Browsing by Author "Woldemariam, Haileleul Zeleke"
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Item A contrastive error analysis on the English essays of Oshiwambo speaking students: A case study(European Journal of Linguistics, 2024) Haimbodi, Kandishi-Omupika Ndeshipandula; Woldemariam, Haileleul ZelekePurpose: The aim of this study was to thoroughly analyze and evaluate the grammatical errors found in essays written by second-year students, with a particular focus on Oshiwambo-speaking students. By contrasting the errors made by these students in their English essay writing, the study employs contrastive error analysis to examine how the mother tongue, Oshiwambo, influences the acquisition of English as a second language. The research delves into various linguistic levels, including lexical, morphological, syntactic, and grammatical aspects, to identify patterns of interference from the students' native language. This detailed exploration not only highlights the specific challenges faced by Oshiwambo-speaking learners but also provides a nuanced understanding of how native language structures shape second language learning. The findings offer valuable insights into common areas of difficulty, which can be used to improve language teaching strategies and support more effective learning outcomes for bilingual students. Methodology: The research initially involved 317 students, employing a qualitative exploratory design. From this group, 54 Oshiwambo-speaking students from NUST's Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources Sciences were purposively selected to complete a standardized assessment script. The evaluations focused on three key objectives: word formation processes (prefixation, suffixation, insertion, reduplication, and verb structure), syntactic errors (noun and verb tense errors, subject-verb agreement), and grammatical competence (comparative analysis of Oshiwambo and English structures, syntactic differences, and sentence constructions). Findings: The evaluation of the assessment scripts yielded significant insights aligned with the research objectives. First, the analysis of word formation processes revealed a detailed understanding of prefixation, suffixation, insertion, reduplication, and verb structure, underscoring their fundamental role in linguistic construction. Secondly, the identification and analysis of syntactic errors provided critical findings on common mistakes, particularly in noun tense, verb tense, and subject-verb agreement, highlighting recurring patterns of error. Lastly, the examination of grammatical competence facilitated a comparative analysis between Oshiwambo and English language structures, revealing notable syntactic differences and variations in sentence construction. These findings not only emphasize key contrasts between the two languages but also reinforce the importance of targeted linguistic interventions for improved language acquisition and proficiency. Unique contribution to theory policy and practice: This study makes a distinctive contribution to linguistic theory, policy, and educational practice by deepening the understanding of word formation processes and their variations between languages. By analyzing prefixation, suffixation, insertion, and reduplication, it offers fresh insights into the mechanics of language structure, enriching theoretical perspectives on language formation and bilingualism. The identification of common syntactic errors, particularly in noun and verb tense, as well as subject-verb agreement provides crucial data that can shape language education policies. This knowledge equips policymakers with the ability to design targeted interventions that address specific linguistic challenges, particularly in multilingual contexts. Furthermore, the comparative analysis of Oshiwambo and English language structures offers practical guidance for educators, enabling them to tailor teaching strategies to address the unique syntactic challenges faced by bilingual learners. This research, therefore, serves as a vital resource for both theoretical development and the practical enhancement of language instruction and policy formulation.Item A functional stylistics interpretation of “Losing Out” by Mutaleni Nadimi(Voice of the Publisher, 2024) Salom, Susana Ndapewa; Woldemariam, Haileleul ZelekeThe paper presents a Functional Stylistics interpretation of a short story “Losing Out” written by a Namibian author Mutaleni Nadimi. The study followed a Systematic Functional Linguistic framework in which it recognises the three metafunctions of language: ideational metafunction, interpersonal metafunction and textual metafunction. These components were used to analyse how the writer used language to create meaning. The study used a content analysis method to gather findings, present and analyse findings. The findings show that Mutaleni has used elements of the three metafunctions of language as per the Functional Linguistic theory. The study concludes that there are many Namibian writers who emerged after independence and their work needs recognition. Literary and linguistic studies should be utilized to encourage contemporary and aspiring writers, as well as readers to understand local literary work.Item A Study of the level of endangerment of !Kung as spoken in Namibia.