(2021). Using Corpus Methods to Triangulate Linguistic Analysis. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies. Ahead of Print.

Abstract With the rise of digital recording devices and web-based learning platforms, audio feedback has grown in popularity owing to easier distribution of recordings. Audio feedback is touted as having multiple advantages over written feedback. Although there are many studies reporting on the use of audio feedback and its effectiveness and efficiency, none of these have reported on the needs and

Abstract Yorùbá personal names have been studied from different perspectives. A critical look at the linguistic processes involved in the anglicisation of Yorùbá personal names appears to be relatively unexplored. As such, this study explores linguistic formation patterns of anglicised traditional Yorùbá anthroponyms. The study adopts the descriptive research design and analyses 50 samples of anglicised

Abstract Considering the fact that being able to read efficiently would be a key tool for academic success, there has been a plethora of research conducted on this skill with a serious focus on the degree to which reading comprehension is the function of lexical and grammatical knowledge of the language. However, the present study was an endeavour to examine whether L2 (English) reading comprehension

Abstract Accurate use of collocations is seen as a measure of a learner’s proficiency in a second/foreign language. However, research is not conclusive as to how to best test productive knowledge of collocations and, more fundamentally, there is no agreement on how vocabulary size, i.e. word comprehension, influences collocation production within a constrained or unconstrained context. This article

Abstract User studies on the Sepedi Copulative Decision Tree is an evaluation of the value of a writing assistant for the copulative constructions in Sepedi (Northern Sotho). It reflects on the different static and dynamic constructions of the identifying, descriptive and associative copulative in the different verbal moods. The aim of this article is to determine to what extent the use of the Tree

Abstract In lexical bundle research, it has been a common practice to extract and compare lexical bundles across different corpora based on certain identification thresholds. This line of study adopts varying frequency and dispersion thresholds because the corpora compared always differ in the sizes and/or the numbers of texts. However, few studies have ever considered the consequences of these methodological

Abstract This article examines the influence of verbal syntactic and semantic features on the occurrence of the object marker in Chiyao (P21), a Bantu language of Tanzania, Mozambique and Malawi. The article categorises verb stems into three main groups: those that take an obligatory object marker; those that block the occurrence of the object marker; and those that neither require nor block the object

(2020). Interdisciplinary Research Discourse: Corpus Investigations into Environment Journals. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies: Vol. 38, No. 4, pp. 366-368.

(2020). Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching: The Case of the Middle East and North Africa. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies: Vol. 38, No. 4, pp. 369-371.

Abstract Research shows that English language proficiency remains a barrier to learning among second language learners in South Africa. This article foregrounds the utility of translanguaging practices in teaching writing to English First Additional Language, Further Education and Training (FET) learners in South Africa. Five secondary schools in the Pinetown District participated in the study. Qualitative

Abstract The aim of this study was to explore lexical bundle use in four moves within abstracts of medical research articles (RAs) and to investigate the relation between bundles and moves. Lexical bundles were identified, and bundle structures and functions in each move were compared and analysed. Four-word bundles in medical RA abstracts were characterised by considerable overlap. The majority of

Abstract Despite their mastery over commercially popular textbooks, many EFL learners feel communicatively incompetent in real communicative interactions outside the classroom context. This data-driven study aims at exploring the roots of this educational ill by interviewing nine experienced English language teachers teaching in private language schools of Mashhad, the capital city of Khorasan province

Abstract Presidential speeches are often investigated as privileged readings of the state of the nation. A recurrent theme in the speeches of Nigerian presidents is corruption, and this reflects the enormity of national concern with the impact corruption has on social life, the economy and infrastructure development. Whereas research on corruption appears to be overwhelming due to its significance

Abstract Mentoring interactions in higher education are intended to help students achieve their learning goals. This entails mentors taking up the epistemological responsibility of sharing what they know and facilitating effective student learning. When this goal is not achieved, the well-intended mentoring actions create trouble for both the mentor and mentee. We approach learning trouble from an

Abstract The 2017 recommendation by the Constitutional Review Committee of the South African Parliament that South African Sign Language (SASL) be added to the Constitution as the country’s 12th official language has been forwarded to parliament for action, but, as of the writing of this article, it has yet to be approved. Should parliament accept the committee’s recommendation, there are a number

