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Copyright of Linguistics Vanguard is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article serves to fill a theoretical lacuna in African language literary scholarship. To date there have been very few literary geographic analyses related to South African literature and there are none that deal with African language literature. The purpose and objective of this article is to apply theoretical aspects of literary geography to an isiXhosa novel, Ingqumbo Yeminyanya. This novel, written by AC Jordan is perhaps the best known and most widely read and translated novel written in isiXhosa. The authors of this article aim to contribute to postcolonial studies by reading the novel of A.C. Jordan spatially, using Hones's conceptual framework of the novel as a spatial event, considering the complex relationship between the author, the text, and the readers. The background of the author and the historical circumstances that surround the writing of the novel are also explored to see how Jordan's own spaces are reflected in the novel through characterization and other techniques. The core focus of the article lies in the descriptions and relationship to real or imaginary or in-between spaces and places in relation to the research question, namely how space and places are depicted in Ingqumbo Yeminyanya, as part of the spatial event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This article critically examines the nature of isiXhosa translations in mathematics learning materials, specifically focusing on the doubling and halving unit within the ‘South African Grade 3 Mental Starters Assessment Project (MSAP): Teacher Guide’. Teaching in home languages is encouraged in the Foundation Phase, but unfamiliar standardised isiXhosa translations in support materials often contain barriers to understanding and/or distortion in meaning. Aim: The article addresses three questions: (1) To what extent is there fidelity and alignment of the translated isiXhosa materials to the original mathematical meaning? (2) To what extent do the selected terms align with the everyday isiXhosa that learners are accustomed to? (3) What are the implications for future translation of such materials? Setting: Analysis of the isiXhosa translation of a doubling and halving teaching unit and adapted translation for use in a Grade 3 classroom in the Eastern Cape. Methods: This qualitative research uses Toury’s Descriptive Translation Studies theory. Results: The findings highlight several ambiguities and incoherent translations. The article advocates for a comprehensive approach to translation, emphasising the importance of maintaining conceptual fidelity and clarity. Conclusion: The authors suggest the need for transliteration techniques in translations to support teacher and learner access to mathematical sense-making. Contribution: This research provides insights for translators of materials and implications for teachers, proposing an approach to translation. In particular, it argues that the involvement of Foundation Phase teachers in the translation of such materials is crucial.

Abstract Background This paper investigates the perceptions of medical interns regarding the usefulness of non-mother tongue communication skills taught during the undergraduate curriculum at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. In 2003, the university decided to incorporate Afrikaans and IsiXhosa communication skills into the new MBChB curriculum in order to meet the Faculty of Health Sciences goals to promote quality and equity in healthcare, and to prepare graduating health practitioners for multilingual communities where they would be serving. Despite annual internal evaluations and reviews of the languages courses, the usefulness, if any, of the additional languages in the working clinical environment had not been determined. Methods Data were collected during the second year of medical internship across a five-year period through survey questionnaires, as well as focus group interviews conducted in the Western Cape, South Africa. Surveys were conducted from 2009 to 2013. Results The study shows that the usefulness of each of the probed categories was not consistent across both languages. The interns expressed a need for an overall improvement of the isiXhosa course offering, while the outcomes for the Afrikaans language were more positive across all categories except for cultural understanding. Conclusion The study indicates a positive trend amongst the interns towards developing usefulness in communication skills in Afrikaans and isiXhosa to communicate with their patients.

Background: Lexical properties such as orthographic neighbours have been shown to have an influence on reading and writing; however, this phenomenon is yet to be explored in the Southern Bantu languages. Objectives: We investigate the role of orthographic neighbourhood density and neighbourhood frequency in reading and spelling in Grade 3 isiXhosa home-language learners. The aim is to establish whether orthographic neighbours facilitate or hinder reading and spelling. The dual-route model of orthographic processing is used to interpret our findings. Method: Data were collected from 97 Grade 3 isiXhosa home-language learners. Lexical decision, word reading, and spelling tasks were administered. Tasks included both real and pseudowords varying in orthographic neighbourhood density and neighbourhood frequency, while controlling for word length and word frequency. Results: Findings show a significant inhibitory effect of orthographic neighbourhood frequency and word length for spelling accuracy. Longer words with higher frequency neighbours were more likely to be spelt incorrectly. No effect was recorded for the lexical decision and word reading tasks. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that spelling in isiXhosa relies partially on lexical processing strategies, which allows for the inhibitory effects of orthographic neighbours to be observed. While in reading, sublexical processing is more prominent, therefore mitigating the effect of orthographic neighbours. Contribution: Empirical evidence for the effects of orthographic neighbours, specifically in a Southern Bantu language, provides a clearer picture of the underlying cognitive-linguistic processes involved in reading and writing. This evidence may contribute to the development of targeted pedagogical practices to address spelling errors.