(Aisthesis Verlag, 2025) Woldemariam, Haileleul ZelekeThis study investigated the level of endangerment of !Kung (San language variant) as spoken in Corridor 17, Aranos and Amenuis localities of Namibia. The aim of the study was to protect, preserve and promote !Kung as an indigenous Namibian language and the cultural practices of its users. The study team conducted in-depth interviews, focus groups and distributed questionnaires and collected and later digitized 39 cultural expressions at the Namibian University of Science and Technology (NUST) library. The study team managed to study 41 households in !Kung speaking settlement areas only. The study concluded that !Kung is vulnerable, meaning although most children speak the language, it has been restricted to home domains. Outside these localities, there are noticeable indicators that !Kung is endangered, meaning children no longer learn the language as a ‘mother tongue’ at school level and the number of its users has dwindled. In order to revitalise !Kung and the culture, this study recommends seven strategies: 1) revitalizing !Kung and the culture through teaching !Kung folklore, 2) training !Kung speaking research assistants and teachers to utilise the existing San research outcomes, 3) contextualising and teaching !Kung historical narratives in the context of primary instruction, 4) introducing and promoting !Kung indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) and herbal life in !Kung classes; 5) organising !Kung story telling events at Chief Sofia Jakobs Primary School, 6) integrating !Kung folk art, folk songs, and traditional games in the !Kung instruction; 7) transforming !Kung endangered cultural practices into theatrical productions. In line with these linguistic and ethnographic strategies, the study also strongly recommends that the Namibian Ministry of Education introduce !Kung as a medium of primary instruction and as a subject in Corridor 17, 18, Amenues and Aranos localities of Namibia. The language can be accorded with the status of endangered Namibian language which can be preserved, protected, promoted and revitalized.Item An analysis of cognitive metaphors in contemporary Namibian Literature on the Nama-Herero Genocide of 1904-1908(Aisthesis Verlag, 2025) Hafeni, Linus. N.; Sabao, Collen; Woldemariam, Haileleul ZelekeThe study sought to undertake a cognitive analysis of the Nama-Herero genocide in Jaspar David Utley’s The Lie of the Land (2017) through the theoretical explications of cognitive metaphor. Through examining a Namibian fictional imaginary from a cognitive metaphor perspective (Sperber & Wilson, 1986), the themes and styles of the text were explored to understand how cognitive tools and processes influence linguistic choices in the construction of collective memory and collective experience. The study analyses the selected text using the cognitive stylistics framework. The selected novel was chosen because it presents the Nama-Herero genocide which took place from 1904 to1908 where over 65,000 Ovaherero and 10,000 Nama people died in what is known as the first genocide of the twentieth century. The study promotes new discourses on cognitive stylistics studies of Namibian literary works. The study is significant to researchers and readers as it is a useful reference tool for students, politicians and researchers conducting studies in the field of cognitive stylistics. Cognitive linguistics argues that a particular situation in a literary text can be interpreted in different ways. Observations from nuanced readings of the text indicated that theme in the selected text largely centres on the natives’ experiences of the genocide during this period of colonial occupation and encounter. This was achieved through the examination of literary creativity through the use of cognitive metaphor referring to genocidal trauma as well as to mental and physical oppression. It was concluded that reading, analysing and schematising genocidal fictional work can reflect a negative past for current world citizens to understand and adopt ways that can be used to prevent genocide.Item Assessment of doctor-patient communication at Adama Hospital Medical College: A symbolic interactionist perspective(Arsi Journal of Sciences and Innovations, 2021-10-31) Woldemariam, Haileleul Zeleke; Hundessa, Amare BayissaThis study followed a symbolic interactionist theoretical framework and positivist paradigm to assess doctor-patient communication at Adama Hospital Medical College (AHMC). Specifically, it assessed the communication competencies of medical doctors (with their own inpatients), investigated how inpatients interact with their doctors and evaluated the major barriers to doctor-patient medical communication. A descriptive, explanatory, and cross-sectional study designs were followed. Out of 66 medical doctors of AHMC, 36 were selected as they were more directly and highly involved with bed-ridden patients in six wards and the remaining 22 were much more occupied with teaching and the management of the hospital and were not readily available for this study. A total sample size of 180 (144 patients + 36 medical) respondents were included. An SPSS 16 was used for presenting quantitative data and emerging themes guided the qualitative data analysis. The study found out that all medical doctors practice greeting socially and treat patients with due respect. The qualitative data indicated that some doctors exhibited communicative competence failures, and some lacked the cultural competence needed to comprehend traditional expressions. Due to heavy workload, some medical doctors show lack of interest. However, almost all doctors confirmed that they show interest in the patient’s ideas about their health. Generally, doctors allocated little time with patients who were not in a very critical situation. Almost all medical doctors assumed that they devoted their time to understand the main health concerns of patients and gave much attention. Those patients from the rural communities were often interrupted because they did not talk about their illnesses openly. This implies that some medical doctors lacked a profound knowledge of cultural communicative competence. Patients used traditional and vague expressions. Factors such as avoiding medical jargons, recounting the next steps, giving much care and concern, apportioning sufficient time, and writing legibly have been considered as major elements influencing medical communication. In the three factors (showing interest, understanding, and giving attention), doctors have been evaluated good communicators. This