Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Tertiary literacy'

Students at university encounter quantitative information in tables and graphs or through prose in textbooks, journals, electronic sources and in lectures. The degree to which students are able to engage with this kind of information and draw their own conclusions, influences the extent to which they need to rely on the interpretation of others. In particular, students who are studying in non-mathematical disciplines often fail to engage seriously with such material for a number of reasons. These may include a lack of confidence in their ability to do mathematics, a lack of mathematical skills required to understand the data, or a lack of an awareness of the importance of being able to read and interpret the data for themselves. In this thesis, the successful choice and use of skills to interpret quantitative information is referred to as numeracy. The level of numeracy exhibited by a student can vary depending on the social or cultural context, his/her confidence to engage with the quantitative information, the sophistication of the mathematics required, and his/her ability to evaluate the findings. The first part of the thesis is devoted to the conceptualisation of numeracy and its relationship to mathematics. The empirical study that follows this is focused on an aspect of numeracy of importance to university students: the reading and interpreting of tables of data in a range of non-mathematical contexts. The students who participated in this study were enrolled in degree programs in the social sciences. The study was designed to measure the effectiveness of a one-hour intervention workshop aimed at improving the levels of the students’ numeracy. The short length of the intervention was dictated by practical and organisational constraints. This workshop involved reading and interpreting a table of data using strategies based on the SOLO taxonomy (Biggs & Collis, 1982). The SOLO taxonomy was developed mainly as a means of classifying the quality of responses across both arts and science disciplines. The categorisation uses five levels: prestructural, unistructural, multistructural, relational and extended abstract. It can be used as a diagnostic tool at all levels of education as it can be seen as a spiral learning structure repeating itself with increasing levels of abstraction. It can also be used as a teaching tool in feedback to students. A measuring instrument, also based on the SOLO taxonomy, was designed to gauge the levels of the students’ responses to these tasks. Each response was allocated a level that was subsequently coded as a number from zero to seven. Because the responses were in distinct ordered categories, it was possible to analyse the scores using the Rasch Model (Rasch 1960/80) for polytomous responses, placing both the difficulty of the tasks and the ability of the students on an equal interval scale. The Rasch Model was also used to evaluate the measuring instrument itself. Some adjustments were made to the instrument in the light of this analysis. It was found that it is possible to construct an instrument to distinguish between levels of students’ written responses for each of the chosen table interpretation tasks. The workshop was evaluated through a comparison of the levels achieved by individual students before and after the workshop. T-tests for dependent samples indicated a significant improvement (p < 0.01) in student performance.

Levels of academic literacy and self-efficacy were investigated to find possible relationships to variations in demographic and experiential backgrounds, academic results, and acceptance into future courses. The 212 adults studied were from a diverse range of backgrounds and were enrolled in the largest bridging programme in New Zealand, preparing for tertiary study. Quantitative data assessing reading, writing, and vocabulary skills were compared to quantitative and qualitative data on the self-efficacy beliefs of their academic literacy to participate in the current and future courses, and their readiness for future study. These were examined and triangulated with interview data, and compared to demographic data, academic results, and the outcome of applications to future academic courses. The study measured academic literacy levels in relation to the Learning Progressions published by the Tertiary Education Commission in New Zealand (2008), and to Nation's (1983) Vocabulary Levels Test. Self-efficacy beliefs were reported by participants through questionnaire and interviews using a labelled Likert percentage scale outlined by Bandura (2006). The quantitative data were analysed by descriptive statistics, correlation, and analysis of variance. It was found that participants with comparatively higher academic ability but lower self-efficacy received significantly lower end-of-semester grade score averages than their peers. Lower grade scores were also received when self-efficacy for academic study was substantially different from their actual academic literacy. Adults who had a first language other than English had significantly lower academic literacy measurements yet the highest self-efficacy. Bandura's observation on the importance of self-efficacy beliefs to match academic literacy was supported by this study. A moderate correlation between academic literacy skills and academic results was established. The sources of self-efficacy---previous personal success, observation of significant others, verbal persuasion and encouragement, and an emotional/physiological response to situational pressures---proposed by Bandura (1977, 1986, 1994, 1997), and supported in the social cognitive literature, were established for the adults in this study. However, the self-efficacy measures used did not correlate significantly with academic results or acceptance outcomes. Future research possibilities are indicated.

This study investigates whether the remedial tertiary-level EFL classes in the Arabian Gulf States optimize the process of acquiring English for the majority of the students, namely the graduates of government high schools. I have endeavoured to uncover, by reference to my three years as an EFL teacher in the Gulf and the pertinent literature, why so much time and effort invested by myself and my students resulted in such a disproportionate lack of progress in reading and writing. I show how three major factors (diglossia, a linguistic trichotomy, and low literacy levels) conspire to impede students from learning to read and write in English through second language methodology and compare this situation to the one in Quebec. I conclude with two suggestions to make tertiary-level EFL classes more efficient and effective: the use of more familiar methodology and the teaching of reading and writing through a literacy framework. I also propose some longer-term solutions to deal with the linguistic trichotomy, a problem the Gulf Arabian States may wish to address if they intend to pursue the goal of providing a world-class education to their children.

