Factors which Influence English Language Pass Rate at Matric Level in the Engcobo District of The Eastern Cape of South Africa
- Songwaxa, Nokuthula Patience
- Authors: Songwaxa, Nokuthula Patience
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: Masters theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/3517 , vital:43622
- Description: This study investigates the management of English teaching to improve matriculation pass-rate in selected schools in the Engcobo District of the Eastern Cape of South Africa. The study has been circuits of the Engcobo district. Questionnaires were administered over a group of matriculants, English second language teachers and 8 school principals with a variety of questions and interviews on the causes of this failure problem. Based on the study it has been reared through collect data that some teachers have not been workshopped in the current curriculum (NCS) and this somehow affects the learners. Learners from rural areas have a problem in understanding English language. Lack of educational facilities like libraries also have a negative impact in learner’s progress. Learners who came from Junior Secondary Schools to High schools are not ready and this gives High School teachers a big task to mould them to be ready for matric. It is recommended that parental involvement is vital in their children’s education so as to see their progress and to develop the teacher-parent locomotives learners need to be engaged in Educational activities like debates, public speaking, conducting so as to improve their communication skills. Educators should give more writing and reading exercises to learners so as to minimize the number of learners who are unable to write in Matric. , Thesis (MMED) -- Faculty of Educational Sciences, 2013
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Songwaxa, Nokuthula Patience
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: Masters theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/3517 , vital:43622
- Description: This study investigates the management of English teaching to improve matriculation pass-rate in selected schools in the Engcobo District of the Eastern Cape of South Africa. The study has been circuits of the Engcobo district. Questionnaires were administered over a group of matriculants, English second language teachers and 8 school principals with a variety of questions and interviews on the causes of this failure problem. Based on the study it has been reared through collect data that some teachers have not been workshopped in the current curriculum (NCS) and this somehow affects the learners. Learners from rural areas have a problem in understanding English language. Lack of educational facilities like libraries also have a negative impact in learner’s progress. Learners who came from Junior Secondary Schools to High schools are not ready and this gives High School teachers a big task to mould them to be ready for matric. It is recommended that parental involvement is vital in their children’s education so as to see their progress and to develop the teacher-parent locomotives learners need to be engaged in Educational activities like debates, public speaking, conducting so as to improve their communication skills. Educators should give more writing and reading exercises to learners so as to minimize the number of learners who are unable to write in Matric. , Thesis (MMED) -- Faculty of Educational Sciences, 2013
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Pedagogic videos as a foreign language learning resource in textbooks used in the German studies section of a South African university: A digital multimodal discourse perspective
- Authors: Schafli, Sasha-Lee
- Date: 2021-04
- Subjects: Language and languages Study and teaching Audio-visual aids , Educational technology , Media programs (Education) , German language Study and teaching Foreign speakers Audio-visual aids , Visual learning , Rhodes University , German language Discourse analysis , Digital multimodal discourse analysis
- Language: English
- Type: Masters theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/177087 , vital:42789 , http://doi.org/10.21504/10962/113934
- Description: Video is a prominent teaching and learning tool within foreign language (FL) textbook media packages in the 21st century. While studies undertaken in the Global North highlight that video materials in the FL classroom have the potential to influence learning and cultural knowledge acquisition, there is a lack of research on the manner in which pedagogically designed videos influence adult FL learning and cultural knowledge acquisition in a South African context. In this study, I explore the opportunities and challenges in terms of language learning and cultural knowledge acquisition that arise from three pedagogic videos in the Menschen A1 textbook which is used in teaching students registered for the German Studies 1 course at Rhodes University. I compare and contrast two sets of data to examine the relationship between pedagogic video and student knowledge acquisition: the results of a digital multimodal discourse analysis (DMDA) of these videos, and questionnaires and transcriptions collected from