current study identified communication barriers and their possible causes. Some of these barriers have been caused due to poor communication skills, lack of the proper sense of confidentiality, the misuse or inappropriate use of medical jargons, lack of spacious workspace, language difference, the patients’ low level of understanding sickness, patients’ low level of education, inappropriate use of cultural and vague expressions, poor time allocation, patients’ taking too much time due to unnecessary repetitions, the gap between substantive lab evidence versus oral evidence and lack of family partnership and responsibility. Among other suggestions, the study recommends that the hospital needs to design a communication strategy to address these communication gaps.Item Assessment of the linguistic vitality and the status of OluZemba as spoken in Namibia(European Journal of Linguistics, 2025) Woldemariam, Haileleul ZelekePurpose: The main purpose of this study was first to assess and then to determine the linguistic vitality and the status of OluZemba as spoken in the northern part of Namibia. Methods: The study followed a mixed methods approach and guided by the pragmatist paradigm. Above 167 elders in nine rural villages including Ombuumbu, Etunda, Otjovanatje, Etoto, Otjiyandjamwenyo, Okamboola, Etotoa West, Etoto East and Okadhandu were purposively selected following snowball and purposive sampling methods for in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and completing questionnaires. During the FGDs and interviews, OvaZemba elders chose Etanda and Oniyando (circumcision and its ritual) as previously the most cherished cultural practice of the tribe but currently the most endangered cultural value. Following UNESCO's Language Vitality and Endangerment Questionnaire (2003), and Ethnolinguistic Vitality Theory of Giles and et al (1977) and Linguistics Citizenship Theory of Stroud (2001). Findings: The study team investigated Etanda rituals and produced the first theatrical play in OluZemba. The study concluded that an observable language shift exists amongst this vibrant community which requires further investigation. The OvaZemba people use their language in an increasingly negligible and reduced number of communicative, business and administrative domains and might cease to pass it on to the next generation. Children are not taught in the language at schools, and many do not know how to read and write. Overall, the investigation has concluded that OluZemba is not a dialect of Otjiherero but a language of its own with its own orthography. It’s highly marginalised in the Namibian context. Unique Contribution to Theory, Policy, and Practice: This study will contribute to the implementation of language endangerment, marginalisation, and revitalisation theories. These theories guided the mainstream of the research. Presenting fresh data and evidence from the field, the study will contribute to the Nambian language planning and policy dialogue and so as to table endangered and marginalised languages as policy agenda. Practically, the research recommends OluZemba as a medium of instruction at the primary level. If government fund does now support OluZemba as the medium, Otjiherero should be the next closest language as the medium of primary education.Item Causes of the underachievement of Grade 12 learners of English: A case study of a rural school in the Oshikoto region, Namibia(Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST), 2016-12) Kamati, N.; Woldemariam, Haileleul ZelekeThis study assessed the causes of the underachievement of Grade 12 learners of English focusing on rural school in the Oshikoto region, Namibia. In January 2016, the Namibian (National) Senior Secondary Certificate Ordinary Level (NSSCOL) examination results were announced. The results were slightly decreased in the percentage of graded entries, from 93.9 % in 2014 to 92.9% in 2015. The survey showed that teachers lacked knowledge of subject methodology and knowledge of subject content. Classrooms were overcrowded, creating more challenges for the teachers to assist individual learners. Learners lacked self-motivation and confidence in the subject, as English was stigmatised as a foreign language which was regarded as hard to learn. The school lacked teaching and learning resources. Parental support was not practised as most parents were uneducated. It was recommended that there was a strong need for regular in-service training for teachers, English teaching and learning resources, for emphasising the importance of parental education and awareness sensitisation at all levels. The lower primary curriculum needed to address the second language problems faced by these learners and improve the ways of tackling language difficulties. This included rigid language usage as from primary level (in rural area schools) and, finally, the government needed to build more secondary schools with hostels to accommodate more learners, as this could solve the problem of overcrowding of classrooms.Item Comparing the exile and return memories of Namibian women in the Namibian autobiographies(Namibia Educational Reform Forum Journal, 2023-08) Emvula, Kaarina; Woldemariam, Haileleul ZelekeThis article compares the expressions used to recount the memories of women who lived in exile with those born and raised in exile from a predominantly cognitive stylistics image schema theory. The linguistic expressions compared were obtained from the four Namibian autobiographies namely Tshiwa Troudie Amulungu’s in Taming my elephant, Fousy Shinana-Kambombo’s Southwest Africa to Namibia, in My personal struggle, Valentina Nghiwete’s Valentina: The exile child and Lucia Engombe’s Child No. 95: My German African Odyssey. The autobiographies were examined by comparing how basic image schema such as SOURCE-PATH-GOAL, BALANCE, CONTAINER, and LINK can be used as a cognitive tool in dissecting the exile experience, understanding abstract