UNAM Open Access Journal University of Namibia
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Ufasiri wa Mahusiano ya Uwakati Baina ya Vishazi Ambatani katika Lugha ya Kiswahili
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Apart from forms that make the temporal relation explicit in coordinate structure, such as temporal connectives and adverbial of time, language has different ways of signalling that relation without using those forms. This paper intends to analyse how temporal pragmatic relations signalled between clauses which are linked by the coordinator na ‘and’ in Kiswahili. The study relies on Relevance Theory (cf. Sperber & Wilson 1986, Wilson & Sperber 2004) which is human cognition and communication theory. Using data from literature publications, speeches, government reports, and magazines, this paper reveals that coordinator na ‘and’ does not express temporality between coordinated clauses, as opposed to and in the English language (cf. Carston 2002). The paper shows that temporality relation in Kiswahili is expressed by -ka- tense affix and ku- infinitive affix.
Ikisiri
Mbali na kuwapo kwa maumbo yanayobainisha mahusiano ya wakati kama vile viunganishi vya wakati na vielezi vya wakati, lugha zina namna nyingine anuwai za kudhihirisha mahusiano hayo bila kutumia maumbo hayo. Makala haya yanalenga kufafanua namna mahusiano ya kipragmatiki ya uwakati yanavyoashiriwa baina ya vishazi ambatani vilivyoambatanishwa kwa kiunganishi ambatanishi na pasipo matumizi ya vielezi vya wakati au viunganishi vya wakati katika lugha ya Kiswahili. Makala haya yameongozwa na Nadharia ya Uhusiano (taz. Sperber & Wilson 1995, Wilson & Sperber 1993, 2004) ambayo ni nadharia ya utambuzi wa binadamu na mawasiliano. Data za utafiti huu zimepatikana katika machapisho ya fasihi, hotuba na ripoti za serikali na magazeti. Matokeo ya makala haya yanaonesha kuwa kiunganishi ambatanishi na hakina dhima ya kipragmatiki ya kuashiria mahusiano ya uwakati, baina ya vishazi ambatani kama ilivyo kwa kiunganishi ‘and’ katika Kiingereza (taz. Carston 2002). Badala yake mahusiano hayo katika lugha ya Kiswahili huashiriwa kwa kiambishi njeo -ka- na kiambishi kisoukomo ku-
 
Exploring the binaries in Sifiso Nyathi's novel "The Other Presence"
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This paper analyses the literary binaries presented by the award-winning Namibian writer Sifiso Nyathi's novel The Other Presence (2008). The novel is set in the Zambezi region in Namibia. It discusses contemporary issues which affect the Namibian people in the Kwena society. The Other Presence presents different groups of people such as Christians and non-Christians, medical doctors and traditional doctors, false pastors and authentic pastors, male egos and female egos. The paper argues that the novel addresses social and political concerns in Namibian society and explores the binarisms between different groups and the ramifications of creating such categories within society. By analysing the themes in the novel from a binary perspective, the paper seeks to explore its deep underlying structure and unfold the social meaning of the specific and human experience in the society. The paper argues that the binarisms in the novel reflect the livelihood of the various societies in the Zambezi region in Namibia. It concludes that all in all, these binaries offer a voice to the voiceless people in society
Examining enablers and constraints of e-learning/teaching: Lecturers and students’ perspectives at the University of Namibia
Full text linkThis study, conducted at the University of Namibia (UNAM) in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, explores the perspectives of students and lecturers on the experience of learning/teaching foreign languages during the COVID 19 pandemic. The study sought to establish and delimit the enablers and constraints of Foreign Language online teaching/learning, to improve the quality of UNAM service. A quantitative method using online questionnaires was proposed to collect data from all foreign language lecturers of the Department of Languages and Literature Studies at UNAM and their students enrolled in the first and third years in the Applied and Business Language stream. The main results revealed that both lecturers and students had no prejudices about Foreign Language e-learning/teaching but students had mixed feelings about their overall experience. Although the student reported some key advantages in e-learning (independence, flexibility and possibility to freely consult learning material), their lack of equipment and difficult access to platforms and electronic documents presented significant constraints in their digital learning experience. For most of them, their motivation and self-organizational skills were hardly tested and not always successful. In addition, lecturers were not sufficiently trained or experienced to adapt their usual pedagogical practice to virtual teaching while some of them were unequally equipped with ICT skills
