The Future of South African e- learning is in Part Rooted in the Nation’s Troubled Past Dr John Senior

THE PROBLEM FOR STUDENTS: W.S.U. data

WHAT IS THE BIG PICTURE? There seems to be a rough parallel between the percentage of students being lost to the system, shown in the early pie chart, and the split among the student body in terms of English linguistic ability. Students % City 25 Township 39 Rural 36 Derg./ab 34 Further investigation needed

WSU DATA: Assessment questions correctly answered % English only no contextual assist. English with contextual assist. English and Xhosa contextual assist. MathsComp.MathsComp.MathsComp. 46.8%19.1%50.9%35.0%57.7%36.2%

WSU Student responses to survey Excel lent Very Helpful Somew hat helpful Not helpful Definitions in English answers18%36%39%7% Definitions in English text13%21%50%8% Translations of difficult words to Xhosa 22%28%35%15%

WSU Student survey yesno BB set up with Definitions in English433 BB set up with Definitions in Xhosa2722

WSU language data: XhosaMixed Engl. & Xhosa EnglishOther Language spoken at home 78%18%04%

UFS student data: Language spoken by students SesothoXhosaEnglishAfrikaansOther 40%17%1%7%35%

ASSESSMENT: FREE STATE A special method was used to translate parts of the assessments presented to students.

Free State Data: questions answered correctly Maths question Reading comp. Sesotho/ Xhosa question English question Sesotho31.5%36.6%34.3%23.4% Xhosa37.4%42.7%36.9%12.9% English control 29.1%36.1%

Point of Interest: The Sesotho translations used did not use the student corpus based translation methods used for the Xhosa translations. Interestingly, the English control group and Sesotho group have almost identical assessment scores. Whereas the Xhosa group at Free State score better on the translated texts.

Attempt at a solution By creating bi-lingual learning materials using student input and student language. This is where the interesting difference between the Sesotho respondents and Xhosa respondents is important.

The materials development process STUDY MATERIALS TRANSLATIONS CHECKED BY BILINGUAL STAFF STUDENTS IDENTIFY VOCAB /CONCEPTS TRANSLATE LANG STAFF MODIFY ACADEMIC. DEPT. MATERIALS

Student responses Xhosa: Yesno Do you think the module is useful to study with?880 Does having the information translated into home lang. help you understand?852 Does having sound with the module help you to understand?850 Does being able to click on a word and have the meaning in English help?950

Student responses Sesotho yesno Do you think the module is useful to study with? 937 Does having the information translated into Sesotho help you understand? 848 Does having sound with the module help you to understand? -- Does being able to click on a word and have the meaning in English help? 937

QUESTIONS?