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Students’ perspectives on the language question in South African Higher Education: the expression of marginalized linguistic identities on Rhodes University students’ Facebook pages

  • Authors: Resha, Babalwa
  • Date: 2019
  • Subjects: Language policy -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Language and education -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Sociolinguistics -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Language and languages -- Study and teaching -- Social aspects -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Linguistic rights -- South Africa , Translanguaging (Linguistics) , Multilingual education -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Educational change -- South Africa -- Makhanda , South Africa – Makhanda -- Language and languages -- Political aspects , Student movements -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Online social networks -- South Africa -- Makhanda , Rhodes University -- Sociological aspects , Facebook (Firm) , UCKAR
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , MA
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/119813 , vital:34785
  • Description: The study analyses students’ engagement with the language question in South African Higher Education (HE) and their use of African languages on the institutional Facebook pages, namely UCKAR and RHODES SRC, during the student protests of 2015 to early 2017. Extensive use of social media is a salient feature of the protests as indicated by the hashtag prefixes such as #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall. On these platforms, disgruntled students use their multiple languages to interact, establish a sense of belonging and power to challenge different forms of exclusionary institutional culture, including language policies and practices in HE. The research examines and explores students’ perspectives on the language question in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) on the two institutional Facebook pages, and how mother tongue speakers of indigenous African languages use these languages to express their marginalized linguistic identities in HEIs in South Africa. Theoretically, the study uses the notion of linguistic imperialism to provide a broad context for understanding the language question in South African HE and its significance in transformation. The engagement with the language question on the UCKAR and RHODES SRC Facebook pages is carried out from the lenses of citizen sociolinguistics while the new theory of translanguaging offers the analysis on language usage and alternative ways of addressing linguistic hegemony in educational environments. The translanguaging approach has the capacity to demonstrate multi-layered linguistic practices and reflections on the UCKAR and RHODES pages. It is the interest of the researcher to investigate how students with various linguistic and other backgrounds engage the language question and perform linguistic identities. Language usage on the two Rhodes University institutional Facebook pages and its implications on students’ engagement with issues, is used to provide insight towards the implementation of multilingualism in the university. The study is virtual ethnographic in nature. Virtual ethnography is an online research method that employs ethnographic research to study online social interactions. To analyse data, the study used a textual analysis technique as it looks at any analysis of texts broadly. Critical Discourse Analysis approach was used to analyse language debates. Purposive sampling was also used to select Facebook posts and comments on the language question and those written in African languages, and interviews were conducted with key members of Rhodes University, to bring forth their perspectives on the institution’s language policy and to figure out what plans are put into place to engage students in debates on the language question because students are important stakeholders of the university, and at the same time some of these students are also speakers of indigenous African languages. In general, the research findings have shown that students as users of languages in HEIs are capable of engendering debates that could be used as solutions to the language question and transformation in the South African HEIs. Thus, this study offers a different approach into engaging with students, their perspective and debates through institutional Facebook pages. In addition, it offers students’ perspectives on the curriculum of the university and how the university can go about its transformation. This study provides evidence that the use of indigenous African languages by mother tongue speakers of these languages in institutes of higher learning and their related institutional Facebook pages and social media in general, is an expression of marginalized linguistic identities of these language speakers. Sometimes these identities are multiple, and students use different modalities to express them, hence the notion of translanguaging.
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  • Date Issued: 2019