Abstract In an increasingly mobile world, in which people and languages from different cultures meet all across the globe, the development and dynamics of linguistically and culturally superdiverse spaces are of particular sociolinguistic interest. In this regard, two important phenomena are migration and tourism. This article analyses language choices and their motivations in the superdiverse tourist

Abstract This study investigates the effectiveness of the joint construction stage of the genre-based approach in improving EFL writing skills for students with higher and lower motivation in an Indonesian senior high school. The participants of this study were two classes totalling 60 students. The classes were divided into two groups: higher and lower motivation. The experimental class was given

Abstract In southern Africa, contact with the typologically and genealogically diverse Khoisan languages has resulted in various changes in Bantu languages. The most salient and well-studied change is the acquisition of clicks, cross-linguistically uncommon phonemes that are a strong indicator of Khoisan influence. However, not all southern African Bantu languages make use of clicks, and contact-induced

Abstract This study evaluates the value of the total physical response (TPR) method for teaching Igbo to L2 learners. Specifically, it evaluates which of these methods is more effective. It is quantitative research which adopts the experimental design. 100 students are placed in control and experimental groups of 50 students each, taught Igbo lexis and structure, and evaluated. Data analysis, by using

Abstract Multilingual language policies in South Africa aim to promote tolerance and understanding of sociocultural differences and equal access to power. The current common curriculum for learning of all additional languages in South African primary schools presents negative affordances for the acquisition of African languages as second languages. This article proposes that task-based language teaching

Abstract This article reports on the progress (or lack thereof) regarding the use of Sesotho as an official medium of communication in selected government departments in the Free State Provincial Government (FSPG). In South Africa, provincial governments are required to implement language policies that promote multilingualism. The aim is to develop previously marginalised languages such as Sesotho

Abstract Children’s literature translations need to be treated like a work of art. The translator becomes the second writer. As an artist, the translator needs to be aware of the principles guiding children’s literature writing. At the same time, the translator needs to familiarise themselves with translation strategies for children’s literature. Similarly, children’s biography translation requires

Abstract This article reports on the analysis of three major markers of necessity in Luganda, i.e. the modal auxiliaries -téekw- and -lina and the verbal prefix -andi-. On the basis a 4-million-word corpus it is argued that, overall, the auxiliary -téekw- is more established as a necessity marker, as it is involved in the expression of all necessity subcategories except participant-inherent dynamic

Abstract Three versions of a financial form were compared to each other with regard to usability, understanding and respondents’ experiences. The first version did not explicitly use any plain language techniques; the second version of the form explicitly used some plain language techniques and in the third version even more plain language techniques were employed. Mixed methodologies were used to

Abstract There is a growing body of literature that recognises the relationship between verbal argument alternations such as passives and anticausatives. However, alternation types in Bantu languages have been treated in a rather fragmented way. In addition, the relationship between passive and anticausative constructions with regard to the realisation of an implicit external argument poses a challenge

Abstract Zimbabwe’s Broadcasting Services Amendment Act (BSAA; 2007) unveils a commitment towards multilingual broadcasting for public broadcasting. This study cross-examines the design of the multilingual broadcasting policy in the Act, and its subsequent implementation at the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), with particular attention to the treatment of indigenous languages. Empirical data

Abstract This study investigates the embodiment of rhetorical moves in general and technical lexical bundles (LBs) in the abstract sections (ASs) of research articles in medical sciences and the relationship between them. A corpus of 1 500 empirically oriented ASs of approximately 414 000 words from recently published Institute for Scientific Education-indexed journals was compiled and analysed. The

Abstract This article analyses language management strategies that are employed by Tonga parents towards the conservation of the Tonga language. Since Zimbabwe gained independence, Tonga, alongside a host of other previously designated minority languages has endured marginalisation in terms of use in public and official spaces, leading to language shift. In the presence of dominant endoglossic languages

Abstract The concepts of area and perimeter are problematic to primary and secondary school learners. They often confuse their meaning; often evidenced in assessment tasks by learners misusing the formulae of one for the other. In this research, translanguaging is used as a pedagogical resource to teach these concepts. The study was undertaken on a sample of two Grade 6 classes from two rural Zimbabwean

Abstract In response to a call by Kobus Marais in 2012 to bring development studies into the purview of translation studies, this article describes the relationship between translation and development in democratic South Africa by focusing on translation’s relationship with material (versus symbolic or cultural) social exclusion. Social exclusion thus represents the perspective from which development

