Blog posts

2025

Musings on noun classification

4 minute read

Published:

Noun classification is a significant aspect of the grammar of Niger-Congo B languages. For people who are interested in learning a language that belongs to the family, you need to understand that the phenomena is one of the most important things to master since it is crucial to ensure that words agree with each other, where appropriate, in the formation of sentences. For instance, the isiXhosa sentence “hlamba izitya ngoba zimdaka!” (Wash the dishes because they are dirty) is sensible while the sentence “hlamba izitya ngoba simdaka” (Wash the dishes because it is dirty) is not correct despite the minor difference in the isiXhosa source text. There are a variety of resources that one can find online to learn the notion of noun classes (e.g., https://quizlet.com/za/887926330/zulu-noun-classes-flash-cards/). To the best of my knowledge, these are manually created!

2021

On providing feedback to students

3 minute read

Published:

Enye yezinto endinomdla ngazo zii-theory zokwakha nokunikezela iingxelo kubafundi bakho. Emaxesheni amaninzi xa ufundisa, uye wakhe iingxaki okanye uzithathe kwincwadi onayo, uzenze kunye nabafundi bakho eklasini. Ngoku ndandifunda kubamanga abantsi, ootishala babesenza le nto amaxesheni amaninzi (ayekhona amaxesha apho kulindeleke ingxaki uyisombulule ngowakho njengomfundi). Eyona nto ndiyikhumbulayo ngelixesha kukuba kwakulula kwaye kumnandi ukuzama ukusombulula ezo ngxaki, eklasini ninonke kunye notishala. Kwaye, le nto yayinjalo kuzo zonke izifundo, ukuqala kwisiXhosa (e.g., xa sihlalutya imibongo umzekelo) ukuya kwiMathematika.

2020