English Articles and Modals in the Writing of Some Batswana Students

Alimi, Modupe M.

doi:10.2167/lcc336.0

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…In addition, they do not demonstrate confidence in the non-native variety, BE, which they speak, nor recommend it as a variety worthy to be used in formal writing. There are also research findings indicating that some of the prominent features of usage in the writing of some Batswana students correlate with some of the syntactic features of BE (see Alimi 2007Alimi , 2008Arua and Magocha 2000, referred to earlier). All of the above seem to show that BE is more prominent in the teaching and assessment of English language in schools.…”

Section: Implications Of the Contradictions In Policy Documentsmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…The few available studies, however, have attempted to explicate some patterns of learners' usage, which are at variance with StBrE, in terms of the structure of Setswana. Alimi (2007), for example, shows that some of the syntactic differences in students' usage of English articles and modals are traceable to their L1. Her study demonstrates that the expression can be able, is a product of the conflation of two verb forms, ka and kgona, 'can' and 'be able', respectively, which usually co-occur in Setswana.…”

Section: Language Ecology Of Botswanamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Botswana English: implications for English language teaching and assessment

Alimi

2011

Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development

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Concerted efforts to characterise Botswana English (BE), though still referred to as 'a variety in development', have validated its existence. However, the teaching and assessment of English in the high schools do not seem to have responded to the development of this variety. This paper discusses the viability of using Standard British English as the model for teaching and assessing students' proficiency in high schools in Botswana. It examines the country's education focusing on language policy, the teaching methodology advocated in schools and teachers' preparedness and how these factors affect English language teaching and assessment. It also highlights areas of contradiction in policy documents regarding the teaching methodology and the model/variety taught and examined. The paper then proposes the recognition of BE as an appropriate model/variety for instruction in schools in Botswana, noting that this will not only eliminate the contradictions in the current English language teaching and assessment syllabi, but also reflect some of the ways by which English mirrors the linguistic ecology of the country.

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Section: Implications Of the Contradictions In Policy Documentsmentioning

confidence: 93%

Section: Language Ecology Of Botswanamentioning

confidence: 99%

Botswana English: implications for English language teaching and assessment

Alimi

2011

Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development

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“…50). As Alimi (2007) pointed out, articles are complex grammatical structures. This statement is particularly true for most Asian students.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distribution of Articles in Written Composition among Malaysian ESL Learners

Rahim¹,

Rahim²,

Ning³

2013

ELT

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The study aimed to investigate the distribution patterns of the English grammar articles (a, an, and the) as well as the distributions of their colligation patterns in written compositions of English among Malaysian ESL learners. This paper reports the results of a corpus-based study on articles used by these learners. The method used in this study was quantitative content analysis, in which it utilized the data from the Malaysian Corpus of Students' Argumentative Writing (MCSAW). The findings indicated that all the three articles were presented throughout the entire compositions and that the frequency of occurrences made up 18 percent of the entire tokens. The findings also showed that the distributions of the colligation patterns of the articles were at variance. Some of the colligation patterns were used heavily while others were not often applied in the compositions. The findings can help language teachers identify areas in the structure that need further emphasis in their teaching.

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English Articles and Modals in the Writing of Some Batswana Students

Cited by 2 publications

References 10 publications

Botswana English: implications for English language teaching and assessment

Botswana English: implications for English language teaching and assessment

Distribution of Articles in Written Composition among Malaysian ESL Learners

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