Power to the minorities: Ndebele L1–speaking teachers in Tonga-speaking communities in Zimbabwe
- Authors: Maseko, Busani , Nkomo, Dion
- Date: 2024
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/468064 , vital:77004 , ISBN 9781003299547 , https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003299547-2/power-minorities-busani-maseko-dion-nkomo
- Description: In 2013, Zimbabwe adopted a new constitution that declared 16 officially recognised languages. In line with the new constitutional provision that all the official languages be treated with parity, the teaching of minority languages ceased to be optional. Yet there were neither trained teachers nor educational materials to implement their teaching. In this chapter, it is examined how Ndebele L1 teachers and learners in the Tonga-speaking community of Binga negotiate their identities by learning Tonga. Ndebele L1 learners learn Tonga as the new legitimate Indigenous language offered in their schools, which brings interesting dynamics in terms of language learning challenges and attitudes. Ndebele L1 teachers must reinvent themselves to assume the instructional responsibilities in the learning of the minority language and to retain their jobs. These teachers therefore learn the languages from the community including their own learners, thereby providing an exciting case of speakers of majority language speakers learning a minority language that they also must teach. This study therefore presents an interesting case where minority language–speaking learners and majority language–speaking teachers collaboratively and reciprocally participate in the teaching of the minority language.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Maseko, Busani , Nkomo, Dion
- Date: 2024
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book chapter
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/468064 , vital:77004 , ISBN 9781003299547 , https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003299547-2/power-minorities-busani-maseko-dion-nkomo
- Description: In 2013, Zimbabwe adopted a new constitution that declared 16 officially recognised languages. In line with the new constitutional provision that all the official languages be treated with parity, the teaching of minority languages ceased to be optional. Yet there were neither trained teachers nor educational materials to implement their teaching. In this chapter, it is examined how Ndebele L1 teachers and learners in the Tonga-speaking community of Binga negotiate their identities by learning Tonga. Ndebele L1 learners learn Tonga as the new legitimate Indigenous language offered in their schools, which brings interesting dynamics in terms of language learning challenges and attitudes. Ndebele L1 teachers must reinvent themselves to assume the instructional responsibilities in the learning of the minority language and to retain their jobs. These teachers therefore learn the languages from the community including their own learners, thereby providing an exciting case of speakers of majority language speakers learning a minority language that they also must teach. This study therefore presents an interesting case where minority language–speaking learners and majority language–speaking teachers collaboratively and reciprocally participate in the teaching of the minority language.
- Full Text:
The intellectualization of African languages through terminology and lexicography: Methodological reflections with special reference to lexicographic products of the University of KwaZulu-Natal
- Authors: Khumalo, Langa , Nkomo, Dion
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/468030 , vital:77001 , https://www.ajol.info/index.php/lex/article/view/233959
- Description: Terminology development and practical lexicography are crucial in language intellectualization. In South Africa, the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, National Lexicography Units, universities, commercial publishers and other organizations have been developing terminology and publishing terminographical/lexicographical resources to facilitate the use of African languages alongside English and Afrikaans in prestigious domains. Theoretical literature in the field of lexicography (eg, Bergenholtz and Nielsen (2006); Bergenholtz and Tarp (1995; 2010); Gouws 2020) has attempted to resolve traditional distinctions between lexicography and terminology while also addressing terminological imprecisions in the relevant scholarship. Taking the cue from such scholarship, this article reflects on the methodological approaches for developing lexicographical products for specific subject fields, ie, resources that document and describe terminology from specialized academic and professional fields. Its focus is on the use of traditional methods vis-à-vis the application of electronic corpora and its technologies in the key practical tasks such as term extraction and lemmatization. The article notes that the limited availability of specialized texts in African languages hampers the development and deployment of advanced electronic corpora and its applications to improve the execution of terminological and lexicographical tasks, while also enhancing the quality of the products. The Illustrated Glossary of Southern African Architectural Terms (English–isiZulu), A Glossary of Law Terms (English–isiZulu) and the forthcoming isiZulu dictionary of linguistic terms are used for special reference.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Khumalo, Langa , Nkomo, Dion
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/468030 , vital:77001 , https://www.ajol.info/index.php/lex/article/view/233959
- Description: Terminology development and practical lexicography are crucial in language intellectualization. In South Africa, the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, National Lexicography Units, universities, commercial publishers and other organizations have been developing terminology and publishing terminographical/lexicographical resources to facilitate the use of African languages alongside English and Afrikaans in prestigious domains. Theoretical literature in the field of lexicography (eg, Bergenholtz and Nielsen (2006); Bergenholtz and Tarp (1995; 2010); Gouws 2020) has attempted to resolve traditional distinctions between lexicography and terminology while also addressing terminological imprecisions in the relevant scholarship. Taking the cue from such scholarship, this article reflects on the methodological approaches for developing lexicographical products for specific subject fields, ie, resources that document and describe terminology from specialized academic and professional fields. Its focus is on the use of traditional methods vis-à-vis the application of electronic corpora and its technologies in the key practical tasks such as term extraction and lemmatization. The article notes that the limited availability of specialized texts in African languages hampers the development and deployment of advanced electronic corpora and its applications to improve the execution of terminological and lexicographical tasks, while also enhancing the quality of the products. The Illustrated Glossary of Southern African Architectural Terms (English–isiZulu), A Glossary of Law Terms (English–isiZulu) and the forthcoming isiZulu dictionary of linguistic terms are used for special reference.
- Full Text:
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