Speak Zulu with Us: Intermediate to Advanced

Sandra Sanneh - Yale University

Product at a glance

Product type	Language tutorial for post beginners
Language	Zulu
	Level: Adult Intermediate to Advanced
	Activities: Pronunciation exercises, dialogue repetition, grammar completion exercises
Media format	1 CD-ROM
Computer platforms	Windows 95+ Windows NT compatible with limitations on sound recording feature
Hardware requirements	Pentium Processor, 100 Mhz +
	RAM: 32 MB
	Hard disk: 16 MB
	CD-ROM 2x
	Sound Blaster-compatible sound card with microphone
	Video: 256 color SVGA, 640x480 screen or better
Supplemental software	QuickTime for PC or Mac (included on CD-ROM)
Documentation	6-page instruction booklet
Price	Individual copy: £41 (about US$63.00) including postage: Site license: Contact African Voices

General Description
Zulu (called 'isiZulu' in the language) is the most widely spoken language in South Africa, and it is used as a lingua franca throughout southern Africa. Speakers of Zulu as a first language come from southeastern South Africa (KwaZulu-Natal) and from central urban centers. Zulu is highly mutually intelligible with other languages of the Nguni cluster, Xhosa, Swati and Ndebele, and is closely related to the Sotho cluster of languages in southern Africa. All are members of the Bantu language family, which forms part of the Niger-Kordofanian phylum in Greenberg's classification.

Summary of features
This CD-ROM provides Zulu language tutorials for adult users (high school and above) at intermediate through advanced level. It is designed for users who have completed Speak Zulu with Us: Beginner's Course or another form of elementary instruction. The materials are organized into ten instructional units each with:
     Conversation
     Culture
     Grammar
Exercises
And there are additional sections for Introduction and Vocabulary.

Introduction
This section consists of three screens of text explaining where and by whom Zulu is spoken, and listing its four main dialects. The student is encouraged not to be distracted by differing pronunciations used by speakers in the course.

Instructional Units
Each unit is a complete tutorial constructed around a communicative event:
     Unit 1 Let's Shop
     Unit 2 Your Details
     Unit 3 Homes
     Unit 4 Let's go to Town
     Unit 5 To give Directions
     Unit 6 Let's go to Nongoma
     Unit 7 Good wishes and condolences
     Unit 8 A party, gossip and love
     Unit 9 Recreation
     Unit 10 Summary

Each of the ten lesson units is a complete tutorial made up of the four sections listed above.

Conversation - Each unit begins with a Conversation section, the title screen of which lists the communicative and grammatical objectives of the lesson. There are between two and four QuickTime movies (QTMs) in each unit consisting of one- or two-minute dialogues. The actors, recognizable from the beginners' CD-ROM, play characters of differing ages and backgrounds. The student can play each QTM with or without Zulu and/or English gloss. In two QTMs, some items can be clicked for explanation.

Figure 1

Each QTM is followed by between three and six activities, most involving repetition. Some are click and drag, and others are completion or yes/no.

Culture - Each unit has between one and three screens of textual information about language in cultural contexts linked to the theme of the unit. These are anecdotal rather than complete, and some are attributed to sources, while others are not.

Figure 2

Several units include an audio component, either a song or an excerpt from radio.

Grammar Notes - There are extensive and detailed descriptions of morphology and syntax in this section of each unit. The title screen for each unit lists the topics covered in the grammar section, describing them in communicative terms.

The grammar notes use terminology such as Possessive Pronouns and Locative Positions, many of which were introduced in the Speak Zulu with Us: Beginner's Course manual. New terms are explained. Other topics are labeled as 'ways of expressing' things.

Examples are given on a contrastive background, with all Zulu items bolded, and items with sound italicized:

Figure 3

Grammar Exercises - These segments comprise seven types of exercise:
Matching, in which the student must correctly connect items from two sets;
Click-and-drag, in which the student selects an item and moves it into the appropriate slot;
Completing an item, where the student types in a missing affix or word;
Multiple choice, in which the student clicks the correct answer;
Question and answer, where the student responds to a question with a sentence;
Rewriting, where the student rephrases according to a changed structure, and
Responding orally, where the student records the answer to a question.