This study is positioned within existing debates about the meaning and role of academic literacy, how it shapes and then frames the academic and professional writing practices of business students. It explores relationships between literacy, individual writers and the academy. It goes beyond merely locating these relationships, pointing more to the need to understand how particular student and staff groups within the faculty describe academic writing practices, and in turn act upon these descriptions. Current formulations of academic literacy reflect a heavy emphasis by academic and professional communities on the commodity value of 'literacy skills'. This happens despite the fact that not much is known about the details and current culture of literacy practices in Australian universities, and how these are inflected by different disciplinary areas and cross-cultural factors. Given the divergent applications of literacy that exist across the business professions, there remains a distinct lack of consensus over the meaning of literacy in business higher education communities. Institutional responses reflect this lack of consensus, and are expressed as inflections around a perceived 'crisis' in tertiary literacy standards. Business and professional faculties, while simultaneously embracing the economic and policy imperative underlying mass education, are seen to remain scornful of the service obligation this brings. Implicit in current understandings of academic literacy are the taken for granted connections between basic literacy, reading and writing, schooling, education and employment. These connections underwrite the relations of institutional arrangements, everyday practices, policy construction, and the conditions for student evaluation in the faculty. This study begins from where literacy is located 'bodily', and provides in the first instance a content analysis which explicates and presents student discussions on various ways of thinking about, framing and reframing academic writing. The project then turns to contemporary literacy theory for an explanation of how a community discourse of 'academic literacy' is conceived, produced and in turn reproduced. Contemporary literacy theory has embraced three theoretical frameworks in its move away from a traditional uni-dimensional view of literacy, namely critical social theories, discourse and textual studies, and ethnographic research methodologies (Smith 1988). This trinity of frameworks is used in the second instance to examine a series of interviews with student writers. This data makes visible the means by which institutions value certain literacy practices over others, practices which support the naturalized world of writing required by the faculty and its professional communities. Dominant literacy practices are identified, and interpretive procedures from the field of Ethnomethodology are used to account for the ways in which discourses on academic writing both reflect and produce social and community realities. Theories of discourse are used to examine the social construction of student writing practices within this local faculty community by identifying the attributes and assumptions that are attached to different community members to account for aspects of writing practice. The key to understanding academic literacy practices is found in explication of the social processes and practices that organise the 'everyday' world of the business faculty. This project discloses how the subjective world of academic literacy is organised, and how this form of organisation is articulated 'to the social relations of the larger social and economic process' (Smith 1988:152). In the strict context of this study, this means being able to disclose for certain groups of student writers, how their situations and literacy practices are organised and determined by social processes outside the scope of their 'everyday' world. This process of discovery requires the researched to actively construct 'local' referents as categories and concepts which, when applied to a faculty context, can form an observable, local practice as a dialectic 'between what members do in tending the categories and concepts of (an) institutional ideology' on academic writing (Smith 1988:161). The interpretive practices students use to analyse literacy practices bring academic literacy into being. The outcomes of the study show that the relationships between literacy, the individual and the academy are currently explained and understood in terms of the connections that can be made between existing professional and academic community discourses. Here the concept of a 'literacy crisis' resides. It is expressed through informant talk as a perceived fall in academic literacy standards. Informant debate on what has caused this decline is generally expressed through two key positions. One of these holds a rhetorical view of literacy as a somewhat natural and procedural outcome of the higher educational process, positioning literacy within an oppositional framework of deficit cultural and linguistic models. A second view evokes a competitive agenda of limited and limiting academic and professional opportunities. Behind these arguments and their rebuttals, lie assumptions about the 'literate' person as a member of the faculty. In arguing that research into the field of academic literacy has concealed a student sub-text, this study argues that literacy has been constructed, implemented and investigated from the perspective of the institution. It follows that academic literacy can be better understood as a socially constructed and signifying space, one which includes opportunities for students to create their own powerful identities as writers and as members of professional and faculty communities. This project bridges many aspects of student experience, with the major focus upon that which has been excluded by the absence of students from the making of the topics and the relevance of the discourse. For this compelling reason, this project has direct relevance to teachers, researchers, fieldworkers and policy-makers involved in the overlapping fields of literacy and higher education.

