The performance of South African English first language child speakers on a "low linguistically loaded" central auditory processing test protocol

The lack of standardized tests of central auditory processing disorder (CAPD) in South Africa (SA) led to the formation of a SA CAPD Taskforce, and the interim development of a "low linguistically loaded" CAPD test protocol using test recordings from the 'Tonal and Speech Materials for Auditory Perceptual Assessment Disc 2.0'. This study inferentially compared the performance of 16 SA English first, and 16 SA English second, language adult speakers on this test protocol, and descriptively compared their performances to previously published American normative data. Comparisons between the SA English first and second language speakers showed a poorer right ear performance (p < .05) by the second language speakers on the two-pair dichotic digits test only. Equivalent performances (p < .05) were observed on the left ear performance on the two pair dichotic digits test, and the frequency patterns test, the duration patterns test, the low-pass filtered speech test, the 45% time compressed speech test, the speech masking level difference test, and the consonant vowel consonant (CVC) binaural fusion test. Comparisons between the SA English and the American normative data showed many large differences (up to 37.1% with respect to predicted pass criteria as calculated by mean-2SD cutoffs), with the SA English speakers performing both better and worse depending on the test involved. As a result, the American normative data was not considered appropriate for immediate use as normative data in SA. Instead, the preliminary data provided in this study was recommended as interim normative data for both SA English first and second language adult speakers, until larger scale SA normative data can be obtained.

Ben Marais (1909-1999): The influences on and heritage of a South African Prophet during two periods of transformation

University of Pretoria / Dissertation / Department of Church History and Church Policy / Advised by Prof J W Hofmeyr

Christina Higgins. 2009. English as a Local Language

Christina Higgins credibly presents the situation of English in East Africa as scrutinized from four areas, which she investigated in the field: the newspaper journalism, annual beauty pageants for young women, the hip hop music of the youth, and advertisements. For me, as a Tanzanian, it has been a pleasure to review a book that illuminatingly documents the language situation, the cultural conceptualization and the localization of English that is taking place in the multilingual society in Tanzania.

"All Have to Live in Me...": A Study of the Use of English Alongside Other African Languages in a Kenyan School

The purpose of this paper, which builds on an earlier paper published in this Journal (Vol. 20, No. 6), is to develop the discussion around how English has been taught, used and perceived in Kenya, using data gathered from a small second-level English-medium school in Kenya. The complex relationships between language and identity are at work in the everyday routines of both staff and pupils within such a context. The paper seeks to set out a clear methodology for gathering data which could help describe these relationships with more clarity while also subjecting the data to analysis informed by the growing body of research and theory that focuses on language policy in post-colonial and neo-colonial settings. Finally, these pieces of data are used as the basis of a further exploration of the implications for classroom practice in teaching English in this environment.

A comparison study of the English III/American Literature success of African American high school students and that of students whose home language is Haitian Creole

The purpose of the study was to compare the English III success of students whose home language is Haitian Creole (SWHLIHC) with that of the more visible African American high school students in the Miami Dade County Public Schools System, in an effort to offer insight that might assist educators in facilitating the educational success of SWHLIHC in American Literature class.^ The study was guided by two important theories on how students interact with and learn from literature. They are Reader Response Theory which advocates giving students the opportunity to become involved in the literature experience (Rosenblatt, 1995), and Critical Literacy, a theory developed by Paolo Freire and Henry Giroux, which espouses a critical approach to analysis of society that enables people to analyze social problems through lenses that would reveal social inequities and assist in transforming society into a more equitable entity.^ Data for the study: 10th grade reading FCAT scores, English III/American Literature grades, and Promotion to English IV records for the school year 2010-2011 were retrieved from the records division of the Miami Dade County Public Schools System. The study used a quantitative methods approach, the central feature of which was an ex post facto design with hypotheses (Newman, Newman, Brown, & McNeely, 2006). The ex post facto design with hypotheses was chosen because the researcher postulated hypotheses about the relationships that might exist between the performances of SWHLIHC and those of African American students on the three above mentioned variables. This type of design supported the researcher's purpose of comparing these performances.^ One way analysis of variance (ANOVA), two way ANOVAs, and chi square tests were used to examine the two groups' performances on the 10th grade reading FCAT, their English III grades, and their promotion to English IV. ^ The study findings show that there was a significant difference in the performance of SWHLIHC and African American high school students on all three independent variables. SWHLIHC performed significantly higher on English III success and promotion to English IV. African American high school students performed significantly higher on the reading FCAT.^

