Browsing by Author "McCormick, Kay"

Now showing 1 - 13 of 13
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    The assessment of undergraduate final year projects : a study of academic professional judgment
    (2003) Shay, Suellen; McCormick, Kay; Hall, Martin
    The premise of this study is that the assessment of student performance is an interpretive process. This raises a fundamental validity question: on what basis do academic communities evaluate the soundness of their interpretations? The central problem which this study explores is how academic assessors validate their interpretations of student performance on complex tasks. I explore this problem by focusing specifically on the assessment of final year undergraduate projects through two case studies of disciplinary communities of practice, one in the Humanities faculty and the other in the Engineering faculty of a South African university. Drawing on Bourdieu's theory of social practice on the one hand, and the methods of critical discourse analysis and ethnography on the other, I construct a theory and method of inquiry which illumines aspects of assessment as an interpretive process, aspects which have been obscured by traditional approaches to assessment. This analysis privileges the context of assessment, the inevitability of difference in assessment interpretations and the equally inevitable effects of power. My methodological approach identifies four elements which constitute social practice- social structure, conjuncture. event and text. These constitutive elements operationalize into a series of analytical stages which expose different aspects of social practice. My approach is consistent with Fairclough's method of critical discourse analysis, although I also include ethnographic methods.
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    English and Afrikaans in District Six : a sociolinguistic study
    (1989) McCormick, Kay; Lass, Roger
    This is a descriptive study of the use of English and Afrikaans in Cape Town's District Six - a large inner-city neighbourhood, first settled in the 1840s and, by the implementation of a series of laws, depopulated and almost entirely razed during the 1970s. Each language has a history of having been both a lingua franca and a home language in that area. As lingua francas, both languages were used instrumentally by large numbers of people who had little or no concern with the promotion and preservation of the standard dialects of the languages as a part of maintaining their own identity in the multilingual, multicultural context of the city. The effects of this can be seen in contemporary vernacular English and Afrikaans which differ markedly from the standard dialects, and, it can be argued, show linguistic signs of this long period of language contact. The history of language contact was reconstructed through the use of primary and secondary written resources and oral history records. The distribution of socio-economic power and privilege has not been equal among speakers of the two languages in South Africa as a whole. The cross-currents of discrimination and oppression have affected contemporary attitudes towards the two languages and their dialects in complex ways, producing some clear patterns but also ambivalence and contradictions. This thesis examines those aspects of the history of English and Afrikaans in District Six which have a bearing on current attitudes, practices and dialect features in the segment of District which escaped demolition. Interviews and observation were used to investigate the effects of that history and of geographic and socio-economic factors on the linguistic repertoire of the remaining section of the community.
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    An examination of positioning in editorials, business and sports commentaries in the Lesotho weekly newspaper, Public Eye
    (2007) Hala-Hala, Mokhoele Aaron; McCormick, Kay
    In this thesis I have examined positioning in editorials, business and sports commentaries in three issues of the Lesotho weekly newspaper, Public Eye. The study is premised on Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and selected approaches to media production so as to provide a sociopolitical and cultural context for textual analysis in the study. The study is organized into five chapters. Chapter 1 is an introduction which serves to give the background of this study with brief mention of CDA and media theory as the theoretical orientations of the study. Chapter 2 details the conceptual and theoretical context of the study. The chapter focuses on the approaches to media production and media genres, Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), CDA, and strategies of positioning. In Chapter 3, I describe the qualitative methodology on which my data collection and analysis were premised. For my analysis I used the CDA as well as Fairclough's three-dimensional model which I also supplement with metafunctions of SFL. In Chapter 4, I give some background to the newspaper from which my texts are drawn, and I analyze positioning in nine texts – three from each genre. My conclusive remarks draw on differences and similarities in the positioning strategies adopted in each genre. My findings reflect that Public Eye uses various linguistic markers of positioning and show the extent to which these are consistent with the theory explored in this study. Chapter 5 starts with a brief overview of the research, notes its limitations and comments on what I regard as the most interesting findings.
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    The female quest in the novels of Alice Walker
    (1987) Miles, Lesley Margaret Pears; Driver, Dorothy; McCormick, Kay
    This study is an examination of the development of the quest motif in Alice Walker's novels, from a male quest in the first novel, The Third Life of Grange Copeland, to the female quests which supersede it in the two later novels, Meridian and The Color Purple. In this analysis, brief reference is made to Walker's poetry, essays, and short stories, as well as to texts by black male writers and other Afro-American women writers.