Each year thousands of students enrol in introductory statistics courses at universities throughout Australia, bringing with them formal and informal statistical knowledge and reasoning, as well as a wide range of basic numeracy skills, mathematical inclinations and attitudes towards statistics, which have the potential to impact on their ability to develop statistically. This research develops and investigates measures of each of these components for students at the interface of secondary and tertiary education, and investigates the relationships that exist between them, and a range of background variables. The focus of the research is on measuring and analysing levels and abilities in statistical reasoning for a range of students at the tertiary interface, with particular interest also in investigating their basic numeracy skills and how these may or may not link with statistical reasoning allowing for other variables and factors. Information from three cohorts in an introductory data analysis course, whose focus is real data investigations, provides basis for the research. This course is compulsory for all students in degree programs associated with all sciences or mathematics. The research discusses and reports on the development of questionnaires to measure numeracy and statistical reasoning and the students' attitudes and reflections on their prior school experiences with statistics. Students' attitudes are found to be generally positive, particularly with regard to their self-efficacy. They are also in no doubt as to the links that exist between mathematics and statistics. The Numeracy Questionnaire, developed to measure pre-calculus skills relevant to an introductory data analysis course which emphasises real data investigations, demonstrates that many students who have completed a basic algebra and calculus senior school subject struggle with skills which are in the pre-senior curricula. Direct examination of the responses helps to understand where and why difficulties tend to occur. Rasch analysis is used to validate the questionnaire and assist in the description of levels of skill. General linear models demonstrate that a student's numeracy score depends on the result obtained in senior mathematics, whether or not the student is a mathematics student, gender, whether or not higher level mathematics has been studied, self-efficacy and year. The research indicates that either the pre-senior curricula need strengthening or that exposure to mathematics beyond the core senior course is required to establish confidence with basic skills particularly when applied to new contexts and multi- step situations. The Statistical Reasoning Questionnaire (SRQ) is developed for use in the Australian context at the secondary/tertiary interface. As with the Numeracy Questionnaire, detailed examination of the responses provides much insight into the range and features of statistical reasoning at this level. Rasch analyses, both dichotomous and polychotomous, are used to establish the appropriateness of this instrument as a measuring tool at this level. The polychotomous, Rasch partial credit model is also used to define a new approach to scoring a statistical reasoning instrument and enables development and application of a hierarchical model and measures levels of statistical reasoning appropriate at the school/tertiary interface. General linear models indicate that numeracy is a highly significant predictor of statistical reasoning allowing for all other variables including tertiary entrance score and students' backgrounds and self-efficacy. Further investigation demonstrates that this relationship is not limited to more difficult or overtly mathematical items on the SRQ. Performance on the end of semester component of assessment in the course is shown to depend on statistical reasoning at the beginning of semester as measured by the partial credit model, allowing for all other variables. Because of the dominance of the relationship between statistical reasoning (as measured by the SRQ) and numeracy on entry, some further analysis of the end of semester assessment is carried out. This includes noting the higher attrition rates for students with less mathematical backgrounds and lower numeracy.

Financial literacy has been identified in previous studies as an area that has not been researched extensively in South Africa. This is particularly true for Black South Africans who have been previously disadvantaged and excluded from the mainstream economy and financial services in the apartheid regime. Lower savings and over-indebtedness amongst this group can be attributable to the lower financial literacy levels emanating from the inequalities of the past. This study aims to assess the financial literacy of Black South Africans with a commercial tertiary qualification working in Pretoria and Johannesburg based on descriptive research and structured questionnaires. The study first establishes that although people with a commercial tertiary qualification are more financially literate than those with non-commercial tertiary qualification, Black South Africans are nevertheless less financially literate than their Coloured, Indian and White contemporaries. Secondly, those who have savings have higher financial literacy than those who do not have savings.
Mini Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2016.
Financial Management
MCom
Unrestricted

Magister Artium - MA
The transition from high school to university for many students all over the world has never been very easy and this is also true in the South African context. At the University of the Western Cape the majority of students, particularly part-time students, come from previously disadvantaged institutions of learning. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that most tertiary institutions in South Africa, including The University of the Western Cape, use English as the official language of instruction even though more than three quarters of students entering into institutions of higher learning in South Africa are second or even third language English speakers who do not have the language competence level required in the medium of instruction to successfully negotiate academic curricula.

Over the past years, there has been a consistent call from Government and industry for South African tertiary institutions to deliver more graduates in the fields of science and technology. This, however, is no mean feat for universities, as the pool of prospective candidates delivers very few students with the necessary academic literacy abilities, and very few students who passed mathematics and science at the right levels to succeed in science higher education. This puts tertiary institutions under mounting pressure to accept students who are under-prepared and to support these students appropriately. The plight of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) institutions like the University of South Africa (UNISA) is even more desperate, as they are often left with those students who are either unable to gain entrance into, or to afford the study fees of, residential universities. These students are often in greater need for face-to-face interaction than are their counterparts at residential universities, yet they generally receive very little of this. The intervention examined and critiqued in this study is an attempt at raising the academic literacy levels of first-year students at UNISA in the fields of science and technology by means of a 60-hour face-to-face workshop programme. As its foundation, it uses the principles of collaborative learning and authentic material design. It also treats academic literacy abilities as interdependent and holistic. This study starts with a broad overview of the context. This is followed by a review of the literature. This review focuses on concepts such as collaborative learning, academic literacy, English for academic purposes, English for specific purposes and English for science and technology. Thereafter, a needs analysis is done in which students’ Test for Academic Literacy Levels (TALL) pre-test results, as well as a sample of their assignments, are examined. In addition, the workshops in this intervention programme are analysed individually. To determine the effectiveness of the academic literacy intervention, students’ pre- and post-TALL results are scrutinised, and a feedback questionnaire filled in at the end of the year is analysed. Subsequently, recommendations are made as to how the workshop programme could be improved. Findings show that the academic literacy intervention did improve students’ academic literacy levels significantly, though the improvement is not enough to elevate students from being considered at-risk. However, with fine-tuning the existing programme, the possibility exists that students’ academic literacy levels might be further improved. This calls for a careful examination of the areas in which students’ performance did not improve significantly. Student feedback indicated a positive attitude towards the entire intervention programme, as well as a marked preference for collaborative learning and face-to-face interaction. In the redevelopment of the current workshop programme, such preferences would have to receive attention, so as to integrate students’ wants, together with what they lack and what they need, in subsequent interventions. In conclusion, the limitations of this study are discussed, and recommendations are made for future research, as the current study must be seen as only the beginning of a process of action research that could lead to a sustainable intervention programme in future. Copyright
Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2010.
Unit for Academic Literacy
Afrikaans
unrestricted