A perfect end: a study of syllable codas in South African Sign Language

  • Authors: Köhlo, Mikhaela Demitria Katebe
  • Date: 2017
  • Subjects: South African Sign Language , South African Sign Language Phonology , Linguistics , Grammar, Comparative and general Syllable
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/36127 , vital:24492
  • Description: Coda constraints are common in spoken languages. German, for example, can only have voiceless obstruents in the coda position (Lombardi 1999). Most sign language research has been on other sign languages, most notably American Sign Language (ASL). This research serves to contribute to syllable theory and has a methodology that allows for cross-linguistic research, strengthening the understanding of sign languages in general, and enhancing the description of SASL in particular. It is well known that syllables in spoken languages require a vowel nucleus to be well-formed. Sandler and Lillo-Martin (2006) provide evidence of sign languages requiring movement to be considered well-formed: even seemingly stationary signs such as WHO, which occurs at the chin, will have finger wiggling as some form of movement. It is thus natural to assume that movement is akin to vowels in syllable theory (Brentari 1998). Thus, locations are similar to consonants. However, the visual nature of sign allows for simultaneity - holds do not occur by themselves. Next to location, handshapes are phonetically complex features that may impact the constraints at coda position. To my knowledge, there is no formal research on the coda constraints of sign language syllables. The data examined here comes from a video dictionary of approximately 175 words. From this dictionary, a database of coded locations and handshapes are recorded for both the onset and the coda. From this, a consonant inventory is made and patterns are identified. Each source of data is analysed individually based on Brentari’s (1998) Prosodic Model. Patterns that are noticed are then looked at using Brentari’s (1998) framework to account for what phonological rules are dictating constraints. However, as a hearing researcher cannot claim native knowledge of a sign language, the conclusions drawn from the data will be tested using native SASL signers for negative judgement. The preliminary findings of the research suggest that there are constraints on the coda location and handshape of a sign and that this may be a result of the natural classes of handshape and location prohibiting certain onset-coda combinations. The onset and coda on monosyllabic signs mirror each other’s location, while the handshape cannot change in repeated and many monosyllabic signs. These constraints provide more understanding into the rich phonological nature of sign languages.
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  • Date Issued: 2017

Talking about teams within a team building context: a discourse analytic study

  • Authors: Chapman-Blair, Sharon
  • Date: 2001
  • Subjects: Discourse analysis , Teams in the workplace
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
  • Identifier: vital:2947 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002456 , Discourse analysis , Teams in the workplace
  • Description: This research initiative responds to some of the issues raised by theoretical challenges leveled at Industrial Psychology (postmodernism), and practical challenges in the workplace (the use of teams) by investigating notions of what a team is via the postmodern methodology of discourse analysis. The research explores “team talk” – repertoires of speech employed by individuals to construct particular versions of “the team” for specific effects, of importance given emphasis placed on shared understanding, expectations and goals in a “team”. A Rhodes University Industrial Psychology Honours class required to work as a team (having participated in a team building exercise), as well as their lecturers who facilitated the team building process were interviewed to obtain “talk” to analyse. This uncovered a multiplicity of meaning, namely four ways of speaking about (constructing) the team. These repertoires are explored in terms of how they are constructed, how they differ across context and speakers, how they interrelate and what they function to achieve. The educational team repertoire constructs academic hierarchy, justifies individualism, positions members as experts and maintains distance from interpersonal processes. The machine repertoire divides work and interpersonal issues, regulates productivity and constructs team roles (defining individual activity and “team fit”), but is inflexible to change. The family repertoire voices emotive aspects to maintain cohesion via conformity, leaderlessness, group identity and shared achievement, but cannot accommodate conflict or workpersonal boundaries. The psychologised team repertoire constructs the team primarily as a therapeutic entity legitimately creating individual identities (and expertise) and facilitating personal growth, but this flounders when support in the “team” fails. Given that each repertoire has a different emphasis (reflective learning versus work processes versus building relationships versus personal growth), there are slippages / clashes between repertoires. This postmodern look at “the team” thus assists in recognizing and problematising these multiple meanings and identifying practical implications.
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  • Date Issued: 2001

The implementation of a core architecture for geophysical data acquisition

  • Authors: Heasman, Ray Edward
  • Date: 2000
  • Subjects: Geophysics -- Data processing , Computer software -- Development , Seismometers , Computer input-output equipment
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
  • Identifier: vital:5471 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1005256 , Geophysics -- Data processing , Computer software -- Development , Seismometers , Computer input-output equipment
  • Description: This thesis describes the design, development and implementation of the core hardware and software of a modular data acquisition system for geophysical data collection. The primary application for this system is the acquisition and realtime processing of seismic data captured in mines. This system will be used by a commercial supplier of seismic instrumentation, ISS International, as a base architecture for the development of future products. The hardware and software has been designed to be extendable and support distributed processing. The IEEE-1394 High Performance Serial Bus is used to communicate with other CPU modules or peripherals. The software includes a pre-emptive multitasking microkernel, an asynchronous mailbox-based message passing communications system, and a functional IEEE-1394 protocol stack. The reasons for the end design and implementation decisions are given, and the problems encountered in the development of this system are described. A critical assessment of the match between the requirements for the project and the functionality of the implementation is made.
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  • Date Issued: 2000

