Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Non-standard English'

Thesis (MPhil (General Linguistics))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study is interested in the relationship between accent and hearers’ perception of the speaker. It investigates the kinds of stereotypes related to phonological features of the speaker’s language. Specifically this thesis focused on the perceptions that high school girls have of their Mathematics teachers who speak English with a non-standard accent. The general aims of the study were to establish whether high school girls perceived non-standard English speaking Mathematics teachers negatively and, if so, whether this perception changed as the girls mature. Twenty-seven Grade 8 learners and 14 Grade 12 learners from a private English-medium school in the Gauteng Province of South Africa participated in this study. The school attracts learners from the affluent socio-economic group, and the majority of the learners are white (76.8%) and first language speakers of English (86%). These participants completed questionnaires using the matched-guise technique (Lambert, Hodgson, Gardner and Fillenbaum 1960) to determine their perceptions of six accents. Five speakers were recorded reading the same Mathematics lesson in English. One reader read the same passage twice, using a so-called Standard South African English accent for one recording and a second language accent of an isiZulu mother tongue speaker for the second recording. The results of this investigation indicate that high school girls are inclined to stereotype teachers according to the teachers’ accents. Some of the characteristics attributed to the non-standard English speaking teachers were positive, but generally learners held a negative perception of such teachers. There was very little change in this perception from Grade 8 to Grade 12. Of particular importance in the National Curriculum Statement for Grades 10 to 12 is that learners emerge from this phase of their schooling being “sensitive to issues of diversity such as poverty, inequality, race, gender, language, age, disability and other factors” (www.sabceducation.co.za/). The school where the research was conducted has addressed diversity in numerous ways in an attempt to prepare the learners for life in multilingual and multicultural South Africa. That the Grade 12 learners in this study, whether first language speakers of English or not, still display accent prejudice suggests that the life skills objectives are not adequately met and that this form of prejudice needs to be addressed in more creative ways.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING:: Hierdie studie stel belang in die verhouding tussen aksent en hoorders se waarneming van die spreker. Dit ondersoek die soort stereotipering wat saamhang met die fonologiese eienskappe van die spreker se taal. Hierdie tesis het spesifiek gefokus op die persepsies wat hoërskoolmeisies het van hul Wiskunde-opvoeders wat Engels met ‘n nie-standaard aksent praat. Die algemene doelstellings van die studie was om vas te stel of hoërskoolmeisies hierdie opvoeders negatief beoordeel op grond van hul aksent en, indien wel, of hierdie oordeel minder fel raak met ouerdom. Sewe-en-twintig Graad 8-leerders en 14 Graad 12-leerders aan ‘n privaat- Engels-medium skool in die Gauteng Provinsie van Suid-Afrika het aan die studie deelgeneem. Die skool se leerders kom uit die hoë sosio-ekonomiese groep, en die meerderheid is Wit (76.8%) en eerstetaalsprekers van Engels (86%). Die deelnemers het vraelyste voltooi as deel van sogenaamde “matched guise”- (Lambert, Hodgson, Gardner en Fillenbaum 1960) navorsing om hul persepsies van ses aksente te bepaal. Vyf sprekers is op band opgeneem terwyl hulle dieselfde Wiskunde-les in Engels lees. Een leser het die les twee maal gelees, een maal met ’n sogenaamde Standaard Suid-Afrikaanse Engelse aksent en een maal met ’n tweedetaal aksent tipies van ‘n isiZulu moedertaalspreker. Die resultate van hierdie ondersoek dui daarop dat hoërskoolmeisies geneig is om opvoeders te stereotipeer op grond van die opvoeders se aksent. Party eienskappe wat aan die nie-standaard Engelssprekende opvoeders toegeskryf is, was positief, maar oor die algemeen het leerders ’n negatiewe persepsie van sulke opvoeders gehad. Baie min verandering in hierdie persepsies het van Graad 8 tot Graad 12 plaasgevind. Van besondere belang in die Graad 10 tot 12 Nasionale Kurrikulm is dat leerders aan die einde van hierdie fase ‘n sensitiwiteit sal hê vir kwessies aangaande “diversiteit, soos armoede, ongelykheid, ras, geslag, taal, ouderdom, gestremdheid en ander faktore” (www.sabceducation.co.za/). Die skool waar hierdie navorsing gedoen is, spreek diversiteit op velerlei maniere aan in ’n poging om leerders voor te berei vir lewe in veeltalige en multikulturele Suid-Afrika. Die feit dat Graad 12- leerders in hierdie studie, of hulle eerstetaalsprekers van Engels is al dan nie, steeds aksentvooroordele toon, dui aan dat die doelstellings van lewensvaardigheid onderrig nie voldoende bereik word nie en dat hierdie vorm van vooroordeel op meer kreatiewe maniere aangespreek moet word.

