‘No ‘til we know.’Fela ba a tseba naa? Using African languages to communicate about HIV and AIDS to young South Africans

Abstract

An experiment was conducted in order to determine the extent to which the presentation of HIV and AIDS messages in different languages would affect the appreciation and comprehension of these messages among young South Africans. Interviews were carried out with 60 learners in rural and peri-rural schools in Limpopo Province. Four messages (on posters or in radio advertisements), were presented in three languages. The interviews focused on appreciation (to what extent do the participants like the messages?), perceived comprehension (to what extent do the participants think that they understand the message?), and actual comprehension (to what extent do the participants really understand the message?). The language of presentation did not prove to have any influence on appreciation, perceived comprehension or actual comprehension. A considerable gap was found between perceived comprehension and actual comprehension; participants overestimated their level of understanding. Significant correlations were found between perceived comprehension and appreciation, indicating that the better members of this target group think they understand HIV and AIDS messages, the more they like them.

Business Discourse

“…Recent publications that discuss the findings of the project include Jansen and Janssen (2010), Lubinga and Jansen (2011), and Lubinga, Schulze, Jansen, and Maes (2010).…”

How peer conversations about HIV/AIDS media messages affect comprehension and beliefs of young South African women

“…We decided to choose a poster that scored relatively high on AC ( M = 2.36, SD = 1.09 on a scale of 1–4), and also relatively high on reported willingness to discuss it among peers ( M = 3.37, SD = 1.00, on a scale of 1–4). The poster was in English because the results of a previous study conducted on the comprehension of puzzling messages in two African languages and English indicated that there were no differences in comprehension by participants on the basis of the message languages (Lubinga & Jansen 2011 ). The poster included the verbal message, ‘If you care, do not share’, plus a combination of pictures: a couple hugging, a single flower with several bees hovering over it, and a red ribbon underneath it with the text, ‘Stop AIDS’.…”

“…The questionnaires were in English. The decision to use questionnaires in English follows a previous study in which interviews in two mother-tongue languages and English were used to find out the comprehension of puzzling HIV/AIDS messages (Lubinga & Jansen 2011 ). The results of that study did not indicate better comprehension, nor preferences among a similar group of learners for asking the questions in their mother-tongues.…”

“…In an attempt to test the assumptions by Hoeken et al . ( 2009 ) and by loveLife (Hollemans 2005 ), we tried to find out, in four earlier studies, whether and if so, under what conditions conversations about puzzling health messages are likely to occur (Jansen & Janssen 2010 ; Lubinga & Jansen 2011 ; Lubinga, Jansen & Maes 2014 ; Lubinga, Schulze, Jansen & Maes 2010 ). The results of these studies contradict the predictions by loveLife, and also by Hoeken et al .…”

‘If you care, do not share’. Exploring the effects of using rhetorical figures to stimulate young South Africans to discuss HIV and AIDS messages

“…The language of the posters was English, following the results of a previous study on the effects of using African languages in HIV and AIDS messages (Lubinga and Jansen 2011). In this study, existing loveLife posters in two African languages and in English were presented to young Sepedi and Tshivenda mother-tongue speakers from Limpopo Province.…”