linguistic expressions and meaning as well as explaining the impact of exile experiences on second generation refugees in a post-independent Namibia. The article concludes that the majority of linguistic phrases used in autobiographical narrations were found to be based on the four-image schema either at the concrete or at the abstract levels. Further, the article concludes that all the autobiographies examined have used figurative languages based on the various image schemas theory.Item The development of pragmatic competence (PC) through pragmatics stylistics (PS)(Namibia University of Science & Technology, Faculty of Human Sciences, 2015-06) Woldemariam, Haileleul ZelekeThe major objective of this research was to evaluate the relevance of pragmatics stylistics (PS) in the development of the pragmatic competence (PC) of students through teaching local poetry in English in a tertiary context. The paper, therefore, deals with a pragmatics stylistics model of teaching poetry interfacing the communicative language teaching (CLT) tasks so that an intriguing environment could be recreated in the ELT classroom for the students to develop their pragmatic competence. In this pragmatics stylistics model, pragmalinguistic features such as speech act verbs, deixis, modal verbs and hedging expressions were interlaced with the sociopragmatic features such as politeness and cooperativeness principles during the poetic conversation situation. Pragmatics stylistics model based interpretation of contexts and addressor and addressee relations in poetic texts were assumed to be transferable skills so that students could analyse other poems independently. The research was carried out on th basis of an experimental research design following a mixed research method. A total of 190 students (63.3%) were selected from the population of 300 students in various programs of the Department of English and Other Languages at Adama University, Ethiopia, through a systematic random sampling procedure. These students were again classified into experimental groups (95) and control groups (95). The students in the experimental group took a pragmatics stylistics module through five stylistics methods which included PS. However, the students in the comparison group took the same content with a traditional teaching method which was dominated by the lecture method. A summary of the total mean gain score out of 20 showed an interesting result. As the mean pre-testscore showed, both the control and experimental groups performed almost similarly in their pragmatics stylistics pre-test which was calculated out of 20. The experimental mean score for the pre-test, which was 11.01, was a little higher than the control mean score of 10.95. Similarly, the t-test showed that the p-value of the pre-test was 0.852, which was higher than 0.05. It also showed that the t-value of the pretest was 0.187, which was less than the t-critical value of 1.960. In both cases, it meant the result was not statistically significant. Therefore, there was no significance difference between the mean pre-test scores of the two groups. The t-test results for both pre- and post-tests for the pragmatics stylistics module showed that the t-value of the pragmatics stylistics post-test was 8.293. On the other hand, the table value of t-critical was 1.960 with 188 degree of freedom and at a significance level of 0.05. Because the t-value of 8.293 exceeded the t-critical value of 1.960 for the two-tailed test at 0.05 level of significance for 188 degree of freedom, the null hypothesis was rejected. Similarly, the t-test showed that the p-value of the post-test was 0.000, which was less than 0.05. The difference was statistically significant. Therefore, it was concluded that a pragmatics stylistics method of teaching poetry does contribute to the development of the pragmatic competence of students under EFL context. It was strongly recommended that the growth of the pragmatic competence (PC) of EFL learners could be extended through indigenous literature in English using a pragmatics stylistics approach.Item The development of pragmatic competence (PC) through pragmatics stylistics (PS)(Polytechnic of Namibia, Departments of Language and Communication, 2015-06) Woldemariam, Haileleul ZelekeThe major objective of this research was to evaluate the relevance of pragmatics stylistics (PS) in the development of the pragmatic competence (PC) of students through teaching local poetry in English in a tertiary context. The paper, therefore, deals with a pragmatics stylistics model of teaching poetry interfacing the communicative language teaching (CLT) tasks so that an intriguing environment could be recreated in the ELT classroom for the students to develop their pragmatic competence. In this pragmatics stylistics model, pragmalinguistic features such as speech act verbs, deixis, modal verbs and hedging expressions were interlaced with the sociopragmatic features such as politeness and cooperativeness principles during the poetic conversation situation. Pragmatics stylistics model based interpretation of contexts and addressor and addressee relations in poetic texts were assumed to be transferable skills so that students could analyse other poems independently. The research was carried out on the basis of an experimental research design following a mixed research method. A total of 190 students (63.3%) were selected from the population of 300 students in various programs of the Department of English and Other Languages at Adama University, Ethiopia, through a systematic random sampling procedure. These students were again classified into experimental groups (95) and control groups (95). The students in the experimental group took a pragmatics stylistics module through five stylistics methods which included PS. However, the students in the comparison group took the same content with a traditional teaching method which was dominated by the lecture method. A summary of the