Page 20 - Windhoek Graduation (20 May)(SESSION 2)(PhDs, Masters)

Executive Dean: Dr Alfonse Mosimane
Faculty of Education and Human Sciences
SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES, SOCIETY AND DEVELOPMENT
Associate Dean: Dr Martha Akawa

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN ENGLISH STUDIES

CANDIDATE: GONTES Zoachina N

CURRICULUM VITAE

Zoachina Gontes was born in the Oshana region. She matriculated from
Uukule Senior Secondary School. Her qualifications include Basic Education
Teacher Diploma (BETD) in Languages from the Ongwediva College, a
Further Diploma in Education: Educational Management from the North-
West University as well as an Advanced Certificate in Education: Foundation of Language Teaching from the
University of Johannesburg. In addition, she also obtained a B.Ed. Honours in Educational Management and
Leadership from the University of Johannesburg, a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Applied English Language
Studies from the University of Witwatersrand, and a Master of Education in English Language Teaching from
Rhodes University. On her academic experience, Zoachina has taught English at Oshakati Combined School,
Erundu Secondary School, and Swakopmund Secondary School. She also served as Head of Department of
Languages (English & Oshindonga) at Lindangungu Combined School. She taught and coordinated English
Language and Business Communication courses at the International University of Management’s Centre of
Languages and Communication, and she continues to teach English Language Education in the Faculty of
Education at IUM. Her research interest integrates corrective feedback and the use of discourse markers in
writing.

CANDIDATE’S DISSERTATION
TOWARDS ACHIEVING COHESION AND COHERENCE IN RESEARCH PROJECTS: AN EVALUATION OF THE USE OF
DISCOURSE MARKERS BY UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS AT THE INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF MANAGEMENT,
NAMIBIA

The doctoral study was undertaken and completed under the supervision of Prof. Jairus Kangira of the University of
Namibia as Main-Supervisor and Dr. Saara S. Mungungu-Shipale from the University of Namibia as Co-Supervisor.

The candidate investigated how undergraduate final-year students at the International University of Management
(IUM) used English in their written research projects, concentrating on how they employed discourse markers
(DMs) to achieve cohesiveness and coherence. A mixed method of qualitative and quantitative research was
applied. The data was acquired from eighty research projects completed by undergraduate students. More
data was gathered from students and lecturers who completed questionnaires. In addition, the study revealed
findings that undergraduate students at IUM lacked adequate knowledge of how to use DMs effectively to
establish cohesiveness and coherence in research projects. This is despite the fact that the students used some
types of DMs in their research projects. Thus, the dissertation’s overall conclusion was that there was a lack of
cohesion and coherence in the research projects examined, owed to the limited use of DMs. As a result, the
researcher proposes the establishment of a module titled English Vocabulary in Academic Writing to diminish
the present overloaded Academic Writing course. Among others, students would be taught how to utilise DMs,
hedging, reporting verbs and nominalisations independently in the proposed module. This study’s contribution
includes the proposed guidelines and the model for training DMs.

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