@article{Brookes2021c,

title = {Sociocultural Factors Affecting Vocabulary Development in Young South African Children},

author = {Heather Brookes and Frenette Southwood1 and Michelle J. White1 and Michelle Pascoe and Mikateko Ndhambi and Sefela Yalala and Olebeng Mahura and Martin Mössmer and Helena Oosthuizen and Nina Brink and Katie Alcock},

doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2021.642315},

year  = {2021},

date = {2021-05-11},

urldate = {2021-05-11},

journal = {Frontiers in Psychology},

volume = {12},

pages = {642315},

abstract = {Sociocultural influences on the development of child language skills have been widely studied, but the majority of the research findings were generated in Northern contexts. The current crosslinguistic, multisite study is the first of its kind in South Africa, considering the influence of a range of individual and sociocultural factors on expressive vocabulary size of young children. Caregivers of toddlers aged 16 to 32 months acquiring Afrikaans (n = 110), isiXhosa (n = 115), South African English (n = 105), or Xitsonga (n = 98) as home language completed a family background questionnaire and the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) about their children. Based on a revised version of Bronfenbrenner's (1977) ecological systems theory, information was obtained from the family background questionnaire on individual factors (the child's age and sex), microsystem-related factors (the number of other children and number of adults in the child's household, maternal level of education, and SES), and exosystem-related factors (home language and geographic area, namely rural or urban). All sociocultural and individual factors combined explained 25% of the variance in expressive vocabulary size. Partial correlations between these sociocultural factors and the toddlers' expressive vocabulary scores on 10 semantic domains yielded important insights into the impact of geographic area on the nature and size of children's expressive vocabulary. Unlike in previous studies, maternal level of education and SES did not play a significant role in predicting children's expressive vocabulary scores. These results indicate that there exists an interplay of sociocultural and individual influences on vocabulary development that requires a more complex ecological model of language development to understand the interaction between various sociocultural factors in diverse contexts.},

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@article{Brookes2020,

title = {English in the identity practices of black male township youth in South Africa},

author = {Heather Brookes and Idah Makukule},

doi = {10.1111/weng.12472},

year  = {2020},

date = {2020-05-01},

urldate = {2020-05-01},

journal = {World Englishes},

volume = {40},

number = {3},

abstract = {This paper explores the role of English in peer interactions among black male youth in two Johannesburg townships. We demonstrate how social meanings attached to English shape ways of using English in the expression of social identities. English is a central tool in processes of authentification and delegitimization in relation to notions of African urban male township identity. Longitudinal ethnographic work, with recordings of spontaneous peer interactions on the township streets, show how social meanings attached to using English have shifted with socio‐economic changes since 1994. These changes have impacted patterns of English use among black youth and male youth in particular. The way in which youth use English challenges structural variety approaches to youth languages in African contexts that treat them as separate linguistic varieties.},

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}

@article{Brookes2019,

title = {Gesture studies and anthropological perspectives: An introduction},

author = {Heather Brookes and Olivier Le Guen},

doi = {10.1075/gest.00040.bro},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-12-31},

urldate = {2019-12-31},

journal = {Gesture},

volume = {18},

number = {2-3},

pages = {119-141},

abstract = {This contribution is the introduction for the special issue of Gesture entitled “Anthropology of Gesture”. As such, it raises two main questions: how do gestures contribute to the field of anthropology? And, inversely, how anthropology can improve our understanding of gesture and gestural behaviours? Of particular importance for this special issue, is the emphasis on what Lempert called “the anthropological sensibility” which aims at taking a more cultural and ethnographic approach to the study of gesture, especially but not only in cross-cultural contexts. The last part of this introduction presents all the contributions of this special issue.},

