Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies

The Dynamics of English in Namibia: Perspectives on an Emerging Variety (Varieties of English Around the World, G65)

2024-04-16T05:50:20+00:00

No abstract

Discourses, Modes, Media and Meaning in an Era of Pandemic: A Multimodal Discourse Analysis Approach

2024-04-16T05:53:33+00:00

No abstract

A critical view of National Senior Certificate examination discourse and First Additional Language writing tests

2024-04-15T16:29:43+00:00

Critical views on language testing have long pointed out that tests are not neutral and that the use of test results requires a deeper interrogation of who is assessed, in what language and to whose benefit. In South Africa, English, especially Standard English, creates a linguistic market where additional language (L2) students’ writing and English language proficiency are under constant evaluation. Various systemic tests since 1994 highlight students’ low English language proficiency, often resulting in negative discourses about their L2 proficiency and teachers’ pedagogy. However, a key factor missing in such a narrative is how writing test design and its corresponding examination discourse impact pedagogy and the required writer identities needed in post-school contexts. This study draws on systemic functional linguistics (SFL) to illustrate the relationship between L2 writing discourse in the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examination (2017–2019) and the writing requirements stipulated in the national curriculum. The findings reveal that narrow definitions of writing proficiency underpin the test items and that the assessment documents are unlikely to contribute to academic writing and discourse competencies in school or post- school contexts in South Africa.

The connotative meaning of the Xhosa word umlungu before and during the democratic era

2024-04-15T16:36:38+00:00

The meaning of umlungu is analysed as it evolved and assimilated many meanings around the start of colonialisation in South Africa and during the apartheid era. Colonialisation and apartheid psychologically persuaded black people to believe that anything better, rich and white in complexion was umlungu (a white person), and employers were mostly abelungu (white people). When they discovered that their fellow Africans acquired some of these attributes, they would call them abelungu abanyama, which means a black, white man. This article, using a qualitative research methodology, will show that the word umlungu assimilated different meanings due to the circumstances that black people endured during colonialisation.

Typos in Addis Ababa: Analysis of typographical errors on posters and banners

2024-04-15T16:46:49+00:00

Errors have long been taken as an important source of insights into understanding a user’s performance of a task. Errors provide feedback; they tell publishers something about the effectiveness of their editorial process and give them evidence about the competence of editors. This study examined the typographical errors of posters and banners in Addis Ababa. It was with the view of developing an effective copy-editing framework by using inputs from the printing press organisations which have been engaged in graphic artwork designs and printing services, and their key customers. To arrive at the intended purpose, descriptive survey research was designed and four different instruments, i.e. documents (posters and banners with typos), interviews, focus group discussions and observation were employed. The results of the study reveal that the typos on posters and banners were related to omission, addition/insertion, transposition and lexical root errors. Of these typographical errors, lexical root errors occupied the highest position, followed by errors of omission. Errors of addition/insertion and substitution, however, occurred less frequently. Errors of transposition were the least frequent of all types of typos. A lack of copy editors’ professional competence, a deprived systemic approach to publishing posters and banners, the absence of standards for publishing posters and banners and the duration of usability of posters and banners were also identified as the major causes of typographical errors. Finally, based on the findings, the
study suggested possible intervention packages.

Identity development and practices in the Kano Kantin Kwari business community in Nigeria

2024-04-15T16:53:51+00:00

Many studies on African communities tend to address how identities are embedded in peoples’ practices and cultures. However, little attention has been paid to the indigenous business communities in the African continent, particularly in Nigeria. The study is thus concerned with addressing this research gap from an interdisciplinary perspective using ‘community of practice’ (CoP) and ‘acts-of-identity’ frameworks to explore how participants develop, practise and negotiate identity in the Kano Kantin Kwari business community, Nigeria. Using qualitative ethnographic methods, five focus groups and 18 individual participants were selected through snowball sampling. The findings obtained offer social and pedagogical implications and reveal the significance of sociocultural, sociohistorical and sociopsychological backgrounds in projecting, focusing and diffusing identities. For the most part, macro influences and micro practices determined members’ negotiation of their identities. Despite the ethnographic fieldworker’s constraints, this study provides implications for similar under-represented and muffled communities as it reveals how identity – as an ongoing phenomenon – is socially constructed, developed and practised.

The metamorphoses in the exposition of certain isiXhosa words

2024-04-15T17:03:23+00:00

This article employed a historical and political theory to argue for the metamorphoses in the exposition of randomly selected isiXhosa words for the very reason that some semantic meanings in the isiXhosa domain have undergone an evolution. Qualitative research methodology and the two theories operate in a relationship to underline the historical meanings of certain isiXhosa words, and how political forces influenced their evolution. During the discourse, it becomes evident that semantic shift in the isiXhosa language occurs for various reasons other than political factors and through different processes. The final argument suggests that there is a gap in the paradigm of isiXhosa linguistics. Such a task is facing isiXhosa linguists and ought to be contested.

