Showing items 1 - 18 of 18

Language as source of revitalisation and reclamation of Indigenous epistemologies.

  • Authors: Maseko, Pamela
  • Date: 2018
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , book chapter
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/468413 , vital:77052 , ISBN 9781928314110
  • Description: While history, art and archaeology, for example, have been used to present evidence of socio-cultural and other practices of precolonial Africa, the contribution of language as a source from which one can make presuppositions and conjectures about its speakers’ past has not been sufficiently explored. In a context where African knowledge has been undermined and misinterpreted by scholars whose inclination is to scrutinise African experience from a prejudiced cultural standpoint, the study of the meanings embedded in the lexicon of African languages cannot be overlooked when lifting the veil from Africa’s past. Although meanings of words in a language may shift because of contact with other linguistic societies, or because of new domains of language use, one is able to study the etymology of words to elicit original meanings and their evolution in form and meaning, and also make correspond-ence of such meanings to the thoughts of society as early as present memory can recall.
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  • Date Issued: 2018

Exploring the History of the Writing of isiXhosa: An Organic or an Engineered Process?

  • Authors: Maseko, Pamela
  • Date: 2017
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/468355 , vital:77046 , https://doi.org/10.1080/18186874.2017.1400218
  • Description: 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.
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  • Date Issued: 2017

Language and media: isiXhosa in Journalism and Media Studies at a South African university

  • Authors: Du Toit, Jeanne E , Maseko, Pamela
  • Date: 2017
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , book chapter
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/468261 , vital:77037 , ISBN 9781776140275 , https://muse.jhu.edu/book/52741
  • Description: To date, there has been no published textbook which takes into account changing sociolinguistic dynamics that have influenced South African society. Multilingualism and Intercultural Communication breaks new ground in this arena. Its scope ranges from macro-sociolinguistic questions pertaining to language policies and their implementation (or non-implementation), to micro-sociolinguistic observations of actual language-use in verbal interaction, mainly in multilingual contexts of Higher Education (HE). There is a gradual move for the study of language and culture to be taught in the context of (professional) disciplines in which they would be used, such as Journalism and African languages, Education and African languages, etc. The book caters for this growing market. Because of its multilingual nature, it caters to English and Afrikaans language speakers, as well as the Sotho and Nguni language groups. It brings together various inter-linked disciplines such as Sociolinguistics and Applied Language Studies, Media Studies and Journalism, History and Education, Social and Natural Sciences, Law, Human Language Technology, Music, Intercultural Communication and Literary Studies. The unique cross-cutting disciplinary features of the book will make it a must-have for twenty-first century South African students and scholars and those interested in applied language issues.
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  • Date Issued: 2017

Multilingualism and intercultural communication: a South African perspective

  • Authors: Kaschula, Russell H , Maseko, Pamela , Wolff, H Ekkehard
  • Date: 2017
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , book
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67015 , vital:29019 , ISBN 9781776140275 , https://muse.jhu.edu/book/52741
  • Description: publisher version , To date, there has been no published textbook which takes into account changing sociolinguistic dynamics that have influenced South African society. Multilingualism and Intercultural Communication breaks new ground in this arena. Its scope ranges from macro-sociolinguistic questions pertaining to language policies and their implementation (or non-implementation), to micro-sociolinguistic observations of actual language-use in verbal interaction, mainly in multilingual contexts of Higher Education (HE). There is a gradual move for the study of language and culture to be taught in the context of (professional) disciplines in which they would be used, such as Journalism and African languages, Education and African languages, etc. The book caters for this growing market. Because of its multilingual nature, it caters to English and Afrikaans language speakers, as well as the Sotho and Nguni language groups. It brings together various inter-linked disciplines such as Sociolinguistics and Applied Language Studies, Media Studies and Journalism, History and Education, Social and Natural Sciences, Law, Human Language Technology, Music, Intercultural Communication and Literary Studies. The unique cross-cutting disciplinary features of the book will make it a must-have for twenty-first century South African students and scholars and those interested in applied language issues.
  • Full Text: false
  • Date Issued: 2017

Researching the intellectualization of African languages, multilingualisam and education

