Ralph Adendorff

Science books for children as a preparation for textbook literacy

This article examines science books for children, a genre that has been neglected both in studies of science discourse and in studies of literature for children. It compares this genre to two other science genres, textbooks and popular science articles, and finds great similarities between science textbooks and science books for children, both in terms of register and cultural values. As a result of these similarities, it suggests that science books for children are valuable in providing access to textbook literacy, which is highly prized in the later school years.

Educated mother-tongue South African English : a corpus approach

Abstract South Africa is anecdotally known for its complex system of speech varieties correlating with variables such as ethnicity, first language, class and education. These intuitions (e.g. Lass 1990) require further investigation, especially in the context of a changing South Africa where language variety plays a key role in identifying social, economic and ethnic group membership. Thus, in this research, the extent to which these variables play a role in variety is explored using a corpus approach (the nature of class and race in the corpus is discussed more fully later in the article). The corpus project, focusing primarily on accent, has been undertaken by members of the Department of English Language and Linguistics at Rhodes University in South Africa, collaborating with staff from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Stellenbosch University, South Africa. A corpus (the first of its kind) is being compiled, comprising the speech of educated, white, mother-tongue speakers of South African English (as distinct from Afrikaans English, Indian English, and the second language (L2) varieties of English used by speakers of indigenous African languages), and data collection is well under way. This short article aims to describe the aims of the project, and the methodological approach which underpins it, as well as to highlight some of the more problematic aspects of the research.

Variable discursive constructions of three genres of science

The present study reports on a comparison of the research article, university textbook and science news article as a preamble to capturing ideological differences between these three genres of scientific writing. The linguistic dimension to the comparison relies on Systemic Functional Linguistics, specifically the representation of human participants, use of passivisation and nominalisation, evaluation and hedging. Ideological differences deriving from this analysis are summarised in terms of what constitutes a fact in each genre, how objectivity is established and what power relations prevail. Research articles are shown to deal with propositions still to be endorsed by the all-powerful scientific community. Their authors are consequently less powerful than their readers, unlike textbook writers, who deal with propositions already endorsed by the scientific community and who, as a result, are more powerful than their readers are. Authors of both genres achieve objectivity largely through removing reference to people in their texts. Science news articles are noticeably distinct. Their authors establish objectivity through attributing ideas to authoritative human participants and, because they report on findings not yet endorsed as fact, they represent scientific findings as provisional, even controversial. Science news articles thereby represent science as an essentially social activity. The article ends with some suggestions regarding pedagogical applications.

An APPRAISAL analysis of a Women's Day rant, rally and reflection

Abstract Gender equality is an issue affecting all South African women. Womens Day is celebrated to draw attention to the plight of women and to celebrate their empowerment. Rape in South Africa is prolific and evidences inequality faced by women. Helen Moffett, David Moseley and Lulu Xingwana all reacted to Womens Day, discussing different issues and making different evaluations. A critical APPRAISAL analysis using the full system of Attitude, Graduation and Engagement reveals that these three texts, a rant, a reflection and a rally use different APPRAISAL resources to align their audiences around different stances, reflecting different communities of shared values concerning gender equality. These shared values can be seen to reflect different foundational understandings of the lived experiences of women in South Africa. Since Lulu Xingwana speaks as a government representative, and Helen Moffett and David Moseley speak from their perspectives as members of the public, the discrepancy in their perceptions raises questions regarding the representative nature of South African democracy. The patterns of APPRAISAL resources used in these texts furthermore characterise them as a rant, a reflection and a rally, and the limitations of the APPRAISAL system in dealing with these text types reflect potential areas of methodological development.

Resemiotising concerns from constituencies in the South African parliament

Abstract: Members of Parliament (MPs) in South Africa represent different constituencies across the country. In this article, we report on how MPs resemiotise concerns from their constituencies in spoken discourse in a parliamentary committee, and on the effectiveness with which this informa- tion is in turn resemiotised into a written committee report. Both resemiotisations form part of a genre chain which we investigated while conducting a linguistic ethnography of the communica- tion difficulties which occur in parliaments committee process. We use a multi-stranded theoretical foundation, including tools from Systemic Functional Linguistics, Interactional Sociolinguistics and Legitimation Code Theory to analyse MPs’ ability to communicate concerns from their constituen- cies in parliamentary discourse. We conclude that the success of MPs’ resemiotisations of these concerns depends on their ability to rescale them as relevant on a national level, and on their ability to negotiate the power relations at play in parliament.