Learners in Umzimkhulu identify as amaBhaca and speak isiBhaca at home and with friends. However, at school, they use isiXhosa as a home language (HL) and first additional language (FAL). This article examines how isiBhaca influences isiXhosa in the educational space in Umzimkhulu. Research identified three schools across Umzimkhulu through which data were collected; using a qualitative approach, this article used document analysis and interviews for data collection. Data were gathered from 60 learners’ written essays and 6 teachers through semi-structured interviews. Findings revealed that isiBhaca influences written isiXhosa in Umzimkhulu. This was seen through the learners’ essays and teacher interviews. The conclusion of this study is that teachers should undergo standardised training on how to handle non-standard language speakers in class. At the same time, teachers should find a way of not disadvantaging learners who speak non-standard varieties and not encourage learners to develop negative attitudes towards their languages. Contribution: The contribution to the body of scholarship is the consideration of learners who speak dialects in the classroom and the view that teachers should be taught strategies to change their approach to teaching an HL. Teachers do not have to penalise learners for using non-standard languages, especially when they are non-standard varieties of the HL, which is mostly the standard language, but rather introduce them, for example, to the correct word in the standard language.

Copyright of Lexicographica is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The attempted erasure and inferiorisation of indigenous languages by the colonisers have robbed and continue to rob African people of the authority to self-define. As a result, numerous knowledge forms African languages transmit have disappeared or lost meaning. With vehement calls from African people, world over, to reclaim African ways of being, we have decided to explore the manner in which language is central to reclaiming of African healing practices. While colonialism managed to marginalise indigenous languages in colonised lands, these languages have not been completely erased and they could play a role in building Humanities literature, which is relevant to the experiences of Africans in conqueror South Africa. In this paper, we use the IsiXhosa expression of 'Ukucelwa ukuzalwa' to illustrate how ordinary African practices carry a spiritual meaning. We also illustrate how this concept loses meaning when it is translated into English. Ukucelwa ukuzalwa could be literally explained as a process of requesting blood relations yet the English translation turns the process into a bride price negotiation. This loss of meaning occurs when it is absorbed into the Western value system. Thus, there is a potential for epistemological dissonance at every attempt to translate from one language to another [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language extinction is not an idiosyncratic phenomenon as languages have unremittingly perished over centuries and continue to approach death - this denotes endangerment. Dialects are no exception to this. The reason for this challenge can be pinned on many factors such as politics, the economy and many other contributory determinants. Among these determinants, socioeconomic and sociopolitical occurrences are the dominating factors. What this article theoretically contests is that while languages have been perishing, the scrutinisation of language death is fairly new and for that reason, it stands to reason that scholarly investigations be undertaken in a bid to underscore challenges that exist around this phenomenon. Africa, in particular, has been largely affected by language death including some dialects due to colonialism and a compromised economy. Notably, language extinction in Africa has been predominantly caused by socioeconomic and sociopolitical influences, and in the current milieu, vestigial elements of colonialism exhibit aversion. Thus, the relevance and significance of this scholarly discourse rest on the reality that Africa is the most relevant continent for the study of language death given that it has continuously suffered language subjugation. Nevertheless, there seems to be less investigation around this subject. It is in the African context that reasonable predictions about language death can be generated today and tomorrow. Among other components, this scholarly discourse illustrates that it is not a matter of languages dying. Instead, this challenge affects Indigenous African Knowledge Systems (IAKS), identity and culture that is deeply ingrained in these languages. As one would recall, there is a direct interrelationship between language and culture. For instance, certain things can be conceptualised and contextualised through one's language. When one speaks of ulwaluko (amaXhosa traditional and customary male circumcision), for instance, it is the speakers of the isiXhosa language that can pragmatically comprehend the cultural significant meaning of ulwaluko beyond the superficial level. As a result of this, it is logical that language death is the death of people, and the death of people is the death of their language. There is a close interrelationship between language and people, and these two fragments are dependent. This article further demonstrates that language is either safe or approaching extinction or is extinct. This is significant to mention as it assists the government and scholars or policymakers in making meticulous decisions while attempting to develop languages through policies and governance. It is interesting to also note that, while the classification of different languages is made, the English language is considered safe as there is no empirical evidence that it would die. Comparatively, languages whose economy is relatively poor can be considered as languages that would extinct if no urgent action is taken. The initiation of this article is induced by a shred of shocking evidence that in the next century, 30% of the world's languages would have died. This does not exclude dialects that are embedded in these languages. In essence, there will not be any community that speaks these languages. It is still unclear which languages would have died but this article proposes and accepts that languages with a poor economy, heavy political violence and an education system that does not prioritise the learning and development of languages are at a high risk of dying out first. The scholarly significance of this article is mentioned. First, the contents of the article are written in the isiXhosa language adding yet another dimension to the development of indigenous languages at a scholarly level. Last, existing literature suggests that there is less investigation into the causes and discourses surrounding language extinction. Therefore, this article ought to be viewed and accepted as an attempt that adds innovative insights into knowledge creation. The concluding remarks indicate that there is a necessity for scholars to channel their attention to language death and begin to provide reasonable solutions to safeguard and develop the languages of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: One factor which is consistently highlighted in research on literacy is the lack of understanding of how literacy develops in the Southern-Bantu languages. In particular, little is known about spelling in the Southern-Bantu languages such as isiXhosa. Objectives: Through the use of an initial exploratory study and a conceptual replication study, we examined the relationships between reading, phonological awareness, and spelling in isiXhosa grade 3 learners. The initial exploratory study sought to describe the relationships between reading and spelling, and phonological awareness and spelling in a sample of 49 grade 3 isiXhosa learners. We then conceptually replicated this study with a larger sample of 200 grade 3 isiXhosa learners. We expected that both reading and phonological awareness would be related to spelling and that the strength of the relationship between reading and spelling, and phonological awareness and spelling would vary with spelling ability, due to the changes that occur in the development of spelling. Method: Cross-sectional, quantitative secondary data were used from two different projects to answer the research questions. Tasks of phonological awareness, oral reading fluency and spelling were developed and administered to the participants. Results: We found that reading was a replicable predictor of spelling for grade 3 isiXhosa learners and that phonological awareness was influential only at the mid-range of spelling performance. Conclusion: Our findings emphasise the importance of the reading – writing connection, and lend support for what has been found for other consistently written languages, adding to the growing body of knowledge of universal predictors of spelling development.