The work of Humanities & Social Sciences students involves learning to express disciplinary content in essay assessment to disciplinary norms. Though tutors use a genre for professional writing, literacy is often not part of the classroom discussion. Therefore, many students have difficulty appropriating the communicative tools of that disciplinary genre. This may be solved by a turn in pedagogy towards tutors’ awareness of students’ processes (Hornsby & Osman, 2014) which may, in turn, improve tutors’ feedback. Ethnography has provided insights into students’ attitudes, their impressions of feedback and experiences, largely through interview methods, and classroom observation (Saville-Troike, 1989), but assessment writing does not typically occur in class. What was needed was a closer examination of students’ literacy processes. This study looked at literacy work through Activity Theory (Leont’ev, 1978) which represents human activity as a contextualised system where a group works together towards an object. Group collaboration allows for concepts to be negotiated and for interpretations to be shared, which can aid understanding (Mercer, 1995). This cross-sectional study examined three L2-English Business Studies student groups’ collaborative writing with observation of activity as its primary instrument for capturing student literacy work. Using an Educational Talk framework (Mercer, 1995) to examine the qualities of negotiation, this study offers a new understanding of students’ processes of literacy work and their possible effect on literacy appropriation. The results showed how the task and other structural tensions drive literacy work, and how the particular attributes of Educational Talk, in a tertiary context, contribute to the negotiation of meaning in the resolution of tensions. It also showed how literacy work involves the inter-mingling of textual work, subject content (Tardy, 2006, 2009) and contextual factors. These indicate the importance of group literacy activity for students, and the importance of understanding group discussions involving literacy work.

There has been growing concern in the higher education sector in South Africa about the high number of students with low academic literacy (AL) levels who are gaining entry into the sector. This influx necessitated the introduction of academic literacy interventions which are aimed at supporting these students in meeting the academic literacy requirements of university education. As a result, the tertiary sector has seen a growing number of AL interventions, each catering for a different context. However, the available literature reports very little substantial evidence on the impact/effectiveness of such interventions regarding the purpose for which they have been designed. The Vaal Triangle Campus (VTC) of the North-West University has also found that the majority of first year students who register at this Campus in order to attain a tertiary qualification, show inadequate levels of academic literacy in English. However, the academic literacy intervention that is currently used at this campus has never been formally assessed for its effectiveness in improving students’ academic literacy levels. The purpose of the current study was therefore to investigate the impact of the academic literacy intervention on students’ academic literacy levels. This intervention, which consists of two complementary semester modules, is offered over a one-year period to new first year students. As a first step, a comprehensive literature survey was conducted on important changes that took place in the tertiary education sector after 1994. The reason for this enquiry is based on the fact that many of these changes, such as the ‘massification’ of tertiary education, had far-reaching consequences for the tertiary sector in terms of more underprepared students who gained access to university education. Furthermore, available literature on the types of academic literacy interventions in South Africa, as well as specific sources on the reported impact of such interventions, were critiqued. The empirical part of the study made use of both a qualitative and quantitative research paradigm in order to investigate the impact of the AL intervention at the VTC. A highly reliable academic literacy test (the TALL – Test of Academic Literacy Levels) was used to determine whether students showed any significant improvement in their levels of academic literacy as a result of the intervention. This study reports positive findings in this regard. The investigation further gathered opinion-based data through the administration of three questionnaires aimed at determining student and lecturer perceptions of the impact of the intervention. The main findings of the two student questionnaires (one administered for each AL module) show that students generally see the value in attending the academic literacy modules because they feel that they derive benefit from them. The findings of the lecturer survey indicate that although mainstream lecturers are acutely aware of the low academic literacy levels of their students, they do not see the impact of the intervention on improving such levels. They are further not very knowledgeable about what the focus of the intervention entails. The main conclusion of this study is, in brief, that the academic literacy intervention has a definite effect on the improvement of students’ academic literacy levels. However, no conclusive data was found to support the idea that the improvement was due only to the influence of the intervention.
MA (Applied Language Studies), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between computer attitudes held by tertiary students and the selected variables of gender, age and previous computer experience. It was hypothesized that no statistically significant differences would be found within the relationships tested. A questionnaire comprising the Computer Attitude Scale (CAS), demographic and other questions was administered to the population enrolled in an introductory computer unit at the University of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory in Semester 1, 1992. The results were subjected to t-test and one-way analysis of variance testing. Statistically significant findings were noted between both gender and computer anxiety, and gender and computer confidence, with female students being more anxious and male students being more confident. Students with previous computer experience were found to be significantly less anxious and more confident with computers. More research on possible causes of these relationships and ways of overcoming computer anxiety is needed before the findings can be fully implemented.