Comprehension and production of figurative language by Afrikaans-speaking children with and without specific language impairment

Abstract This article reports on the comprehension and production of figurative language, namely idioms and similes, in first language Afrikaans-speaking (AFR) boys, ages eight to 10 years, and first language Afrikaans-speaking boys with specific language impairment (SLI), also ages eight to 10. It draws on a larger study by Van der Merwe (2007; see also Van der Merwe & Southwood, 2008). Testing of the comprehension and production abilities of the children was conducted verbally and individually and elicited their understanding of 25 idioms and 25 similes. The idioms were first presented without context; if the child gave an incorrect interpretation, the idiom was placed in context. Raw scores show that the SLI group performed marginally more poorly than the AFR group, but there was no statistically significant difference between the comprehension of idioms by the two groups. The same can be said for the number of literal interpretations provided by the groups. Placing the idioms in context was beneficial to both groups. The simile completion task required the children to provide the last word of each simile. For both groups, the similes task proved to be easier than the idioms task but there was again no statistically significant difference found between the two groups. The results seem to imply that children at this developmental phase, aged eight to 10, whether language impaired or not, have not yet fully grasped figurative language as a concept and need explicit instructions on figurative language. The article ends with a reflection on the suitability of idioms and similes as particular categories of figurative language in studies of this nature.

Informed Interdependence: A model for collaboration in fostering communicative competencies in a Commerce curriculum

Abstract The current orthodoxy among academics in higher education studies is that content and language learning should be integrated in order to facilitate communicative competencies in degrees seeking to prepare students for business and professions such as accounting, engineering and pharmacy. Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has been well-theorised and its goals are laudable; however, we contend that a one-size-fits-all solution of complete integration is not the most practicable or pedagogically-sound option in all contexts. Instead, we argue that establishing relationships of Informed Interdependence between content and language courses may offer greater benefits in specific contexts. This argument may appear counterintuitive, but we believe it has significant insights to add to the continuing dialogue around the use of CLIL. Accordingly, we describe a Professional Communication course at Rhodes University and then outline how we have responded to changes in our context through a process of engagement which led to a new course, namely, Professional Communication for Accountants, and recurriculation of the original Professional Communication course. In reporting on this process we foreground the importance of suitable boundary objects and discursive spaces around which interdisciplinary collaboration can occur. We provide staff and student reactions to a pilot project designed to test the curricular innovations made thus far, and conclude by reflecting on the efficacy of an Informed Interdependence model in our context.

Re-thinking Engagement: dialogic strategies of alignment in letters to two South African newspapers

This article uses an APPRAISAL analysis of 40 letters to the Daily Sun and The Times newspapers in South Africa to illustrate a reconceptualisation of the Engagement system. It discusses dialogism (Bakhtin 1981), which inspired the creation of the Engagement framework by White (2003), who classified attempts to either align or disalign readers with a writers stance. Contrary to the options for dialogic Engagement proposed by Martin and White (2005) and White and Don (2012), the data suggests that not all Engagement strategies carry equal power of alignment, as the frameworks systemic layout implies. This prompts a re-thinking of the Engagement categories as occurring along a continuum of their strength.

An APPRAISAL analysis of the language of real estate advertisements

Abstract This article focuses on the linguistic choices made by estate agencies in their advertisements of houses, and how these choices compare across two competing agencies in Grahamstown, South Africa – Remax Frontier and Pam Golding Properties. Using Martin and Whites (2005) APPRAISAL system, it investigates the interpersonal relationships set up between each agency and their prospective buyers, and how these relationships are affected by differences in the price of houses. Eighty advertisements (differing in prices from above and below R1.2 million) are analysed and discussed in terms of Attitude, Graduation and Engagement, capturing the ways in which each estate agency manipulates linguistic choice patterns according to the monetary value they perceive their potential customers to possess. These choice patterns also indicate a move towards possible adjustments that can be made to Martin and Whites (2005) original framework, in order to analyse more nuanced meanings than is currently the case and qualities (both within the buyer as well as pertaining to the properties) which the customers are likely to be vulnerable to.

An APPRAISAL analysis of the discourse of student assistants' reports at an Eastern Cape girls' boarding school

Abstract This article reports on a pilot investigation into the language of assessment in a bi-weekly report system of an urban South African all-girls boarding school. The data are drawn principally from four student assistants working in one of the schools hostels and are analysed using the theoretical framework of APPRAISAL. The focus is on the APPRAISAL resources that the stooges use in writing their reports, specifically their choices from the ATTITUDE and GRADUATION subsystems. Analysis indicates that Judgement and Affect instantiations, augmented by the use of Force rather than Focus, are dominant. There is also individual variation within the overarching prosody, indicating a difference between the ‘newer’ and the ‘older’ student assistants’ reports. We argue that such choices reflect and reaffirm the schools core values and vision, the reports functioning as monitors of behaviour and as a means of aligning the learners with the schools standards. The matrons feedback is suggested to be an added measure of ensuring alignment with the schools values.