Abstract This article reports on a study that investigated the L2 writing value of undergraduate students in Malaysia. A task-value instrument was developed through a multi-stage process, focusing on the values that students place on academic writing in English. The participants were 310 Malaysian university students aged 19 to 22. The participants completed a writing task-value questionnaire and a

Abstract Conversation analysis of 274 ‘the therapist’s empathic response to the client’s problematic experiences’ sequences identified ten different interactional practices that therapists used to display relevant understanding of clients’ problematic experiences. This article focuses mainly on the specific interactional practices that are employed by therapists to show their empathy to clients. In

Abstract The article examines the sociolinguistic variations of the alveolar tap [ɾ] in Dagbani female names, a Gur language spoken in the northern part of Ghana. It focuses on how the language is losing the pronunciation of the alveolar lateral /l/ in some female names through sound substitution. The sound [ɾ] does not occur in word-initial position in Dagbani, but it is currently prominent in the

Abstract Numerous studies have compared the use of lexical bundles between L1 and L2 academic writing or between students and expert writing. However, the results of these studies are mixed due to differences in the control of potentially confounding variables (e.g. discipline, the level of expertise). It is still unclear whether the L1 background, or the level of expertise (i.e. student versus expert)

Abstract Policies and/or constitutional provisions are a cornerstone for the development of a country. Varied language-related policies and constitutional acts have been crafted and/or amended in an effort to redress the language inequalities in Zimbabwe. The enactment of the new constitution in 2013 saw 16 languages accorded the status of officially recognised language. The media’s role in publicising

Abstract Business discourse teaching has become one of the primary aspects of business discourse research due to its pedagogy-oriented tradition. The book under review, Teaching Business Discourse, is the first monograph that is dedicated to this important perspective in a systematic manner, though it has been generally discussed in some related works, including Bargiela-Chiappini, Nickerson, and Planken

Abstract This paper seeks to provide an analysis of obstacles that hinder progress in promoting the functional status of African languages in the South African higher education sector. African languages suffer marginalisation despite the existence of various empowering and restorative legislative provisions and policies. In this study, we argue that African languages have a central role in driving

Abstract The overarching goal of medical internship is to provide newly qualified doctors (NQDs) with work-based learning opportunities to gain experience of clinical practice under supervision, while gradually assuming greater independent responsibility. In South Africa, this often stressful period of potentially transformative learning is additionally complicated by issues of language. This article

Abstract The normative understanding of academic literacy relates mainly to textual reading and writing. While texts might well be dominant, other literacies such as numeracy and visual literacy are equally dominant in higher education studies. The context of academic literacy is here located within five first-year diploma subjects where visual literacy and numeracy emerged as dominant modalities for

Abstract This article reflects on the translation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland into the isiNdebele language of Zimbabwe. The isiNdebele translation, Insumansumane zika-Alice, is one of the numerous translations produced towards the 150th commemorative exhibition of Carroll’s legacy following the publication of Wonderland in 1865. The translations resulted in Wonderland becoming

Abstract This paper presents a critical review of literature relating to language policy and literacy practices in education, with a particular focus on multilingual Kenya. Existing research on schooling in Kenya often draws attention to the use of languages that are distanced from students’ daily realities and localities. This article synthesises research on literacy practices in Kenyan primary classrooms

Abstract This paper attempts to explore and investigate the role of discourse markers (DMs) in the annexes of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Discourse markers are cohesive markers that play an important role in connecting paragraphs, sentences, clauses and phrases to both previous and following items and therefore reflect the speaker’s/writer’s intended attitude about a certain

Abstract To gain credibility and get acceptance from academic discourse communities, writers rely heavily on communicating with their audiences through publishing research articles (RAs). Analysing the generic structure of RAs can deal with issues relating to their language style and the type of linguistic features used. To Hyland, one of the valuable ways to study the pragmatic meaning of RAs and

Abstract While numerous studies have been conducted on the effects of first language (L1) rhetorical organisation on second/foreign language (L2) rhetorical organisation, few studies have been conducted on the effects of L2 rhetorical organisation on L1 rhetorical organisation. This article reports on a study that examined the effect of the organisational patterns of English as a second language on

Abstract Based on the association between differences in learning contexts and differences in linguistic outcomes as supported by second language acquisition (SLA) research, this study examines the differential effects of particular contextually dependent variables on Spanish learners’ English oral communication skills in two different instructional settings (Content and Language Integrated Learning

