Brenda Spencer

International sporting events in South Africa, identity re-alignment, and Schneider's EVENT X

In its review of Carlins Invictus (2008, back cover), The Daily Telegraph ‘Books of the Year’ refers to the symbolic power of sport, which gains ‘power not only from the achievements of the players, but also from the dreams of those who watch them’. This article examines the degree to which the Rugby World Cup of 1995 and the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup, both hosted in South Africa, can be evaluated in terms of Schneiders Dynamic Model as examples of EVENT X, in the sense that they have prompted identity re-alignment, acted as a spur to the development of South African English (SAfE), and promoted South African national identity. Selected texts are evaluated to demonstrate the identity re-alignments and linguistic consequences that these sporting events elicited. The Lead SA initiative demonstrates the desire that the shifts should not be transient, but continue beyond the sporting events themselves.

A bilingual (Bemba/English) teaching resource: Realising agency from below through teaching materials designed to challenge the hegemony of English

Abstract This article explores the hegemony of English in post-independence southern Africa with the focus falling on Zambia. It argues that Zambias language-in-education policy marginalises indigenous languages and cultures but reminds teachers that they have agency to implement initiatives to downplay the dominance of English. One means is to advocate bi/multilingualism in language teaching because such an approach is inherently inclusive. A bilingual (Bemba/English) teaching resource for English literature classes at Grade 10 level was developed from Zambian National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) recordings and original narratives. The process involved recording, transcription and translation. Teachers’ and learners’ manuals were developed and trialled. Focus group discussions indicate that participants responded positively to the resource; felt that it valued indigenous languages; affirmed their cultural identities; promoted an understanding of literary concepts; and challenged the monolingual paradigm/model. The results indicate the potential of bilingual teaching materials to re-introduce local languages and cultures in teaching contexts where English has hegemonic power.

Towards greater equality: Power and role relations involved in response to student writing

Abstract The focus of this article is on the history and continued relevance of theory relating to political and power relations inherent in response to student writing and student perceptions of these relationships. The article notes the vast discrepancy between South African students studying in the distance-teaching context and the American classroom context in which much of the research in the field has been conducted to date. As a result of the distance-teaching context, response to student writing is restricted in this article to students’ perceptions of written feedback given by lecturers to writing they submitted for assignments. The perceptions of first-year University of South Africa students, registered for an English for Specific Purposes module, were elicited by means of a questionnaire. This shows the degree to which students perceive lecturers to be adopting a judging rather than a facilitative role. Tentative solutions to address the problem of unequal power relations are suggested. The aim is to move towards greater collaboration and sharing of power rather than an abdication of power by the teacher.

Improving academic proficiency in open distance learning through contact interventions

Abstract The aim of the article is to describe a pilot study designed to determine the extent to which contact interventions improve the academic proficiency of tertiary-level students in a distance education institution. A group of ‘at risk’ students, identified by the University of South Africa Unisa Mercantile Law Department, served as the pilot target group for the interventions described. Writing intervention: this involved the active teaching of coherence, cohesion, and the academic essay as a discourse type. Reading intervention: Explicit instruction in the answering of multiple-choice questions was given as this form of evaluation accounts for an increasingly high percentage of testing critical reading at Unisa Reading and writing centre intervention: Essay structuring and argumentation were works hopped. Particular attention was paid to cohesion and coherence. Pre- and post-testing was used to determine the effectiveness of the interventions.

A critique of response strategies : measures to induce a paradigmatic shift in response to student writing

This paper explores response to student writing in entry-level English modules in an Open and Distance Learning (ODL) context at the University of South Africa (UNISA). After an evaluation of the research undertaken by Spencer (1999) and Lephalala and Pienaar (2008), both conducted in this specific teaching context, the argument is put forward that the predominantly formalist orientation of the marking can be described as an attractor (Weideman, 2009), since it seems that the system is attracted into this state and has maintained it over a number of years. There is a need to shift towards a cognitive, reader-based orientation. The author uses the categories defined in Lephalala and Pienaar (2008) to describe feedback styles. The categories are L1 (minimal feedback), L2 (general and non-text-specific feedback) and L3 (feedback with a focus on content and organisation). Four amendments are proposed to the existing marking code which will encourage markers to operate in the desired L3 feedback category. This paper argues that these additions to the marking code will address limitations inherent in the marking code. At present, marked scripts contain a jumble of recommendations relating to content/form and global/local issues and there is little indication of the relative importance of an error. The marking code is inherently negative in orientation and promotes a formalist L1 style of response. A qualitative investigation into the reaction to the proposed changes was obtained from 33 marked samples of response to student writing provided by external markers. Compared to the data given in Lephalala and Pienaar (2008), the changes tested in this study were unable to influence the dominant L1 response strategy, but caused a shift away from L2 formulaic responses and an increase in the desired L3 feedback. There is a need for intensive investigation into feedback in this ODL teaching context and into measures to promote L3 feedback. Key words: Response, student writing, formalist approach, correction code, limitations, writing research, ODL