The current paper examines the unique contributions of phonological awareness (PA), rapid automatised naming (RAN) and morphological awareness (MA) to oral reading fluency (ORF) in isiXhosa. No published study has yet explored the individual contributions of these three cognitive-linguistic skills to reading in isiXhosa. Sixty-six grade 3 home language isiXhosa learners were assessed on these cognitive-linguistic skills. Results from a linear regression analysis showed that only RAN and MA, but not PA, were significant concurrent predictors of ORF. These results suggest that the role of PA in reading in grade 3 learners in isiXhosa may have been overestimated because other important predictors of reading have not been controlled. Our data also suggest that grade 3 isiXhosa learners may make use of the morpheme as a grain size in reading. Our study highlights the need for longitudinal research which explores the roles of PA, MA and RAN in reading development in order to inform reading pedagogy in isiXhosa and other Southern Bantu languages.

Background: One factor which is consistently highlighted in research on literacy is the lack of understanding of how literacy develops in the Southern-Bantu languages. In particular, little is known about spelling in the Southern-Bantu languages such as isiXhosa. Objectives: Through the use of an initial exploratory study and a conceptual replication study, we examined the relationships between reading, phonological awareness, and spelling in isiXhosa grade 3 learners. The initial exploratory study sought to describe the relationships between reading and spelling, and phonological awareness and spelling in a sample of 49 grade 3 isiXhosa learners. We then conceptually replicated this study with a larger sample of 200 grade 3 isiXhosa learners. We expected that both reading and phonological awareness would be related to spelling and that the strength of the relationship between reading and spelling, and phonological awareness and spelling would vary with spelling ability, due to the changes that occur in the development of spelling. Method: Cross-sectional, quantitative secondary data were used from two different projects to answer the research questions. Tasks of phonological awareness, oral reading fluency and spelling were developed and administered to the participants. Results: We found that reading was a replicable predictor of spelling for grade 3 isiXhosa learners and that phonological awareness was influential only at the mid-range of spelling performance. Conclusion: Our findings emphasise the importance of the reading – writing connection, and lend support for what has been found for other consistently written languages, adding to the growing body of knowledge of universal predictors of spelling development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the syntactic properties of interjections in isiXhosa and their compliance with the interjectional prototype and its extra-systematicity as postulated in linguistic typology. By reviewing nearly two thousand uses of interjections in the comic genre, the authors conclude the following: in its integrity, the category of interjections is internally complex and diversified, containing members with varying degrees of canonicity and extra-systematicity. Although in various uses interjections comply with the interjectional prototype, and being extra-systematic in many others, their canonicity and extra-systematicity are significantly lower.

Sociocultural influences on the development of child language skills have been widely studied, but the majority of the research findings were generated in Northern contexts. The current crosslinguistic, multisite study is the first of its kind in South Africa, considering the influence of a range of individual and sociocultural factors on expressive vocabulary size of young children. Caregivers of toddlers aged 16 to 32 months acquiring Afrikaans (n = 110), isiXhosa (n = 115), South African English (n = 105), or Xitsonga (n = 98) as home language completed a family background questionnaire and the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) about their children. Based on a revised version of Bronfenbrenner’s (1977) ecological systems theory, information was obtained from the family background questionnaire on individual factors (the child’s age and sex), microsystem-related factors (the number of other children and number of adults in the child’s household, maternal level of education, and SES), and exosystem-related factors (home language and geographic area, namely rural or urban). All sociocultural and individual factors combined explained 25% of the variance in expressive vocabulary size. Partial correlations between these sociocultural factors and the toddlers’ expressive vocabulary scores on 10 semantic domains yielded important insights into the impact of geographic area on the nature and size of children’s expressive vocabulary. Unlike in previous studies, maternal level of education and SES did not play a significant role in predicting children’s expressive vocabulary scores. These results indicate that there exists an interplay of sociocultural and individual influences on vocabulary development that requires a more complex ecological model of language development to understand the interaction between various sociocultural factors in diverse contexts.

