Browsing by Author "Iipinge, Kristof"

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    Consequences of ideology and policy in the English second language classroom: The case of Oshiwambo-speaking students in Namibia
    (University of the Western Cape, 2018) Iipinge, Kristof; Dyers, Charlyn; Banda, Felix
    At independence, Namibia chose English as its official language and therefore its language of learning and teaching (LOLT). This decision has been well supported and therefore there has been an expectation among Namibians that learning English as early as possible is important because it will open many doors to the future (Harris, 2011). However, since the introduction of English as LOLT, government documents and other relevant literature have revealed poor performance of learners and falling standards of teaching (Iipinge, 2013). Despite this revelation, no study has been done in Namibia to investigate the effects of the current Language in Education Policy (LEP) on the teaching and learning of different school subjects. Therefore, this study focuses on critical questions regarding the effects of the current Namibian LEP on the teaching and learning of English Second Language (ESL) in Northern Namibia, with a special focus on one of the most demanding skills in second language learning: essay writing. Besides this, the study looks at the writing problems of learners and the intervention strategies that teachers are using to help learners overcome or reduce writing problems.
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    Language ideology, policy and classroom practices in Oshiwambo speaking areas, Northern Namibia
    (University of Western Cape, 2020) Iipinge, Kristof; Banda, Felix
    The study problematized language ideologies and policy to explore the efficacy of using English as the Language of Learning and Teaching (LOLT) among Oshiwambo speaking learners in the Omusati region of Northern Namibia. Focus group interviews with ESL teachers, interviews with the English Head of Departments (HODs), classroom observations and informal chats with the grade 12 learners were carried out at six secondary schools. The study finds that students struggle to partake in meaningful classroom interaction and to comprehend instruction and content in English. Although students may express themselves better in Oshiwambo, they are not allowed. Some ESL teachers would use Oshiwambo to maintain order in class, but avoid using Oshiwambo to help struggling learners believing this would negatively impact learners� English proficiency. Some ESL teachers were also found to blame ESL content subject teachers for learners� poor English proficiency, as they used Oshiwambo in class to teach and explain content. We conclude that ESL classroom practice is teacher-centred by default, and students are muted as they find themselves with no voice to express themselves efficiently and efficaciously, and deaf to classroom content delivered in an unfamiliar language, English.
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    Learners’ perceptions of english essay writing problems in northern Namibia: towards Oshiwambo-English translanguaging discourse in english classrooms
    (Routledge, 2025) Banda, Felix; Iipinge, Kristof
    Literature shows that Namibian learners encounter several challenges when writing essays in English. Hence, several studies have been carried out from the teachers’ perspective to identify problems that learners encounter when writing in English. However, there are few studies that were done to explore learners’ perceptions of their writing problems. Consequently, this article is aimed at exploring learners’ perceptions of challenges in writing in English and the strategies to overcome them. In addition, the article examines prospects for translanguaging as pedagogical discourse in multilingual contexts of northern Namibia. In this regard, structured, one-on-one interviews were conducted with 21 Oshiwambo-speaking learners from seven public schools in the Omusati region. The findings suggest that while some learners were concerned about using Oshiwambo to teach forms of writing in English, the overriding finding was that Oshiwambo should be used more than is currently the case. The article concludes with a discussion of the pedagogic implications of Oshiwambo-English translanguaging discourse, the strategic grouping of learners, peer learning, collaboration and teacher mentoring, for the transformation of the classroom into an interactive space for fluid and creative multilingual resource use in task orientation, topic brainstorming, essay drafting, proofreading and editing.