total mean gain score out of 20 showed an interesting result. As the mean pre-test score showed, both the control and experimental groups performed almost similarly in their pragmatics stylistics pre-test which was calculated out of 20. The experimental mean score for the pre-test, which was 11.01, was a little higher than the control mean score of 10.95. Similarly, the t-test showed that the p-value of the pre-test was 0.852, which was higher than 0.05. It also showed that the t-value of the pretest was 0.187, which was less than the t-critical value of 1.960. In both cases, it meant the result was not statistically significant. Therefore, there was no significance difference between the mean pre-test scores of the two groups. The t-test results for both pre- and post-tests for the pragmatics stylistics module showed that the t-value of the pragmatics stylistics post-test was 8.293. On the other hand, the table value of t-critical was 1.960 with 188 degree of freedom and at a significance level of 0.05. Because the t-value of 8.293 exceeded the t-critical value of 1.960 for the two-tailed test at 0.05 level of significance for 188 degree of freedom, the null hypothesis was rejected. Similarly, the t-test showed that the p-value of the post-test was 0.000, which was less than 0.05. The difference was statistically significant. Therefore, it was concluded that a pragmatics stylistics method of teaching poetry does contribute to the development of the pragmatic competence of students under EFL context. It was strongly recommended that the growth of the pragmatic competence (PC) of EFL learners could be extended through indigenous literature in English using a pragmatics stylistics approach.Item The English Language needs of business students at Adama Science and Technology University, Ethiopia(Nawa: journal of language and communication, 2015-06) Mognhode, Tadele; Woldemariam, Haileleul ZelekeEnglish plays an irreplaceable role in international businesses. According to the statistics, over 80% of international corporations use English as their working language (Zhang, 2007). It is now widely recognised that “…English has become the primary language for doing international business” (Estaban & Cañado, 2004, p.137). The purpose of this study was to investigate the English language needs of business students at Adama Science and Technology University. A survey method was employed for this study. To this end, questionnaires, interviews, teaching materials, evaluation checklists and model proficiency tests were designed based on the related literature reviewed. Then, the data gathered were analysed using mean scores and percentiles. Based on the results, findings were summarised in terms of the research questions. As the findings of this study pointed out, the target groups were not satisfied with the English courses being offered. There was a big gap between the English courses offered and the students’ needs. There were also gaps between what the target groups could do and the language necessities in the target situations. Similarly, it was noticed that the target groups had limitations in performing specific tasks in English. On the other hand, the results of the target situations language needs analyses indicated that business graduates were expected to acquire special English language skills for different purposes. In fact, it was confirmed that employers want their workers to be proficient in specific English language skills.Item Enhancing linguistic competence through a formalist stylistics approach(Polytechnic of Namibia, Departments of Language and Communication, 2015-12) Woldemariam, Haileleul ZelekeThe major purpose of this research was to find out the pedagogic relevance of formalist stylistics practices in teaching Ethiopian poetry in English in a tertiary context. Ethiopian poems chosen for this research were: Be’alu Girma’s “Crows” and Solomon Deresa’s “Shifting Gears”. The poems were taught with the objective of developing the linguistic competence of EFL students. The research was carried out on the basis of an experimental research design. A total of 190 students (63.3%) were selected from the population of 300 students in various programss of the Department of English and Other Languages at Adama University through a systematic random sampling procedure. These students were again randomly grouped into experimental groups (95) and control groups (95) randomly. The students in the experimental group studied the poems through five stylistics methods which included FS. Active learning methods were also integrated so that the students could vigorously dominate the learning and teaching process. However, the students in the comparison group studied the same poems with a traditional teaching method. Pre-prepared notes and lectures on themes, techniques and figures of speech were focused. The teacher (the researcher himself) often dominated the teaching and learning process. Each group was given five similar pre and five post-tests designed specifically for this research purpose. A summary of the total mean gain score showed an interesting result. It was found that the t-value of the formalist stylistics post-test was 12.992. On the other hand, the p-value of the test was .000 with 188 degree of freedom and at a significance level of 0.05. Because the p-value of .000 was less than 0.05 at two-tailed test for 188 degree of freedom, the null hypothesis was rejected. The students in the experimental group performed better and developed their linguistic competence due to the treatment compared to the students in the comparison group. Therefore, there is a significant link between the formalist stylistics teaching method and the improvement of the linguistic competence of EFL learners.Item An evaluation of the pragmatic competence of high school students of English in Ethiopia(Namibia University of Science & Technology, Faculty of Human Sciences, 2015-12) Shankule, Korie; Woldemariam, Haileleul