Re-syllabification and morphophonological nativisation of English loans in Rukwangali
Full text linkWe here examine and discuss the phonological and morphological nativisation of English loan words in Rukwangali. The analysis, couched within the theoretical explications of CV Phonology (Clements & Keyser, 1983) and Distinctive Features Theory (Chomsky and Halle, 1968), argues that Rukwangali evinces a high level of resyllabification of borrowed words – increasing syllable count in the nativised forms. This, we argue, is largely motivated by the desire to preserve the canonical Consonant-Vowel (CV) syllable structure. The historical contact situation between English and Rukwangali in Namibia culminated in a transference of lexical items between the languages. Being one of the most widely used languages of the world, English has developed into the most influential donor of words to other languages such as Rukwangali. Of course, in the Namibian context, because of the close genetic affinities between English and Afrikaans and similarities in lexicon, it is sometimes difficult to locate objectively the donor of some words in Rukwangali. The words were randomly collected from the English Rukwangali dictionary and tested through one of the authors, who is a native Rukwangali speaker and a teacher of Rukwangali for the past 11 years. The infiltration of English and Afrikaans words into the Rukwangali lexical inventory led to the adoption and subsequent nativisation of English words by the native Rukwangali speakers. Words from English are then adopted and nativised in Rukwangali, since Rukwangali asserts itself as an independent language that can handle loans on its own. The main focus of this study, therefore, is to try and account for the phonological and morphological behaviour and changes that take place in English words that enter into Rukwangali. Analyzing phonological processes that are employed during nativisation of loan words entails analyzing how Rukwangali speakers handle aspects of English language such as syllabification, diphthongs, triphthongs, cluster consonants, Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (CVC) syllable structure and sounds in repairing unacceptable phonemic sequences in Rukwangali
Towards a common Oshikwanyama official orthography for Namibia and Angola: The way forward on the conjunctive and disjunctive writing systems of Oshikwanyama
Full text linkThis paper emanates from a serious debate that took place at Okalongo, in Omusati Region, between the author of this salient paper, and some University of Namibia students, specialising in Oshikwanyama. This debate compelled the author of this study to explore further on the writing systems that prevail in Oshikwanyama. The disagreement was on the writing systems that are observed between Oshikwanyama used in Namibia and the Oshikwanyama used in Angola. Oshikwanyama, as a cross-border language, is one of the twelve dialects of Oshiwambo. Oshikwanyama’s writing system is adapted differently. In Namibia, it is written disjunctively, while in Angola, it is officially written conjunctively, especially when it comes to the treatment of verbs (Although, there was an attempt established in a meeting that was held in 2014 at a cultural festival in Ondjiva in Angola, headed by Pedro Tongeni, where it was agreed for the Angolans to adopt to the Oshikwanyama writing system used in Namibia. However, it is not yet officially approved by these two nations.) This is a qualitative study influenced by purposive sampling and content analysis. This study’s theoretical ideas are those of Cole (1975) who believes that Bantu languages should follow their writing system, instead of those of Indo-European languages. In this study’s literature review, a short overview of these two writing systems is provided by various scholars in the linguistic discipline, with special focus on Bantu languages (Prinsloo & De Schryver, 2002; Taljard & Bosch, 2006). Adapting to a common writing system and perhaps coming up with a common official orthography, preferably Orthography 4 of Oshikwanyama, where the two countries will be following in writing future materials, is of paramount importance, and it is what this study recommends
Association between microsatellite markers and rice response to the rice blast pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae in selected Zambian rice genotypes
