The comprehension by factory workers of English technical terms in Ministry of Employment and Labour Radio Broadcasts in Lesotho

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: With the advent of the information age, government ministries in Lesotho, as well as nongovernmentalagencies, are trying to gain publicity in terms of services they offer to thegeneral public. The Ministry of Employment and Labour (MEL), for example, resorted tousing radio programmes in order to inform the public about the services it offers. These rangefrom career guidance and counselling, pre- and post-employment advice, information aboutoccupational health and safety and HIV/AIDS, providing facts about what type of vacanciesare available locally and internationally, to instilling the spirit of dialogue among relevantstakeholders in matters related to labour, employers and employees. During various weeklyradio presentations, presented in Sesotho, several departments are able to go on-air andpresent services that their departments offer to the general public and what the public can doin the event they are given a disservice by the concerned department. In the process of doingso, many technical terms are used. These often take the form of code switches into English,translations from English into Sesotho and borrowings from English. The purpose of thisthesis is to examine whether the use of code switching, translation and borrowing makes itpossible for factory workers in Lesotho to understand the message that is being delivered tothem in a clear and unmistakable manner that will influence a change of behaviour on the partof factory workers. In order to ascertain the level of comprehension of technical terms,participants completed a questionnaire in which they gave their understanding of varioustechnical terms selected from transcribed MEL radio broadcasts. The findings of this studyshow that the use of code switching, translation and borrowing from English limit theunderstanding of what is being communicated, making the radio broadcasts less effective indisseminating information on matters related to HIV/AIDS, the plight of factory workersaccording to the ratified conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO), legalterms related to contracts of employment, their commencement and termination, conditionsof work, the level of the unemployed versus the employed, skills needed to venture into thecountry's labour market and occupational health and safety guidelines as reflected in theLabour Code of Lesotho.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University