ZelekeThis article presents an evaluation of the pragmatic competence of high school students in the English as a foreign language context in Ethiopia. Learners in an EFL scenario often find the area of language use difficult. Teachers are advised to explicitly teach the pragmatic features of language and make use of authentic models of language to help learners practice using appropriate language in social contexts. In spite of this, data about the pragmatic aspect of language and pragmatic-focused instruction are lacking in an EFL (Ethiopian) context. Textbooks and teachers are integral part of language teaching generally in an EFL setting where there are no opportunities to learn the language informally outside the classroom. The textbooks seldom provide adequate pragmatic information for students to successfully develop their pragmatic competence as the findings of this research indicated. Most of the metalanguage explanations are simple and inadequate as well. The research followed entirely a qualitative design except that some simple statistical calculations were used to compute the frequency, mean and percentage of the numerical data. The data were drawn from the content analysis of two student textbooks (grade 11 and 12), responses of four teachers teaching grades 9-12 and self-perceived competence and pragmatic awareness test results of 183 students. The findings of this study also presented the implications for teaching pragmatics to EFL learners, the development of pragmatic-focused materials, future research and well-designed teacher training. The results of this study also showed that teachers seldom use pragmatic instruction in classrooms, and mostly students have to spend time by themselves developing pragmatic competence without explicit instruction. Overall, the pragmatics instruction was immature and needed to be developed, and teachers needed professional training to be aware of how to teach pragmatics effectively. Although the learners’ self-perceived competence mean score was high, their multiple choice discourse completion test (MDCT) result was low; and this confirmed that self-perceived competence and the actual performance never matched. This is why according to Dewaele (2007) higher levels of self-perceived competence are linked to lower levels of communication which in fact has to be further investigated in the Ethiopian context.Item Expounding the Nama-Herero genocide of 1904-1908: A cognitive metaphor approach(Journal of the University of Namibia Language Centre, 2024) Hafeni, Linus; Sabao, Collen; Woldemariam, Haileleul ZelekeThis study examines four literary texts about the Nama-Herero genocide in Namibia through the application of the Cognitive Stylistics Theory as a framework for analysis. The texts, namely, Lauri Kubuitsile’s ‘The Scattering’ (2016), Jaspar D. Utley’s ‘Lie of the Land’ (2017), Rukee Tjingaete’s ‘The Weeping Graves of our Ancestors’ (2017) and Zirk van den Berg’s ‘Parts Unknown’ (2018),were chosen because they (re)present fictionalised historical accounts of the Nama-Herero genocide, which took place from 1904-1908, where over 65,000 Ovaherero and 10,000 Nama persons were killed in what is regarded as the first genocide of the twentieth century. The study promotes new insights into (re)imagining the genocidal trauma, depicted as collective cultural memory in Namibian literary works through the lenses of explications of cognitive stylistics. The study is significant in that it promotes new ways of reading, understanding and interpretating the historical experiences of the genocide. Cognitive Stylistics argues that any particular situation [in a literary text] can be interpreted in different ways. Interpretations from nuanced readings of the texts evince that themes in the texts largely centre on the inherited trauma of the natives’ experiences of the genocide during this period of colonial occupation and encounter, passed down generationally as collective historical memory. This was achieved through the examination of these literary imaginaries through the use of cognitive metaphor, genocidal trauma, and mental and physical oppression. It was concluded that reading, analysing and schematising genocidal fictional works can reflect new and insightful ways of understanding and appreciating historical memory and experiences of trauma.Item Gender questions in Wole Soyinka’s The Lion and The Jewel and The Trials of Brother Jero(Journal of Communication and Cultural Trends, 2022-05-31) Desdelia David, Ndapunikwa; Woldemariam, Haileleul ZelekeThis article questions how women are represented in Wole Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel and The Trials of Brother Jero, following a feminist stylistics theoretical framework. The plays were investigated keeping in view Mills (1995) three echelons of enquiry: lexis, syntax, and discourse. Soyinka’s plays are masterfully carved to expose the suppression of women by men. In these plays, female characters are represented through withering words and phrases, which presages their disapproval and also their voluptuous accessibility and attractiveness. Women are represented through a sexist and hidebound lingo. They are rendered as malevolent, deleterious, and calamitous, as they are only credited with transporting hitches to the lives of men. They are presented as creatures of the scrubland, ferocious, barbarous, unschooled, and stumpy. These deleterious attributes were given to them with a direct implication of their subordination by their male counterparts. Also, they are represented as receivers of actions, since men carry out most of the demanding tasks/actions in the plays in comparison to women. Following transitivity choices, this article concludes that men carry out actions and women are acted upon. They are given prosaic jobs such as homemakers, paltry traders, hawkers, child bearers, and caregivers to their husbands and children, whereas men are given more important