semi-structured group interviews with German Studies 1 students. These questionnaires and transcriptions were analysed thematically. Findings in terms of the language learning experience indicate that actor over-exaggeration and visual aids assist students when learning German at this level with this type of video. However, these visual aids can be distracting and confusing without balanced representation and contextual information. Differences between videos in terms of speech rate seem to affect students’ perceptions of their ability to comprehend the videos. Students reported forming only positive impressions of German culture(s) on the basis of the videos. In general, students find Germans portrayed as friendly and helpful in the videos. The results of this investigation provide recommendations for the optimal use of this type of teaching and learning resource, for example, teachers/ lecturers/ facilitators should allow for focus group discussions on cultural discourse to occur in order to balance stereotype formation and should consider the speech rate of videos for language learning. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, 2021
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021-04
- Authors: Schafli, Sasha-Lee
- Date: 2021-04
- Subjects: Language and languages Study and teaching Audio-visual aids , Educational technology , Media programs (Education) , German language Study and teaching Foreign speakers Audio-visual aids , Visual learning , Rhodes University , German language Discourse analysis , Digital multimodal discourse analysis
- Language: English
- Type: Masters theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/177087 , vital:42789 , http://doi.org/10.21504/10962/113934
- Description: Video is a prominent teaching and learning tool within foreign language (FL) textbook media packages in the 21st century. While studies undertaken in the Global North highlight that video materials in the FL classroom have the potential to influence learning and cultural knowledge acquisition, there is a lack of research on the manner in which pedagogically designed videos influence adult FL learning and cultural knowledge acquisition in a South African context. In this study, I explore the opportunities and challenges in terms of language learning and cultural knowledge acquisition that arise from three pedagogic videos in the Menschen A1 textbook which is used in teaching students registered for the German Studies 1 course at Rhodes University. I compare and contrast two sets of data to examine the relationship between pedagogic video and student knowledge acquisition: the results of a digital multimodal discourse analysis (DMDA) of these videos, and questionnaires and transcriptions collected from semi-structured group interviews with German Studies 1 students. These questionnaires and transcriptions were analysed thematically. Findings in terms of the language learning experience indicate that actor over-exaggeration and visual aids assist students when learning German at this level with this type of video. However, these visual aids can be distracting and confusing without balanced representation and contextual information. Differences between videos in terms of speech rate seem to affect students’ perceptions of their ability to comprehend the videos. Students reported forming only positive impressions of German culture(s) on the basis of the videos. In general, students find Germans portrayed as friendly and helpful in the videos. The results of this investigation provide recommendations for the optimal use of this type of teaching and learning resource, for example, teachers/ lecturers/ facilitators should allow for focus group discussions on cultural discourse to occur in order to balance stereotype formation and should consider the speech rate of videos for language learning. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, 2021
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021-04
Exploring Teacher Assessment Practices in The General Education and Training Level in Junior Secondary Schools in Mthatha Education District
- Authors: Xolile, Stwebile
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: Masters theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/2933 , vital:43116
- Description: This dissertation is a report of the study that was conducted in rural and urban periphery schools of Mthatha City within Mthatha Education District in the Eastern Cape, a province of South Africa. The study explored teacher-assessment practices in two selected junior secondary schools. The utmost purpose was to determine the nature of teacher-assessment practices in these junior secondary schools. This study involved mainly a quantitative research design and later supplemented by qualitative research design. The target population was made up of 63 teachers from both schools. Sampling entailed simple random sampling for quantitative approach and purposeful sampling for qualitative. Instrumentation involved questionnaires and focus group interviews to gather data for these two different research paradigms used. The data was analysed by means of SPSS for quantitative and thematically for qualitative. The results of this study