IsiXhosa Lexicography: Past, Present and Future

Nkomo, Dion; Wababa, Zola

doi:10.5788/23-1-1219

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 16 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Seen this way, it was an addition to an old and modest inventory of isiXhosa dictionaries that have been published over two centuries (Mtuze 1992). This inventory contains different types of dictionaries which are described by Nkomo and Wababa (2013). Although some of the dictionaries in this inventory have been used within the context of the school or were even approved for use within the education system by the Department of Education, they are not school dictionaries per se or user-friendly for learners at any school level.…”

Section: A Brief Overview Of the Oxsdmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Before the publication of the OXSD, Oxford English-Xhosa Dictionary, Fischer et al (1985) had been the most popular dictionary within the education fraternity, as indicated by being reprinted for the 21st time in 2011, sadly without a single revision or update to align it with the current curriculum. Furthermore, as shown in Nkomo and Wababa (2013), the main limitation of the dictionary by Fischer et al has been the fact that it is uni-directional, despite the compiler claiming that it could be used by speakers of both featured languages. The dictionary has been useful to learners of isiXhosa as an additional language, but not really to learners of English, who are mother-tongue speakers of isiXhosa.…”

Section: A Brief Overview Of the Oxsdmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Developing a dictionary culture through integrated dictionary pedagogy in the outer texts of South African school dictionaries: the case of ‘Oxford Bilingual School Dictionary: IsiXhosa and English’

Nkomo

2015

Lexicography

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The challenges posed by a poor societal dictionary culture and an inability of school curricula or teachers to integrate dictionary pedagogy in the everyday teaching and learning activities compel lexicographers to integrate dictionary pedagogy in the outer texts of school dictionaries. This is done through design features that encourage learners to appreciate the educational value of dictionaries while facilitating efficient and optimum use of the dictionaries. This article discusses the state of societal dictionary culture and dictionary pedagogy in South Africa. In spite of the acknowledged poor dictionary culture, it is shown that the school curriculum provides sufficient space for dictionary use as part of everyday teaching and learning as well as the nurturing of dictionary skills. Without delving deeper into how teachers respond to these educational policy provisions on dictionaries, which warrants a separate comprehensive study, the article demonstrates how the recently published Oxford Bilingual School Dictionary: IsiXhosa and English (De Schryver et al. 2014), typifies school dictionaries in which lexicographers go beyond addressing learners' educational needs regarding language and other school subjects to integrate dictionary pedagogy that may prove beneficial in the long-term development of dictionary skills and dictionary culture. This is particularly evident in the study of selected outer texts. However, the success of these endeavours depends on whether the target users use dictionaries in the first place, which still makes the role of teachers indispensable.

show abstract

Section: A Brief Overview Of the Oxsdmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Brief Overview Of the Oxsdmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing a dictionary culture through integrated dictionary pedagogy in the outer texts of South African school dictionaries: the case of ‘Oxford Bilingual School Dictionary: IsiXhosa and English’

Nkomo

2015

Lexicography

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Stellenbosch University and the University of Pretoria had already offered lexicography from Honours up to PhD for about 10 years. In a general way, the introduction of lexicography courses and programmes was a response to the need for academic guidance in the establishment and institutionalisation of the NLUs, as well as the activities of the NLUs in executing their mandate of producing dictionaries, which were identified as a necessary activity in the implementation process of the country"s multilingual policy (Alberts, 2011;Gouws, 2003;Madiba & Nkomo, 2010;Nkomo & Wababa, 2013). However, the form and extent of such curriculum responsiveness can be better understood through a closer look at how the 62 courses were designed and how teaching and learning is being conducted through the implementation of curricula plans.…”

Section: Background To the Teaching Of Lexicography At Rhodesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Teaching lexicography at a South African university

Nkomo

2014

pling

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Following South Africa's democratic constitution, lexicography was identified as an important practice that would play an enormous role in the implementation of the country's multilingual language policy. National Lexicography Units (NLUs) were established for each of the eleven official languages, including reconstituting the dictionary projects that existed for languages such as Afrikaans, English and isiXhosa. This consolidated the position of lexicography as an academic area of study at a number of South African universities. The African Language Studies Section of the School of Languages at Rhodes University introduced lexicography at Honours level in 2010. The present article reflects on the curriculum development processes associated with the teaching of lexicography at this particular university. It demonstrates how the knowledge that constitutes lexicography is pedagogised to develop courses that respond to the South African context.

show abstract

“…IsiXhosa has had the longest lexicographical development of the African languages in southern Africa. The earliest written isiXhosa lexicography dates back to 1776 (Nkomo & Wababa, 2013). About 16 isiXhosa lexicographical works were published between 1776 and 2008.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dialects matter: The influence of dialects and code-switching on the literacy and numeracy achievements of isiXhosa Grade 1 learners in the Western Cape

Mtsatse¹,

Combrinck²

2018

Journal of Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Historically, African languages have been in a disadvantaged position and issues related to dialect are not fully understood and acknowledged. In this study, we examined the influence of dialects and code-switching on the literacy and numeracy achievements of isiXhosa Grade 1 learners with Multilevel Modeling (MLM), when controlling for other factors, such as between-school variance, socio-economic status, and sex. The project used stratified random sampling to select Afrikaans, English, and isiXhosa schools in three districts in the Western Cape. A total of 2 497 learners were assessed, of whom 768 were in isiXhosa schools. Dialects and codeswitching had a significantly negative influence on both literacy and numeracy scores of isiXhosa learners. The findings highlight the importance of investigating dialectic issues in isiXhosa and the implications that dialects have for decolonisation. African language decolonisation requires the development of classroom resources for these languages, increased African educational research, and finding ways to address the complexities of dialects in pedagogical frameworks.

show abstract

IsiXhosa Lexicography: Past, Present and Future

Cited by 5 publications

References 16 publications

Developing a dictionary culture through integrated dictionary pedagogy in the outer texts of South African school dictionaries: the case of ‘Oxford Bilingual School Dictionary: IsiXhosa and English’

Developing a dictionary culture through integrated dictionary pedagogy in the outer texts of South African school dictionaries: the case of ‘Oxford Bilingual School Dictionary: IsiXhosa and English’

Teaching lexicography at a South African university

Dialects matter: The influence of dialects and code-switching on the literacy and numeracy achievements of isiXhosa Grade 1 learners in the Western Cape

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About