roles such as schoolmasters and chiefs. Women are not given these arduous roles, as the patriarchy perceives that they are not capable of carrying out those roles because of their emotions and simple mindset. Finally, the article recommends further research with the aim of advancing and improving the representation of women in Nigerian drama.Item The impacts of pragmatic knowledge on the effectiveness of oral communication: English teachers of Adama science and technology university in focus(Green Publication, 2018-01) Tujuba, Diriba Eticha; Woldemariam, Haileleul ZelekeThe main purpose of this study was to explore the impacts of pragmatic knowledge on the effectiveness of oral communication. Both quantitative and qualitative methodology were employed in this study. The study was conducted in Adama Science and Technology University and the data were collected from 33 English language teachers. Purposive sampling was used to select the study sample. The data collection instruments used during the study were Multiple Choice Questionnaire, Discourse Completion Test, Interview and Communication Quiz. All the data collection instruments were developed after the necessary literature were reviewed. The data gathered through the Multiple Choices Questionnaire and Communication Quiz were analyzed based on percentages while the data collected through Discourse Completion Test and the Interviews were analyzed descriptively. The findings of the study revealed that, the majority of the English language teachers in Adama Science and Technology University have lower pragmatic competence. It was learned that the majority of the teachers have problems of communication. The collected data revealed that poor pragmatic competence has greatly affected the effectiveness of oral communication. Finally recommendations such as including pragmatics skills in language classes and giving short term training about application of pragmatics were forwarded based on the findings of the study.Item Improving Sociolinguistic Competence (SC) through Feminist Stylistics (FS)(Asian Journal of African Studies, 2018-02) Woldemariam, Haileleul ZelekeFeminist stylistics (FS), like any other stylistics practice, draws basic assumptions from linguistics. Yet unlike other traditional stylistics practices, FS opens its doors to ideology and extra-textual factors in the analysis of a text. Unlike the formalist stylistics, for example, it renders less importance to linguistic form and linguistic elegance. Drawing relevant linguistic tools like passivisation, transitivity, agency and fragmentation from functional stylistics, FS can be applied to analyse power structures. In line with these assumptions, the ultimate aim of this research was to study the significance of FS in enhancing the sociolinguistic competence (SC) of students through teaching local poetry in English in the Ethiopian higher education context. A feminist stylistics model of teaching poetry was integrated with communicative language teaching (CLT) tasks so that an intriguing environment was recreated in the classroom for the students to develop their sociolinguistic competence. This project was an integral part of five other stylistics research projects. It was carried out on the basis of an experimental research design following a mixed method research. A total of 190 students (63.3%) were selected from the population of 300 students in various programmes of the Department of English and Other Languages at Adama University, Ethiopia, through a systematic sampling procedure. These students were again classified into experimental groups (95) and control groups (95) following a systematic sampling method. The students in the experimental group took FS module through the stylistics course which included FS and other modules in stylistics. A summary of the total mean gain score out of 20 showed an interesting result. Both the control and experimental groups performed almost similarly in their feminist stylistics pre-test which was calculated out of 20%. The experimental mean score was 9.8842 and a little bigger than the control mean score of 7.2316. Consequently, the t-test result showed that the existence of a mean difference of 1.33684 was not statistically significant. Therefore, there was no statistically significant difference between the mean test scores of the two groups. On the other hand, the t-test results for both pre and post tests for the feminist stylistics module were also observed. The t-value of the feminist stylistics post-test was 8.651. And, the table value of t-critical was 1.96 with 188 degree of freedom and at a significance level of 0.05. Because the t-value of 8.651 exceeded the t-critical value of 1.96 for a two tailed test at 0.05 level of significance for 188 degree of freedom, the null hypothesis was rejected. Therefore, the feminist stylistic method of teaching indigenous poetry does contribute to the improvement of the sociolinguistic competence of students in the English as a foreign language (EFL) context.Item Interrogating the contemporary English language needs for the ICT industry in the Namibian context(BOHR International Journal of Smart Computing and Information Technology, 2023-04-06) Gawazah, Lazarus; Woldemariam, Haileleul ZelekeNew digital technology advances throughout the globe are principally responsible for the impetus behind the modern information and communications technology (ICT) industry’s requirement for English language skills. There is a steady increase in highly computerized new machinery, each with more complex, difficult -to-understand instruction manuals that demand a correspondingly high degree of linguistic proficiency. Thus, students studying computer science need access to subject-specific English for both immediate usage and long-term career development. Due to these constant changes and rapid advancements in the technology sector, it was essential to conduct research on the current needs of the