South African black teachers/ learners attitude towards Standard English

Abstract

This study grew out of concern over the declining standard of English among the South African Black teachers and students. This research project is also prompted by the emergence and development of English, which in pronunciation and linguistic structures differs from the standard form which is institutionalized and supposed to be taught in schools. This abstract overviews the main features of all the four chapters, underlining the links between them. Needless to say, much of the inherent richness and contributions in each chapter will be brief in order to meet the demand of a concise and integrative approach. The author will highlight the major different features in Educated South African Black English (ESABE) and British Standard English (BSE) as well as the attitudes held by these educated Blacks towards the two varieties. The first chapter identifies the problem which led to this research. This is followed by a section which provides the background to the identified problem. The second chapter, deals with literature review. In this section the researcher gives general background to the research problem. The project describes and synthesizes the major studies related to the dissertation topic.