resources model. It charts the ways in which teachers' understanding of literacy pedagogies slowly changes and adapts, revealing how teachers start to see the possibilities of creative engagement with text types, critical thinking, engagement with children's prior knowledge and linguistic resources. While the hope is that the intervention will improve tests scores, the research was not able to verify this since the timing of the intervention does not correlate with the systemic testing schedule and release of results, nor the next international benchmark tests. The research reveals that the four resources model intervention does emphasise higher order thinking skills, in contrast to other interventions, and that this could have a positive effect on the PIRLS tests results, in the schools where it is offered. It also shows that there are limitations to the four resources model, in that it does not address the inclusion of multimodal pedagogies nor does it consider the realities of multilingual classes in South Africa.