Doctoral Degrees (Linguistics and Language Practice)
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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Linguistics and Language Practice) by Advisor "Weideman, A. J."
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Item Open Access Developing a theoretical rationale for the attainment of greater equivalence of standard in the Grade 12 Home Language exit-level examinations(University of the Free State, 2017-02) Du Plessis, Colleen Lynne; Weideman, A. J.English: Disproportionately high pass rates and alarming discrepancies in the results of the South African National Senior Certificate (NSC) external examination for Home Language (HL) subjects have undermined the credibility of the state school curriculum and its system of assessment. This has also fuelled allegations that the same standards do not apply to all HL school subjects. Studies commissioned by the Council for Quality Assurance in General and Further Education and Training (Umalusi) to investigate the matter have confirmed that the levels of cognitive challenge do vary across HL examination papers. However, the reasons for this have not been identified and no alternatives have been proposed to improve the situation. In supplementation of the findings of Umalusi, this study seeks to develop a theoretical rationale for greater equivalence of standard in assessment across HLs. It has identified the historical lack of parity of esteem of the HLs and their continued inequitable treatment as academic languages as major factors that have constrained efforts to introduce comparability of standard and construct in the school-leaving examination. Other salient reasons for the varying standards pertain to the problematic design of the HL examination papers, a lack of conceptual clarity of constructs, and a lack of compliance with essential principles for the responsible and fair assessment of language abilities. In as much as initiatives by the former Department of Education to establish a unified national department and introduce common curricula and standards with centrally set examination papers may be laudable, they have failed to address the weak academic status of the indigenous Bantu HLs beyond the Foundation and Intermediate Phases of schooling. As a result hereof, the pivotal role that these languages could play in fostering epistemological access in other school subjects has been overlooked. The study argues that without comparable treatment of these languages to that of Afrikaans and English, it would be difficult to attain similar standards of teaching and assessment. This is a severe limitation in the quest for equality. It points to the need to raise the academic status of the indigenous Bantu HLs by exploring their use as languages of learning and teaching beyond the initial years of primary school education through bilingual pedagogies and variations of double-medium modes of instruction. A further recommendation of the study is that the HL examination papers be redesigned to accommodate a common examination component aimed at stimulating the development, inter alia, of academic vocabulary and inferential reasoning. On the basis of the prescribed curriculum, the study has identified the underlying construct of the HL examination to be the assessment of a differentiated language ability in discourse types involving typically different texts, and a generic ability incorporating task-based functional and formal aspects of language. Further to this, learners are required to display a high level of language ability as opposed to the more basic communicative kind needed for other languages offered at First Additional Language (FAL) level. Through the redesign of the exit-level HL examination papers and the introduction of a common examination component that tests generic language ability, a stimulus can be provided for the equitable advancement of the HLs. This would go hand in hand with the development of literacy materials in the HLs to strengthen skills that are needed for further study and workplace environments. At the same time, by adopting an integrated approach to language teaching and testing, the development of the crucial ability to understand, process and produce information in various formats through authentic and relevant tasks can be achieved through language instruction at school. A third major part of the study focuses on the sophisticated and specialised nature of language assessment as a branch of applied linguistics, and identifies a serious lack of compliance in the HL examination with orthodox principles that support valid and reliable assessment practices. This is particularly problematic in light of the disparities emanating from unjust educational policies in the previous political dispensation. The NSC is in need of socially just and equitable forms of assessment that are ecologically sensitive and reflect political and social accountability on the part of those tasked with overseeing the examination. Examination papers analysed for the purposes of the study show that privileged forms of literacy are still tolerated in some parts of the examination and that unacceptably high ratios of potentially subjective and unreliable scoring are allowed. By means of the proposed theoretical framework for the responsible design of the HL examination papers, a positive washback effect on language teaching is envisaged and a platform created for the eventual attainment of greater equivalence of standard and construct.Item Open Access In the aftermath of xenophobia: a critical discourse analysis(University of the Free State, 2014-07) Els, Christina Aletta; Kriel, M.; Weideman, A. J.English: While evidence confirms that print media in South Africa has contributed to the development of a xenophobic environment (McDonald and Jacobs, 