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}

@article{Brookes2018,

title = {The role of gestural polysigns and gestural sequences in teaching mathematical concepts: The case of halving},

author = {Heather Brookes and Alice Ovendalev and Jean-Marc Colletta and Zain Davis},

doi = {10.1075/gest.00013.ove},

year  = {2018},

date = {2018-10-19},

urldate = {2018-10-19},

journal = {Gesture},

volume = {17},

number = {1},

pages = {128-157},

abstract = {In this paper, we examine the conceptual pedagogical value of representational gestures in the context of teaching halving to first graders. We use the concept of the ‘polysign’ as an analytical tool and introduce the notion of a ‘mathematics gesture sequence’ to assess the conceptual role gestures play in explicating mathematical concepts. In our study of four teachers each teaching a lesson on halving, they produced representational polysign gestures that provided multiple layers of information, and chained these gestures in mathematical gestural sequences to spatially represent the operation of halving. Their use of gestures and their ability to use gestures accurately to convey mathematical concepts varied. During the lesson, learners, whose teachers used few representational gestures or used gestures that were conceptually incongruent with the mathematical concept, expressed more confusion than learners whose teachers used conceptually appropriate gestures. While confusion can be a productive part of the learning process, our analysis shows that producing conceptually appropriate gestures may be important in mediating concepts and the transition from concrete and personal symbolic processes to institutional mathematical signs.},

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@article{Brookes2016,

title = {Augustine Agwuele (Ed.) (2015). Body talk and cultural identity in the African world: A review .},

author = {Heather Brookes},

doi = {10.1075/gest.15.3.08bro},

year  = {2016},

date = {2016-11-28},

urldate = {2016-11-28},

journal = {Gesture},

volume = {15},

number = {3},

pages = {425-430},

abstract = {This anthology focuses on bodily communication among different cultural groups in Africa and the African diaspora. Its major theme is the interface between body, identity, and cultural and sociopolitical environments. Although the topic of body talk is much broader in scope than gesture studies, the emphasis on a contextual approach to the analysis and understanding of bodily expression, and its focus on understudied areas and groups, makes it a useful contribution to both those working on gesture and related fields.

The theoretical starting point of this volume is that meanings are derived from the sociocultural contexts in which they are embedded. Each chapter places culture and social environment as the framework for the analysis of different aspects of bodily communication in interaction. Body talk ranges from body art and dress to bodily action, stance, posture, gesture, facial expression and dance.},

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}

@article{Brookes2014b,

title = {A social history of urban male youth varieties in Stirtonville and Vosloorus, South Africa},

author = {Heather Brookes},

doi = {10.2989/16073614.2014.992642},

year  = {2014},

date = {2014-04-03},

urldate = {2014-04-03},

journal = {Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies},

volume = {32},

number = {2},

pages = {149-159},

abstract = {Informal male youth varieties are a widespread phenomenon of township life across South Africa. A common view is that there are two varieties with separate origins: a Bantu language-based variety, called Iscamtho, and an Afrikaans-based variety called Tsotsitaal that has decreased in use because of the unpopularity of Afrikaans. This article examines the origins and relationship between these two varieties by investigating the social history of Bantu- and Afrikaans-based varieties in two townships east of Johannesburg: Stirtonville (a mixed-race township) and its successor, Vosloorus, to where, Bantu language speaking Stirtonville residents were forcibly moved in 1964. Young men who were old enough to participate in male youth street social networks in Stirtonville mainly used an Afrikaans-based slang. When Stirtonville residents moved to Vosloorus, the grammatical base of the male youth variety shifted from Afrikaans to Zulu and South Sotho. These findings suggest that the Afrikaans and Bantu language-based youth varieties are not separate phenomena with different origins. Rather, they support more recent work on male youth communicative practices showing that these informal varieties are not separate languages, but manifestations of one phenomenon, a performative style of speaking among young men involving the insertion of a slang lexicon into a local language.},

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@article{Brookes2014c,

title = {Male youth talk in the construction of black lesbian identities},

author = {Heather Brookes},

doi = {10.2989/16073614.2014.992641},

year  = {2014},

date = {2014-04-03},

urldate = {2014-04-03},

journal = {Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies},

volume = {32},

number = {2},

pages = {199-214},

abstract = {This study focuses on young black lesbians’ use of male township youth’s ways of talking. Data come from ethnographic work among four lesbians in a township near Mafikeng, the capital city of North-West province in South Africa. Our analysis draws on audio- and videorecorded spontaneous interactions, observation, and interviews. The participants use a limited repertoire of well-known lexical items considered part of what is sometimes referred to as tsotsitaal or by its male users as go ringa1 ‘to talk.’ They also engage in ritual verbal duelling associated with male youth interactions. Lesbians who self-identify as butch draw on the tsotsitaal lexicon to enact a streetwise township identity and to express their sexual identities and roles in their lesbian partnerships. Lesbians, who self-identify as femme, avoid using the tsotsitaal lexicon. Since our participants do not use tsotsitaal in a unified way, we conclude that lesbians do not ‘speak tsotsitaal,’ and there is no identifiable language unique to them. Instead, lesbians draw on features associated with male ways of talking as semiotic resources to express aspects of their identities as well as enact sexual roles, relationships and desires.},