Sociocultural influences on the development of child language skills have been widely studied, but the majority of the research findings were generated in Northern contexts. The current crosslinguistic, multisite study is the first of its kind in South Africa, considering the influence of a range of individual and sociocultural factors on expressive vocabulary size of young children. Caregivers of toddlers aged 16 to 32 months acquiring Afrikaans (n = 110), isiXhosa (n = 115), South African English (n = 105), or Xitsonga (n = 98) as home language completed a family background questionnaire and the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) about their children. Based on a revised version of Bronfenbrenner's (1977) ecological systems theory, information was obtained from the family background questionnaire on individual factors (the child's age and sex), microsystem-related factors (the number of other children and number of adults in the child's household, maternal level of education, and SES), and exosystem-related factors (home language and geographic area, namely rural or urban). All sociocultural and individual factors combined explained 25% of the variance in expressive vocabulary size. Partial correlations between these sociocultural factors and the toddlers' expressive vocabulary scores on 10 semantic domains yielded important insights into the impact of geographic area on the nature and size of children's expressive vocabulary. Unlike in previous studies, maternal level of education and SES did not play a significant role in predicting children's expressive vocabulary scores. These results indicate that there exists an interplay of sociocultural and individual influences on vocabulary development that requires a more complex ecological model of language development to understand the interaction between various sociocultural factors in diverse contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Word problems form an important part of the early grade mathematics curriculum in South Africa. Studies have shown that the relative difficulty of word problems differ: learners are more likely to solve certain types of word problems than others, with compare type problems being the most difficult. In order to help early grade learners understand and solve compare problems, it is important to understand the relative difficulty of different types of compare type problems and the factors that contribute to their relative difficulty. While these factors have been studied in English, less research has attended to word problems in other languages, such as isiXhosa. In this study a typology of isiXhosa compare type (difference unknown) word problem was set up. The typology included two dimensions, namely the problem situation and the comparative question. The relative difficulties of specific word problems from this typology were compared by analysing the results from an early grade mathematics assessment administered to two cohorts of Grade 1–3 isiXhosa learners in five rural Eastern Cape schools. The analysis showed that in isiXhosa, as in English, some compare type problems are easier to solve than others. Problems with ‘matching’ situations are easier to solve than problems with ‘no matching’ situations. Problems with alternatively formulated comparative questions, specifically those using -shota or kangakanani, are easier to solve than those using a more classic formulation. This study highlights the importance of understanding the ways in which African languages express mathematical ideas in order to identify and leverage affordances for teaching and learning mathematics.

Background: Spelling is a vital component of literacy. This is because spelling includes multiple metalinguistic components, such as phoneme-grapheme awareness, orthographic awareness and morphophonemic knowledge. Despite this, there remains, to date, insufficient literature on spelling in the Southern Bantu languages and, more specifically, in isiXhosa. Objectives: This study explores the nature of spelling among Grade 3 isiXhosa home-language learners and provides a linguistic analysis of the types of errors produced by these learners. Method: Data were collected from 51 isiXhosa home-language learners using a carefully designed isiXhosa spelling task, which included both real and pseudowords. Results: The findings showed that grapheme complexity was a significant predictor of spelling error production in isiXhosa. Furthermore, the main error type for both real words and pseudowords was errors of omission, specifically 〈n〉 in nasal blends and 〈h〉 in aspirated digraphs. Conclusion: While the isiXhosa orthography is transparent, and thus relatively predictable in decoding, its agglutinative, conjunctive character coupled with the existence of a number of complex graphemes presents a greater challenge for spelling. This supports the need for targeted instruction of complex graphemes in isiXhosa pedagogical practice to improve encoding skills.

In South Africa, traditional healers treat a wide range of health-related problems and culture-bound syndromes considered non-responsive to Western medicine. Given the widespread use of traditional medicine in treating common mental disorders, especially among low-income groups, it is important to explore the self-identification, training, and practices of traditional healers. We also explored traditional healers' perceptions of collaboration with Western health care institutions (hospitals, clinics). IsiXhosa traditional healers (n = 50, female = 40, mean age = 52.7 years, SD = 14.7 years) were interviewed using both a structured and a semi-structured interview schedule, including the Patient Health Questionnaire-9. Data were analysed using SPSS version 24 and Statistica. Interview notes were typed soon after each interview and thematically analysed. Participants described similar experiences regarding the three steps of becoming a traditional healer and treating clients with mental illness using herbs (90%), candles (82%), and prayer (78%). Self-identification as a spiritualist or sangoma, and type of church attended (African Initiated vs. Mainline Christian) were both significantly associated with traditional healers' mode of diagnosis and/or treatment. Participants were open about collaborating with Western health care institutions around treating mental health issues. However, this was hampered by mistrust, as evidenced in the reluctance of a few participants to share detailed information about treatment methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst literature on the acquisition of passive constructions by speakers of European languages abounds, there is a dearth of grammatical descriptions of passive constructions in (especially South) African languages that may serve as a basis for acquisition studies. Furthermore, the majority of studies have focused on monolingual participants only, leaving the typical multilingual African language acquisition context underrepresented. This paper addresses these gaps in the literature by offering an in-depth cross-linguistic comparison of passive constructions in the three official languages of the Western Cape, a province in South Africa, namely the Germanic languages English and Afrikaans and the Southern Bantu language isiXhosa. The grammatical description of passives in these languages covers the nature of the passive verb complex; the placement of the object and, in long passives, subject arguments; movement of the object argument across clause boundaries in infinitival clauses; existential passive constructions; case assignment; restrictions on passivisation; and verbal versus adjectival passive constructions. This information may serve as basis for finer syntactic analyses, studies of cross-linguistic bootstrapping, and also descriptive grammars. The paper finally presents normative data for the acquisition of passive constructions by monolingual speakers of English and by speakers of languages closely related to Afrikaans and isiXhosa (such data not yet being readily available for the latter two languages). The reported higher frequency of passive constructions in Bantu languages is cited as a possible explanation for the relatively early acquisition of this otherwise notoriously late-acquired construction.

