About this book and why I wrote it

I have written this book with the interest of my American learners of IsiZulu at heart. At a young age of 17 years I went to William Pitcher Teacher Training College, Manzini, Swaziland to train as a secondary school teacher. A few years later I pursued a Bachelor of Education Degree with concurrent focus on English Language and literature. My training helped me take on a lifetime commitment to teaching and learning. My teaching philosophy has always been to place the learners and their needs at the center of every learning activity. When I started teaching IsiZulu at Indiana University in 2008 I realized that the teaching and learning materials available to me were not the best for the American students. The materials were good for tourists, missionaries and other people who want to have access to the IsiZulu speaking South African communities, but they had numerous limitations when used for American University students. Over the years I developed Zulu language teaching and learning materials which I have modified when writing this book.

This book approaches teaching and learning in a way that considers the difference between teaching children and adult learners. Whereas young learners come to the teaching and learning environment with no preferred agenda, adult learners approach learning differently. According to Malcolm Knowles adult learners are different from children in that

• à They need to know why they are taught the content in their courses;
• à Instruction should be task-oriented instead of promoting mere memorization;
• à Instruction considers the wide range of learners’ different backgrounds;
• à Instruction allows learners to discover new knowledge with guidance of an instructor rather than mere memorizing what they are taught.

Knowing the fact that adult learners succeed when they learn what they have chosen, inspired me to conduct surveys to identify what works and what does not work, including teaching and learning methods and subject matter for the language learners in the USA. I also considered some of the key theories of educational psychology, such as teaching from ‘the known to the unknown.’ Numerous research studies such as the ones by the State of Queensland’s Department of Education in Australia refer to ‘high connection’ and ‘low connection’ as determinants of educational success. In writing this book, I have considered what American learners already know as a way of ushering IsiZulu. Using the comparison of cultures, this book helps students compare what they know and have in America, with the culture of South and Africa, precisely that of the IsiZulu speaking communities.

Using comparison of cultures students are taken through what is practiced in America and South Africa starting with what the two countries have in common Students learn from that and then Taking things from the equivalence of the southern African cultures the foreign culture is introduced in a way that makes sense to the American students for stuff for cultural practices that do not have any equivalence in America students get that first time and this book has an English part of it where the completely new concepts are introduced in the language that the students already understand that way they will understand the new culture without having the lack of full knowledge of the language being a stumbling block. They practice speaking the language by starting with those concepts that have they are or regions from the English language this is Hulu has a lot of concepts that are embedded in using it in English connected to the English language because these are concepts which were not there before English language was introduced so some of the Zulu words either from English or Afrikaans.

It is meant to give the leaners a vicarious experience of the Zulu language and culture! It employs the process of ‘uncovering’ instead of ‘covering’ content. Its agenda is to demystify isiZulu rather than make it an unapproachable unconceivable mystery. It intentionally creates an atmosphere of pleasurable appreciation of isiZulu through numerous avenues such as songs, dances, games, rhymes, food and a lot more that can connect to language. It takes into consideration the period during which the leaners live! It employs multimedia communicative approaches that are conducive to online learning!

This book is the first of the Imbiza yesiZulu: Sifunda IsiZulu eMelika series. Imbiza is a Zulu clay pot that Zulu people used for cooking their meals, fetching water or serving traditional beer. I chose this name for the book because it symbolizes the multifaceted qualities of a Zulu clay pot from which Zulu people got their food, their umqombothi, the nourishing traditional beer and water that quenches thirst. As a multimedia textbook, Imbiza will serve the students with text, audio and video content that complies to the Communicative Approach of language teaching, focused on 5 Cs as dictated by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. These include Communication, Communities, Comparative, Connection and Culture.

The book’s outline and themes juxtapose the USA and South Africa to augment the learners’ knowledge of the Zulu language and culture. To illustrate the everyday usage of IsiZulu, the book employs themes that align with the USA Academic Calendar, especially Indiana University in Bloomington and relate to South Africa such as the four seasons of the year and special seasonal holidays. Songs play a major role of providing the learners an entertaining educational experience of both language and culture of Zulu people. Each chapter starts with learning objectives and learning outcomes, followed by a dialogue or monologue for some chapters. What follows next is an analysis of grammar based on what is in the introductory text. Learners get activities that help practice using the language as demonstrated in the dialogue/monologue. A song, chant, rhyme or game brings edutainment. An assignment is followed by a list of new words.