In search of self explorations of identity in the work of Paul Auster

  • Authors: Van der Vlies, Andrew Edward
  • Date: 1999
  • Subjects: Auster, Paul, 1947- -- Criticism and interpretation , Identity (Psychology) in literature
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
  • Identifier: vital:2208 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002251 , Auster, Paul, 1947- -- Criticism and interpretation , Identity (Psychology) in literature
  • Description: Paul Auster is regarded by some as an important novelist. He has, in a relatively short space of time, produced an intriguing body of work, which has attracted comparatively little critical attention. This study is based on the premise that Auster's art is the record of an entertaining, intelligent and utterly serious engagement with the possibilities of conceiving of the identity of an individual subject in the contemporary, late-twentieth century moment. This study, focussing on Auster's novels, but also considering selected poetry and critical prose, explores the representation of identity in his work. The short Foreword introduces Paul Auster and sketches in outline the concerns of the study. Chapter One explores the manner in which Auster's early (anti-),detective' fiction develops a concern with identity. It is suggested that Squeeze Play, Auster's pseudonymous 'hard-boiled' detective thriller, provided the author with a testing ground for his subsequent appropriation and subversion of the detective genre in The New York Trilogy. Through a close consideration of City of Glass, and an examination of elements in Ghosts, it is shown how the loss of the traditional detective's immunity, and the problematising of strategies which had previously guaranteed him access to interpretive and narrative closure, precipitates a collapse which initiates an interrogation of the nature and construction of ideas about individual identity. Chapter Two develops a suggestion that City of Glass was written in response to particular emotional concerns of the author by turning to an examination of the memoir-novel, The Invention of Solitude. This chapter examines the extent to which Auster's Jewishness is implicated in his understanding of identity, and in the techniques with which he expresses his concerns. It is argued that Auster's engagement with texts and memories important to him in order to find a voice adequate to the task which he assumes in The Invention of Solitude, reveals the ethical imperative of recognizing and accepting a relationship to alterity. The influence on Auster of certain Jewish writers, like Edmond Jabes, is considered in the course of the chapter. The third chapter addresses the issue of the description of Auster's work as postmodernist, in the light of what the study has presented as Auster's ethical engagement with alterity. Critical responses to Auster's texts are canvassed, before it is suggested that aspects of the ethical phenomenology of Emmanuel Levinas may be useful in considering these important issues in Auster's oeuvre. Chapter Four returns to a consideration of The New York Trilogy, examining its final part, The Locked Room, before discussing In the Country of Last Things and Moon Palace. All three novels are narrated by first-person narrators who, in very different situations, come (consciously and unconsciously) to negotiate their own identities in relation either to other people or to adverse circumstances. The chapter thus considers the manner in which these texts figure Auster's concern with relationships between individuals and otherness. Chapter Five seeks, as a means of concluding the study, to consider aspects of Auster's presentation of the manner in which identity is connected to perception, and to an engagement with that which is other than the self This chapter focuses on Auster's figuration of necessary responses to the otherness of the objective world and to chance as a radical alterity. Beginning with a consideration of an early essay, the chapter explores relevant aspects of Moon Palace, The Music of Chance, Leviathan and Mr Vertigo, considers elements in Auster's poetry, and demonstrates the usefulness of exploring the influence on his work of the 'objectivist' poets and aspects of Dada and Surrealist poetics. The seemingly punitive severity of the fates of some of Auster's protagonists is shown ultimately to be positive, and (potentially) redemptive, reflecting Auster's profoundly ethical conception of the responsibilities and possibilities of selfhood.
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  • Date Issued: 1999

An investigation of the interrelationship between group commitment, religiosity, marital adjustment and attitude to divorce in the Jewish ethnic group