  • Authors: Kaschula, Russell H , Maseko, Pamela
  • Date: 2017
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , book chapter
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/${Handle} , vital:77042 , ISBN 9781776140275 , https://muse.jhu.edu/book/52741
  • Description: To date, there has been no published textbook which takes into account changing sociolinguistic dynamics that have influenced South African society. Multilingualism and Intercultural Communication breaks new ground in this arena. Its scope ranges from macro-sociolinguistic questions pertaining to language policies and their implementation (or non-implementation), to micro-sociolinguistic observations of actual language-use in verbal interaction, mainly in multilingual contexts of Higher Education (HE). There is a gradual move for the study of language and culture to be taught in the context of (professional) disciplines in which they would be used, such as Journalism and African languages, Education and African languages, etc. The book caters for this growing market. Because of its multilingual nature, it caters to English and Afrikaans language speakers, as well as the Sotho and Nguni language groups. It brings together various inter-linked disciplines such as Sociolinguistics and Applied Language Studies, Media Studies and Journalism, History and Education, Social and Natural Sciences, Law, Human Language Technology, Music, Intercultural Communication and Literary Studies. The unique cross-cutting disciplinary features of the book will make it a must-have for twenty-first century South African students and scholars and those interested in applied language issues.
  • Full Text:
  • Date Issued: 2017

Using African Languages to teach Science in higher education

  • Authors: Gambushe, Wanga , Nkomo, Dion , Maseko, Pamela
  • Date: 2017
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , book chapter
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/468294 , vital:77040 , ISBN 9781776140275 , https://muse.jhu.edu/book/52741
  • Description: To date, there has been no published textbook which takes into account changing sociolinguistic dynamics that have influenced South African society. Multilingualism and Intercultural Communication breaks new ground in this arena. Its scope ranges from macro-sociolinguistic questions pertaining to language policies and their implementation (or non-implementation), to micro-sociolinguistic observations of actual language-use in verbal interaction, mainly in multilingual contexts of Higher Education (HE). There is a gradual move for the study of language and culture to be taught in the context of (professional) disciplines in which they would be used, such as Journalism and African languages, Education and African languages, etc. The book caters for this growing market. Because of its multilingual nature, it caters to English and Afrikaans language speakers, as well as the Sotho and Nguni language groups. It brings together various inter-linked disciplines such as Sociolinguistics and Applied Language Studies, Media Studies and Journalism, History and Education, Social and Natural Sciences, Law, Human Language Technology, Music, Intercultural Communication and Literary Studies. The unique cross-cutting disciplinary features of the book will make it a must-have for twenty-first century South African students and scholars and those interested in applied language issues.
  • Full Text:
  • Date Issued: 2017

The struggles over African languages

  • Authors: Maseko, Pamela , Vale, Peter C J
  • Date: 2016
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/468388 , vital:77050 , https://doi.org/10.1177/1474022215613605
  • Description: 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.
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  • Date Issued: 2016

Teaching Mandarin in schools is another slap in the face for African languages

  • Authors: Kaschula, Russell H , Nosilela, Bulelwa , Heugh, Kathleen , Hendricks, Monica , Maseko, Pamela
  • Date: 2015
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67042 , vital:29023 , https://theconversation.com/teaching-mandarin-in-schools-is-another-slap-in-the-face-for-african-languages-48505
  • Description: publisher version , It’s said that behind every powerful language is an army and money. Consider the case of English. In South Africa, as in its other colonies, the British arrived with the Bible in one hand and the breech-loader in the other. Behind them was the English language, military might and money. British missionaries wanted to convert Africa’s indigenous “heathens” to Christianity; to clone little English people on the continent through the medium of English. Next came the Afrikaners, descended from the Dutch. Their slaves created a “kitchen” language out of Dutch and called it Afrikaans. White Afrikaners appropriated it as their own and it became the language of apartheid. One of the tipping points of white rule was the 1976 Soweto uprising – a furious, powerful response to the news that Afrikaans would become a compulsory medium of instruction. Now there is a new potential coloniser on South Africa’s linguistic block. From 2016, Mandarin will be taught in the country’s schools as a Second Additional Language. This new government policy will see African languages bumped even further down the educational pecking order.
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  • Date Issued: 2015

Multilingualism at work in South African Higher Education: From policy to practice