Background: While much research is dedicated to the understanding of dyslexia in the English-speaking population, there is limited knowledge about how this condition presents in African languages. The need for a literacy screening tool in a learner’s home language to aid in early identification, and therefore early intervention, is crucial for reading success in South Africa. Objectives: The aim of this study was to adapt and develop a screening tool for dyslexia for home language isiXhosa learners. Method: The three-part tool consisting of a learner screening tool, a teacher checklist and a parent questionnaire to target the identification of the majority of the indicators for dyslexia. The tool was piloted on a small group of 15 learners across Grades 1–4, identified by their teachers as having literacy difficulties. In addition, seven learners were identified by their teachers as average performers and were used as a control group. A team of three professional field workers analysed the data collected and identified five learners as clearly at risk and five learners as possibly at risk. Ten indicators for dyslexia were considered. Of these, there were high correlations between Phonological Awareness and Spelling, Decoding and Alphabetic Principle, as well as Spelling and Oral/Written Discrepancy. After piloting the screening tool, the researchers made further revisions to the content and length of all three parts of the tool, with the aim to simplify the tool for both the assessor and the teachers or parents completing the checklists. Results: Findings indicate that the adapted screening tool, together with the adapted teacher checklist and parent interview, give professionals an indication of whether an isiXhosa-speaking child is at risk for dyslexia. Conclusion: A larger study using the same tool with the aim of refining the tool further would be beneficial. The study also opens doors for the adaptation of the tool into other African languages.

Background: A large amount of evidence highlights the obvious inequalities in literacy results of South African learners. Despite this, a sound understanding of how learners approach the task of reading in the African languages is lacking. Aim: This article examines the role of the syllable, phoneme and morpheme in reading in transparent, agglutinating languages. The focus is on whether differences in the orthographies of isiXhosa and Setswana influence reading strategies through a comparative study of the interaction between metalinguistic skills and orthography. Setting: Data was collected from Grade 3 first-language and Grade 4 Setswana home-language learners attending no fee schools in the Eastern Cape and North West Province respectively. Methods: Learners were tested on four linguistic tasks: an open-ended decomposition task, a phonological awareness task, a morphological awareness task and an oral reading fluency task. These tasks were administered to determine the grain size unit which learners use in connected-text reading. Results: The results indicated that syllables were the dominant grain size in both isiXhosa and Setswana, with the use of morphemes as secondary grains in isiXhosa. These results are reflected in the scores of the metalinguistic tasks. Conclusion: This research contributes to an understanding of how linguistic and orthographic features of African languages need to be taken into consideration in understanding literacy development.