The low literacy levels of the majority of first-year students at tertiary institutions in South Africa have been a major cause of concern. Various attempts have been made to assist students to develop their academic literacy levels – especially academic reading. However, most of these attempts are solely cognitive-oriented, even though there has been increasing acknowledgement of the relationship between socio-affective factors and students’ academic reading abilities. The purpose of this research was to explore a socio-affective approach to improving the reading abilities of first-year students at the University of Pretoria (UP). The following questions guided the research: (1) Is there a significant relationship between socio-affective factors and students’ academic reading abilities? (2) Which socio-affective factors best predict tertiary students’ academic reading abilities? (3) How can knowledge of socio-affective factors be used to design a more effective reading intervention? (4) How effective is a reading intervention programme that incorporates socio-affective factors? A mixed methods design was used for the study which was conducted in four phases. The first phase consisted of an exploratory study in the form of a questionnaire survey that elicited information on first-year UP students’ reading background, socio-affective reading levels and the use of reading strategies in relation to their reading proficiency levels, as determined by the Test for Academic Literacy Levels (TALL). ANOVA tests were used for the analysis of TALL results while a Cumulative Logit (regression) analysis was conducted to determine the socio-affective factors that best predict these students’ reading ability. ANOVA tests showed a robust relationship between students’ social and affective reading background on one hand, and their reading proficiency levels on the other. The regression analysis showed that self-efficacy was the best predictor of students’ reading ability, followed by intrinsic motivation. Based on the empirical results, and an adapted model of Guthrie and Wigfield (2000), an intervention programme that served as enrichment to the existing Academic Reading module, and aimed at improving the reading abilities of students by focussing on socio-affective issues in particular, was designed (as phase 2) and implemented (as phase 3) of the study. Two control groups and two intervention groups of At Risk and Low Risk students were used for the study. Questionnaires on affective reading levels and strategy use were administered before and after the intervention. In phase four, quantitative analysis using t-tests (independent and paired t-tests) with effect sizes were performed on the pre- and post-intervention questionnaire responses. Results showed significant improvements in affective levels for reading in the intervention groups compared to the control groups. In addition, qualitative data were collected via interviews on the socio-affective teaching techniques used for the intervention, and analysed qualitatively using content analysis. The results of the qualitative study were used to support the quantitative findings in terms of the measure in which the teaching approach contributed to the improvement in students’ socio-affective levels in reading, which according to research, correlates with students’ reading ability. Based on the findings, recommendations are made at the classroom and institutional levels. The significance of the study in terms of enriching theory and designing innovative support to improve students’ reading ability serve as a conclusion to the thesis.
Thesis (DPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2012.
Unit for Academic Literacy
Unrestricted

Doctor Educationis
Writing is an important skill throughout learners’ schooling trajectory because it is through writing that learners need to situate meaning and sense-making across the curriculum. Writing proficiency becomes even more important when learners access tertiary studies. Yet studies suggest that most students struggle with academic writing. Various authors suggest that writing has not been taught appropriately especially in secondary schooling contexts in South Africa and that writing becomes even more daunting for Second Language speakers of English when they reach tertiary education. There is abundant literature on students’ challenges with academic writing and ways to address academic writing challenges but the use of digital storytelling in relation to academic writing development is recent and distinctively underexplored in the literature.