Africa through Chinese eyes: new frames or the same old lens? African news in English from China Central Television, compared with the BBC

[No abstract as this is a book chapter: the following represents the first 2 paragraphs.] The screen fills with close-ups of smiling African faces against a black-and-orange background: the carefree child, the gap-toothed man with smoke curling from his pipe. The faces retreat into an outline of a map of Africa as the saccharine background music dissolves into birdsong. The silhouette of an acacia tree appears. This is not the much-derided Western romantic stereotype of the continent: it is an extract from a promotional trailer on CCTV Africa, the embodiment of China’s “soft power” drive and a spearhead of Chinese state television’s overseas expansion. Yet this image is at variance with the English-language channel’s professed ambitions. The Chinese premier, Li Keqiang, himself declared that “CCTV embraces the vision of seeing Africa from an African perspective and reporting Africa from the viewpoint of Africa”. These contradictory messages prompt fundamental questions about CCTV’s expansion into Africa. Are the channel’s English-language news bulletins aimed at African or Chinese viewers? What kind of Africa – and indeed China – do they represent, and could the framing of African events by CCTV News provide an alternative to the perspective of international rivals? Is CCTV’s main mission in Africa to provide news or to act as mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party and state? This chapter addresses these questions by applying a cross-cultural variant of framing theory to the news content of CCTV’s Africa Live and that of its closest direct competitor, Focus on Africa from BBC World News TV.

A Comparison Study of the English III/American Literature Success of African American High School Students and That of Students Whose Home Language is Haitian Creole

The purpose of the study was to compare the English III success of students whose home language is Haitian Creole (SWHLIHC) with that of the more visible African American high school students in the Miami Dade County Public Schools System, in an effort to offer insight that might assist educators in facilitating the educational success of SWHLIHC in American Literature class. The study was guided by two important theories on how students interact with and learn from literature. They are Reader Response Theory which advocates giving students the opportunity to become involved in the literature experience (Rosenblatt, 1995), and Critical Literacy, a theory developed by Paolo Freire and Henry Giroux, which espouses a critical approach to analysis of society that enables people to analyze social problems through lenses that would reveal social inequities and assist in transforming society into a more equitable entity. Data for the study: 10th grade reading FCAT scores, English III/American Literature grades, and Promotion to English IV records for the school year 2010-2011 were retrieved from the records division of the Miami Dade County Public Schools System. The study used a quantitative methods approach, the central feature of which was an ex post facto design with hypotheses (Newman, Newman, Brown, & McNeely, 2006). The ex post facto design with hypotheses was chosen because the researcher postulated hypotheses about the relationships that might exist between the performances of SWHLIHC and those of African American students on the three above mentioned variables. This type of design supported the researcher’s purpose of comparing these performances. One way analysis of variance (ANOVA), two way ANOVAs, and chi square tests were used to examine the two groups’ performances on the 10th grade reading FCAT, their English III grades, and their promotion to English IV. The study findings show that there was a significant difference in the performance of SWHLIHC and African American high school students on all three independent variables. SWHLIHC performed significantly higher on English III success and promotion to English IV. African American high school students performed significantly higher on the reading FCAT.