Word problems form an important part of the early grade mathematics curriculum in South Africa. Studies have shown that the relative difficulty of word problems differ: learners are more likely to solve certain types of word problems than others, with compare type problems being the most difficult. In order to help early grade learners understand and solve compare problems, it is important to understand the relative difficulty of different types of compare type problems and the factors that contribute to their relative difficulty. While these factors have been studied in English, less research has attended to word problems in other languages, such as isiXhosa. In this study a typology of isiXhosa compare type (difference unknown) word problem was set up. The typology included two dimensions, namely the problem situation and the comparative question. The relative difficulties of specific word problems from this typology were compared by analysing the results from an early grade mathematics assessment administered to two cohorts of Grade 1–3 isiXhosa learners in five rural Eastern Cape schools. The analysis showed that in isiXhosa, as in English, some compare type problems are easier to solve than others. Problems with 'matching' situations are easier to solve than problems with 'no matching' situations. Problems with alternatively formulated comparative questions, specifically those using - shota or kangakanani , are easier to solve than those using a more classic formulation. This study highlights the importance of understanding the ways in which African languages express mathematical ideas in order to identify and leverage affordances for teaching and learning mathematics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Spelling is a vital component of literacy. This is because spelling includes multiple metalinguistic components, such as phoneme-grapheme awareness, orthographic awareness and morphophonemic knowledge. Despite this, there remains, to date, insufficient literature on spelling in the Southern Bantu langauges and, more specifically, in isiXhosa. Objectives: This study explores the nature of spelling among Grade 3 isiXhosa home-language learners and provides a linguistic analysis of the types of errors produced by these learners. Method: Data were collected from 51 isiXhosa home-language learners using a carefully designed isiXhosa spelling task, which included both real and pseudowords. Results: The findings showed that grapheme complexity was a significant predictor of spelling error production in isiXhosa. Furthermore, the main error type for both real words and pseudowords was errors of omission, specifically 〈 n 〉 in nasal blends and 〈 h 〉 in aspirated digraphs. Conclusion: While the isiXhosa orthography is transparent, and thus relatively predictable in decoding, its agglutinative, conjunctive character coupled with the existence of a number of complex graphemes presents a greater challenge for spelling. This supports the need for targeted instruction of complex graphemes in isiXhosa pedagogical practice to improve encoding skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current paper examines the unique contributions of phonological awareness (PA), rapid automatised naming (RAN) and morphological awareness (MA) to oral reading fluency (ORF) in isiXhosa. No published study has yet explored the individual contributions of these three cognitive-linguistic skills to reading in isiXhosa. Sixty-six grade 3 home language isiXhosa learners were assessed on these cognitive-linguistic skills. Results from a linear regression analysis showed that only RAN and MA, but not PA, were significant concurrent predictors of ORF. These results suggest that the role of PA in reading in grade 3 learners in isiXhosa may have been overestimated because other important predictors of reading have not been controlled. Our data also suggest that grade 3 isiXhosa learners may make use of the morpheme as a grain size in reading. Our study highlights the need for longitudinal research which explores the roles of PA, MA and RAN in reading development in order to inform reading pedagogy in isiXhosa and other Southern Bantu languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Being called to re-imagine education provides everyone whose ways of knowing have been invisibilised an opportunity to be deliberate in crafting an education where they are not merely performers of knowledges that were scripted in other lands. Psychology as a way of understanding human mind and behavior should mean that every society had ways of understanding and speaking about human behavior and language was central to that task. In this paper I aim to look at how the speakers of IsiXhosa language understood and conceptualized human behavior and how that could benefit the bigger task of not only learning in indigenous languages but also from them. IsiXhosa concepts of ukuphalaza imbilini and ukuzityanda igila are used to demonstrate how language transmits its own epistemology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Code-switching is the phenomenon whereby multilingual speakers spontaneously alternate between more than one language during discourse and is widespread in multilingual societies. Current state-of-the-art automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems are optimised for monolingual speech, but performance degrades severely when presented with multiple languages. We address ASR of speech containing switches between English and four South African Bantu languages. No comparable study on code-switched speech for these languages has been conducted before and consequently no directly applicable benchmarks exist. A new and unique corpus containing 14.3 hours of spontaneous speech extracted from South African soap operas was used to perform our study. The varied nature of the code-switching in this data presents many challenges to ASR. We focus specifically on how the language model can be improved to better model bilingual language switches for English-isiZulu, English-isiXhosa, English-Setswana and English-Sesotho. Code-switching examples in the corpus transcriptions were extremely sparse, with the majority of code-switched bigrams occurring only once. Furthermore, differences in language typology between English and the Bantu languages and among the Bantu languages themselves contribute further challenges. We propose a new method using word embeddings trained on text data that is both out-of-domain and monolingual for the synthesis of artificial bilingual code-switched bigrams to augment the sparse language modelling training data. This technique has the particular advantage of not requiring any additional training data that includes code-switching. We show that the proposed approach is able to synthesise valid code-switched bigrams not seen in the training set. We also show that, by augmenting the training set with these bigrams, we are able to achieve notable reductions for all language pairs in the overall perplexity and particularly substantial reductions in the perplexity calculated across a language switch boundary (between 5 and 31%). We demonstrate that the proposed approach is able to reduce the unseen code-switched bigram types in the test sets by up to 20.5%. Finally, we show that the augmented language models achieve reductions in the word error rate for three of the four language pairs considered. The gains were larger for language pairs with disjunctive orthography than for those with conjunctive orthography. We conclude that the augmentation of language model training data with code-switched bigrams synthesised using word embeddings trained on out-of-domain monolingual text is a viable means of improving the performance of ASR for code-switched speech. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to report on the Foundation Phase (FP) teachers’ professional identities in two primary schools in the Western Cape. This is meant to serve as a basis for understanding teachers’ identities with regard to their teaching experience, qualifications, specialised knowledge base, and ongoing professional development. The article is based on data collected by means of a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews with the FP teachers in two township schools where isiXhosa is used as the medium of instruction in the Foundation Phase (Grades R to Three). We argue that while teacher identity research has received attention across the globe in the past four decades, little is known about the implications of teacher professional identity for literacy teaching in South African classrooms, especially where an African language is used as a language of learning and teaching. Our findings reveal the pluricentric nature of the FP teachers’ qualifications and backgrounds. We conclude that FP teachers’ professional identity (TPI) cannot be conceptualised in a simplistic and unidimensional way, but can be viewed as an intersectional construct that impacts on literacy instructional practices.

Background: Considering the high burden of disease in young children measurement of Health-Related Quality of Life is needed to evaluate the burden of morbidity. This study aims to report on the validity and reliability of the isiXhosa EuroQol Toddler and Infant Populations (EQ-TIPS) measure for South Africa., Methods: A sample of 181 caregivers of children 0-36 months were recruited from a hospital in-patient (inpt) and outpatient (outpt) facility and crèches. The EQ-TIPS, Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ), Faces, Leg, Activity, Cry, Consolability (FLACC) and dietary information were administered at baseline. EQ-TIPS was administered one week later in crèche children for test-retest reliability., Results: Known groups showed significant differences for pain (X 2 =37.21, p<0.001), and EQ-TIPS level sum score (KWH=25.9, p<0.001) between health groups. The Visual Analogue Scale was unable to discriminate general health between groups (KW-H=3.92, p=0.141). Concurrent validity was weak to moderate and significant for all dimensions hypothesised to correlate. There was significant fair to moderate test-retest reliability for EQ-TIPS dimensions of movement, play, pain and eating., Conclusion: The isiXhosa EQ-TIPS is valid and reliable for very young children in South Africa and we suggest that it be included in the assessment of children with health conditions within this context., Competing Interests: JV is a member of the EuroQoL Research Foundation. This did not influence the reporting of the research study. The views expressed by the authors in the publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the EuroQol Group., (© 2023 Verstraete J et al.)

