A genre-theoretic analysis of human rights texts in Xhosa

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis employs the theoretical framework of text construction advanced by Grabe andKaplan (1996) for the analysis of human rights magazine texts in isiXhosa. The theoryemployed in this study includes linguistic elements, which can be included in teachingmethodology for developing the learners' analytic skills in analyzing the discoursestructure of written texts. These kinds of analytic skills are strongly reflected inCurriculum 2005 for the learning area languages.The thesis employs a range of textlinguistic strategies for analyzing written genre texts onhuman and civil rights issues. It is argued that the incorporation of these strategies byteachers in the process of language teaching in Curriculum 2005 will enable the learnersto analyse texts successfully and to gain an awareness about how language is used intexts. For the purpose of analysis in this thesis, texts from the Bona magazine withcontents ranging on human and community or civil rights were collected. The thesisdemonstrates that text analysis involves to a large extent, an investigation of genericfactors such as the communicative purpose, the culture and the community in which thetext is produced.Following the discussion of the generic features of texts, a broad definition of the termtext is explored, and the textlinguistic construction and certain levels of analysis areidentified. In addition to this, the study demonstrates that analysis of the linguisticstructure of texts needs to incorporate the discussion of the parameters of theethnography of writing advanced by Grabe and Kaplan (1996). The ethnography of writingentails that a detailed analysis of texts should address the following questions: 'Whowrites what to whom, for what purpose, why, when and how?' The study explores theimplications and rationale for incorporating text analysis in language teaching andlearning. Lastly, the relationship between the theoretical underpinnings assumed in thisstudy, and the learning outcomes of Curriculum 2005 are explored.This study demonstrates that the theoretical framework of Grabe and Kaplan (1996) whichunderlies in the construction of written texts, will not only introduce the language learnerto an inclusive language pedagogy, but can be employed for effective text analysis ofisiXhosagenre texts on human rights in popular magazineslike Bona.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University