from both instruments were crystallized, and indicated that teachers were grappling with difficulty in strategies and procedures of assessment due to an ever changing curriculum and overload of work. The main findings were: assessment based on content knowledge of learners, negative impact of teacher re-deployment on assessment, stress accumulated by various challenges such as overload of work and frequent curriculum changes as well as lack of data organisation and gathering. The recommendations were: workshops and training programmes on assessment to be provided to teachers; teachers should use various information sources for conducting assessment; more teachers need to be recruited for understaffing and overloading problems as well as pragmatic assessment strategies should be used for learners assessment. Teachers should be included in matters of curriculum changes and be exposed to in-service training. , Thesis (MMED) -- Faculty of Educational Sciences, 2014
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Xolile, Stwebile
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: Masters theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/2933 , vital:43116
- Description: This dissertation is a report of the study that was conducted in rural and urban periphery schools of Mthatha City within Mthatha Education District in the Eastern Cape, a province of South Africa. The study explored teacher-assessment practices in two selected junior secondary schools. The utmost purpose was to determine the nature of teacher-assessment practices in these junior secondary schools. This study involved mainly a quantitative research design and later supplemented by qualitative research design. The target population was made up of 63 teachers from both schools. Sampling entailed simple random sampling for quantitative approach and purposeful sampling for qualitative. Instrumentation involved questionnaires and focus group interviews to gather data for these two different research paradigms used. The data was analysed by means of SPSS for quantitative and thematically for qualitative. The results of this study from both instruments were crystallized, and indicated that teachers were grappling with difficulty in strategies and procedures of assessment due to an ever changing curriculum and overload of work. The main findings were: assessment based on content knowledge of learners, negative impact of teacher re-deployment on assessment, stress accumulated by various challenges such as overload of work and frequent curriculum changes as well as lack of data organisation and gathering. The recommendations were: workshops and training programmes on assessment to be provided to teachers; teachers should use various information sources for conducting assessment; more teachers need to be recruited for understaffing and overloading problems as well as pragmatic assessment strategies should be used for learners assessment. Teachers should be included in matters of curriculum changes and be exposed to in-service training. , Thesis (MMED) -- Faculty of Educational Sciences, 2014
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
A Facile Effective Method for the Synthesis of Au-Cdse Nanostructures and their Characterisations.
- Authors: Gaxela, Nelisa Ncumisa
- Date: 2016-5
- Language: English
- Type: Masters theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/3238 , vital:43198
- Description: ABSTRACT We report the synthesis of aqueous and organically soluble cadmium selenide (CdSe) nanoparticles (NPs) doped with gold via a facile and effective method. Briefly the synthesis involves the reduction of selenium powder using sodium sulphite to produce sodium selenosulphate which acts as the selenium source, followed by the addition of CdX (X = Cl2, CH3COO, NO3). The nanoparticles were passivated with trisodium citrate, mercaptopropanoic acid (MPA), potassium sodium tartarate (PST) and L-cysteine which rendered them soluble in water and also acted as stabilizing agents, while passivation with hexadecylamine (HDA) made them soluble in organic solvent which also enhanced their stability. The high quality of the as-synthesized nanoparticles was confirmed using absorption and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high resolution TEM (HRTEM). The systematic study of the effect of mole ratio, temperature, capping agent, growth time, cadmium precursor and ratio of Au on the size, optical and structural properties on the water soluble CdSe nanoparticles were investigated. All the as-synthesised particles, are blue-shifted in relation to the bulk band gap of CdSe. As the Cd: Se mole ratio increases, the intensity of the citrate capped CdSe materials also increases and the particle sizes are in the range of 2.06 – 4.00 nm. When the temperature was increased, the luminescence intensity quenched whereas the particle size increased. As the growth time increased, the intensity increased and then decreased again towards the end of the reaction. When different capping agents were used the particle sizes range from 2.06 – 3.36 nm for citrate, 2.08 – 3.33 nm for MPA, 2.01 – 2.28 nm for L-cysteine and polydispersed for PST. The luminescence intensity decreased in the order citrate > cysteine > PST > MPA when CdCl2 was used as cadmium precursor. When different cadmium precursors were used for L-cysteine, the particle sizes range from 2.06 – 2.31 nm for Cd(CH3COO)2 and 2.00 – 2.37 nm for Cd(NO3)2 while the intensity increased as the reaction time increased, however, still lower than the CdCl2 materials. The effect of Au ratio showed that the intensity of Au-doped cysteine capped-CdSe increased as the Au ratio decreased. The systematic study of the effect of temperature and growth time in the organic soluble CdSe nanoparticles on the size, optical and structural properties was also investigated. All the as-synthesised particles were blue-shifted in relation to the bulk CdSe. As the temperature increased the particle sizes of the undoped materials range between 2.92 – 2.95 nm at 160 °C and 5.35 – 5.39 nm at 200 °C while for the doped materials the particle size range from 2.53 – 2.61 nm at 160 °C, 3.97 nm at 200 °C and 4.20 – 4.72 nm at 240 °C. The intensity of the doped materials increased as the reaction time increased and then decreased again towards the end of the reaction. After ligand exchange the intensity of the as-synthesized doped and undoped-CdSe NPs was very low compare to the parent organically capped doped and un-doped CdSe. It was discovered that without any further purification, the quality of the materials formed by this method is comparable to that of the best CdSe NPs reported in the literature. This method is safe, inexpensive and reproducible. , Thesis (MsC Chemistry) -- Faculty of Natural Sciences, 2019
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016-5
- Authors: Gaxela, Nelisa Ncumisa
- Date: 2016-5
- Language: English
- Type: Masters theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/3238 , vital:43198
- Description: ABSTRACT We report the synthesis of aqueous and organically soluble cadmium selenide (CdSe) nanoparticles (NPs) doped with gold via a facile and effective method. Briefly the synthesis involves the reduction of selenium powder using sodium sulphite to produce sodium selenosulphate which acts as the selenium source, followed by the addition of CdX (X = Cl2, CH3COO, NO3). The nanoparticles were passivated with trisodium citrate, mercaptopropanoic acid (MPA), potassium sodium tartarate (PST) and L-cysteine which rendered them soluble in water and also acted as stabilizing agents, while passivation with hexadecylamine (HDA) made them soluble in organic solvent which also enhanced their stability. The high quality of the as-synthesized nanoparticles was confirmed using absorption and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high resolution TEM (HRTEM). The systematic study of the effect of mole ratio, temperature, capping agent, growth time, cadmium precursor and ratio of Au on the size, optical and structural properties on the water soluble CdSe nanoparticles were investigated. All the as-synthesised particles, are blue-shifted in relation to the bulk band gap of CdSe. As the Cd: Se mole ratio increases, the intensity of the citrate capped CdSe materials also increases and the particle sizes are in the range of 2.06 – 4.00 nm. When the temperature was increased, the luminescence intensity quenched whereas the particle size increased. As the growth time increased, the intensity increased and then decreased again towards the end of the reaction. When different capping agents were used the particle sizes range from 2.06 – 3.36 nm for citrate, 2.08 – 3.33 nm for MPA, 2.01 – 2.28 nm for L-cysteine and polydispersed for PST. The luminescence intensity decreased in the order citrate > cysteine > PST > MPA when CdCl2 was used as cadmium precursor. When different cadmium precursors were used for L-cysteine, the particle sizes range from 2.06 – 2.31 nm for Cd(CH3COO)2 and 2.00 – 2.37 nm for Cd(NO3)2 while the intensity increased as the reaction time increased, however, still lower than the CdCl2 materials. The effect of Au ratio showed that the intensity of Au-doped cysteine capped-CdSe increased as the Au ratio decreased. The systematic study of the effect of temperature and growth time in the organic soluble CdSe nanoparticles on the size, optical and structural properties was also investigated. All the as-synthesised particles were blue-shifted in relation to the bulk CdSe. As the temperature increased the particle sizes of the undoped materials range between 2.92 – 2.95 nm at 160 °C and 5.35 – 5.39 nm at 200 °C while for the doped materials the particle size range from 2.53 – 2.61 nm at 160 °C, 3.97 nm at 200 °C and 4.20 – 4.72 nm at 240 °C. The intensity of the doped materials increased as the reaction time increased and then decreased again towards the end of the reaction. After ligand exchange the intensity of the as-synthesized doped and undoped-CdSe NPs was very low compare to the parent organically capped doped and un-doped CdSe. It was discovered that without any further purification, the quality of the materials formed by this method is comparable to that of the best CdSe NPs reported in the literature. This method is safe, inexpensive and reproducible. , Thesis (MsC Chemistry) -- Faculty of Natural Sciences, 2019
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016-5