The student receives feedback for all activities.

(Unit) Vocabulary - There are between 70 and 150 vocabulary items listed in each unit. The summary unit has just under 1,000 items.

Grammar
This is not a separate grammar section per se, but it contains definitions of the grammatical terms used in the course, and a Map Menu listing the grammatical items dealt with in each unit.

Vocabulary
This is the combined list of items from all the units. Because Zulu is an inflectional language, words in context consist of a root or stem and affixes. As is explained in the introduction, this section lists certain words (nouns and verbs) with affixes, and others (adjectives) without. This approach is helpful to the student, and it differs from current lexicographic convention, which lists all entries by root or stem. The list also includes one-word sentences such as: Akunandaba (It doesn't matter) and phrases such as iMpi yeSibili yoMhlaba (Second World War).

The grammatical class (gender) of each noun is given in parentheses. All items can be clicked for pronunciation. Words may be searched for by their three initial letters, and the list may be viewed alphabetically for Zulu or English. Additional comments are given for some items:

Figure 4

Evaluation
Technological features
Speak Zulu with Us: Intermediate/Advanced is easily installed, and it loads quickly. Its opening collage of children and sepia rural landscapes can be bypassed for quick entry. The QTMs load quickly, and though the video frame is small, both the video and the audio quality are good. Navigation through the materials is clearly indicated and simple, with forward and back arrows and a Main Menu option on every screen. There is also a bookmark feature that does what its name suggests.

Textual sections are clear and not cluttered, and all clickable items are repeated in clear audio. Feedback is minimal but sufficient (right/wrong check or X). The click-and-drag exercises work well for both text and objects.

Figure 5

The unit menu title pages are accompanied by four or five pieces of music played on African instruments that are not especially evocative of Zulu's rich musical heritage, nor are they mentioned in the credits. These are the same pieces that were used in Speak Zulu with Us (Elementary) and they tend to become irritating with frequent menu changing.

Activities (Procedure)
In the instructional section, Units 1-10, the activities are in two sections: those based on the subject matter of the video dialogues, and those based on grammar topics. Both sections require the student to do activities grouped into seven types:
     Matching
     Click-and-drag
     Multiple choice
     Word/sentence completion
     Question and answer
     Listen and repeat
     Rewriting

In each unit there are between three and six exercises for each video dialogue, and between six and fifteen grammar exercises. The final summary unit has a whopping 43 grammar exercises. This makes grammar, and not the video dialogues, the focus of the course. The most frequent exercises are those in which the student must type in the correct affix, word or sentence.

The illustrations that accompany many of the activities are drawings by different artists using either a literal or a cartoon style. Wherever possible, the attempt is made to amuse the student, and this seems to take precedence over conveying information about Zulu dress, hairstyle, food or custom:

Figure 6

The grammar activities are carefully constructed around specific topics, and the student should have no difficulty working through them alone. Instructions for each activity are given in English, and some are quite long:

"Sipho is very skeptical about Jabulani's New Year's resolutions. He tells Zinhle that Jabulani will not do any of them. Type each of the New Year's resolutions in the negative, using the negative subject concord for the third person." (Unit 6).

At intermediate level the student should be able to follow instructions in the target language, and for activities such as this one, a communicative approach, such as a setup exchange between Sipho and Zinhle followed by an example of what is needed for the drill, would be simpler.

The grammar reference notes are detailed and clear. The topics of each unit are listed on the title page, and a Grammar Map accessible at Main Menu level lists and explains all topics. A list of units indicates which topics are covered in each unit. Thus if students want to find grammar notes on "Possessives" they must go to the Grammar Map and hover through the Lesson Map until finding the unit containing that topic. This is a little more complicated than having the grammar notes arranged by topic. The thousand-word vocabulary section is very user friendly, and permits the student to view the list alphabetically by Zulu or English, with one language optionally hidden; to scroll up and down or select a screen by letter, and to find a word by typing in the first few letters. A one-line Extra Comments box offers grammatical or semantic information for many words.