Non-standard language, or dialect, often serves a specific purpose in a literary work and it is therefore a challenge for any translator to recreate the non-standard language of the source text into a target language.  There are different linguistic tools an author can use in order to convey non-standard language, and the same is true for a translator – who can choose from different strategies when tasked with the challenge of translating dialectal features. This essay studies the challenge of recreating dialectal, non-standard speech in a work of literature and compares four different translations of that same piece of literature into another language. With this purpose in mind, the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens is analysed using samples of non-standard language which have been applied to indicate a character’s speech as dialectal. The same treatment is given to four different Swedish translations. The method consists of linguistically analysing four text samples from the original novel, to see how non-standard language is represented and which function it serves, and thereafter, comparing the same samples to the four Swedish translations in order to establish whether non-standard features are visible also in the translated novels and which strategies the translators have used in order to achieve this. It is concluded that non-standard language is applied in the source text and is represented on each possible linguistic level, including graphology, morphosyntax, and vocabulary. The main function of the non-standard language found in the source text samples was to place the characters in contrasting social positions. The target texts were found to also use features of non-standard language, but not to the same extent as the language used in the source text. The most common type of marker was, in all five of the texts, lexical items. It was also concluded that the most frequently used translation strategy used in the target texts was the use of various informal, colloquial features.

Sociolinguistics studies on language perception have shown that listeners form different attitudes toward speakers based on the speakers’ language varieties (Lukes and Wiley 1996, Lippi-Green 2012, Thompson, Craig, and Washington 2004). Just from hearing a voice, listeners form opinions, and these opinions are often informed by societal archetypes, as well as societal stereotypes. For example, Standard American English is generally perceived with more prestige and respect than non-standard varieties. Unfavorable perceptions of non-standard varieties can, and in many documented cases does, lead to inequitable and/or discriminatory situations (Baugh 2003). Non-standard and standard varieties are found in language use in music. The emergence of the Internet and music playing platforms, as well as more diverse musicians getting mainstream radio play and pay, leads to non-standard varieties reaching new listeners in a new format. In this thesis, I survey the types of music to which people listen, and their perceptions to speakers of Standard American English, Southern American English, and African American English to investigate how the music people listen to connects to their language attitudes. The results show that overall, listeners of any genre have more favorable attitudes toward Standard American English; and, that listeners of rap and/or hip-hop have more favorable attitudes than other groups of listeners toward the non-standard varieties.

This dissertation is an effort to contribute to the knowledge base concerning reading instruction for adolescent students who speak African American Vernacular English (AAVE), as well as their acquisition of Standard English (SE), by focusing on language structure during a modified approach to guided reading (MGR). Emphasis was placed on teaching the eight inflectional morphemes in SE, as well as other literacy strategies to AAVE speaking students. This intervention hypothesized that the teaching and learning of inflectional morphemes, in particular, would increase SE literacy acquisition. The intervention utilized formative experiment methodology and a quasi-experimental time series design. Data sources and collection took several forms: a) KTEA II - reading (letter and word recognition and reading comprehension) and written language (written expression) (Kaufman & Kaufman, 2004); b) field reflections; c) student surveys; and d) video-taped MGR lessons. Informal assessments such as the Ekwall/Shanker Reading Inventory, 4th Edition (Shanker & Ekwall, 2000) were used to guide instruction for MGR lessons. The findings supported the hypothesis that instruction of inflectional morphemes in SE has a positive impact on reading, writing, and overall acquisition of SE among AAVE speaking students.