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    How to keep the potjie boiling : a sociolinguistic study of intercultural communication in a Cape Town workplace
    (1999) Dippenaar, Carin; McCormick, Kay; Mesthrie, Raj
    The aim of this study was to investigate intercultural communication in a South African business setting. After initial observations at various companies, a Cape Town construction firm was chosen as the subject of study. It was hypothesised that the communication at the firm was successful. Successful communication includes various aspects: messages are communicated effectively and accurately, members of the company are made to feel secure, valued and motivated and there is no sense of discrimination or disrespect. Data was gathered (a) at meetings of the labour committee which represents the workers and (b) at site visits. All recordings but one were made using a tape-recorder with a large microphone designed for group recordings. The final meeting was video-recorded so that communicative cues such as eye gaze, facial expressions and gestures could be analysed. Data gathered was in English, Afrikaans and Xhosa with regular code-switching and mixing. English was the language used most frequently in meetings and communication in English was the main focus of this research. Interesting uses and common functions of Xhosa and Afrikaans are also discussed. Additional information about the company studied was obtained from interviews, company documents and Webber's (1997) MBA thesis which looks closely at the company's partcipative processes. Data was analysed in keeping with the concerns and methods of interactional sociolinguistics, a field which focuses on interaction between individuals. Brown & Levinson (1987) and Scollon & Scollon' s (1995) models of politeness and face theory and Myers-Scotton's social functions of code-switching were also particularly useful. Other theories which were of value were Fairclough's (1989) notions of language and power and Giles (1975. 1981) and his colleagues in social psychology's speech accommodation theon A background to business terms and concepts is provided for readers from other disciplines. Organisational structures, management styles and corporate culture, including the philosophy of Ubuntu (community spirit) are discussed. These terms and concepts are used to evaluate the success of the company and the role played by communication in this success.
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    Justificational narratives : what is the role of fear in Israeli narratives of war?
    (2004) Evans, Sasha; McCormick, Kay
    The body of this thesis contains two main parts. The first (section 3) is a critical linguistic analysis of a selection of political speeches (which I have called 'policy narratives') delivered by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in the period February 2002 - October 2003. I have sought, with reference to Aristotle and other writers on persuasion, to delineate the rhetorical devices employed by Sharon and his speechwriters, and to demonstrate that one of their most important functions is to contribute to and enhance the overall climate of fear among the Israeli people, for the furtherance of Sharon's own political goals. I focus primarily on the speeches surrounding and leading up to the March 2002 announcement of 'Operation Defensive Shield', which was described by Palestinians and international aid workers as the harshest military assault on the WBGS since the June 1967 Arab-Israeli war. After examining the policy narratives I provide another representation of the 'reality on the ground' experienced by the Palestinian population at the receiving end of Sharon's 'operations'. The second (section 4) is a linguistic analysis of the 'narrative of personal experience' of a civilian reservist - Moshe Nissim - who was recruited in April 2002, at the height of 'Defensive Shield', to drive a D-9 bulldozer through the West Bank's Jenin refugee camp. Nissim, who seems motivated by his own personal fears and failures, apparently sees in Jenin the long-awaited opportunity to redeem himself. Although he does not appear to have been inspired by the arguments and themes of Sharon's narratives, the overall atmosphere of fear and hatred that is legitimised and given weight by Sharon in his speeches, sets the stage for Nissim to act on his darkest urges and later to be considered by himself and others as a hero for having done so. I contend that Israeli right wing hegemony both feeds and is fed by fear.
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    Lectures in transition : a study of communicative practices in the humanities in a South African university
    (2009) Thesen, Lucia Katherine; McCormick, Kay
    The lecture is usually seen as an anachronism, out of step with contemporary trends in student learning and communication. However it remains a defining space in higher education, particularly in the first year experience. This study is a re-description of the lecture; it explores the tensions and silences that underlie what lectures do and mean in the lives of participants (both students with diverse language and educational histories, and their lecturers) in the humanities in a time of intense sociopolitical transition in a space envisaged as a contact zone, characterized by asymmetrical relations of power. It asks how participants engage with the communicative practices in and around lectures. Conceptually the study is rooted in the academic literacies field within the New Literacy Studies with its interest in the politics of student access to valued textual practices. The study draws from the following complementary traditions: a) theories of dialogic co-presence (Bakhtin, Goffman) that foreground how all communication is oriented to ‘the other’; b) social semiotics (Kress and van Leeuwen) with its emphasis on participants’ ‘interest’ – what social agents do, and how they make do, with available resources for meaning that include image, gaze and gesture, as well as spoken and written language; c) ritualization theory (Bell, McLaren), and how bodies mediate in practices.