  • Authors: Miller, Bernice
  • Date: 1991
  • Subjects: Jews -- Psychology , Judaism , Jews -- Attitudes , Ethnicity , Marriage (Jewish law) , Divorce (Jewish law)
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
  • Identifier: vital:3019 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002528 , Jews -- Psychology , Judaism , Jews -- Attitudes , Ethnicity , Marriage (Jewish law) , Divorce (Jewish law)
  • Description: The purpose of this research was to investigate the interrelationships between marital adjustment, group commitment, religiosity and attitude to divorce in the Jewish group. It amounted to a within group empirical study of the Jewish community of Cape Town. Research, to date, has focused on marital stability where researchers have found that Jews have lower divorce rates than the general population. The present study attempted to assess the psycho-social outcomes of group commitment in the form of marital adjustment, thus bridging the gap between marital quality and marital stability in the Jewish group. On a wider level, the purpose of this research was to assess whether a social structural framework, utilizing the concept of social integration, is a perspective that can be used in explaining variations in marital adjustment. The following were the findings of the research : Religiosity was correlated to group commitment but not to marital adjustment; group commitment was correlated to marital adjustment; a negative attitude to divorce was not correlated to marital adjustment, group commitment or religiosity.
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  • Date Issued: 1991

Records of the inquest into the murder of Matthew Goniwe, Sparrow Mkonto, Fort Calata and Sicelo Mhlauli near Port Elizabeth on 21 June 1985

Studies on the neuro-physiology of a free-living Platyhelminth

  • Authors: Boyle, Sheila A
  • Date: 1961
  • Subjects: Platyhelminthes
  • Language: English
  • Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
  • Identifier: vital:5902 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013541
  • Description: From Resumé: The general picture of the physiology of invertebrate neuro-muscular systems as contrasted with the classical vertebrate system is presented and it is clear that one of the groups least investigated is the Phylum Platyhelminthes. An examination of the properties of the myo-neural system of a platyhelminth should be of interest, not only in itself, but also because of a possible relationship with the coelenterates, whose neuro-muscular system has been fairly extensively investigated. The aim of the present work was to determine some of the properties of the myo-neural system of a platyhelminth, and more especially those which would make possible a comparison with the myo-neural systems of other invertebrate phyla, and most particularly with the coelenterates. A preparation consisting of an entire decerebrate animal was used. The general anatomy of the musculature and basic plan of the nervous system are presented to facilitate an understanding of the experiments described, but a detailed examination of the relationships of nerves and muscles or of the innervation of the latter was not attempted. The spontaneous activity of such preparations was recorded kymographically and the characteristics of this activity under 'normal' conditions are described, together with observations on the effects on the normal spontaneous activity of treatments with sea waters of different ionic composition and with a number of drugs. The responses of the preparation to controlled electrical stimulation are also reported. The results are analysed and compared with the results of similar investigations on other invertebrate preparations, in particular the Anthozoa, and an interpretation of these results in terms of platyhelminth-coelenterate relations is discussed.
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  • Date Issued: 1961

Records of the inquest into the murder of Matthew Goniwe, Sparrow Mkonto, Fort Calata and Sicelo Mhlauli near Port Elizabeth on 27 June 1985