keywords = {},

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@article{Brookes2014e,

title = {Urban Youth Languages in South Africa: A Case Study of Tsotsitaal in a South African Township},

author = {Heather Brookes},

doi = {10.1353/anl.2014.0018},

year  = {2014},

date = {2014-01-01},

urldate = {2014-01-01},

journal = {Anthropological Linguistics},

volume = {56},

number = {3-4},

pages = {356-388},

abstract = {Urban male youth “language” spoken in many townships in South Africa is a multimodal performance register through which status is negotiated and identities are expressed. Locally dominant languages act as a grammatical base into which a slang lexicon is inserted, accompanied by distinctive patterns of intonation and gesture. Variation reflecting social level, ranging from styles close to urban varieties of Bantu languages to metaphorically dense styles exhibiting features of antilanguages, and associated with a streetwise urban identity, is illustrated on the basis of naturally occurring videotaped conversations. Creative speakers coin new expressions that then spread based on the speakers’ linguistic skill and social status. Implications of these findings for the study of African urban youth languages are discussed. © 2014, Indiana University Anthropological Linguistics. All rights reserved.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Brookes2011,

title = {Amangama Amathathu 'the three letters' the emergence of a quotable gesture},

author = {Heather Brookes},

doi = {10.1075/gest.11.2.05bro},

year  = {2011},

date = {2011-12-31},

urldate = {2011-12-31},

journal = {Gesture},

volume = {11},

number = {2},

pages = {194-218},

abstract = {This paper describes the emergence of a quotable gesture for HIV/AIDS in South Africa. The gesture has its origin in the Zulu phrase amangama amathathu ‘the three letters’, an expression South Africans began to use from the mid-1990s to refer to the acronym HIV. This phrase generated a plethora of words and phrases for HIV using the concept of ‘three’. With these spoken references, speakers would sometimes use a manual expression for ‘three’ by showing three extended fingers. With repeated use, the manual expression by itself came to be established as a quotable gesture for HIV. The gesture became independent of speech as a noticeable increase in the number of deaths from HIV occurred. From observations of use in every day situations, speakers use the gesture primarily to mitigate the crude or indelicate effect of directly saying a person has HIV in speech. Use of the gesture also demonstrates sensitivity and empathy on the part of the speaker and lessens the speaker’s commitment to, and consequently their responsibility for suggesting a person has the disease. Whether for secret communication or openly displayed for dramatic effect, speakers use this gesture in conjunction with speech in nuanced ways to avoid breaking the spoken taboo and flouting social norms. The emergence of this gesture suggests that speech taboos are a key reason for gestures becoming quotable; hence the large number of quotable gestures that represent socially awkward and potentially offensive words and speech acts. The adaptation of a counting gesture demonstrates that one source for new quotable gestures may be the re-semanticization of an existing gesture through spoken semantic links. In the case of the HIV gesture, spoken language played a key role in disseminating the metonym of ‘three’ and establishing a common ground for a quotable gesture to emerge across many communities in South Africa.},

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@article{Brookes2010,

title = {Immunology for Clinicians: A "Trojan Horse" Approach},

author = {Heather Brookes and Clive M Gray and Shayne Loubser and Carina Kriel and Monica Mercer},

doi = {10.2307/40803142},

year  = {2010},

date = {2010-09-24},

urldate = {2010-09-24},

journal = {Science},

volume = {329},

number = {5999},

pages = {1613-1614},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Brookes2008,

title = {Factors Influencing Teen Mothers' Enrollment and Participation in Prevention of Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission Services in Limpopo Province, South Africa},

