Journal Articles

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Browsing Journal Articles by Department "African Languages and Literatures"

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    Beyond 2000: Sharpening the focus on the indigenous languages
    (2008) Nyamende, Abner
    This article is intended to stimulate intense discussions on the issue of the indigenous languages in South Africa. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa stipulates that the South African indigenous languages are historically disadvantaged, and therefore extra effort should be applied to elevate their status and to advance their usage. The Bill of Rights stipulates that everyone has a right to use the language of his/her choice. This, therefore, means that the development of the indigenous languages is fully backed by our country's constitution. The Pan South African Language Board has given us correct guidelines towards developing our indigenous languages. In developing our indigenous languages we should observe language ownership, language diffusion and language empowerment.
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    Building freeways: piloting communication skills in additional languages to health service personnel in Cape Town, South Africa
    (BioMed Central, 2017-06-07) Claassen, Joel; Jama, Zukile; Manga, Nayna; Lewis, Minnie; Hellenberg, Derek
    Background: This study reflects on the development and teaching of communication skills courses in additional national languages to health care staff within two primary health care facilities in Cape Town, South Africa. These courses were aimed at addressing the language disparities that recent research has identified globally between patients and health care staff. Communication skills courses were offered to staff at two Metropolitan District Health Services clinics to strengthen patient access to health care services. This study reflects on the communicative proficiency in the additional languages that were offered to health care staff. Methods: A mixed-method approach was utilised during this case study with quantitative data-gathering through surveys and qualitative analysis of assessment results. The language profiles of the respective communities were assessed through data obtained from the South African National census, while staff language profiles were obtained at the health care centres. Quantitative measuring, by means of a patient survey at the centres, occurred on a randomly chosen day to ascertain the language profile of the patient population. Participating staff performed assessments at different phases of the training courses to determine their skill levels by the end of the course. Results: The performances of the participating staff during the Xhosa and Afrikaans language courses were assessed, and the development of the staff communicative competencies was measured. Health care staff learning the additional languages could develop Basic or Intermediate Xhosa and Afrikaans that enables communication with patients. Conclusions: In multilingual countries such as South Africa, language has been recognised as a health care barrier preventing patients from receiving quality care. Equipping health care staff with communication skills in the additional languages, represents an attempt to bridge a vital barrier in the South African health care system. The study proves that offering communication skills courses in additional languages, begins to equip health care staff to be multilingual, that allows patients to communicate about their illnesses within their mother tongues.
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    Sex differences in linguistic ability: a case for
    (Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, 2012-01-30) Gxilishe, Sandile
    Research indicates that sex’ determines the extent to which linguistic performance affects achievement. In a study undertaken by Liski and Puntancn (1983) aimed at determining the extent to which oral performance in spoken English is affected by variables which have been found to be related to achicvcmcnt, sex proved to be one of the most important variables in explaining differences in language skills. comparison between the girls’ and the boys’ distribution of marks revealed that the girls in their study were better than boys at matriculation level. A similar study was undertaken by the writer, concerning oral proficiency in Xhosa as a second language in schools under the Cape Education Department. A total of 159 pupils was tested, spread over three areas; the Western Cape, Port Elizabeth-Uitenhage and Border. Sex was one of the variables selected. Test results show some interesting findings in a situation where Xhosa is learnt. There was a statistically significant difference between the performance of females and males in important sections of the communicative test.