This study investigates what classroom participants do with literary texts and how literary texts are pedagogically recontextualized through classroom activities in L2 tertiary literature classrooms. Premised upon the pedagogic processes of decontextualization and recontextualization that take place in the meaning-making practices of the literature classroom, the current study examines the process of literary text recontextualization via the multimodal partnership of vocalization and gesticulation. Through this process, esoteric literary meanings requiring specialist knowledge are transformed into mundane meanings from one semiotic-institutional domain to another, where the literary text qua cultural artifact is recontextualized via first-order languaging by dint of pedagogic activities. To understand the real-time first-order languaging dynamics (Thibault, 2011a) that enable the pedagogic recontextualization of literary texts to take place, a micro analytical toolkit grounded in qualitative multimodal interaction analysis is used. This toolkit draws upon the concept of the Growth Point (McNeill & Duncan, 2000) in conjunction with Systemic Functional Grammar (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004) and McNeill‘s (1992) theory of language and gesture. Classroom observation and video recording in university literature classrooms in Hong Kong and Taiwan provide multimodal data on students‘ languaging behaviours when they engage with literary texts in classroom talk. In order to make links with second-order socio-cultural norms that regulate first-order classroom interactivity (Thibault, 2011a), Bernstein‘s (1990) sociological theory of recontextualization in education is re-thought from the distributed language view (Cowley, 2011; Steffensen, 2011; Thibault, 2011a). Maton‘s (2007) Legitimation Codes of Specialization and Hunter‘s (1988) Foucaultian analysis of literature education (Foucault, 1972, 1985/1984) also inform the conceptual framework. The findings indicate the stability of the textual and lexicogrammatical constructions that function as second-order constraints and the variations in gesture use in its embodied coordination with speech in the pedagogic process of literary text recontextualization through different pedagogic activities. The semantic cohesive relations of Elaboration, Extension, Enhancement, Engagement, and Equipment, fostered by different gesture types together with their corresponding linguistic constructs in the recontextualized texts, demonstrate that the semiotic integration of speech and gesture comprise a single languaging system in the meaning-making process. Based on the production of literary meaning in moral judgement, the specialized consciousness of the ethical self is raised, with ethical subjects constituted through processes of subjectivity, self-reflexivity, and self-confession in the process of literary interpretation and appreciation. The conceptual framework integrating macro- and micro-levels of analysis manifests its theoretical originality by establishing both the methodological framework for multimodal interaction analysis and the cognitive framework for languaging dynamics. The understanding of the meaning-making process in the first-order languaging dynamics suggests that language is an embodied multimodal process. This major conclusion stimulates a re-thinking of important aspects of classroom interaction that have received little attention. Hopefully, the analysis and findings in the current study illustrate the significance of English literature education and suggest new directions for multimodal research in classroom interaction studies.
published_or_final_version
Education
Doctoral
Doctor of Philosophy

This study explores the process that occurred between a group of language lecturers and disciplinary specialists at a tertiary institution in South Africa as they negotiated common understandings of an integrated approach to the teaching of academic literacies. The focus of the study is on both the process underpinning this approach, as well as how the participants understood this process and constructed themselves within it. The unit of analysis in this study is the co-ordinated integrated approach to the teaching of academic literacies. This is a retrospective case study that engaged participants in a process of reflection on their interactions, over the three-year life of an institutional project, which resulted from the collaboration of language lecturers and disciplinary specialists. The overarching approach to data production was narrative methodology. Drawing on life history research methods, various strategies (such as participant observation, survey of documentation, analysis of policy documents, stimulated recall, individual interviewing and focus group sessions) were used to collect data about participants' experiences retrospectively. Three levels of analysis were applied to the primary data set, which comprised the narrative interviews, freewrites and focus group sessions. The findings from the study suggest that sustained interaction between language lecturers and disciplinary specialists is an important process in reshaping how both parties construct their roles and academic identities within higher education, a necessary element in shifting mindsets regarding the practice of academic literacy teaching in higher education. The most important factors in bringing about this shift are presented in the report as a theoretical model for the process of integrating academic literacies into disciplines. These factors and the processes linking them, represent important considerations when designing integrated approaches to the teaching of academic literacies, and are instrumental in bringing about changes regarding the practice of academic literacy teaching in higher education. The data suggest that the creation of productive institutional discursive spaces, which transgress narrow disciplinary boundaries, could bridge the separate academic Iifeworlds of language lecturers and disciplinary specialists. In a shift away from the 'study skills' view of academic literacy which supports an autonomous model of literacy, and the 'acculturation' view of academic literacy which supports an uncritical academic socialisation model, this study proposes a critical understanding of the teaching of discipline-specific academic literacies and introduces an inside/outside model of academic literacy teaching. This model proposes that disciplinary specialists need to be working within their disciplinary Discourse communities, while simultaneously having a critical overview of this 'insider' role, from outside of it. It is in engaging with language lecturers who are 'outsiders' to their disciplinary Discourses that disciplinary specialists find themselves at the margins of their own fields, and are able to view themselves as insiders from the outside, as it were. This shifting location from a purely insider perspective, to an insider perspective from the outside, shifts lecturers towards a critical understanding of the teaching of discipline-specific academic literacies. This model, and the· study informing it, theorises the process by which this dual critical identity can be crafted in practice.
Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2006.

The aim of the present study was to assess employees' attitudes toward working with computers. A review of previous studies conducted within the area of attitudes toward computers and attitudes toward working with computers revealed that the present study needed to condifer user-task-system characteristics and that an adequate attitude scale which examined specifically attitudes towards working with computers needed to be developed. In order to conduct the present study, a checklist was developed to assess user-task-system characteristics and an attitude toward working with computers scale was developed and validated.[Abbreviated Abstract. Open document to view full version]
GR 2016

Dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree in Master of Technology: Education, Durban University of Technology, 2009.
This study investigated key factors impacting on blended learning delivery with particular focus on socio-cultural and human-computer-interface issues, in the hope that the outcome of this enquiry might contribute positively towards the empowerment of learners and facilitators alike. The study involved a group of first year students enrolled in a Communications Skills Course offered by the (then) Department of English and Communication at the Durban University of Technology. The PRINTS Project, a webquest around which the course activities were based, provided an example of a blended delivery course in practice. While the teaching paradigm used in the course was constructivist, the research orientation employed in this project was critical realist. Critical realism focuses on transformation through praxis and also lends itself to modelling, which provides a way to understand the factors at play within a social system. In the preliminary stages of the research, an exploratory empirical (i.e. applied) model of blended learning delivery was formulated from a theoretical model of course delivery in order to assess which factors in blended learning were systemic and which were variables. The investigation then sought to uncover key factors impacting on the blended delivery system, utilising both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The findings were analysed in terms of the empirical model to gain an understanding of any factors that might be seen to either enhance or inhibit learning in blended delivery mode. The result was that certain core issues in blended learning and teaching could be clarified, including the use, advantages and disadvantages of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in a learning environment. The notion of the digital divide could also be reconceptualised, and the relationship between literacy (be it academic, professional or social), power and culture could be further elucidated, drawing specific attention to the South African educational environment. The notion of iv culture and its relevance in a blended delivery environment was also further clarified, since the findings of this research project suggested how and why certain key socio-cultural factors might impact, as both enhancers and inhibitors, on the blended learning delivery system.

Academic writing is generally regarded as the most important communication medium through which people in the tertiary academic context choose to communicate their ideas. It is also well known that it is sometimes an arduous process for students to become accustomed to the requirements (the conventions and conditions) that hold for the production of appropriate written texts in this context. The initial impetus for the current study was provided by what appeared to be a significant problem that some supervisors at the University of Pretoria identified in terms of the academic writing ability of their postgraduate students. This study therefore investigates postgraduate academic writing with regard to a number of such issues, and does so within the broader confines of academic literacy. The ultimate purpose of this investigation is to discover how writing interventions may be designed that offer appropriate assistance to students who experience difficulty with their writing. The study commences with an attempt to find support for treating 'academic discourse' as a potentially productive area of academic enquiry. It therefore presents an account on the nature of a 'discourse community', and attempts to ascertain whether there are any grounds on which 'academic discourse' may be regarded as a unique type of discourse used for specific communicative functions in the tertiary academic environment. It further discusses critically some of the traditional features of academic texts. The research then proposes thirteen design principles that serve as injunctions that should be considered in the development of writing courses, and proceeds to a critical discussion of the most important approaches in the teaching and learning of writing. What is evident from this discussion is that none of the historical approaches will, on their own, enable one to design justifiable writing courses. As a result, an eclectic approach is required in order to integrate the strengths of these approaches into a strategy for writing course design that is theoretically and practically justifiable. Subsequently, the critical interpretation of the literature in the first part of the study is used in the design of a framework for writing course design in tertiary education. This framework consists of six focuses that stand in a relationship of dynamic interaction towards a description of the context in which tertiary students write. Thus, relevant aspects concerning the writer, text, reader, institutional context and one's approach to writing are all essential elements that should be carefully considered in terms of their potential influence on the eventual design of materials that will constitute a writing course. The rest of the study consists of an application of the proposed framework that addresses firstly, the perceptions of supervisors at the University about the academic literacy ability of their postgraduate students, as well as their requirements for academic writing. It then proceeds to an investigation of a specific group of students' (from the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences) perceptions about their own academic literacy ability and a determination of their perceptions and expectations of academic writing at university. Because the information that was collected (by means of questionnaires) in both cases mentioned above is mainly perceptual in nature, it was considered essential to determine the academic literacy ability of students in the study group by means of a reliable testing instrument. A written text that these same students produced was further analysed in order to establish possible writing difficulties they experienced. In addition, it was important to confirm certain findings from the supervisor questionnaire, and more specific information had to be collected on particular writing issues that could inform discipline specific writing course design (this was accomplished through focus group interviews with supervisors of the School of Agricultural and Food Sciences). A combination of all the prominent findings of the empirical work mentioned above, as well as insights gained in the literature survey, is then used to make justifiable suggestions for the design of writing course materials for students in the study group. Finally, a number of issues were identified that could not be addressed by this study and, therefore, suggestions are made for future research that may investigate these matters.
Thesis (DPhil ( Linguistics))--University of Pretoria, 2007.
Unit for Academic Literacy
DPhil
Unrestricted

Submitted in compliance with the requirements for the Master’s Degree in Technology: Language Practice, Department of Media, Language and Communication, Durban University of Technology. Durban, South Africa, 2015.
This study investigated the impact of medium of instruction (MOI) on the learning of computer technology, and took place in two second-language contexts where this was being taught. The first context was that of Computer Applications Technology (CAT) lectures given to isiZulu-speaking students, mainly female, in KwaZulu-Natal. The second context was that of teaching Instructional Technology (IT) to Arabic speaking students in the Middle East. The goal of this research was to understand how students overcame any language barriers which they might face in the teaching and learning of computer technology through the medium of English. It was hoped that the insights gained might be used to support English second language (ESL) learners in acquiring the language skills necessary for effective learning of computer technology. The research approach used was action research for both the groups, using the data collected to construct two case studies, as local customs resulted in differences in both course delivery and measures to assist ESL learners to gain fluency in the MOI. Data were collected in two case studies, comprising notes of personal reflections, field notes, researcher-developed questionnaires and comparisons of translated assessments to second language learners. The finding from two groups could then be compared and contrasted with each other to see which language barriers experienced in learning computer technology were common to both ESL groups and which were context-specific, as well as which context-specific factors might be involved. The study of different cultural groups in the setting of a different continent provided the opportunity to triangulate the data, and thus achieve more reliability and validity than would be achieved with one cultural group in a common context. This study discusses the findings of the above-mentioned investigation in two main areas: how the MOI affected the academic results obtained by students and how it impacted on their learning capacity. The findings confirm the fact that, the earlier children attend an English medium school, the easier it is for them to achieve better results, and therefore there is less need for translation or interpretation at tertiary level. Further research is required to determine what Higher Education institutions could do to develop second language learning competences so as to facilitate the learning of technical subjects such as computer technology.

