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Abstract:This article examines the impact of current lexicographical work in Zimbabwe on some sectors of Shona language use, namely education, media, medicine and local government. It looks specifically at Shona monolingual lexicographical projects completed by the African Languages Research Institute (ALRI), successor to the African Languages Lexical Project (ALLEX). It analyses how users of Shona in these particular sectors are responding to the different lexicographical products published by ALRI. The article maintains that Shona monolingual lexicography has resulted in language raising and awareness. It has also led to term creation and has contributed towards standardisation of the language. Shona has furthermore gained the abstractive power it needs to explain its own and other concepts. All these have caused diglossia leakage from Low (L) Shona to High (H) Shona in some areas of Shona language usage. The overall effect is that Shona is now used in some formal sectors such as the above-mentioned ones which previously were the preserve of English in Zimbabwe. -bewustheid tot gevolg gehad het. Dit het ook gelei tot termskepping en het bygedra tot die standaardisering van die taal. Sjona het verder die abstraherende vermoë verkry wat dit nodig het om sy eie en ander konsepte te verduidelik. Dit alles het diglossielekkasie van Lae (L) Sjona na Hoë (H) Sjona op sekere gebiede van Sjonataalgebruik veroorsaak. Die algehele uitwerking is dat Sjona tans gebruik word in 'n aantal formele sektore soos die bogenoemdes wat vroeër die alleengebied van Engels in Zimbabwe was.

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This paper investigates the teaching of English as a second language (ESL) in Zimbabwe, using Masvingo urban and peri-urban secondary schools as a case study. The study employed both the quantitative and the qualitative designs. A questionnaire and document analysis was used to gather data. The data gathered were also analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively through tables, thick descriptions and paraphrases. The study established that the structural approach and its associated methods and techniques were mainly used in the teaching of ESL, with communicative language teaching (CLT), which is recommended by the Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (ZIMSEC) O-Level English syllabus, playing second fiddle. The paper concludes that this could be due to ignorance, on the part of teachers, of the principles and advantages of CLT, or it could be a result of conservatism. The paper recommends that relevant authorities, such as universities, teachers' colleges and the responsible Ministry should vigorously strive to make English Language teachers have a paradigm shift towards full implementation of CLT.

This paper explores new developments in Shona lingo, whereby Shona lingo borrows words from mainstream Shona and assigns new meanings to them. The paper examines this adaptation of adoptives at the semantic level. Data were collected through observation, participant observation and a questionnaire. The paper established that Shona lingo borrows different items of grammar as they are from mainstream Shona but attaches new meanings to them. The identified resultant semantic changes include, changes in the ranges of meaning resulting in extension or narrowing the semantic content of the word, radical shift in meaning and changes in emotive value resulting in amelioration or pejorative meanings. The paper also shows how Shona lingo is reflective of the socioeconomic situation of the Zimbabwean society.