Full text linkMagnaporthe oryzae, the rice blast disease pathogen is estimated to cause losses of up to 30% in rice production worldwide, yet its impact on rice production in Zambia remains unknown. Symptomatic rice leaf tissue collected from rice fields in Mongu District of Zambia was cultured on oatmeal agar medium and fungal colonies were purified and identified through leaf lesions and conidia using published keys. An M. oryzae isolate from this study was used to challenge twenty-eight selected Zambian rice genotypes to determine their responses to infection with the pathogen estimated by lesion numbers and sizes. Twelve of the genotypes (42.8%) were highly resistant (HR) with 1 to 2 lesions per cm2, 6 (21.4%) were moderately resistant with mean lesion numbers of 3 to 4 per cm2 while 10 (35.7%) were susceptible with lesion numbers above 5 per cm2 of leaf tissue. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-amplification of rice genomic DNA extracted from the 28 genotypes using selected microsatellite marker primers revealed a moderate genetic diversity with three of them showing significant genetic diversity. Allelic diversity among the selected genotypes was also confirmed from a calculated mean polymorphic information content of 0.8. A correlation between 8 of the microsatellite markers in some of the rice genotypes and their resistance response to M. oryzae was also established. Results show that some of the analysed rice genotypes have a significant potential for use as a genetic resource in breeding for varieties that are resistant to the rice blast pathogen for Zambian farmers
Learning and Teaching German for Beginners Online At UNAM During The Covid-19 Pandemic
Full text linkCovid-19 has affected learning and teaching worldwide and forced most learning institutions to shift almost instantly to remote or e-learning. Although e-learning and the use of technology to support and enhance learning has been promoted over the years, the pandemic challenged many, institutions, lecturers and students alike. Learning a foreign language through a language app has become extremely popular as it is easily accessible and flexible in regard to time, but speaking, interaction and motivation cause challenges. As the University of Namibia (UNAM) changed with the beginning of the pandemic to online teaching, the teaching and learning had to be changed in methods and activities and material had to be developed as online takes a different approach. For the German beginners’ class different tools have been employed such as recorded Panopto sessions, online exercises on Moodle, videoconferences on Zoom and WhatsApp communication to facilitate the course online, but also activities such as quizzes, video presentations were used to support students’ language learning and to enhance interaction. In conclusion, one can say that e-learning offers many advantages to develop a digital competence and to allow a more flexible learning. However, especially for the aspects of speaking and interaction – one of the main aspects of learning a language – the e-learning remains challenging and has an impact on the motivation and therefore learning of students, especially younger and less mature students. 
Exploring The Experiences Of Educators Teaching Learners Diagnosed With Autism: A Case Study Of A Public Special School At Umlazi District (South Africa)
Full text linkThe focus of this study was to explore the educators’ experiences of teaching learners diagnosed with autism. The study was conducted at a special school in Umlazi district and used 8 participants. Participants were purposively selected based on their number of years of experiences in teaching learners with autism. The theoretical framework for this study is provided by the Education White Paper 6, which aims to build an inclusive education system. This policy on Special needs provides the framework for development of an inclusive, holistic, differentiated and integrated education and training system by embracing the diversity of learners needs. It is a system that enhances learner diversity and acknowledges that learning takes place in different socio economic contexts. This chosen framework based on the concept inclusion, forms a strong framework for this study since teaching and learning are intertwined and to teach learners with autism required effective teamwork. The study used a qualitative research in which a case study approach was adopted. Therefore, in order to explore the educators’ experiences in teaching learners diagnosed with autism, an interpretivist paradigm was used. The data generation processes was obtained through semi-structured interviews, focus group interviews and narratives to get insight and quality data. During interviews, open ended questions were used and other questions arose naturally. The semi-structured interviews were used to enable us to get deep information by probing participants’ responses. This has assisted to elaborate on incomplete answers by being flexible and getting clarification on the experiences of educators teaching learners diagnosed with autism. The researchers set meetings into two sessions, grouping participants in 2 groups of 4 educators according to their numbers of years of experiences of teaching learners diagnosed with autism. These educators were given questions in advance ahead of group discussions to be aware of the topic concerned and to make them feel comfortable during discussions. The narrative approach also called ‘story telling’ was used by the researcher to give voice to the participants to elaborate on their own experiences. Thus asking educators teaching learners diagnosed with autism to tell their