ICT industry. It is essential for graduates and professionals in the ICT industry to be able to communicate fluently with teams working in the same field but located in different parts of the world. This can be in the form of written manuals or conversation. The purpose of this study was to interrogate the contemporary English language demands for the ICT industry and the necessary proficiency required of undergraduate ICT majors. The theoretical underpinning of this research was the Material Design Model proposed by Hutchinson and Waters (1). A mixed-methods research approach was used. The total number of participants that took part were 170 (N = 170), thus that is what the sample size was based on. Using convenience sampling, a sample size of 118 was drawn. The results indicated that ICT students often lacked skills in essay writing. The students’ lack of technical language skills seriously weakens the strength of their scientific argument. Students are recommended to attend subject-specific language courses in order to prepare for their present academic and future professional language demands. The study indicated that the existing curriculum for computer science students does not adequately prepare them for the kinds of work that would be available to them in the ICT sector. The study recommends utilizing education support professionals (ESP) professionals to teach English in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) courses, with a focus on using examples from specialized journals, magazines, and blog channels. The study concludes by suggesting that instructors of computer science language be incentivized to increase their usage of specialized scholarly terminology in their classrooms.Item An investigation of the pragmatic knowledge of year one students of the School of Humanities and Law at Adama Science And Technology University: A case study(Polytechnic of Namibia, Departments of Language and Communication, 2016-06) Hussen, Gobena Hasso; Woldemariam, Haileleul ZelekeThis research aimed to investigate the pragmatic competence of year one university students in the School of Humanities and Law at Adama Science and Technology University. Pragmatic competence requires being able to speak and behave appropriately, and being able to understand what others say and do according to the socio-cultural context in which they are used. The data were collected from 70 students learning in six departments in the School of Humanities and Law School. Three main instruments were used to produce these results: a discourse completion test, multiple choice discourse completion test and observation. The data gathered were interpreted using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The pragmatic competence level of these participants was found to be at a middle level. Generally, from a pragmatic competence viewpoins, first year students in the School of Humanities and Law are better at recognising what is given to them than produce the utterances practically in the case of speech acts, cooperative and politeness principles. The researcher recommends that students should have to practice a variety of activities in English to be pragmatically competent in daily communication.Item Language as an instrument of hegemony in selected Namibian plays written in English(2023-08) Absalom, Wilka; Woldemariam, Haileleul ZelekeReproducing hegemony and strengthening patriarchy, Namibian playwrights present women who are groomed to be good wives and mothers in some selected Namibian plays. Because of these cultural and societal expectations and practices, women assume reproductive roles and responsibilities without much remonstration. Men, on the other side, assume that women’s place is at home and that men’s place is outside home, which limits the participation of women outside home and men at home (Husselmann, 2016). Capitalizing on this simple argument and unlocking language as an instrument of hegemony, the main objective of this article is to answer few fundamental questions: Do Namibian playwrights practise derogatory language against Namibian women in the plays? Is language an instrument of hegemony and discrimination in Namibian plays? Where does this language hegemony originate? Theorizing and answering these basic questions, the article follows a feminist stylistics theoretical framework, an interpretivist paradigm, an explanatory design, and a qualitative research approach. Purposively, we selected two Namibian plays: Francis Sifiso Nyathi’s God of Women (2012) and Keamogetsi Joseph Molapong’s The Woman and the Ogre (2002). The key purpose of the article is to find out how Namibian playwrights use language to represent and characterise women. The article also argues that both Nyathi (1998) and Molapong (2002) used language to present women as inferior to men in their plays. Nyathi (2012) employed language persuasively to characterise women as victims of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse in the hands of their husbands within the Namibian marriage system and set ups. Similarly, we also argue that Molapong (2002) presented women characters negatively as dependent on their fathers. Molapong used language to portray women characters as beauty goddesses who are praised based on how beautiful they are, therefore, reducing and fragmenting their worth to appearances. Both playwrights used a wide range of linguistic devices such as metaphors and other figures of speech to characterise gender roles that are expected of women such as being domestic workers, providing sexual pleasures to their husbands as well as working in the fields to provide food for their families. In these plays, language is a strong instrument of economic hegemony. The article concludes that both Nyathi and Molapong largely practised language to characterise women negatively and Sara Mill’s Feminist Stylistic Theory (1995) is successful in unpacking these hidden assumptions, practices and hegemonies.