Background: While much research is dedicated to the understanding of dyslexia in the English-speaking population, there is limited knowledge about how this condition presents in African languages. The need for a literacy screening tool in a learner's home language to aid in early identification, and therefore early intervention, is crucial for reading success in South Africa. Objectives: The aim of this study was to adapt and develop a screening tool for dyslexia for home language isiXhosa learners. Method: The three-part tool consisting of a learner screening tool, a teacher checklist and a parent questionnaire to target the identification of the majority of the indicators for dyslexia. The tool was piloted on a small group of 15 learners across Grades 1–4, identified by their teachers as having literacy difficulties. In addition, seven learners were identified by their teachers as average performers and were used as a control group. A team of three professional field workers analysed the data collected and identified five learners as clearly at risk and five learners as possibly at risk. Ten indicators for dyslexia were considered. Of these, there were high correlations between Phonological Awareness and Spelling, Decoding and Alphabetic Principle, as well as Spelling and Oral/Written Discrepancy. After piloting the screening tool, the researchers made further revisions to the content and length of all three parts of the tool, with the aim to simplify the tool for both the assessor and the teachers or parents completing the checklists. Results: Findings indicate that the adapted screening tool, together with the adapted teacher checklist and parent interview, give professionals an indication of whether an isiXhosa-speaking child is at risk for dyslexia. Conclusion: A larger study using the same tool with the aim of refining the tool further would be beneficial. The study also opens doors for the adaptation of the tool into other African languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to report on the Foundation Phase (FP) teachers' professional identities in two primary schools in the Western Cape. This is meant to serve as a basis for understanding teachers' identities with regard to their teaching experience, qualifications, specialised knowledge base, and ongoing professional development. The article is based on data collected by means of a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews with the FP teachers in two township schools where isiXhosa is used as the medium of instruction in the Foundation Phase (Grades R to Three). We argue that while teacher identity research has received attention across the globe in the past four decades, little is known about the implications of teacher professional identity for literacy teaching in South African classrooms, especially where an African language is used as a language of learning and teaching. Our findings reveal the pluricentric nature of the FP teachers' qualifications and backgrounds. We conclude that FP teachers' professional identity (TPI) cannot be conceptualised in a simplistic and unidimensional way, but can be viewed as an intersectional construct that impacts on literacy instructional practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

English is one of eleven official languages in South Africa, but there is limited information on children’s acquisition of English and other languages in this context. This paper describes speech development in 308 children aged 3;0-5;11 acquiring South African English in Cape Town. The study focused on English speech acquisition, although children were grouped by language background into monolingual, isiXhosa bilingual, Afrikaans bilingual and trilingual groups. The primary objective was to describe phonetic and phonological acquisition (percentage consonants and vowels correct (PCC and PVC); phonetic inventory and phonological processes) by children’s age and language background. As a secondary objective we described the prevalence of speech disorders in the sample using Dodd’s (2005) framework. The Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology was used to assess participants with modified scoring criteria appropriate for the context. Phonological processes and inventories were broadly comparable to normative data for English speech acquisition documented in the literature, and a progression was observed with increasing age. PCC and PVC were similar for children within age bands despite different language backgrounds. Bilingual children showed aspects of English phonological development linked to their L1, and some differences in phonological processes were observed. Approximately 9% of children (n = 28) had speech difficulties, with 75% of this group having a speech delay. The study highlights the importance of adapting speech assessments for use with populations that differ from the originally intended audience. This work contributes to knowledge of typical speech development in South Africa and in multilingual contexts more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current questions in academia regarding Africanisation of knowledge emanate from a historical context, where focus is on Africans as subjects rather than masters in the production of knowledge. The question of how Europeans used indigenous African languages since their arrival in Africa to subjugate native populations shrewdly, has been the subject of debates on language for some time now. The extent of the subjugation was evident in the prescription, through grammar rules and linguistics, of how the languages of the indigenous population were to be written. In this article, I give firstly the historical context of the grammaticalness of isiXhosa oral form, as observed by missionaries; through their writings that document their early contact with amaXhosa. Secondly, I discuss the context of the development of isiXhosa and the prescriptiveness of the grammar rules adopted in describing the spoken form of the language. In the third section, I discuss the early isiXhosa-speaking literates and their writings that defied the newly prescribed grammar rules--by focusing on the works of Gqoba, who was editor of Isigidimi sama Xosa (The Kafir Express), a newspaper in which he also published his writings between 1873 and 1888. The conclusion is drawn that the early grammar rules and the subsequent linguistics study of isiXhosa did not reflect the spoken form of the language; but were rather designed in a way that made the missionaries learn the language easily, in order to communicate with amaXhosa--therefore, they developed it in a manner that served their own interests, and not the interest of the native population. Therefore, my thesis is that the study of the texts written by native speakers should serve as a primary base for Africans to move away from being subjects to being masters in the production of knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A civilian complainant’s first encounter with an officer at a local police station in South Africa is an example of an event in which language, translation, narrative, power, law and criminal justice are all interconnected. Statements written by officers during these sessions form the basis of any further legal action and are a critical aspect of the law. In discharging this function, officers act as both intra-lingual and inter-lingual translators. By analysing these (usually discarded) recordings of complainants’ narratives, our research enables a comparative textual analysis of the oral isiXhosa original and written English statement. Drawing on social narrative theory, this paper interrogates these translations and translation practices, noting omissions of events, actors and descriptions which result in a significant reconfiguration of the original narrative. We argue that the step of inter-lingual translation should be omitted from the statement-taking process. Raising awareness of the manipulations inherent in these practices can help develop an ethical approach to police training that promotes and enables a culture of institutional responsibility, ethical translation and social and criminal justice, even in difficult encounters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study investigated identity-related choices practised among South African isiXhosa-speaking adolescents from a rural Eastern Cape community. A sample of 40 adolescents (65% females; age range 15 and 21 years) participated in the study. The adolescents completed an identity statuses interview schedule in relation to the domains of occupation, religion, and politics; as well as on sexuality. The data analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics by identity dimension. Findings indicate the commitment identity statuses are significant for the adolescents in their decision-making. Active exploration was infrequently endorsed. Female adolescents endorsed the identity achievement status for the career domain more than did their male peers. A high proportion of males endorsed to hold pro-premarital sex identity compared to females. Identity-related decision-making was similar for both genders in their endorsement of identity-related decision-making processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Quantifiers form part of the discourse-internal linguistic devices that children need to access and produce narratives and other classroom discourse. Little is known about the development - especially the prodiction - of quantifiers in child language, specifically in speakers of an African language. Objectives: The study aimed to ascertain how well Grade 1 isiXhosa first language (L1) learners perform at the beginning and at the end of Grade 1 on quantifier comprehension and production tasks. Method: Two low socioeconomic groups of L1 isiXhosa learners with either isiXhosa or English as language of learning and teaching (LOLT) were tested in February and November of their Grade 1 year with tasks targeting several quantifiers. Results: The isiXhosa LOLT group comprehended no/none, any and all fully either in February or then in November of Grade 1, and they produced all assessed quantifiers in February of Grade 1. For the English LOLT group, neither the comprehension nor the production of quantifiers was mastered by the end of Grade 1, although there was a significant increase in both their comprehension and production scores. Conclusion: The English LOLT group made significant progress in comprehension and production of quantifiers, but still performed worse than peers who had their L1 as LOLT. Generally, children with no or very little prior knowledge of the LOLT need either, (1) more deliberate exposure to quantifier-rich language or, (2) longer exposure to general classroom language before quantifiers can be expected to be mastered sufficiently to allow access to quantifier-related curriculum content. Keywords: quantifiers; isiXhosa; Grade 1

