Doctoral Degrees (General Linguistics)

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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (General Linguistics) by Author "Brand, Irene"

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    A Narrative Enrichment Programme in literacy development of Afrikaans speaking Grade 3 learners in monolingual rural schools
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2015-12) Brand, Irene; Anthonissen, Christine; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of General Linguistics.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study is motivated by existing information on the discontinuity between home literacy practices and school literacy expectations of learners who typically speak a local variety of their mothertongue which is in various ways different from the standardised language of learning and teaching (LoLT). In this particular case the study refers to Afrikaans as a home language and language in education. The main concern is that these learners typically perform below par in standardised South African literacy tests such as the Annual National Assessment (ANA) and the Systemic Evaluation Test. They show slower achievement of literacy milestones, higher school drop-out rates and less achievement of access to higher learning opportunities (Lahire, 1995; Siegel, 2007). A Narrative Enrichment Programme was developed as a means of investigating questions concerning learners’ levels of language awareness, their understanding and use of different spoken and written genres, registers and varieties of Afrikaans (including their own), and their general appreciation for spoken and written forms of language in narrative and in other everyday uses. The purpose of such an investigation is to better understand the apparent discontinuity between home language practices and school language expectations, and to suggest new ways of addressing difficulties that arise in literacy development as a result of such discontinuity. The first part of the Narrative Enrichment Programme provided learners with an enriched reading, listening and writing environment in which they could engage with novel stories and work towards producing their own little books. The second part of the programme consisted of supporting exercises that addressed narrative structure issues that arose in the course of the first part. Specifically, exercises of picture-sequencing, picture-sentence matching and an exercise called Beginning, Middle and End were used to assess how learners recount the various components and the chronology of a story that was presented to them in the form of a set of topically connected pictures, and in a longer narrative that was read to them. Findings show that learners have a keen appreciation of the spoken form of language in that they loved listening to the stories. One group showed special enthusiasm for retelling stories that they had heard at home. Another aspect of the programme to which learners responded enthusiastically, was the activity of illustrating little books; this they appeared to enjoy more than writing them. Enthusiastic responses of learners are attended to because learning is much more likely to proceed successfully if learners enjoy the developmental activities. Levels of linguistic awareness with regards to genre, register and grammatical aspects such as spelling differed from learner to learner. Learners showed varying degrees of dependence on the already familiar genres of fables and fairy tales. Regarding writing conventions they also showed varying degrees of awareness of (e.g.) appropriate punctuation. Interesting examples of regional language use which included phonological awareness of the spoken form are discussed in considerable detail. There were unexpected findings regarding the influence that learners’ life experiences have on their narrative products. The picture sequencing activities reflected learners’ use of familiar everyday events and artefacts rather than reference to ones unfamiliar to them, which were apparently intended in the set of pictures. The rich and varied data that was collected, illustrates theoretical positions regarding the different kinds of habitus learners encounter, the ways in which educational systems privilege some linguistic resources above others, the connections between language and identity, and the ways in which new forms of literacy may assist in better facilitating learners’ emerging literacy and the learning that such literacy should facilitate.