A practice-based evaluation of an on-line writing evaluation system: First-World technology in a Third-World teaching context

Abstract The core question interrogated by Spencer and Louw in this article is: ‘What is the theoretical best practice in using computer-assisted language learning (CALL) for automated response to student writing, and how effectively can this be applied to the South African teaching context?’ To answer this question, we discuss the advances represented by the CriterionSM Online Writing Evaluation system, a web-based service developed by ETS (Educational Testing Service) to evaluate student writing and provide feedback. Theory is juxtaposed with application. A practice-based evaluation of the implementation of this programme at the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University was conducted in which the Criterion service was used by approximately 1 000 students per year, in 2005 and 2006. The students were enrolled in English I, Academic Literacy, English for Law Students and English for the Professions. One of the authors, Henk Louw, acted as administrator for this project. This article explores the advantages and challenges of implementing this American technology in a South African teaching context.

Responding to student writing : a taxonomy of response styles; when language (accuracy) matters too much

Abstract This article describes a taxonomy, which was developed as an analytical instrument to classify tutorial commentary written in response to student writing. It includes categories taken from the research of Connors and Lundsford (1993), Greenhalgh (1992), Newkirk (1984b), Perry (1970), Straub (1996) and Warnock (1989) and is descriptive rather than evaluative in nature. It is a consciousness-raising tool designed to identify responses to student writing in terms of the axiological assumptions on which they are based. The students in the empirical study were registered at the University of South Africa (Unisa), a distance-teaching institution, for an entry-level, English for specific purposes module. The task was a narrative paragraph that required a student to describe a specific childhood incident and reflect on its significance. The experiment involved analysis of the global comments given by tutors at the end of 50 randomly selected ‘marked’ assignments.

Culture-Based Metaphors in Traditional Bemba Narratives: Relevance for African Teaching Contexts

ABSTRACT This article analyses metaphors in traditional Bemba narratives and demonstrates their thematic relevance in African literature classrooms today. Based on Sharifians theory of cultural conceptualisations and Lakoff and Johnsons view of metaphor as a conceptual phenomenon, the article explores African cultural views relating to land, food and ubuntu. The ongoing contestation over land is revealed in the conceptual chasm between the Western “THE LAND IS MINE” versus the embodiment implicit in the indigenous metaphor, “THE LAND IS ME” and in eating and enrichment conceptualisations in African English. The traditional African worldview is founded on the kinship-in-community model, encapsulated in the term ubuntu. The article promotes an African cultural perspective by means of textual analysis of Zambian narratives, sourced by Mwelwa. In the process of the analysis, the underpinning cultural conceptualisations are interrogated with the aim of countering the continued hegemony of Western cultural values in African literature classrooms.

Aligned assessment in support of high-level learning: A critical appraisal of an assignment for a distance-teaching context

This paper takes the form of a critical appraisal of a formative assessment task given to students in an entry-level English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course in an Open and Distance Learning (ODL) context at the University of South Africa (UNISA). The article describes a specific formative assessment task in an ODL learning context and touches on issues of self-regulated learning and appropriation of student writing. Biggs’ theory of constructive alignment, which underpins the assignment, requires an evaluation of the degree to which students construct meaning from learning tasks and the extent to which the assessment is synchronised with learning outcomes and learning activities of the course. The assignment described in this article was an outcome of doctoral research (Spencer 1999) which proved empirically the value of requiring both revision and self-assessment in a writing assignment in a distance-teaching context. These statistically significant findings provided empirical support for self-regulated learning and prompted the design of the assignment described in this article. Keywords : assessment, Biggs’ constructive alignment, formative assessment, assessment criteria, writing research, appropriation, ODL