The oral background, ability in English and academic and social interaction of the non mother-tongue student was the focus of this study. The oral background of the African student is an important consideration as it helps one to contextualise his life and educational experiences. A severe lack of knowledge and interest in each others' cultures and backgrounds among all the players at the tertiary institution was apparent. The focus group interview technique was adapted to elicit students' perceptions of their own problems. This technique proved invaluable in allowing participants to express their views freely, thus offering the researcher an in-depth insight into their life at the tertiary institution and an understanding of the problems they encounter. The focus group discussion was supplemented by questionnaires. The study comprised 40 non mother-tongue students who were divided into 8 groups of 5 students each. On completion of the group discussion, a verbatim transcript of each audio-recording was made. Analyses of the focus group discussion and the questionnaire revealed that non mother-tongue students do in fact experience many problems with academic and social interaction due to their cultural background and ability in English. These students feel isolated and misunderstood. Racism, albeit subtle, seems to be a problem on the campus. It was found that with a few exceptions, there is very little difference between the experiences of the first year students as compared to the second year students. Also, the admissions criteria for the different faculties did not 'eliminate' problems.This illustrates that the problems do not 'disappear' after a whole year at the institution, because the underlying causes are not being addressed. One cannot expect the non mother-tongue student to simply adapt to the new experiences, namely, a different environment and a second language as the medium of instruction and communication. Several recommendations were made for the implementation of the research findings in the tertiary environment. Further research possibilities were also suggested.
Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1995.

This Master thesis called Approach to university and non-university media studies in the Great Britain and Germany: A comparative study compares the approaches of Great Britain and Germany to tertiary education, which is thematically linked to the media. The thesis shows specific concepts in this field of study in two different environments that have developed under different historical circumstances and as a result of different processes of adoption of media studies as a university subject. The boundaries of this subject are not specifically stated, which provides countries with an opportunity to put their own concept into this subject. This thesis examines tertiary education connected to media institutions of higher education, within individual study programs, in leading professional publications, in the national assessment of educational documents and in approach of multinational organizations. The text defines relevant bodies and syllabi, identifying core competences of graduates of these studies, the processes through which they become experts and educational activities connected to media education. The thesis analyzes differences, expectations and methods in the documents using an in-depth analysis. The core question is whether the approaches of the Great Britain and Germany remain different...

Summaries in Afrikaans and English
The transformative mission of the White Paper on Education (1995: 19) states that the South African education system is moving towards a single, national, non-racial system where all people are offered equil opportunities. Demographic and other changes make particular demands on the education system. The HSRC (1987:54) claim that distance edcation is increasingly viewed as a possible solution for educational problems. The literature study aims to motivate, from an andragogic-didactical perspective, the use of two-dimensional silent images in study material. A literature study was also undertaken on the perception of silent images and the elements involved in the perception of depth, movement, size, colour, etc., from which certain didactic guidelines were deducted with a view to the design of silent images. The ability of distance education students to identify the elements above, was emperically researched. The validity of the didactic guidelines were verified in this phase.
Die transformatiewe missie van die Witskrif vir Onderwys (1995: 19) stel dit dat die Suid-Afrikaanse onderwysstelsel oorgaan na 'n "enkele nasionale, nie-rassige stelsel" waar daar gelyke geleenthede vir aile mense gebied word. Demografiese en ander veranderinge stel besondere eise aan die onderwysstelsel. Die RGN (1987: 54) stel dit dat afstandsonderrig al meer as 'n moontlike oplossing gesien vir die onderwysprobleme. Die literatuurstudie het dit ten doe! om die gebruik van tweedimensionele stilbeelde in studiemateriaal in die Suid-Afrikaanse situasie andragogies-didakties te fundeer. 'n Literatuurstudie oor die persepsie van stilbeelde en die elemente wat betrokke is by die persepsie van diepte, beweging, grootte, kleur, ens. is gedoen waaruit sekere didaktiese riglyne met die oog op die ontwerp van stilbeelde gestel is. Die afstandsonderrigstudente se vermoe om bogenoemde elemente waar te neem, was empiries nagevors. Die geldigheid van die didaktiese riglyne is tydens hierdie fase geveri fireer.
Educational Studies
M. Ed. (Didaktiek)