Abstract The aim of the study is to investigate the views and perceptions of lecturers from the science disciplines – maths, statistics, physics and computer science – on the use of translanguaging for pedagogical purposes. Perceptions from these lecturers would assist to find ways of convincing them to accept and use translanguaging in their teaching for the benefit of the students. Using an open-ended

Abstract At the core of using languages other than English in higher education in South Africa lies the processes of translation/mediation and the mediators themselves. Within the framework of the descriptive theory of translation, this paper offers a critical consideration of the people and processes at the heart of one such project at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa: the mediators

Abstract Most studies of the Bantu verb have neglected detailed analyses of the less productive verb extensions including the neuter suffix -ik. This suffix is associated with the ‘stative’ construction in many Bantu languages, which usually also have a separate passive extension. Citonga (N15) and Citumbuka (N21) have shifted from using -iw, the reflex of the Proto-Bantu passive extension, to using

Introduction This special issue, titled ‘Valency-decreasing derivations and (quasi-)middles in Bantu’ is a follow-up on the workshop ‘Verbal derivation and verb extensions in Bantu’, which was held during the 6th International Conference on Bantu Languages in Helsinki in 2016. In the same year, we presented a paper ‘Middle voice in Bantu’ at the workshop ‘Correlations of valency-changing operations

Abstract This study accounts for the neuter extension -ɪk in Manda (N11), a Bantu language spoken along Lake Nyasa (Lake Malawi) in southern Tanzania. The article offers a description of both the formal and functional features of this morpheme in Manda, while paying special attention to its rare extended function as a proper passive marker licensing an explicit prototypical agent. Based on comparative

Abstract Cuwabo has two different derivational suffixes to form passive verb stems, i.e. -iw and -uw. Unlike in many other Bantu languages, these suffixes are not phonologically conditioned allomorphs of one single morphological passive marker. They are interchangeable as productive passive markers, but -uw has a broader functional range than -iw. The suffix -uw actually is a ‘quasi-middle’ marker

Abstract This article investigates the derivational relationships among members of verbal paradigms in Kinyarwanda (Bantu JD61; Rwanda) by pursuing two interrelated goals. First, I describe a variety of derivational strategies for marking transitive and intransitive variants in change-of-state verb paradigms. Second, I focus on the detransitivising morpheme -ik which serves as one possible marking

Book Title: Social Semiotics – Key Figures, New Directions Book Authors: Thomas Hestbaek Andersen, Morten Boeriis, Eva Maagero & Elise SeipTonnessen 2015. Routledge. ISBN: 978-0-415-71210-1, 174 pages, price £125.00

Abstract South African engineering and built environment professionals often present and need to transfer complex data to diverse recipients. This study of 91 respondents (via a Likert scale survey) explores communicative skills and formats used in their workplaces. Skills for seeking work (curriculum vitae, letters of application. networking through social media and interviews) was followed by analysis

Abstract This article discusses the morphology of Degema modifier, demonstrative and interrogative nominals, noting that like most nouns in the language, these nominals consist of a stem and a vocalic element. The vocalic elements of these nominals have been analysed as prefixes based on the fact that (a) they are used to derive such nominals from verbs and non-verbs, and (b) they occur before verbal

Abstract HIV and the AIDS pandemic were introduced in the African continent as Western medical concepts that had no functional equivalence in the African cultures. It was in this context that African health authorities had to decrypt HIV/AIDS scientific processes in order to come up with a translation that captures the essence of these concepts and that decodes them in a manner that is understandable

Abstract In this paper we describe speech difficulties observed in a bilingual child (aged 3 years, 0 months at the time of assessment) acquiring isiXhosa and English in South Africa. Speech difficulties were noted in both Ntando's languages, but as is currently common in urban South Africa, the child's family favoured intervention focusing on his English and the clinician-researcher was a first language

Abstract Assessment results from rural schools have shown little improvement in over a decade, mainly because many of the barriers to learning, such as poverty and limited resources, still prevail. Without the necessary English language skills, language can become another barrier to learning. The assessment results of Progress in International Reading Literacy Studies (PIRLS) in 2011 and 2016 reinforce

Abstract Dynamic assessment is one kind of assessment that integrates the process of interaction within the implementation. The method is based on Vygotsky's zone of proximal development theory which mentions that the students need guidance in a learning process before they can solve the problem individually. The use of dynamic assessment has been proved to be effective in improving the students’ skill