Investigating the Effects of Non-Standard Dialects on the Written Competency of Setswana Home Language Grade 10 Learners
Koketso Botlholo 
Issue: Vol.5 No.16 Issue Article 63 pp.3471 -3488
DOI: https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.202451663 | Published online 30th December, 2024
© 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
This article investigated the impact of non-standard dialects on Grade 10 learners at the two selected high schools in Winterveldt concerning writing Setswana and how to improve the written competency of Setswana Home Language (HL) learners. The study was conducted at two high schools where 56 participants were selected from Grade 10, with 28 participants from each school. The study employed a qualitative method. In this regard, two focus groups consisting of ten learners each from each school were interviewed. Similarly, class observations, constructive analysis, and text analysis were also used to collect the data. According to the data, it is evident that Non-standard dialects had a significant influence on the written and spoken outputs of the learners and most learners and teachers could not differentiate. The data also suggested that the Setswana written by female learners is better in comparison with how or what the Setswana male learners write. Based on the findings and conclusions the following recommendations can be made: (1)The government and the Department of Education must employ or rather hire native Setswana speakers to teach Setswana home language. (2) When learners do not understand certain aspects of the Setswana classes, teachers must not speak Sepitori to make the learners understand and (3 )The use of non-standard dialects must be minimised in schools to reduce its influence on Setswana. The study findings will provide insights to the Department of Education about the challenges that Setswana L1 learners encounter that prevent them from excelling in written competency of the Setswana home language. This will help in policy implementation.
Keywords: Language, Standard Language, Home Language, Non-Standard Dialects
Bock, Z. “Introduction to Semiotics. Bock, Z. and G. Mheta (Eds.). 2014.” Language, Society and Communication: An Introduction, 2014, 55–77.
Bonvillain, Nancy. Language, Culture, and Communication: The Meaning of Messages. Rowman & Littlefield, 2019.
Cohen, M. “The Education of Pre-Service Teachers in Language Education.” University of Johannesburg , 2005.
Dahvana, A.T. “The Alignment of Assessment with Teaching and Learning in the Language Learning Area in Grade 10.” Tshwane University of Technology, 2015.
Ditsele, Thabo. “Why Not Use Sepitori to Enrich the Vocabularies of Setswana and Sepedi?” Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 32, no. 2 (2014): 215–28.
Ditsele, Thabo, and Charles C Mann. “Language Contact in African Urban Settings: The Case of Sepitori in Tshwane.” South African Journal of African Languages 34, no. 2 (2014): 159–65.
Gardner, R., and M. Lambert. Attitudes and Motivation in Second Languagelearning. Mass: Newbury House, 1992.
Hartshorne, K.B. “Language Policy in South Africa, 1910-1985, with Particular Reference to Medium of Instruction.” In Bridging the Gap BetweenTheory and Practice in the English Second Language. Cape Town: Maskew Miller Longman (Pty) Ltd, 1987.
Holmes, Janet. Women, Men and Politeness. Routledge, 2013.
Hudson, R. A. Sociolinguistics. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1980.
Hurst, Chris. “The Multiplicative Situation.” Australian Primary Mathematics Classroom 20, no. 3 (2015): 10–16.
Hurst, Ellen. “Style, Structure and Function in Cape Town Tsotsitaal,” 2008.
Malik, Zunera, and Sham Haidar. “English Language Learning and Social Media: Schematic Learning on Kpop Stan Twitter.” E-Learning and Digital Media 18, no. 4 (July 9, 2021): 361–82. https://doi.org/10.1177/2042753020964589.
Malimabe, Refilwe Morongwa. The Influence of Non-Standard Varieties on the Standard Setswana of High School Pupils. University of Johannesburg (South Africa), 1990.
Mesthrie, Rajend. “I’ve Been Speaking Tsotsitaal All My Life without Knowing It.” Towards a Unified Account of Tsotsitaals in South Africa, in: M. Meyerhoff and N. Nagy (Eds.), Social Lives in Language–Sociolinguistics and Multilingual Speech Communities, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2008, 95–110.
Molamu, Louis. Tsotsi-Taal: A Dictionary of the Language of Sophiatown. Unisa Press, 2002.
———. “Wietie: The Emergence and Development of Tsotsitaal in South Africa.” Alternation 2, no. 2 (1995): 139–58.
Moodley, V. “Challenges in the Assessment of Visual Literacy across the Official Languages in South Africa.” In . . Paper Presented at 6th Global Conference, Visual Literacies: Exploring Critical Issues. Oxford: Mansfield College, 2013.