Assessing the effect of duration of exposure to academic writing on university students in the use of conjunctive cohesive devices in academic writing: A case study at Mkwawa University College of Education

2024-04-15T17:11:03+00:00

This study sought to assess the effect of duration of exposure on students’ use of conjunctive cohesive devices in their academic writing. This was attained by comparing first- and third-year students majoring in the English language at the Mkwawa University College of Education. There were 40 study participants in total (20 from each year of study) and were randomly selected, having consented to take part in the study. Each was given a written task requiring them to answer an argumentative essay within 60 minutes. The students were asked to use 30 conjunctive cohesive devices classified by Halliday and Mathiessen (2014) into additive, adversative, causal and temporal types. The findings revealed that both first- and third-year students used additive and causal types correctly compared to temporal and adversative types. However, third-year students did better than first-year students in the types which were mostly used by both groups, suggesting that the longer they are exposed to academic writing, the more likely it is that written proficiency will improve. The conclusion drawn is that these university students have yet to master the mechanics of text connection through conjunctions, and we recommend extra effort be made in the teaching of conjunctions to achieve the proficiency level required of students.

Pragmatic functions of deixis in Nigerian newspaper editorials

2024-04-15T17:19:33+00:00

The focus of this study is on the pragmatic functions of deixis in selected Nigerian newspaper editorials. It aims at identifying and classifying the occurrence of deixis in the editorials. This includes finding the most dominant type of deixis in the text and analysing the reasons behind the use of these types of deixis according to the context and their contributions to cohesion and coherence in the text. This is qualitative research, in which the process of data analysis involved organising the editorials as raw data for categorisation, based on the three types of deixis identified by Levinson and which were employed in the 12 editorials selected for analysis. Data for the analysis hinged on Halliday and Hasan’s theory of cohesion which focuses on how linguistic items, of which a text is composed, are meaningfully connected to one another in a sequence on the basis of the grammatical rules of a language.

L1 influence on stress placement by English language teachers in Anambra State (Nigeria)

2024-04-15T17:25:36+00:00

Despite the availability of a number of studies on stress in Nigerian English, scant attention has been paid to patterns of stress placement in connected speech by Anambra State English language teachers, especially insights that are supported with acoustic evidence. Bearing in mind this gap as well as their training in the language and its expected standardising role, this study describes the patterns that characterise stress assignment to words in the context of connected speech by Anambra State English language teachers, while tracking possible L1 influence. A short passage which was read by 50 Anambra State teachers and audio-recorded, in addition to naturally occurring classroom speech, constitute the data. The analysis, which was done perceptually and acoustically, shows that when placed against the constitutionally mandated patterns of Standard British English (SBE), the teachers have variable and unstable stress placement patterns on words in connected speech. They produced stressed syllables with higher F0, intensity and duration than SBE. Out of the 50 participants, only 21% had patterns that are close to SBE, while L1 influence was evident in 79% of the participants. This evidence does not support the continuous exonormative role of SBE for Nigerian English.

Articles in Zimbabwean English: A corpus-based analysis

2024-04-15T17:34:19+00:00

This study investigated the usage frequency of articles in the Zimbabwean English (ZE) corpus and the International corpus of English Great Britain (ICE-GB) for British English (BrE) to determine whether there are variations between the two corpora. A log- likelihood test was used to determine whether the observed variations were statistically significant. In addition, eight morphosyntactic features that are reported to show variation by Kortmann, Lunkenheimer and Ehret (2020) were used to determine whether innovation and nativisation occur in ZE and to ascertain the stage of ZE in the dynamic model (DM). A comparative analysis revealed statistically significant variations in the normalised frequency (per 10 000 words) of the indefinite article, with the ICE-GB recording a higher normalised frequency. Regarding the zero article, the normalised frequency was higher in the ZE corpus compared to the ICE-GB. There were no significant differences in the usage frequencies of the definite article in the two corpora. The findings indicate that the eight features belong to different categories from A to D. Data analysis showed that ZE is at stage 2 of the DM because features 62, 63 and 65 existed, but were extremely rare, and at stage 3 since feature 67 was neither pervasive nor extremely rare.

Connecting lexical bundles and moves in medical research articles’ Methods section

2024-04-16T05:42:15+00:00

This study employs a corpus-driven approach to identify the four-word lexical bundles in the Methods section of 1 000 medical research articles (MRAs) from ten leading medical journals representing ten medical sub-fields. The bundles are first structurally and functionally analysed and further connected to rhetorical moves to fill the form-function gap of lexical bundle studies. Results showed that, structurally, the Methods section is dominated by clausal bundles (types and tokens). Functionally, the Methods section is dominated by research-oriented bundles (types and tokens). Our analysis of the bundle-move connection in the Methods section showed that all move-specific bundles (i.e. bundles occurring in only one move) are strongly associated with the rhetorical function
of the moves they occurred in, while most cross-move bundles (i.e. bundles occurring in multiple moves) seem to display no clear associations with moves. In addition, the structural and functional analysis of move-specific bundles and cross-move bundles showed apparent structural and functional similarities. Our study may have valuable pedagogical implications for medical academic writing.