The fear of able-bodied people pretending to be disabled was rampant in early modern England. Thieves were reputed to feign impairment in order to con charity out of well-meaning Christians. People told stories about these deceptive rogues in widely circulated prose pamphlets, sung about them in popular ballads, and even recorded their purported actions in laws passed to curb their counterfeiting. Feigned disability was especially prevalent--and potent--on the stage. Over thirty plays feature one or more able-bodied characters performing physical impairment. This dissertation examines the theatrical tradition of dissembling disability and argues that it played a central role in the cultural creation of disability as a category of identity. On the stage, playwrights teased out stereotypes about the non-standard body, specifically the popular notion that disability was always both deeply pitiful and, simultaneously, dangerously criminal and counterfeit. Fears of false disability, which surged during the English Reformation, demanded a policing of boundaries between able-bodied and disabled persons and inspired the first legal definition of disability in England. Rather than resolving the issue of physical difference, as the legal and religious authorities attempted to do, the theater revealed and reveled in the myriad complications of the non-standard body. The many plays that feature performances of dissembling disability use the trope to interrogate issues of epistemological proof, ask theological questions about charity and virtue, and, especially, explore the relationship between the body and identity. Fraudulent disability also had important literary uses as well; playwrights employed this handy theatrical instrument to construct character, to solve narrative problems, to draw attention to the manufactured theatricality of their dramas, and, often, to critique the practices of the commercial theater. Expanding beyond the medical perspectives offered by the few studies that have considered early modern disability, I argue that these performances emerge out of a complex network of literary, religious, and social concerns. For all that fraudulent disability may have been itself a type of fraud, trumped up by the state, the church, and the theater for their own diverse ends, it still wielded enormous influence in shaping notions of the non-standard body that are still current.

Forced alignment, a speech recognition software performing semi-automatic phonological transcription, constitutes a methodological revolution in the recent history of linguistic research. Its use is progressively becoming the norm in research fields such as sociophonetics, but its general performance and range of applications have been relatively understudied. This thesis investigates the performance and portability of the Forced Alignment and Vowel Extraction program suite (FAVE), an aligner that was trained on, and designed to study, American English. It was decided to test FAVE on four non-American varieties of English (Scottish, Irish, Australian and Indian English) and a control variety (General American). First, the performance of FAVE was compared with human annotators, and then it was tested on three potentially problematic variables: /p, t, k/ realization, rhotic consonants and /l/. Although FAVE was found to perform significantly differently from human annotators on identical datasets, further analysis revealed that the aligner performed quite similarly on the non-standard varieties and the control variety, suggesting that the difference in accuracy does not constitute a major drawback to its extended usage. The study discusses the implications of the findings in relation to doubts expressed about the usage of such technology and argues for a wider implementation of forced alignment tools such as FAVE in sociophonetic research.

