Browsing by Author "St John-Ward, Maureen Inge."

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Enhancing second language learning : exploring a visual approach to working with the bedroom culture of pre-adolescent girls.
(2007) St John-Ward, Maureen Inge.; Mitchell, Claudia Arlene.; Stuart, Jean.
This research project explored how modern media and the theme of Bedroom Culture could be used to enhance second language learning of preadolescent girls. Most of the girls who participated in this project are first language English speakers. Therefore it is a challenge for them to learn isiZulu. Thus, to kindle an interest an obvious entry point to working with these pre-adolescent girls in a participatory way in terms of language learning, was to capitalize on their interest and expertise. The theme ‘My Bedroom’ was used because girls spend much of their out-of-school time in their bedroom and this is considered a critical interest space for them. This approach focused on using photographs taken by the girls themselves, on digital cameras, of various aspects and spaces in their bedroom. Thereafter a Power Point presentation was created by each girl, using these photographs. The presentations were then carried out by the girls in front of the class and the teacher. Making use of modern technologies and media, and what is familiar to them allowed the girls to work with different modes from the purely written/verbal linguistic mode which has dominated language learning and teaching for some time. These modes of meaning included the visual, audio and gestural. Incorporated into the research were the Multimodal approach together with the idea of Multiliteracies. These Multiliteracies include the understanding and control of meaning-making forms, which are becoming increasingly important in the communications environment, and which lead to a new direction in language learning during the second language lessons. The approach of this work builds on the popular Communicative/Task-Based Approach in language learning. This research showed that allowing the girls to use photographs of their bedrooms, empowered them to take ownership of their project, enabling them to confidently carry out the presentation using modern technology with which they are familiar as well as, using a subject with which they are familiar. At the same time they were able to extend their own knowledge to learn isiZulu. It also revealed much about their Bedroom Culture, Girlhood Studies, Children as Cultural Producers and Children and Visual Studies.
Exploring digital storytelling : towards HIV and AIDS knowledge production in an affluent girl's school.
(2014) St John-Ward, Maureen Inge.; Mitchell, Claudia Arlene.; Stuart, Jean.
This research project is a qualitative study that explores the use of the participatory visual arts-based method of digital storytelling in the context of addressing HIV and AIDS in a secondary school classroom in an independent school in South Africa. The study is located within the research area of how HIV and AIDS are understood in an affluent school in South Africa in the context of youth-as-knowledge-producers. It is concerned with Elite Studies since affluent schools are an understudied research site in South Africa. In this media-making project I build on the key concept of convergence within a participatory cultures framework, and multimodality as conceptualised by the New London Group (Kress, 2003; 2010). My participants, 70 Grade 10 girls from an independent girl’s school in KwaZulu- Natal, produced a digital story about their understanding of HIV and AIDS. Of the 70 stories, 15 form the core study group and are analysed in depth. Analysis of the content of the digital stories takes into account the responses of the producers, the texts themselves, and the responses of the audiences who viewed them. This analytical approach draws on the conceptual work of Fiske (1987), Stuart (2006) and Fairclough (1995) in recognising the interrelatedness of the story texts, and discourse and sociocultural practices, and invites an analysis of the multimodal nature of the girls’ digital stories. The project provides insight into how adolescent girls in an affluent school understand HIV and AIDS, and offers a deeper understanding of this work in the context of Elite Studies as a sociological phenomenon. This work contributes to expanding the idea of youth-as-knowledge-producers in the context of sexuality and HIV and AIDS in South African schools. The outcomes of the project contribute to addressing the application of a multimodal analysis to work with digital stories to help fill the research gap identified by Jewitt (2014b) and others. I conclude that it is critical that more work be carried out in South African independent schools, particularly given the misinformation that is currently circulating about HIV and AIDS, but also in recognition of the keen interest of the participants in this study to learn more.