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    Negotiating the ambivalent construction of 'coloured' identity, in relation to the work of Malika Ndlovu and the Cape Town-based Black Women's Writers Collective, WEAVE
    (2001) Tobin, Fiona; McCormick, Kay
    This dissertation focuses on the work of writers for whom the nature of 'Coloured' identity is a problematic issue. ('Coloured' is the Apartheid term used to describe people of mixed descent living in South Africa). I base my analysis of their writings around 'Coloured' identity in postcolonial theory, in order to examine constructions of self and other. Chapter one introduces the reader to the Black woman writer, Malika Ndlovu and the collective Women's Education and Artistic Voice Expression (WEAVE), of which Malika Ndlovu is a founder member. Chapter two uses a postcolonial lens to discuss constructions of identity. This chapter looks at the ways in which postcolonial theorists oppose Europe and the West as the centre, and the Third World as the periphery to that centre. I contextualise the manner in which Ndlovu and WEAVE reject and subvert ideas of self and other in accordance with postcolonial theory. This chapter also deals, with Ndlovu's rejection of feminism in so far as it is a Western construct, speaking on behalf of all women. It concludes with the claim that postcolonial theory sheds light on a unique dimension in South African history, namely the ways in which colonialism and Apartheid created the category 'Coloured' for those who did not fit into the polarised Black and White division (which can be found in all colonised countries). Chapter three gives a brief history of the developments of and resistance to concepts of 'Coloured' identity. In chapter four, I examine the relationship Malika Ndlovu has to the label 'Coloured' which was designated to her at birth; her rejection of such a label, and her chosen African identity. Chapter five examines WEAVE's collective writings. This chapter explores the ways in which the writers' work falls within the ambit of postcolonial literature, looking specifically at how they respond to colonial and Apartheid discourses. A brief concluding chapter summarises the main points and observations emerging from this paper, and indicates to evidence of the writers' ambivalence towards 'Coloured' identity.
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    Temporal representation in narratives of forced removals : a narrative analysis of life story texts
    (2005) Bennett, Bonita; McCormick, Kay
    In this thesis I have examined the life stories of three victims of forced removals. It is based on an understanding that there is much that we can learn from the lives of 'ordinary people' and that the oral medium is a rich source of understanding other aspects of society. Chapter 1 sketches the background of this study, and the socio-political context within which it has grown. In the main theory section (chapter 2), I provide a general overview of the tools of narrative-based discourse analysis which I have used for my work and lead into a consideration of theories of memory and time. I focus particularly on aspects of representation of time in narrative and explore the nature of traumatic memory in relation to this. In chapter four, my analysis draws attention to the different ways in which narrators make sense of the traumatic event in their lives. In fact, my analysis demonstrates that trauma shares fewer features with 'events' (as understood by Portelli, Ricouer and others), and seems to correspond more closely to an understanding of it as 'duration'. I conclude that the concept of linear time is not the organising principle in the narratives which I have examined, and that the forced removal has been a central occurrence around which the rest of life - and narrating about life is understood.
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    To see the world in its thusness: A reading of Gary Snyder's later poetry
    (1985) Martin, Julia; McCormick, Kay
    This thesis examines three collections of poetry by Gary Snyder: Regarding Wave, Turtle Island and Axe Handles. It studies these works as an exploration of what I call the sacramental question, namely, "What is it in the nature of reality that can finally sanctify human existence?" I am particularly interested in four aspects of Snyder's treatment of this question: (1) the significance given to epistemological and ideological assumptions; (2) the concept of "woman", and particularly "the Goddess"; (3) the nature of those experiences which are presented in the poetry as "sacramental"; and (4) the poetic forms by which Snyder's approach is articulated. My analysis comprises five chapters and three appendices. The first chapter outlines the questions which the thesis addresses, placing these in the context of work by other critics, and providing a brief account of Snyder's writings as a whole. The three central chapters study one collection of poetry each, in chronological order, referring where appropriate to Snyder's other writings and to the oriental and other sources by which his approach to the sacramental question is informed. The final chapter summarises my conclusions. This is followed by an appended diagrammatic illustration of the structure of two poems, a chronology, and a glossary of foreign terms. In the thesis I refer to Anthony Wilden's model of "oppositional relations" in his critique of an epistemology which he calls "biosocial imperialism". In examining Snyder's use of form, I use two models for metaphor: Roman Jakobsen's account of metaphor and metonymy, and a model of metaphor as semantic transfer proposed by Eva Kittay and Adrienne Lehrer. The title of the thesis points to the conclusions which my work proposes. Snyder's later poetry suggests that our existence may be sanctified in an act of perception where the most everyday object or experience, because seen as it is, "in its thusness.., is acknowledged as a sacrament. Such an act of mind implies a recognition of the self as participant in a system of interdependent things, which in turn requires a critical reassessment of Cartesian dualism, and of its ideological manifestations. "Woman as nature" is Snyder's primary image for the source of sacramental transformation, and for alternatives to the ideology of patriarchal-technological culture. More significantly, however, the image of the feminine simultaneously appears, in the form of the goddesses VAK and GAIA, as a metaphor for the biosphere, the "whole earth", and so for a metaperspective on dualistic oppositions. As such, Snyder's Goddess is more than the reverse image of a patriarchal God. With respect to form, the use of syntax, metaphor, metonymy and open forms seems generally appropriate in articulating these concerns. Unlike some other readers I find that Snyder's use of broadly metaphoric structures is an important aspect of the poetry.