Selon Berman, une caractéristique de la grande prose consiste à « capter et condenser tout l’espace polylangagier d’une communauté ». Certains écrivains, comme Twain, Faulkner, Steinbeck et Salinger, ont ainsi puisé dans l’ensemble des ressources de l’anglais, pour recréer des parlers vernaculaires ou des idiolectes dits « non standard ». Cette stratégie stylistique, qui engage l’auteur idéologiquement et politiquement, passe souvent mal l’épreuve de la traduction en français. La traduction de ces « écritures-déviances » pose des problèmes spécifiques tout en étant paradigmatique de la manière dont le traducteur s’inscrit dans le texte traduit : ce type de stylisation discursive offre donc une perspective privilégiée pourétudier l’action du traducteur ainsi que les stratégies qu’il met en oeuvre pour véhiculer, dans le texte traduit, le projet sthético-idéologique de l’original. Notre étude s’ouvre sur l’analyse de la nature sociolinguistique de l’anglais non standard, avant d’examiner son emploi en littérature, afin de comprendre le rapport de « tension et d’intégration » qui lie les sociolectes littéraires à la réalité linguistique dont ils sont issus. Nous explorons ensuite les mécanismesqui orientent le travail du traducteur et son traitement des écritures non standard à travers la tradition théorique et pratique de la traduction littéraire, avant d’analyser un corpus de traductions. En nous appuyant sur l’éclairage théorique de la sociologie bourdieusienne et le système analytique des « tendances déformantes » (Berman), nous analysons les stratégies de« ré-énonciation » (Folkart) adoptées par différents traducteurs et les « effets de lecture » qui en découlent
For Antoine Berman, a major characteristic of great prose is its ability to “span the whole linguistic range of a community”. Some writers, such as Twain, Faulkner, Steinbeck and Salinger, have thus drawn on all the resources of the English language in order to recreate vernacular discourse and/or nonstandard idiolects. This stylistic strategy, which expresses theauthor’s particular ideological and political attitudes, is often lost when translated into French. Translating these “deviant” forms of writing poses specific problems while being paradigmatic of the way in which the translator is embedded in the translated text : nonstandard discursive patterns therefore provide a privileged viewpoint from which to study the translator’s action as well as the strategies he uses to transfer the original’s ideological and aesthetical dimensions to the translated text. Our study begins with a sociolinguistic analysis of nonstandard English, before examining its use in literature, in order to understand the dual dialectic of “mediation and emulation” that links literary sociolects to linguistic reality. Wethen explore the practical and theoretical tradition of literary translation to understand what factors affect the translator’s work and his/her approach to nonstandard writing. Finally, we analyse a corpus of translations: using Bourdieu’s sociological theory and Berman’s “systems of deformation” analytical system, we examine the “re-enunciation” (Folkart) strategiesadopted by various translators and the potential readings that result

Durant la guerre de Sécession (1861-1865), des milliers de soldats, de chaque côté du front, prirent leur plume afin de s'enquérir de leur famille et de donner des nouvelles du front. Généralement peu lettrés, la plupart de ces soldats ne maîtrisaient que très partiellement les codes de l'écrit. Le corpus sur lequel se base la présente recherche doctorale se compose de 366 lettres (soit environ 170 000 mots) rédigées par 80 soldats de première et deuxième classes originaires de Virginie. L'orthographe idiosyncratique et approximative de leurs écrits ainsi que les nombreuses variations morphosyntaxiques non standard permettent de mieux saisir ce que pouvait être le vernaculaire des locuteurs blancs issus des couches les plus basses de la société virginienne durant la première moitié du XIXe siècle.Selon Guy Bailey (1997), certaines caractéristiques du vernaculaire du Sud des Etats-Unis (Southern American English) seraient apparues après la guerre de Sécession et seraient le fruit d'une réaction identitaire face à la domination du Nord et à l'humiliation causée par la défaite. Les variations non standard répertoriées dans le Virginia Civil War Corpus nous invitent à nuancer cette assertion. Malgré une orthographe phonétique et l'emploi de nombreuses variations morphosyntaxiques et lexicales non standard, leurs écrits révèlent la tension constante entre le registre paritaire et disparitaire. Cette perpétuelle oscillation est-elle le fruit d'un conflit interne entre différents modèles linguistiques ou est-elle, au contraire, le signe d'opérations énonciatives spécifiques ?
Throughout the Civil War (1861-1865), thousands of low ranking soldiers on both sides of the conflict took up their pens to inquire after their families and give news from the front. Usually semiliterate, most of these soldiers were far from mastering written conventions. The 170,000-word corpus, on which this thesis is based, is composed of 366 letters written by 80 privates, corporals and sergeants from Virginia. Their idiosyncratic and ingenuous spellings as well as their use of non-standard morphosyntactic variations offer a great opportunity to gain further insight into the vernacular spoken by white lower-class people in Virginia around the middle of the 19th century.According to Guy Bailey (1997), certain specificities of the Southern American Vernacular English (SAVE) appeared after the Civil War, as a reaction against Northern domination and the humiliation caused by the defeat. The non standard variations found in the Virginia Civil War Corpus tend to question this hypothesis and reveal that most of the features, that are today associated with SAVE, were already present in low ranking soldiers' writings.Despite the phonetic spelling and the use of non-standard grammatical and lexical forms, the letters reveal that the soldiers were fully aware that their vernacular speech was not in line with academic conventions. We thus observe a constant tension between the academic prescriptive norm and non-standard variations. We may wonder if this constant oscillation is only triggered by an internal conflict between different linguistic models or if, on the contrary, the presence of these dialectal variations must be understood as signs of specific enunciative operations