own stories about their experiences of working with these learners gave deep insight and better understanding of their personal lives and added valuable data to the research. The overall findings of the research show that teaching learners diagnosed with autism is challenging. These challenges are located at two key levels (educators’/teachers’ level and other stakeholders’ level) of the educational system. It requires understanding of autism and effective supports by various role players or stakeholders at those key levels in order to truly provide effective teaching and learning, and by doing so, improve learners’ performances. Firstly, at the level of the educator/teacher who need to be empowered and change attitude in order to be able to provide the required support to the learners. Secondly, at the level of the other stakeholders/ other professionals such as support staffs, assistant teachers, parents, district, school therapists, school nurse, SMT, SGB, SBST, DBST, Social worker, Psychologist and community members in order to promote effective teaching and learning for our learners. The findings also reveal that teaching learners with autism is a complex task because autism is a complex disorder and each learner is unique and different. Therefore, educators’ experiences of teaching learners diagnosed with autism differ from one another because every learner is unique and every educator experience the daily challenges differently in various contexts
The Effectiveness of Inservice Training Programmes in Public Sector Organizations: A case study of the College of the Arts in Windhoek, Namibia
Full text linkThis study focused on investigating the effectiveness of in-service training programmes provided to lecturers at the College of the Arts. The objective of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of the inservice training programmes at the College of the Arts for the upgrading of teaching skills and specialist subject knowledge of academic staff members. The study adopted a mixed research approach, and made used of a multiple case study design to collect data through interviews as well as conducting lesson observations. According to Cresswell (2003) a mixed research approach offers more comprehensive evidence for studying a research problem. It encourages the use of multiple views rather than views associated with a quantitative or qualitative research only. The study also employed a descriptive design, and used close ended questions to gather data through questionnaires. Content analysis method was used to analyse the qualitative data. Quantitative data were processed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) IBM version 21 software package and descriptive statistics were used to interpret the participants’ responses. The methodological triangulation of data was accomplished through the use of data obtained through the interviews, observations and questionnaires. The outcome of the research depicted that lecturers at the College of the Arts are qualified artists but are not professionally trained teachers and would therefore find it difficult to effectively transfer knowledge to the students. The study also concluded that the majority of in-service training courses provided by the College of the Arts for the lecturers are not related to the upgrading of teaching and methodological skills of lecturers. The study recommended that the College of the Arts should set up a training and performance evaluation committee consisting of management members, representatives of the College of the Arts’ lecturers, a Chief of Arts Educational Officer, and the President of the Student Representative Council of the College of the Arts. This committee should be required to review the current training and performance evaluation policies of the College of the Arts and align these policies with the College of the Arts objectives. It is further recommended that lecturers should ensure that their teaching is guided by clearly written lesson plans that encourage the development of critical thinking, problem solving and performance skills
CULTURAL CONCEPTUALISATIONS OF ENGLISH WORDS AMONG BASOTHO WHO STUDY ENGLISH AS AN L2
Full text linkThis study explores the cultural conceptualisations of English words among Basotho who study English as an L2. Eighteen Basotho students majoring in English Language and Linguistics were given three tasks intended to reveal the cultural conceptualisations of English words. The participants were asked to define and use some English words. In addition, the participants were requested to show relationships between some English words and to provide meanings of some words as they are used in a reading passage. The findings reveal that Basotho who study English as an L2 use some words in a unique way due to the unique set of cultural conceptualisations that the words encode. I argue that these findings have implications for the teaching of English in Lesotho and for intercultural communication between Basotho and other speakers of English