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    Towards Marxist stylistics: incorporating elements of critical discourse analysis into Althusserian Marxist criticism in the interpretation of selected Zimbabwean fiction
    (2014) Chihota, Clement; Sole, Kelwyn; Dornbrack, Jacqui; McCormick, Kay
    The thesis - which locates itself at the interface between linguistic and literary studies - explores the possibility of developing a ‘Marxist- stylistic’ method of text interpretation, which primarily proceeds from Althusserian Marxist Criticism, but which also incorporates salient elements of Critical Discourse Analysis. In construction of the method, the thesis first investigates the need for Althusserian Marxist criticism to be mediated, and more specifically, the areas in which this mediation is required. The thesis then crosses over to the field of Critical Discourse Analysis where it identifies relevant theoretical and methodological resources that are capable of mediating the ‘gaps’ identified in Althusserian Marxist criticism. The construction of the Marxist stylistic method is then effected through the transfer of germane theoretical and methodological resources from Critical Discourse Analysis to Althusserian Marxist criticism. The distinctive properties of the emergent Marxist-stylistic method are delineated before the method is practically applied to the interpretation of at least four fictional texts – all written and set in Zimbabwe. The key outcome of the thesis is that a distinctive method of text interpretation, which meaningfully separates itself from Althusserian Marxist criticism, on the one hand, and Critical Discourse Analysis, on the other, emerges. The thesis concludes with a reflection on the application of the method and makes some suggestions for further research and development in the area herein labelled as ‘Marxist stylistics.’
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    Trying to make sense of the Trojan Horse incident: using historical documents to prompt discussion of politically sensitive issues in secondary schools in Cape Town
    (2003) Geschier, Sofie M M A; Young, Douglas; McCormick, Kay
    In this qualitative research, I hoped to get some impression of ways teachers and learners in five Cape Town schools deal with the process of making sense of a violent past. I offered five teachers material on the Trojan Horse Incident, partly generated by the TRC, and pondered the questions what for them and their learners is politically sensitive and how they position the people involved in the incident and how they position themselves. I understand by 'politically sensitive issues', issues centering on political and social divisions of the past and their ramifications in the present in this country. Applying a 'Foucaultian' approach to discourse analysis, I used the concepts 'indescribable' and 'undiscussable' as structuring categories, next to a differentiation between the discourse of classroom talk, and informal discourses outside the classroom situation. I also differentiated between the sense making processes of teachers, being part of a generation that lived through Apartheid, and of learners, the 'new' generation who didn't have that experience. The results of this research are: Firstly, teachers and learners in the five schools positioned themselves, the people involved in the incident and the researcher through dynamic practices of in- and excluding (shifting between 'us' and 'them') and of past and present framing (shifting between past and present tenses). Both groups seem to prefer to position themselves as 'observers'. In most classes, most of the time was spent on how exactly the Trojan Horse Incident took place (when, where, which tactics the policemen used, consequences,). Moral questions ('why' questions) were left for the end of the period or left implicit. Secondly, there was not a lot of space during classroom interactions for emotions and personal stories. The power/knowledge structure of the discourse of schooling seemed to be very strong, although it was also a matter of personal choices by teachers and learners. An 'official' image of Apartheid, with clear differentiations between victims and perpetrators prevailed. Personal stories were only situated in formal discourses of schooling before or after the actual lesson (learners speaking with the teacher about their personal experiences of or reactions to violence) or when 'others' were present, be it learners from 'another' community than the majority of learners and the teacher, or be it the researcher. Thirdly, a discourse of reconstructing personal histories and identities had more space in informal discourses (for example learners talking to one another during breaks) and during interviews with me. South African youth might have (similar to German and Irish youth) a 'fatigue' towards 'official', 'consensus' knowledge of the past and they might not to be able or not want to make sense of the 'wall' of silenced personal stories of those who have experienced the conflicts in the past. Fourthly, 'sensitive issues' were mostly expressed outside the classroom interactions. These were violence in past and present; moral stances towards violence and responsibility; schooling (teaching but also disciplining); and stereotypes people have of 'other' South Africans and the separate lives they have.