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Prof
Mncwango, Elliot Mthembeni
Department: General Linguistics
Research Interest(s): Syntax, Psycholinguistics, Language policy, Translation studies.
Active Research Project(s): Development of the speaking skill among high school learners. How the continued use of English-only instruction in Higher Education infringes students’ rights and perpetuates prejudice.
Active Community Engagement: Reading and writing club high school learners.
Biography: To be Added
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- South African tertiary education institutions generally treat literary studies as the core syllabus of English studies. This marginalises some students for whom English is a second language. This study attempted to establish a substantive theoretical explanation for the experiences of English as a Second Language (ESL) students when they engage with literary texts. The participants were thirty-four final-year Education students majoring in English at a rural-based comprehensive university. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews, structured interviews, elicited documents and focus group interviews. Data were analysed through coding, memo writing, and the constant comparative method during open, axial and selective coding phases. Key findings suggest that lexical impoverishment and text length result in students losing plot navigation. Genres yield differentiated experiences; for, example, in poetry students grapple with conflicting interpretations, plays are enjoyed for their brevity and dialogic nature. The portrayal of familiar cultural milieu facilitates the reading experience.
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- An analysis of the use of demonstratives in isiZulu (izabizwana zokukhomba) has shown that they go beyond the known deictic functions of demonstratives as used in other languages like English. In isiZulu, demonstratives tend to also denote specificity, a function normally performed by the definite article in English. This article, therefore, compares the functions of articles in English to those of demonstratives in isiZulu, with the aim to demonstrate the similarities in terms of use between the two languages. This added function of demonstratives, it is argued, may account for some of the errors in English second language learners’ use of articles, as evidenced by data from written exercises of learners whose first language isisiZulu. The findings suggest that second language learners of English tend to confuse articles because of the differences between the two languages, especially during their(learners’) interlanguage stage. Contribution: The article highlights a significant difference in the use of demonstratives between English and isiZulu due to the added function of specificity in isiZulu demonstrative (isabizwana sokukhomba) which is performed by the definite article in English. It also demonstrates how, without an article system, isiZulu can convey meaning like any language with an article system.
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- The study aimed to determine students’ perspectives on a shift from a dual-medium (English and Afrikaans) language policy to a monolingual (English-only) language policy at a University of Technology in South Africa and to establish whether the shift had any impact on student learning at the institution. The study used a quantitative method of inquiry, with a questionnaire used for data collection. The findings revealed that language-related challenges vary amongst students, and these can be categorised as low, medium and high language learning problems. The article concludes that the language policy shift does not reflect the multilingual nature of the country, student demographics or their language needs at the institution. Instead of addressing the real challenge facing the majority of students who speak Sesotho, it merely dropped a second medium of instruction (MOI), Afrikaans, instead of developing a dominant indigenous language (Sesotho) for educational use alongside English and Afrikaans.
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