scholarly journals Lexical development of noun and predicate comprehension and production in isiZulu

Author(s):  
Ramona Kunene Nicolas ◽  
Saaliha Ahmed

This study seeks to investigate the development of noun and predicate comprehension and production in isiZulu-speaking children between the ages of 25 and 36 months. It compares lexical comprehension and production in isiZulu, using an Italian developed and validated vocabulary assessment tool: The Picture Naming Game (PiNG) developed by Bello, Giannantoni, Pettenati, Stefanini and Caselli (2012). The PiNG tool includes four subtests, one each for subnoun comprehension (NC), noun production (NP), predicate comprehension (PC), and predicate production (PP). Children are shown these lexical items and then asked to show comprehension and produce certain lexical items. After adaptation into the South African context, the adapted version of PiNG was used to directly assess the lexical development of isiZulu with the three main objectives to (1) test the efficiency of the adaptation of a vocabulary tool to measure isiZulu comprehension and production development, (2) test previous findings done in many cross-linguistic comparisons that have found that both comprehension and production performance increase with age for a lesser-studied language, and (3) present our findings around the comprehension and production of the linguistic categories of nouns and predicates. An analysis of the results reported in this study show an age effect throughout the entire sample. Across all the age groups, the comprehension of the noun and predicate subtests was better performed than the production of noun and predicate subtests. With regard to lexical items, the responses of children showed an influence of various factors, including the late acquisition of items, possible problems with stimuli presented to them, and the possible input received by the children from their home environment.

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 218-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shadrack Katuu

Purpose The implementation of enterprise content management (ECM) software applications has been a subject of extensive discussion. Although a number of ECM scholars have provided guidance on ECM implementation, there is a gap in how to assess benefits accruing from the implementation. One of the approaches of assessment is the use of maturity models. This paper aims to examine the utility of other ECM maturity model (ECM3) as an assessment tool. Design/methodology/approach The study was undertaken based on two related research questions, the first explored ECM3 assessment within a South African context and the second explored the utility of other maturity models for ECM implementation and lessons learnt to improve ECM3. Findings The results show that all the South African institutions assessed using ECM3 had a low level of maturity and there are a number of maturity models comparable to ECM3, and the global survey provides the closest parallel to the survey conducted in South Africa. Originality/value The study offers a unique discussion on the possible utility of ECM3 as a maturity model for assessing ECM implementation. This was done by comparing it with maturity models developed or used by records professionals and through assessing the results of two surveys, one conducted amongst South African institutions and another conducted by the Real Story Group.


1996 ◽  
Vol 78 (3) ◽  
pp. 851-859 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Smith ◽  
Angina Parekh

This study has two aims, to examine aspects of Kohlberg's claims of universality within a unique research context and to explore differences in moral development between black and white South Africans. 81 participants from four different age groups were administered Form A of Kohlberg's moral judgement interviews. Analysis supported the age-relatedness of Kohlberg's stages of moral development and provided some support for the notion that the stages should be evident in various cultures. A significant difference in moral development between black and white groups in the 19- to 28-yr. age group was found. Further, black and white groups had different concerns when justifying moral choices. The results were discussed in the context of the South African system, which until recently has been one of institutionalised racial division.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. e0261271
Author(s):  
Carin Hill ◽  
Leon T. de Beer ◽  
Renzo Bianchi

This study aimed to validate the recently developed Occupational Depression Inventory (ODI) in South Africa. A total of 327 employees (60% female) participated in the study. Bifactor exploratory structural equation modeling analysis indicated that the ODI can be considered essentially unidimensional. The ODI displayed strong scalability (e.g., scale-level H = 0.657). No monotonicity violation was detected. The reliability of the instrument, as indexed by Cronbach’s alpha, McDonald’s omega-total, Guttman’s λ2, and the Molenaar-Sijtsma statistic, was highly satisfactory. Measurement invariance was observed across age groups, sexes, and ethnicities, as well as between our sample and the ODI’s original validation sample. As expected, the ODI showed both a degree of convergent validity and a degree of discriminant validity vis-à-vis a measure of “cause-neutral” depressive symptoms. Moreover, the ODI manifested substantial associations, in the anticipated directions, with measures of work engagement, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction. Overall, the ODI exhibited excellent structural and psychometric properties within the South African context. Consistent with previous research, this study suggests that occupational health specialists can confidently rely on the ODI to investigate job-related distress.


Author(s):  
Belinda Bedell ◽  
Nicholas Challis ◽  
Charl Cilliers ◽  
Joy Cole ◽  
Wendy Corry ◽  
...  

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1and2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kingstone Mutsonziwa

This paper is a follow-up article based on the first article titled Customers speak for themselves: A case of Customer Satisfaction in the four Main South African Banks. Customer satisfaction within the banking industry is very important in the South African context. Although banks are trying their best to give their customers the best service, it is important to continuously measure customer satisfaction and identify service attributes that contribute to overall customer satisfaction for the banks. The data used in the analysis is based on a quantitative survey of 500 randomly selected customers in Pretoria, Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town were interviewed using a face to face methodology. The key drivers of overall customer satisfaction based on regression analysis for the different banks were helpfulness and innovativeness (ABSA), helpfulness, innovativeness of the bank, resolution of problems and investment advice (FNB), language usage and friendliness of service consultants (Nedbank), innovativeness of the bank, investment advice and use of language (Standard bank). These attributes were important to the overall customer satisfaction and need to be closely monitored by the management of these banks.


Author(s):  
Madipoane Masenya (Ngwan’A Mphahlele)

The history of the Christian Bible’s reception in South Africa was part of a package that included among others, the importation of European patriarchy, land grabbing and its impoverishment of Africans and challenged masculinities of African men. The preceding factors, together with the history of the marginalization of African women in bible and theology, and how the Bible was and continues to be used in our HIV and AIDS contexts, have only made the proverbial limping animal to climb a mountain. Wa re o e bona a e hlotša, wa e nametša thaba (while limping, you still let it climb a mountain) simply means that a certain situation is being aggravated (by an external factor). In this chapter the preceding Northern Sotho proverb is used as a hermeneutical lens to present an HIV and AIDS gender sensitive re-reading of the Vashti character in the Hebrew Bible within the South African context.


Author(s):  
Simon Roberts

Competition requires rivals. While this rivalry may come from imports, the development of local capabilities and productive capacity for rivalry, including by black industrialists in the South African context, means understanding the barriers to entry that local producers must overcome. Barriers to entry are also critical for the correct balance between the risks of over- and under-enforcement and are one reason why it has been recommended that countries should adopt different standards for competition evaluation. This chapter draws on studies of barriers to entry in different markets in South Africa to consider the nature and extent of these barriers and the implications for competition policy. It highlights issues related to regulatory barriers, consumer switching costs and branding, routes to market, and vertical integration, as well as economies of scale and access to finance.


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