author = {Heather Brookes and Christine Varga},

doi = {10.1177/1049732308318449},

year  = {2008},

date = {2008-07-01},

urldate = {2008-07-01},

journal = {Qualitative Health Research},

volume = {18},

number = {6},

pages = {786-802},

abstract = {In this article, we examine barriers to HIV testing uptake and participation in prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) services among adolescent mothers aged 15 to 19 years in rural and urban Limpopo Province, South Africa. We used the narrative research method involving key informants constructing typical case studies of adolescent experiences with HIV testing and entry into PMTCT. Case studies formed the basis of a community-based questionnaire and focus group discussions with adolescent mothers. Client-counselor dynamics during pretest counseling were pivotal in determining uptake and participation, and counselor profile strongly influenced the nature of the interaction. Other factors found to influence adherence to PMTCT recommendations included HIV and early premarital pregnancy stigma, fear of a positive test result, and concerns over confidentiality and poor treatment by health care providers. Adolescents described elaborate strategies to avoid HIV disclosure to labor and delivery staff, despite knowing this would mean no antiretroviral therapy for their newborn infants. Theoretical, methodological, and programmatic implications of study findings are also discussed.},

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pubstate = {published},

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@article{Brookes2008b,

title = {Preventing Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission Among South African Adolescents},

author = {Heather Brookes and Christine Varga},

doi = {10.1177/0743558407310771},

year  = {2008},

date = {2008-03-01},

urldate = {2008-03-01},

journal = {Journal of Adolescent Research},

volume = {23},

number = {2},

pages = {172-205},

abstract = {Although prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) programs are predicated on maternal behavior change, little is known about sociocultural factors affecting maternal—child care practices in this arena. The authors used narrative methods (key informant workshops, questionnaires, focus groups, and case study analysis) to explore how sociocultural context shapes adolescent mothers' ability to adhere to programmatic recommendations in rural and urban South Africa. The study aims were to understand the extent to which mothers' decisions are borne out in PMTCT-related practices and to identify contextual elements that affect the link between individual resolutions and action. The results revealed rural adolescents as less likely than urbanites to successfully implement most PMTCT-related practices. HIV stigma, family decision making, and cultural norms surrounding infant feeding hampered mothers' efforts to implement practices that would decrease the risk for infant infection. Barriers to behavior change were analyzed along four domains: history, culture, gender, and power. Methodological aspects and programmatic implications are discussed.},

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pubstate = {published},

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@article{Brookes2005,

title = {What Gestures Do: Some Communicative Functions of Quotable Gestures in Conversations among Black Urban South Africans},

author = {Heather Brookes},

doi = {10.1016/j.pragma.2005.03.006},

year  = {2005},

date = {2005-12-01},

urldate = {2005-12-01},

journal = {Journal of Pragmatics},

volume = {37},

number = {12},

pages = {2044-2085},

abstract = {Using video-recordings of spontaneous conversations among Black urban South Africans, the use of three quotable gestures/emblems is analyzed. Characteristics of their use in relation to speech are established showing that quotable gestures are multifunctional, and fulfill substantive, interactive, and discourse functions simultaneously. Implications for theories on the relationship between gesture and speech and processes of speech–gesture production are discussed. Data presented suggest that the Growth Point model of speech–gesture production has the most explanatory power, but it needs to extend the central notion of context to fully explain the nature of gestural behavior. Questions related to the emergence of quotable gestures in terms of origin, conventionalization, and detachability from speech, the relationship of quotable gestures to other forms of gesture, and the categorization of gestures into gestural typologies are also addressed.},

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pubstate = {published},

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}

@article{Brookes2004,

title = {A Repertoire of South African Quotable Gestures},

author = {Heather Brookes},

doi = {10.1525/jlin.2004.14.2.186},

year  = {2004},

date = {2004-12-01},

urldate = {2004-12-01},

journal = {Journal of Linguistic Anthropology},

volume = {14},

number = {2},

pages = {186-224},

abstract = {Among black urban South Africans in Gauteng province, quotable gestures are a prominent part of everyday communication. Using observations and video recordings of spontaneous communicative interactions, elicitation interviews, and a decoding test, this study presents the repertoire of quotable gestures in current use. Quotable gestures fall within three main gestural types: lexical, holophrastic, and concept, with lexical gestures constituting the highest proportion. Within each gestural type, gestures vary in their range of meanings, functions, and independence from speech. This variation suggests that sharp distinctions between gestural types and between quotable and speech-dependent gestures may obscure continuities in meaning, function, and how gestures originate and develop. The article discusses recent work that suggests alternative organizational criteria for the analysis of gestures. It proposes that analysis of gestures begin at the level of interaction, taking into account how social relationships, cultural notions, and identity shape forms of gestural use and behavior.},