  • Authors: Maseko, Pamela
  • Date: 2014
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , book chapter
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/468426 , vital:77053 , ISBN 9781783091669 , https://doi.org/10.21832/9781783091669
  • Description: Language policies published after the attainment of democracy in 1994, which are particularly applicable to HEIs, seek to guard against the use of language to perpetuate the inequalities and inequities of South African society in the past. The main goal of these policies is to promote linguistic and cultural diversity in HEIs as well as to prepare students to participate fully in our multilingual society, where multilingual proficiency is critical. English and Afrikaans are acknowledged as languages of research and scholarship in HE at present, but legislative policies applicable to language use and practices in HE make provision for preventing these languages from being used as a barrier to the access, retention and success of previously disadvantaged people (see Kotzé’s detailed discussion in Chapter 2). The indigenous African languages, which have, until now, had a minimal role in HE, are seen as critical for the attainment of the goals of the language policies. As a consequence, legislation on language in HE recommends that HEIs should rethink the place of these languages and, in line with national policy, should develop their own policies and implementation plans on the advancement, promotion and use of these languages.
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  • Date Issued: 2014

Multilingualism for teaching and learning

  • Authors: Maseko, Pamela
  • Date: 2014
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , book chapter
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/468436 , vital:77054 , ISBN 9781920677565
  • Description: This chapter will address a number of issues pertaining to multilingualism for teaching and learning in South African higher education during the SANTED II Programme. It will provide the national and institutional language policy context for the SANTED multilingualism projects, the challenges of implementation, the strategies used for implementation and monitoring, and the institutional uptake of the programmes at the end of the SANTED II Programme in 2010. The discussion will illustrate how the pilot projects introduced through SANTED provided a springboard for implementation of multilingual learning and teaching. The chapter will further demonstrate that while some universities had policies that supported multilingualism, in most cases these policies were largely dormant. The pilot projects provided the means for activating them and institutionalising practices conceptualised therein. The process itself provided impetus for robust debates on the value of bilingual and multilingual education for effective learning in higher education, as well as the importance of linguistic and cultural diversity in building national unity.
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  • Date Issued: 2014

The intellectualisation of African languages, multilingualism and education: a research-based approach

  • Authors: Kaschula, Russell H , Maseko, Pamela
  • Date: 2014
  • Subjects: African languages -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- South Africa , Language policy -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Educational change -- South Africa , Multiligualism , Multicultural education -- South Africa , Language and languages -- Study and teaching
  • Language: English
  • Type: article , text
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/59321 , vital:27548 , http://alternation.ukzn.ac.za/Files/docs/21 SpEd13/Alternation Spec Ed 13 (2014).pdf#page=13
  • Description: This paper seeks to understand the relationship between the intellectualisation of African languages and the facilitation of a research approach which will enhance this intellectualisation. The paper examines the legislative language policies and other documents published by government since 1994, which guide language use and practices in higher education, including the Catalytic Project on Concept Formation in indigenous African languages (one of the recommendations contained in the Report commissioned by the Minister of Higher Education for the Charter for Humanities and Social Sciences and the language clauses of the Green Paper for Post-Secondary School Education and Training). These policy documents are analysed against the backdrop of the research work of the newly initiated NRF SARChI Chair in the Intellectualisation of African Languages, Multilingualism and Education hosted by Rhodes University. The paper argues that while policy provides an enabling environment for the promotion and development of indigenous African languages and advocates for promotion of equity and equality, in actual fact, HEIs still grapple in implementing provisions of these policies. The paper further discusses the teaching, learning and research in the African Language Studies Section of the School of Languages at Rhodes University and how the Section adopted the provisions of the national policy and institutional policy on language in turning itself into a source of intellectual vitality in the teaching, learning and research of particularly isiXhosa. Six focus areas of research, linked to the NRF SARChI Chair, will be outlined in order to create a practical link between Policy, Implementation and the Intellectualisation of African Languages. , Ucwaningo lolu luhlose ukuqonda ubudlelwano obuphakathi kokusetshenziswa kwezilimi zesintu emazingeni aphakame kanye nokusetshenziswa kwendlela yocwaningo ezokwengeza amathuba okusetshenziswa kwezilimi lezi (Finlayson & Madiba 2002). Ucwaningo luhlaziya inqubomgomo yolimi esemthethweni neminye imibhalo eshicelelwe uhulumeni elawula ukusebenza nokusetshenziswa kwezilimi kwezemfundo ephakame kusuka ngonyaka wezi-1994, kanye ne-Catalytic Project on Concept Formation in indigenous African languages (esinye seziphakamiso esiqukethwe embikweni owethulwa ngungqonqoshe wezemfundo ephakeme nge-Charter of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSSC 2011) kanye nezinhlamvu zamazwi e-Green paper for Post-secondary School education and training (2012). Imibhalo yenqubomgomo ihlaziywa kubhekwe umsebenzi wocwaningo kasihlalo we- NRF SARChl ekusetshenzisweni kwezilimi zesintu emazingeni aphakeme nobuliminingi kanye nezemfundo e- Rhodes University. Ucwaningo lolu luphakamisa umbono othi noma inqubomgomo isipha amandla okukhuphula nokuthuthukisa izilimi zesintu kanye nokukhuthaza ukulingana nokungacwasi, eqinisweni izikhungo zemfundo ephakeme zihlangabezana nobunzima bokusebenzisa izihlinzeko zenqubomgomo. Ucwaningo lolu luzoxoxa futhi ngokufundisa nokufunda kanye nocwaningo emnyangweni wezifundo zezilimi zesintu esikoleni sezilimi e-Rhodes University kanye nokuthi umnyango lo wamukela njani izihlinzeko zenqubomgomo kazwelonke kanye nezesikhungo eziphathelane nokuguqulwa kwezilimi zibe umthombo wenhlakanipho ekufundiseni nasekufundeni kanye nocwaningo ngolimi lwesiXhosa. Imikhaka emqoka eyisithupha yocwaningo ehlobene nesihlalo se-NRF SARChl izovezwa ukuze kwakhiwe ubudlelwano obenzekayo phakathi kwenqubomgomo, ukusetshenziswa kwayo kanye nokusetshenziswa kwezilimi zesintu emazingeni aphakeme.
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  • Date Issued: 2014