  • Authors: Goniwe Inquest
  • Subjects: Goniwe, Matthew 1946-1985 , Calata, Fort -1985 , Mkonto, Sparrow -1985 , Mhlauli, Sicelo -1985 , South Africa South African Defence Force , South African Police , Violent deaths South Africa , Inquests South Africa , Colonel Du Plessis, Lourens SADF , General Van der Westhuizen, C P SADF , Colonel Jonker, J SAP , Bozalek, Lee Legal Resources Centre, Cape Town , Makhaula, Gladdwell Cradock Residents Association (CRADORA) , Fouche, Henri , Cradock Workers Union , Holomisa, Bantu, 1955- , Joubert, A J M , Lessons learnt from past revolutionay wars by Brigadier C.A. Fraser, SM
  • Language: English , Afrikaans
  • Type: legal case and case notes , text
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/165046 , vital:41203 , Rhodes University, Cory Library for Humanities Research Cory Library Manuscript Collection MS 18 904
  • Description: Exhibits G : other documents including affidavits, letters, press and other published material, police files, photographs, plans and diagrams. People involved include Col. J Jonker, Henri Fouche, Col L du Plessis, Gen A J M Joubert, Major-General B Holomisa and Lieut.-General C P van der Westhuizen. , EXHIBITS - GONIWE Gl Diagram: Die Nasionale Veiligheidsbestuurstelsel (NBVS) G2 Opsomende diagrammatiese uiteensetting van die NBVS tot met die 1985 noodtoestand G3 Declaration of destruction of classified documents/material G4. Fraser: Lessons learnt from past revolutionary wars GS Kol J Jonker: Photo album - Strand Street G6 . Memorandum of the South West Africa Bar Council G7 Jacques Pauw In the Heart of the Whore, p113 G8 Accountability in Namibia (Africa Watch) G9 Goniwe’s Cradock File (ppl - 53) Aansoek vir in tamatie (p54) Extract from file (p55 - 58) G10 Goniwe’s telephone transcripts 1985/06/21 • 1985/06/28 G11 Affidavit of Henri Fouche G12 Annexures A- F: Fouche G13 Race Relations' Survey 1983, pp608 - 609 G14 Race Relations Survey 1985 pp482 - 483 G15 Race Relations Survey 1992/ 1993 p28 G16 Record and reasons for finding: S v Hamakali G17 Faku Inquest: Docket G18 Faku Inquest: Photo’s Gl9 EP Herald: 16 December 1989 G20 Faku Inquest: Investigation Diary G21 Description: Jetta Rear Axle G22 Beskadingsverslag: Staatsvoertuig G23 Map: Scene of explosion G24 Minutes: Inspection in loco G2S Photo’s: Inspection in loco G26 Registration of Jetta G27 Back of Faku investigation docket G28 Faku docket: Name en addresse van getuies G29 Druktelegram GONIWE EXHIBITS: FILE 2 G30 Letter from Wagenaar to Col Du 'Plessis, dated 5 February 1993 G31 Letter from Wagenaar to Col Du Plessis, dated 2 March 1993 G32 McCuen mimeo G33 Joubert affidavit and CCB document G34 Original damaged Katzen documents G35 Katzen: Glossary G36 Katzen: List of names G37 G38 Letter from Col Du Plessis to commanding officer, EP Command G39 Note regarding Du Plessis’ absence G40 Luus affidavit G41 Du Plessis evidence before commission G42 Letter from Maj-Gen Holomisa to State President G43 Du Plessis statement to New Nation G44 New Nation 8 - 14 May G4S Bank account: Du Plessis G46 'Verwyder’ documents G47 Diagram: Rewo oorlog G4S Bank document: Du Plessis G49 Letter from Col Du Plessis to Cyril Ramaphosa G50 Bevelskrif: Van der Westhuizen (Pligstaat) G51 Curriculum vitae: Van der Westhuizen G52 Plan: offices of EP Command G53 Verslag deur Botha Marais dated 3 February 1985 G54 Pauw: Heart of the whore extract G55 OPGBS minutes: 23 February 1984 G56 Dictionary of military terms G57 Heitman - article (Militaria) G58 Kort kursus in - strategie vir amptenare G59 Lesing 10 G60 Minutes of PE GIS meeting: 1985-05-30 G61 New Nation 30 April - 7 May 1985 G62 The Undeclared War G63 Verplasing Nr S163373E Sersant F.Z. Koni G64 Oor- en verplasing Nr S163373E Sersant F.Z. Koni : vanaf Veiligheidstak, Cradock (BP 1801) na die Uniformtak, Cradock (BP 1801) G65 Ontlsag weens mediese ongeskiktheid : NR S163373E Konstabel F.Z. Koni G66 Memo: Verplasing : W66950H Sers G.H. Lourentz G67 Diensbeeindiging rekord Konstabel Elizabeth van Zyl G68 Mediese iname verslag G69 Intydese Persal Verslag: W A Roux G70 Oor- en verplasing : W86689T Adjudant-offisier W A Roux : vanaf Uniformtak, Cradock (BP 1801) na die Veiligheidstak, Cradock (BP 1801) G71A Besonderhede van voertuig G71B Vervanging: motorcar SAP 48549N G71C Vervanging: motorcar SAP 48549N G72 Ondersoekdagboek
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