In this dissertation we examine the sphere of the English verbs of speaking (VoS) with 2 components: the manner of speaking component (MoSC) and the component of non-standard speech (CoNS), and their translations from English into Russian, this being the first study to compare the two languages regarding these aspects. In our attempt to fill this gap, we have examined in what way translators transform English VoS with the MoSC and CoNS like mumble, lisp or stammer into Russian. The results of the analyses of the translations have indicated that the solutions chosen by translators showed a dependence between the MoSC, the CoNS and the type of equivalence (Kade 1968) used. We also arrived at the conclusion that translating from English Russian employs a larger number of MoS verb types than English and that information encoded in the English MoS verbs is sometimes enlarged by the Russian translators, that adds an aspectual nuance regarding the original verb. There are several fields where the results of our study can be applied: practical lexicography, computational linguistics, pragmatics, translating and interpreting, teaching and learning English and Russian as foreign languages as well as teaching and learning translation.
En aquesta tesi s’analitza l’àmbit dels verbs de parla anglesos (VoS) amb 2 components: el component de manera de parlar (MoSC) i el component de parla no estàndard (CoNS), i les seves traduccions de l’anglès al rus; és el primer estudi que compara els dos idiomes pel que fa a aquests aspectes. En el nostre intent de cobrir aquest buit, hem examinat de quina manera els traductors transformen, en pasar-lo al rus, el sistema anglès de verbs de parla amb MoSC i CoNS com ara mumble, lisp o stammer. Els resultats de les anàlisis de les traduccions han indicat que les solucions escollides pels traductors mostraven una dependència entre el MoSC, el CoNS i el tipus d'equivalència utilitzada (Kade 1968). També vam arribar a la conclusió que en el cas dels verbs d’interès el significat pragmàtic de les mostres podria restablir el significat semàntic de les traduccions. Hi ha diversos camps on es poden aplicar els resultats d’aquest estudi: lexicografia pràctica, lingüística computacional, pragmàtica, traducció i interpretació, ensenyament i aprenentatge d’anglès i rus com a llengües estrangeres, així com ensenyament i aprenentatge de la traducció.

