Possible Interference of Urban Contact Varieties in Speaking and Writing Setswana of Grade 10 Learners: A Study at Winterveldt
Koketso Botlholo 
& Mary Moshidi Makgato
Issue: Vol.6 No.3 Issue Article 9 pp. 347 – 361
DOI: https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.2025639 | Published online 14th March, 2025
© 2025 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
This study aimed to describe the type and the extent of interference of urban contact varieties (UCVs) in speaking and writing Setswana of Grade 10 learners and how to improve the performance of Setswana Home Language learners. The study was conducted at two high schools where 30 participants were selected from Grade 10 and two Setswana educators from each school. The study employed a qualitative method, two focus groups consisting of ten learners each from each school and four Setswana educators were interviewed. Similarly, class observations and text analysis were also used to collect the data. It was found that most learners do not pass Setswana. This poor scholastic result can be attributed and ascribed to UCVs, especially Sepitori. It is evident that UCVs pose a serious threat to language, Setswana in particular because they interfere with the standard language. The study findings provided insights to the Department of Education about the challenges that Setswana L1 learners encountered that prevented them from excelling in Setswana HL at high schools due to the possible interference of UCVs. Based on the findings the following recommendations can be made. The media must increase programmes promoting the importance of Setswana so that people can be encouraged to use Setswana in public and school without feeling illiterate and must be taught the importance of language maintenance and UCV words should be adopted into Setswana so that learner’s performance in class can improve.
Keywords: Language, Standard Language, Home Language, Urban Contact Varieties (UCVs)
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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 .Currently registered a Postgraduate diploma in higher 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.
Moshidi Mary Makgato is a lecturer in the Department of Applied Languages at the Tshwane University of Technology in the Faculty of Humanities. She obtained her DLitt at the University of Pretoria with specialization in Setswana. Her fields of specialization are as follows: African Literature and Linguistics and her research interests are in feminism/womanism, folklore, discourse analysis, morphology, linguistics and text analysis.
Botlholo, Koketso and Mary Moshidi Makgato . “Possible Interference of Urban Contact Varieties in Speaking and Writing Setswana of Grade 10 Learners: A Study at Winterveldt,” E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences 6, no.3 (2025): 347 – 361. https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.2025639
© 2025 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/).