The article calls for critical theological examination of the politics of ethnicity in the context of mainline churches in South Africa. The category of ethnicity is largely missing in the interrogation of diversity in the delineated context. Including this category of difference in the theological and religious studies diversity discourse would, if brought to bear on praxis, facilitate the building of inclusive worship spaces. On the contrary, neglecting the politics of ethnicity in the context of churches means neglecting a dynamic that impacts negatively on the everyday life of ordinary churchgoers. The argument is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted by the author in a Methodist church in Johannesburg primarily in 2009.

In multilingual South Africa, language use is more often than not a matter of choice than of ability. The application of indigenous languages like isiXhosa seems nevertheless less preferable in certain social contexts such as the job environment, where English is seen as the language of “success and status” (Casale and Posel 2010: 58). This paper probes the relationship between an isiXhosa language identity and career chances for university graduates. It examines, in a micro study, how young graduates from Fort Hare University in East London perceive the role and conception of English and isiXhosa for identity construction with a focus on employment opportunities. This view is contrasted with local employers’ perceptions on the matter. The interviews show that the dominance of English in the workplace as a global and “neutral” language remains largely unquestioned. In conclusion, the paper provides suggestions for further research into the role of indigenous languages in the South African business environment, on a broader scale.

In this interview, African Language expert Pam Maseko speaks of her own background and her first encounter with culture outside of her mother tongue, isiXhosa. A statistical breakdown of South African languages is provided as background. She discusses Western (originally missionary) codification of African languages and suggests that this approach to understanding of, and teaching in, African Languages continued during apartheid South Africa. The limitations of this are explored. In this early section, the place of Afrikaans as an ‘African’ language is briefly considered. The conversation turns to the post-apartheid years where issues of the impact of globalization (and the concomitant power of English) on African languages are considered. New approaches to the study of African language are analysed and the important role played in these by Rhodes University are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advertisements in African languages are generally confined to radio, and in that medium are factual, dialogic and direct. When used in television advertising, however, South Africa’s indigenous languages, particularly those spoken by the largest number of people in South Africa (Nguni languages), play a less informative role, being employed rather to index a concretised African essence, African identity or urban style, or a particular reified post-apartheid togetherness and cultural mobility. In this essay, we analyse four recent television advertisements, all using a Nguni language, and reflect on how and why the vernacular is used and to what extent African languages are no longer seen by television advertisers as carriers of information but as exploitable symbols of trustworthiness, multiculturalism, belonging and innovation. Key tropes that emerge as motivating the inclusion of African languages in television advertisements are identified and serve to organise and focus the argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]