Morris, Rosalind C. “Style, Tsotsi-Style, and Tsotsitaal: The Histories, Aesthetics, and Politics of a South African Figure.” Social Text 28, no. 2 (2010): 85–112.
Mrabet, Y. Towards Natural Language Question Generation for the Validation of Ontologies and Mappings. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 2021.
———. Towards Natural Language Question Generation for the Validation of Ontologies and Mappings. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 2021.
Mufwene, Salikoko S. “Language Evolution from an Ecological Perspective 1.” In The Routledge Handbook of Ecolinguistics, 73–88. Routledge, 2017.
Nkosi, Duduzile Faith. “The Technological Process as Framework for the Improvement of Instruction of Technology.” University of Johannesburg, 2008.
Ntshangase, Dumisani K. “The Social History of Iscamtho.” Unpublished Masters Dissertation. University of the Witwatersrand, 1993.
Poplack, Shana. “Dialect Acquisition among Puerto Rican Bilinguals.” Language in Society 7, no. 1 (1978): 89–103.
Raubenheimer, D. Immigration and Bilingual Education: A Case Study of Movement of Population Language Change and Education within the EEC. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1983.
Reutzel, D, and Robert B Cooter Jr. Teaching Children to Read: Putting the Pieces Together. ERIC, 2000.
Salem, Mohammed. “ Diwan ‘Deferred Betrayals’ of the Poet Mohammed Salem,” 2013.
Schlebusch, Anne. “Non-Racial Schooling in Selected Cape Town Schools: Language, Attitudes and Language Learning,” 1994.
Schuring, Gerard Kornelis. Omgangs-Sotho van Die Swart Woongebiede van Pretoria. University of Johannesburg (South Africa), 1984.
Siegel, Jeff. “Literacy in Pidgin and Creole Languages.” Current Issues in Language Planning 6, no. 2 (May 15, 2005): 143–63. https://doi.org/10.1080/14664200508668278.
———. The Emergence of Pidgin and Creole Languages. Oxford University Press, 2008.
Thakkar, Prachi Jayesh, Chandrashekhar M Badakar, Shivayogi M Hugar, Seema Hallikerimath, Punit M Patel, and Parin Shah. “An in Vitro Comparison of Casein Phosphopeptide-Amorphous Calcium Phosphate Paste, Casein Phosphopeptide-Amorphous Calcium Phosphate Paste with Fluoride and Casein Phosphopeptide-Amorphous Calcium Phosphate Varnish on the Inhibition of Demineralization and Promotion of Remineralization of Enamel.” Journal of Indian Society of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry 35, no. 4 (2017): 312–18.
Tichnor-Wagner, Ariel, Danielle Allen, Allison Rose Socol, Lora Cohen-Vogel, Stacey A Rutledge, and Qi W Xing. “Studying Implementation within a Continuous Continuous-Improvement Process: What Happens When We Design with Adaptations in Mind?.” Teachers College Record 120, no. 5 (2018): n5.
Trudgill, Peter. “Language and Society.” Dialects in Contact, 1992.
Tshotetsi, Kgomotso Jennifer. “The Influence of Tsotsitaal on Setswana: An Investigative Study at Itsoseng in the North West Province.,” 2016.
Wagner, Valencia K, Thabo Ditsele, and Mary M Makgato. “Influence of Sepitori on Standard Setswana of Its Home Language Learners at Three Tshwane Townships.” Literator: Journal of Literary Criticism, Comparative Linguistics and Literary Studies 41, no. 1 (2020): 1–7.
Webb, Vic, Biki Lepota, and Refilwe Ramagoshi. “Using Northern Sotho as Medium of Instruction in Vocational Training.” In Globalisation and African Languages. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter Mouton, n.d. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110891614.119.
Xia, Xiufang. “Gender Differences in Using Language.” Theory & Practice in Language Studies (TPLS) 3, no. 8 (2013).
Koketso Botlholo is a freelance language practitioner and an Ngap Setswana Lecturer at Central University of Technology Freestate, Faculty of Humanities in the Department of Languages and Social Sciences Education .He is also a PHD Candidate at the University of Freestate , Department of African Languages. His core research focus is on Sociolinguistics ,higher education policy and governance; African Languages, Translanguaging, Code-switching in media, Social Justice and Inclusive Education, and Language Education. He is building his expertise in African Languages in Higher Education and Sociolinguistics.
Botlholo, Koketso. “Investigating the Effects of Non-Standard Dialects on the Written Competency of Setswana Home Language Grade 10 Learners,” E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences 5, no.16 (2024): 3471 -3488. https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.202451663
© 2024 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Journals. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