This study examines the attitudes of adolescent Swedes towards speakers of British and Middle Eastern varieties of English. Due to the ongoing wars in the Middle East and elsewhere, and thus the stream of refugees seeking sanctuary in Sweden and other European countries, many children from diverse backgrounds have been and will be enrolled in Swedish schools. Considering their right to democratic, humane and inclusive education, it is of importance to identify and oppose possible prejudice and preconceptions towards foreign languages, cultures and religions at an early state. This study aims towards this goal. The study, carried out among Swedish teenagers, is based on a matched-guise test in combination with an Osgood scale. The pre-recorded speakers were from Iran, Syria, and Britain.       The results of the study prove that there were preconceptions regarding Middle Eastern varieties of English, yet they can be both positive and negative. It is evident that the majority of the informants perceived the Middle Eastern speakers of English negatively with regard to traits that may be related to education, economy and intelligence, yet they rated the same speakers positively with regard to traits that may be correlated to emotional and social capacity. Interestingly enough, the study also provides evidence to suggest that British speakers of English are perceived favourably with regard to traits that may be related to education, economy and intelligence, yet negatively with regard to traits that may be correlated to emotional and social capacity. Overall, the study mainly provided results that confirm findings of previous research within the field.

This paper evaluates whether students’ perceptions of Appalachian English improve through a method of instruction that uses dialect literature in the classroom. Most existing methods of instruction tend to portray dialects as wrong, incorrect, or in some way less rule-governed than Standardized English, despite the numerous studies that have demonstrated otherwise (e.g., Labov 1969, Wolfram 1986). The data from this study derives from two groups of students enrolled in introductory composition and communication at the University of Kentucky. Each group is given a pre-test to determine attitudes toward Appalachian English and Standardized English. An experimental group is then exposed to a method that incorporates texts that use Appalachian English features, while no specific dialect literature is included in the control group. After the conclusion of the lessons, students in both groups complete a post-test used to analyze whether their perceptions of Appalachian English changed throughout the study. The experimental method results in significant increases in several of the attitude measures for Appalachian English, while the students that did not receive this method of instruction experienced no increase for the linguistic variety. These results demonstrate that this method has potential for reducing negative perceptions towards speakers of non-standard dialects.

The aim of this study was to identify the strategies used to render the literary dialect in A State of Independence into the Swedish translation. In order to systematically study the translation solutions, a number of ‘coupled pairs’ consisting of source text ‘problems’ and target text ‘solutions’ were extracted from the original text and the translation. The ‘coupled pairs’ were then analysed in order to detect regularities in the translation solutions. The study showed that the major strategy used by the translator was the use of ‘eye-dialect’, i.e. non-standard spellings that simulate non-standard speech. Moreover, some passages in the translation had been standardised, whereas eye-dialectal spellings were found in other passages where the original did not contain any non-standard features. Finally, a comparative count of dialectally marked utterances in both texts was made. The count showed that the dialectal markers were in the majority in the translation, which might indicate that the translator has tried to compensate for the lack of equivalent target language features.

Abstract Assessing academic writing: L1 English content professors’ accommodation to non-standard rhetorical organization in L2 student writing Margaret Levey It is estimated that second language (L2) speakers of English in the world now outnumber first language (L1) English speakers more than 3 to 1. This shift in balance necessitates a re-examination of the notion of Standard English as L2 speakers develop regional and functional variations of English. In academic writing, Standard English is based not just on discrete elements of the language, but also on culturally determined rhetorical organization, which L2 scholars are expected to master to succeed in academia. Research suggests that in English academic publishing, the insistence on this culturally-defined rhetorical organization results in the unintentional silencing of the voices of L2 scholars. Yet whether the same insistence exists for university class assignments has been under investigated. Studies on the differences in the rhetorical organization of student-written compositions in languages other than English have not considered reader response. Conversely, studies exploring reader response to L2 writing have focussed on sentence-level errors rather than on rhetorical organization. Using think-aloud protocols to access the thought processes of L1 content professors as they assess L2 student writing presented in both standard and non-standard rhetorical organization, this study employs a framework of critical discourse analysis to investigate whether L1 professors at a large Canadian university with a significant international student body accommodate to non-standard rhetorical organization in L2 student writing.