2005:306; Danso and McDonald, 2001:124), particularly in the manner in which the media has stigmatised non-nationals, this does not necessarily imply that the print media was complicit in the xenophobic outbreaks of April/May 2008 (Smith, 2011:111). However, an investigation into the representation of non-nationals in the print media is nevertheless a lacuna that needs to be addressed (Smith, 2010:188). The focus of this study is on the discursive representations of non-nationals in the tabloid, the Daily Sun, during April to May 2008 –it focuses not only on the way in which the Daily Sun represented the ‘Other’, but also identifies some of the underlying ideologies that underpin these representations. The tabloid phenomenon, which presented itself in post-1994, has created a new trend of inclusivity in South African society in that previously marginalised groups have now, for the first time, been targeted as a viable market. The Daily Sun has been instrumental in providing people, who have been voiceless under apartheid, with a sense of identity by providing access to affordable newspapers. By the same token the Daily Sun has been accused of stoking the fires of xenophobia by means of uncritical and biased reporting. This led to a formal complaint against the newspaper in 2008, spearheaded by the Media Monitoring Project (nowadays MMA). These contradictions, as Wasserman (2007:791) points out, are characteristic of a society “in rapid and unequal transition and the tabloid media as commercial entities reliant on a public caught between history and progress…”. The researcher, working within the frame of Critical Discourse Analysis, draws a parallel, although not necessarily a causal link, between the xenophobic pogroms of May 2008 and the discursive representations of the tabloid, the Daily Sun, during April to May 2008Item Open Access The incremental validity of three tests of academic literacy in the context of a South African university of technology(University of the Free State, 2016) Sebolai, Kabelo Wilson; Weideman, A. J.; Van Dyk, T.𝑬𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒉 This study focuses on the incremental validity of three assessments of academic language readiness, compared to Grade 12 English results: the National Benchmark Test in Academic Literacy (NBT AL), the Proficiency Test English Second Language Advanced Level (PTESLAL) and the Test of Academic Literacy Levels (TALL) at the end of the first year of academic study. More specifically, the study investigates the ability of any of the four assessments to predict first year academic performance better than the others. Where those that are examined do not possess this ability, the further question is asked: can they at least add to the predictive power of the best predictor? Ultimately, the aim is to determine if the assessments designed to provide additional information about first year academic preparedness are valid for this purpose, and the extent to which this is the case. The study starts with a brief exploration of the literature on the reportedly low levels of academic language ability among first time entrants to higher education in South Africa in recent years, and the consequent need for the development and use of valid tests of academic language ability for channelling these students into academic language interventions that are aimed at dealing with this challenge. The literature on the current theories of validity is also explored in relation to the hypothesis of the study, which is that as a test designed to provide additional information about the academic language readiness of first year students, TALL will possess better incremental validity in relation to the best predictor of first year academic performance. Subsequently, an attempt is made to account for the ability of Grade 12 English results to predict first year academic performance better than the other three assessments investigated in the present study. Similarly, an effort is made to account for the ability of TALL to show evidence of incremental validity in relation to Grade 12 English results and the inability of NBT AL and PTESLAL to do the same. Furthermore, on the basis of the results of previous studies and the current one, a recommendation is made that Grade 12 results in general and Grade 12 English results in particular be used together with those of academic literacy tests to make access and placement decisions. The basis for this recommendation resides in the psychometric and other shortcomings of Grade 12 results that have been identified by previous studies as well as the evidence that similar studies have produced to show that tests of academic literacy possess better ability to partition test taker performance from different school backgrounds and at different levels of performance. Finally, the implications of the results of the study for current theories of test validity are discussed. In the main, the discussion focuses on demonstrating on the basis of these results and those of previous studies that the currently popular theory of validity wherein a unitary approach to validity is upheld and the interpretation and use of test scores are regarded as the essence of validation does not hold. At the same time, the discussion focuses on demonstrating that the traditional theory of validity, wherein validity is believed to reside in the objective ability of a test to produce valid scores and a distinction is made between the three traditional types of validity, namely construct, content and criterion-related validity is, with certain obvious qualifications, still defensible. Finally, the implications of the results of the study for validity theory are dealt with in relation to the validity of courses of academic literacy. ___________________________________________________________________