Intercultural Communication and Vocational Language Learning in South Africa: Law and Healthcare

  • Authors: Kaschula, Russell H , Maseko, Pamela
  • Date: 2012
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , book
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/175234 , vital:42555 , ISBN 9781405162722 , DOI:10.1002/9781118247273
  • Description: The Constitution (1996) of the Republic of South Africa recognizes eleven of South Africa’s most spoken languages as official languages of the country. Of the eleven languages, nine are indigenous African languages and are spoken by about 80% of the total population. The other two, English and Afrikaans, were the only official languages of the pre-democratic regime and are spoken by the remainder of the population. However, when it comes to vocational training at institutions of higher learning, the common trend in South Africa in terms of linguistic composition is in reverse. About 80% of the total student population have English or Afrikaans as their home language, whilst the minority are speakers of indigenous African languages. This is reflected in language practices in the majority of institutions of higher learning where English and Afrikaans are the most common media of instruction.
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  • Date Issued: 2012

Intellectualisation of African languages with particular reference to isiXhosa

  • Authors: Maseko, Pamela
  • Date: 2011
  • Subjects: Xhosa language -- Study and teaching -- South Africa , Language and education -- South Africa , African languages
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/58035 , vital:27035
  • Description: The research explores the relationship between language and education, and motivates for the intellectualisation of African languages, isiXhosa in particular, and for their use in education. The main rationale behind this is that access to, and success in education can largely be realised if that education is mediated in one’s first language. The thesis discusses works of prominent scholars who have written on the subject - relating cognitive abilities and achievement in education to language in which that education is offered. The lack of terminology in new domains in African languages as barrier to mother tongue education is laid bare by looking specifically at the history of intellectualisation of isiXhosa, from the missionaries in the 1820s up to the new endeavours as recently as 2008. Terminologies that were developed during the Bantu Education era, where development of isiXhosa and other indigenous African languages was accelerated in order to respond to the demands of moedertaal-onderwys (mother tongue education) are surveyed, and the process of their development analysed. Three main terminology lists developed during this period are analysed against terminology development principles, approaches and methods that are seen as a measure to ensure quality terminology development. The efforts of the development of isiXhosa during the post-apartheid South Africa, especially the government-driven initiatives, are also critiqued even though these are not as effective and as extensive, especially in education. The result of this analysis is that African languages and isiXhosa in particular, can be used in scientific disciplines and at the highest levels of education. Its grammar is advanced, and its lexicon is extensive such that new concepts that need to be named can be named, using appropriate term creation strategies. There are also technological tools such as WordSmith tools that can be used that can advance its development, ensuring that the concept represented in the newly-created term is precise, concise and appropriate in terms of its discipline. Therefore it is argued that, in the interim, terminologies should be developed, in various subjects, to support learning, which at this stage is mediated in English, for those students who have other languages as mother tongue. Those terminologies that have been developed in the various historical periods should be collated, revised and brought into the classrooms. The thesis argues that real intellectualisation of isiXhosa and other African languages rests on the use of these languages in classrooms and lecture halls, and in the value that all role players place on these languages.
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  • Date Issued: 2011