This study is a descriptive analysis of the occurrence of the sociolinguistic variables of pronunciation associated with all forms of ‘there’ and Non-Standard There-tag (NST-tag) in Bathurst English. Participants were interviewed and the occurrences of ‘there’ were obtained through the use of sociolinguistic interviews with 15 speakers. The incidences of ‘there’ were sorted based on grammatical category and pronunciation and were subsequently analyzed based on age and gender. The results indicate that older speakers use non-standard pronunciations of ‘there’ more than younger speakers and they also use NST-tag more than younger speakers. Younger speakers mostly use standard pronunciations of ‘there’ and use NST-tag very little. This may indicate age and gender grading or a change in progress in that vernacular is giving way to more standard speech in this community.

This thesis is about certain varieties of isiXhosa and their apparent influence on English and vice versa. IsiXhosa is a language mainly spoken in the Eastern and Western Cape Provinces of the Republic of South Africa. The study concentrates on certain varieties of isiXhosa that are spoken in the Eastern Cape Province. These varieties are isiBhaca, isiHlubi, isiMpondo, isiThembu and isiGcaleka. IsiGcaleka happens to be the standard variety. A map is provided to illustrate where these varieties are spoken. The study looks at the learners’ texts which are written in isiXhosa and English. The learners who wrote these texts are in Grades 8 and 9 from selected schools in the areas of Mzimkhulu, Matatiele, Mbizana, Ngcobo and Butterworth. It is worth mentioning that Mzimkhulu has since been moved from the Eastern Cape to KwaZulu/Natal. The learners’ texts are analyzed and comments are provided for each analysis. The study also looks at how educators in selected schools relate with their learners when teaching both isiXhosa and English. Observations are made from the relationship between the educators and learners when the learners are taught isiXhosa and English. The study also looks at the debate between standard and non-standard variety. Based on the discussion of both the standard variety and non-standard variety it is the view of the researcher that this notion of “standard” and “non-standard” needs to be challenged on all fronts. This is so because standardization occurs as a result of historical coincidence. The study further looks at the Language and Planning issues in the Republic of South Africa. It is important to note that language is the key to the heart of any nation and therefore whatever that is discussed about language should be sensitive to the people speaking that language.The study concludes with the fact that there is a need to train educators especially those who are going to teach African Languages. There is also a need to undertake studies on learners’ needs so that those who design the school curricula must do so knowing what is relevant to the learners in general.
African Languages
D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)

This study discusses the evolutionist approach to African history as an action plan for challenging the hegemony of English in university education and in the teaching and writing of literature in post-independence Africa. The researcher selected Zimbabwe’s university education and literary practice as the microcosm case studies whilst Africa’s university education and literary practice in general, were used as macrocosmic case studies for the study. Some two universities: the Midlands State University and the Great Zimbabwe State University and some six academic departments from the two universities were on target. The researcher used questionnaires to access data from university students and lecturers and he used interviews to gather data from university departmental Chairpersons, scholars, fiction writers and stakeholders in organizations that deal with language growth and development in Zimbabwe. Data from questionnaires was analysed on the basis of numerical scores and percentage of responses. By virtue of its not being easily quantified, data from interviews was presented through capturing what each of the thirteen key informants said and was then analysed on the basis of the hegemonic theory that is proposed in this study. The research findings were discussed using: the evolutionist approach to the history of Africa; data from document analysis; information gathered through the use of the participant and observer technique and using examples from what happened and/or is still happening in the different African countries. The study established that the approaches which have so far been used to challenge the hegemony of English in post-independence Africa are not effective. The approaches are six in total. They are the essentialist, the assimilationist, the developmentalist, the code-switch, the multilingualist and the syncretic. They are ineffective since they are used in a wrong era: That era, is the era of Neocolonialism (Americanization of the world). Therefore, the researcher has recommended the use of the evolutionist approach to African history as a strategy for challenging the hegemony in question. The approach lobbies that, for Africa to successfully challenge that hegemony, she should first of all move her history from the era of Neocolonialism as she enters the era of Nationalism.
African Languages
(D.Litt. et Phil. (African Languages))