A glance through the list quickly revealed several entries that are recognizably Xhosa rather than Zulu, since Zulu does not have the affricate [ty]:

and expressions that are common to Xhosa rather than Zulu:

Teacher Fit (Approach)
Speak Zulu with Us: Intermediate/Advanced presents a detailed post-elementary course in Zulu, through a series of conversations between friends and colleagues in a mostly urban setting, and through grammar-based activities. The materials combine audio-lingual materials based on video segments with completion drills based on structuralist grammar. They make an excellent text for the second through fourth semester of study in a university or upper level high school setting. Each of the ten teaching units presents linguistic and communicative information that could be used over a period of several weeks. The grammar notes provide a clear reference for material initially introduced in the classroom, and the exercises offer reinforcement.

Learner Fit (Design)
This course is designed for use by students working alone who have completed Speak Zulu with Us: Beginner's Course or another form of elementary instruction. It contains no information on pronunciation, and so the student will need to have the elementary materials and their glossary at hand for review when using this course. It offers a large quantity of material organized around attractive video segments. The organization of units and lessons is clear, and simple to operate.

The characters are natural and engaging, with the exception of Mr. Mthethwa, who comes across as a caricature of a "country bumpkin". This impression, created by his oversized hat and overcoat, is reinforced by a dialogue in which a post office official treats him discourteously, and by the literal gloss of his remarks, which suggests that his speech is awkward. Since Mr Mthethwa is the only recurring mature male character, the image is significant.

The situations and dialogues have been selected to cover a range of communicative events. Thus there are conversations over shopping, driving, getting one's hair done, asking the way, discussing the weather and so on. Some of the conversations have had to be manipulated to include the desired grammar item, as when three women drinking tea compare the size of one another's homes, but most of the dialogues are based on scenarios familiar to students, and they end with a graduation party at which a good time is had by all. One audio dialogue, in which a man and a woman quarrel and curse one another, is in poor taste and should not have been included.

The language of the dialogues is lively and colloquial, and includes proverbs and sayings common in everyday speech. However some of the English glosses are literal, resulting in unnatural utterances, and while the intention is to assist the student to understand idiomatic structure, regular use of such language can create a false image of the target language in the learner's mind, albeit a subconscious one.

As with Zulu with Us: Beginner's Course, the emphasis on urban life means that the student does not get much cultural information about life in the countryside, but in this the authors are only following the models of language courses in French and Italian, where the context tends to be firmly Paris or Rome.

Summary
Speak Zulu with Us: Intermediate to Advanced offers a large quantity of communicative and grammatical information that is introduced through interesting video dialogues and is reinforced with varied interactive activities. The grammatical information is detailed and, apart from some vocabulary items given in Xhosa instead of Zulu, it is accurate, and the material is clearly organized. The CD-ROM would serve well as material for the second through the fourth semester of study, and with supplementary reading materials would take a student to Intermediate-mid level on the ACTFL scale. These materials could also be used by students working alone, provided that they have completed an elementary course in the language.

Scaled rating (1 low-5 high)
Implementation possibilities: 5
Pedagogical features: 4.5
Socio-linguistic accuracy: 3.5
Linguistic Accuracy: 4.5
Content: 4
Use of computer capabilities: 4
Ease of use: 4.5
Overall: 4.5
Value for money: 5

Producer Details
Developer/distributor:
African Voices
No 3 Arthur Road, Muizenberg, 7945 , South Africa

Phone: (27) 21-788-3954
Fax: (27) 21-788-3940
Email: info@africanvoices.co.za
WWW: http://www.africanvoices.co.za

Reviewer Information
Sandra Sanneh teaches southern African languages and directs the Program in African Languages at Yale University.

Reviewer Contact
Sandra Sanneh
Program in African Languages
Yale University
P.O. Box 208206
New Haven CT 06520-8206
Phone: (203) 432-1179
Email: sandra.sanneh@yale.edu