The role of the web in the promotion of African languages

  • Authors: Maseko, Pamela , Nosilela, Bulelwa B , Sam, Msindisi S , Terzoli, Alfredo , Dalvit, Lorenzo
  • Date: 2010
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/431370 , vital:72768
  • Description: In this article we explore the possible contribution of the Web in promot-ing the use and status of African languages. Participation in sharing and producing knowledge through the Web can play a key role in the eco-nomic, social and educational development of Africa. While physical ac-cess to information is hampered by lack of infrastructure and connectivi-ty, epistemological access is hampered by the use of English. Re-sources in African languages are available. Until the amount of Web content and the number of users reach critical mass, these resources play a symbolic rather than an instrumental role in promoting African lan-guages. The use of electronic resources available on the Web could contribute to cutting the printing and transport cost of paper material, es-pecially in multilingual settings where many languages would have to be represented. Another practical way in which the Web can promote the development of African languages is to promote communication among their speakers. This is already showing its potential by allowing experts from various disciplines to work collaboratively on the development of new indigenous terminology through mailing lists and chat rooms. On a larger scale, the Web can play a unifying function among speakers of different varieties of the same African language.
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  • Date Issued: 2010

An intercultural approach to implementing multilingualism at Rhodes University, South Africa

Vocational language learning and how it relates to language policy issues

Vocational language learning and teaching at a South African university: preparing professionals for multilingual contexts

  • Authors: Maseko, Pamela , Kaschula, Russell H
  • Date: 2009
  • Subjects: Intercultural communication in education -- South Africa , African languages , Cultural awareness , Communication and culture , Multilingualism -- South Africa
  • Language: English
  • Type: article , text
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/59412 , vital:27597 , doi: 10.5842/38-0-60
  • Description: This paper highlights the methodology that has been used at Rhodes University and other South African universities in implementing vocation-specific African language learning programmes. Essentially, the paper links the curriculum design to the theoretical paradigm of intercultural communication. Intercultural theory is used as a basis to develop vocation-specific courses where language and culture are taught, for example, to second language learners of isiXhosa at Rhodes University. These courses include courses for Pharmacy and Law students. This paper offers a new theoretical paradigm for intercultural language teaching. Furthermore, examples from specific courses are provided in order to illustrate how this theoretical paradigm can be implemented in a practical way. The impact of multilingualism and intercultural communication in the wider legal and healthcare work environment in South Africa is also discussed.
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  • Date Issued: 2009

The localisation into isiXhosa of the iLanga telephone system

  • Authors: Dalvit, Lorenzo , Tsietsi, Mosiuoa , Terzoli, Alfredo , Maseko, Pamela , Sam, Msindisi S , Mapi, Thandeka
  • Date: 2008
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/431358 , vital:72767 , https://nru.uncst.go.ug/bitstream/handle/123456789/6552/Information Communica-tion Technologies page 410.pdf?sequence=1isAllowed=y#page=256
  • Description: In this paper we describe the localisation of iLanga, a VoIP PBX sys-tem, into isiXhosa. In South Africa, for social and political reasons, mak-ing systems available in the African languages is becoming more and more important. On the one hand, it gives access to the use of technol-ogy to people who are not fluent in English. On the other hand, it has a strong symbolic value. Although a variety of software is already availa-ble in a number of African languages, localisation in such language is still in its early stage. The process presented interesting challenges both from the technical and the linguistic point of view.
  • Full Text:
  • Date Issued: 2008
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