Browsing by Author "Gazu, Khulekani Amegius"

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    Factors to be considered in designing a comprehensive syllabus for English Second Language learners (ESL), with reference to learners in KwaZulu-Natal, North coast
    (2006) Gazu, Khulekani Amegius; Moyo, C.T.
    The post 1994 era in South Africa has been characterized by rampant change. During this age of transition, almost every aspect of social life has seen new institutions and structures being put in place to redress the injustices and imbalances of the apartheid system. Education has not been an exception. The English Second Language (ESL) syllabus was changed in 1996 and replaced by the 'Interim Core Syllabus'. Since 1996, this interim syllabus has been in effect until 2006 in Grades 11 and 12. Practically, the Education Department of South Africa has relied on the ESL syllabus which was meant to be a temporary measure for eleven years. In the classes lower than Grades 11 and 12, Curriculum 2005 was put in place and was subsequently replaced by the Revised National Curriculum Statement. Again, the Revised National Curriculum Statement was replaced by the National Curriculum Statement. In short, until 2006 high schools, that is, Further Education and Training band, have relied on the interim syllabus and Grade 12 will continue doing so up to 2007. Prompted by the fact that the ESL syllabus had been interim for quite some time and the learners' performance was not satisfactory, the researcher engaged in this study. In 1999 and 2000, learners' performance in ESL in the Empangeni Region was not of the required standard. Eshowe district, which is the focus of this study, was no exception. Learners' poor performance in ESL during these years meant that the aims and objectives of the ESL Interim Core Syllabus for Standard 8,9 and 10 that was used by schools were not entirely realized. This research aimed at finding factors that were responsible for learners' not performing up to the required standard during the years referred to above and possibly in subsequent years. The point of departure for this study was syllabus design - specifically the Interim Core Syllabus of 1996. Admittedly, there may have been other factors that are social, political, affective, etc in nature. However, this study was concerned with factors more directly linked to the education system since syllabi used in schools to facilitate learner assessment are an education factor.
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    A Grounded Theory study of English as Second Language (ESL) students’ experiences with literary texts, with reference to the University of Zululand
    (University of Zululand, 2017) Gazu, Khulekani Amegius; Moyo, C.T; Mncwango, E.M
    The study of ESL students’ experiences with literary texts generated a theoretical model accounting for the intricate relationships among some interwoven phenomena. The model was informed by the precepts of the systematic procedures of Strauss and Corbin (1990) and the attendant central phenomenon, causal conditions, contextual and intervening conditions, interactional strategies as well as the consequences. The central phenomenon that emerged focused on how ESL students interact with textual features such as language difficulty, lexical difficulty, and length of the text by employing strategies to bring about better text comprehensibility. The causal condition for the phenomenon is that some ESL students face lexical and general language difficulty when studying literary texts because of their relative lexical impoverishment. When students consult dictionaries to mediate lexical difficulty, reading fluency is adversely affected; and the condition is exacerbated by the length of the text which brings about loss of plot navigation whereby some readers forget parts of the plot due prolonged engagement in the context of available reading time. The context under which the phenomenon obtains is conspicuous in poetry in the form of authority of interpretation – a phenomenon which grapples with the quandary of orthodox interpretation as postulated either by the student or the assumed more knowledgeable other, the lecturer. The attendant property is that interpretation resonates as a positive higher level cognitive appeal to the more competent reader and a challenge or difficulty to the less competent reader. In the novel (as well as other genres) the manifestation of the phenomenon comes about during assessment where there is a lack shared outcomes or criterion referencing, which leads to unsatisfactory student performance. Students have to adopt interactional strategies to mediate the situation by relying on internet summaries and analyses. Other interactional strategies include relying on the lecturer’s decoding of the text, thereby expecting a banking pedagogy from the more knowledgeable other; relying on the peers’ decoding of a literary text; and shared or collaborative reading which leads to a convergence of different viewpoints and interpretations. These strategies are facilitated by the intervening conditions like the relevance of themes; the ability of the reader to relate to the text; the novel’s being laden with exploratory ideas; and the drama’s interactive nature. Conversely, they are constrained by such conditions as the effect of the heavy workload; drama’s barren exposition; internet summaries only treating peripheral content; and the discrepancy between lecturing and assessment styles. The interactional strategies have a positive and a negative bearing on the ESL readers’ engagement with literary texts. The positive consequences of relying on the internet summaries and analysis include the provision of an entry point to the text; creation of expectation and activation of the schemata; it also results in active reading for some readers, and it facilitates the reading of the long texts. Conversely, the practice is also considered to result in passive reading as it is no longer necessary for some readers to make conjectures; the discovery element is taken away hence the aesthetic value of the text dwindles; and it adversely affects the student-lecturer didactic relationship for ethical reasons. The strategy of relying on the lecturer and peers leads to dependency when they do not read texts on their own