Homework for refugee middle school students with backgrounds marked by low levels of engagement with English school literacy

Homework presents many challenges for refugees from Africa who are arriving in Australian schools with histories of little, no or severely interrupted schooling. This is evident in the emergence of school- and community-based homework help, clubs and tutoring programs for the students. The aim of this article is to describe the homework support options accessed by eight students from Burundi, Rwanda, Eritrea and Sudan who participated in a study of pedagogy for middle school-aged African refugees, and the views on homework of their parents and teachers. The article shows some tensions between family and school expectations and the dilemmas that arise for teachers in a broader context of public concern about and official policy statement on excessive and repetitive homework. It is argued that application of policy guidelines needs to account for disadvantages that potentially accrue to students who cannot design their own independent study programs. Further, it is suggested that integration of skills and meaning-based pedagogy inherent in recent approaches to literacy education has potential for ensuring that students receive the forms of homework they require.

Engaging with the promises of education : African refugee students in Australian secondary schools

The research reported in this paper investigated the engagement of students who arrived in Australian secondary schools as refugees from Africa. Enrolment of large cohorts of refugees from Africa is a relatively new phenomenon in the English-speaking West. The literature provides evidence that emotional engagement with the promises of schooling is strong for many of the young African refugees. Students envision successful professional careers as doctors, engineers, lawyers, and IT experts; they envision returning to their country as professionals able to help the people. The question investigated in this paper is: How does schooling in Australia impact on young African refugees’ education and career aspirations? Engagement is understood in Bourdieuian terms as dispositions to be and to become an educated person. This is a disposition which entails fundamental belief in the value of the stakes of schooling. The data analysed in the paper were produced in a study undertaken in the state of Queensland where 5000 of the 39 000 African refugees who have arrived in Australia since 2000 have settled. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with students and their parents and teachers after arrival in an intensive language school, and then after transition to a regular secondary school. The findings show both the durability and malleability of educational dispositions in conditions of dramatic social change occasioned by refugee experience. Engagement in the stakes of schooling is both built and eroded as students flee their homelands for countries of refuge. Previously unimaginable educational dreams are possible for some; but for others, long-held dreams become unattainable. The paper concludes with recommendations for better supporting young people through this re-shaping of self.

Pedagogy and participation : literacy education for low-literate refugee students of African origin in a western school system

For ESL teachers working with low-literate adolescents the challenge is to provide instruction in basic literacy capabilities while also realising the benefits of interactive and dialogic pedagogies advocated for the students. In this article we look at literacy pedagogy for refugees of African origin in Australian classrooms. We report on an interview study conducted in an intensive English language school for new arrival adolescents and in three regular secondary schools. Brian Street’s ideological model is used. From this perspective, literacy entails not only technical skills, but also social and cultural ways of making meaning that are embedded within relations of power. The findings showed that teachers were strengthening control of instruction to enable mastery of technical capabilities in basic literacy and genre analysis. We suggest that this approach should be supplemented by a critical approach transforming relations of linguistic power that exclude, marginalise and humiliate the study students in the classroom.

The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences

Its mission is to promote Mathematics and Science in Africa and to provide a focal point for Mathematics university training in Africa. It offers scholarships for up to 50 students to come and study for a period of nine months. Of the 50 students, about 15 positions are reserved for females. In the 2006/2007 intake there were over 250 applicants. The students are housed and fed and their return travel from their home town is fully funded. Lecturers also stay at AIMS and share their meals with the students, so that a rapport quickly develops. The students are away from their families and friends for nine months and are absolutely committed to the discipline of Mathematics. When they first arrive, some of them have little ability in English but since all tuition is in English they quickly learn. Some find the transitions difficult but they all support one another and at the end of their time their English skills are very good. The students do a series of subjects that last for about three weeks each, consisting of 30 contact hours, as well as a thesis/project. Each course has a number of assignments associated with it and these get evaluated. AIMS has seven or eight teaching assistants who help with the tutorials, marking, advice, and who are a vital component of AIMS.