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@article{Brookes2004b,

title = {Responses to gender-based violence in schools},

author = {Heather Brookes and Craig Higson-Smith},

year  = {2004},

date = {2004-01-01},

urldate = {2004-01-01},

journal = {Sexual abuse of young children in Southern Africa},

pages = {110 - 129},

abstract = {This chapter presents the findings of two recent studies conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council on school responses to gender-based violence. Both of these studies were designed to explore the social dynamics and structures within schools in order to understand the factors that contribute to gender-based violence in schools, and the capacity of schools to respond adequately to the problem. A deeper understanding of the struggle that schools have in meeting the challenges of child protection is needed if appropriate programmatic interventions are to be designed and implemented within the South African context.},

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pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

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@article{Brookes2001,

title = {O clever `He's streetwise.' When gestures become quotable: The case of the clever gesture},

author = {Heather Brookes},

doi = {10.1075/gest.1.2.05bro},

year  = {2001},

date = {2001-07-01},

urldate = {2001-07-01},

journal = {Gesture},

volume = {1},

number = {2},

pages = {167-184},

abstract = {Among urban black South Africans in the province of Gauteng, quotable gestures are a prominent feature of everyday communication. Most notable is a gesture commonly glossed as clever meaning ‘streetwise’ and ‘city slick.’ An analysis of the clever gesture in everyday communicative situations shows that it conveys a variety of meanings and functions related to the core paradigmatic meaning of ‘seeing’ and the core sociointeractional function of acceptance and inclusion. ‘Seeing’ is an important cultural value in black urban society particularly in relation to being clever . ‘Seeing’ is also the central characteristic of modern urban African identity in contrast to the ‘non-seeing’ rural, tribal, and primitive African. The clever gesture is a focused expression of this key social division within South African society. Consideration of the clever gesture in relation to its social role and the gestural repertoire suggests that key cultural concerns determine both quotable status and semantico-grammatical nature.},

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@article{Brookes1999,

title = {Leadership Giftedness: Models Revisited},

author = {Heather Brookes and Adelma A Roach and Leisy T Wyman and Christina Chavez and Shirley Brice Heath and Guadalupe Valdes},

doi = {10.1177/001698629904300103},

year  = {1999},

date = {1999-12-01},

urldate = {1999-12-01},

journal = {Gifted Child Quarterly},

volume = {43},

number = {1},

pages = {13-24},

abstract = {Following a reviews of adult models of leadership and of leadership programs for young people that are derived from adult theories of leadership, we report results from a decade-long study in under-served and at-risk communities of young people identified and promoted as leaders within out-of-school youth organizations. This work reveals how emerging youth leadership differs from established measures and leadership theories drawn from adults. Views and enactments of leadership among the young focus on how leadership happens, not all who leaders are as power figures, skillful managers, or individuals bearing specific traits. These perspectives from youth carry strong links to recent work in cognitive psychology and organizational sociology that maintains the key importance of adaptation, engagement with situation, and distribution of knowledge and roles.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Brookes1995,

title = {`Suit, Tie and a Touch of Juju'—The Ideological Construction of Africa: A Critical Discourse Analysis of News on Africa in the British Press},

author = {Heather Brookes},

doi = {10.1177/0957926595006004002},

year  = {1995},

date = {1995-10-01},

urldate = {1995-10-01},

journal = {Discourse and Society},

volume = {6},

number = {4},

pages = {461-494},

abstract = {This paper examines the ideological construction of Africa through a critical discourse analysis of news on Africa in the British press. Through a comparative analysis of two British papers with opposing ideological positions, it demonstrates that there is a stereotypical, naturalized and dominant discourse on Africa. The analysis illustrates how the features of this discourse combine to produce particular meanings which give rise to a neo-colonial racist representation of Africa and Africans. The role of this discourse in reproducing the racist perceptions of Africa and Africans in Western society and in maintaining Western hegemony is discussed; and the question of this discourse's relationship to other racist discourses in European society is also raised. This paper argues that the entrenched stability of this discourse holds little possibility for challenge or transformation.},

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pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

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@article{Brookes1994,

title = {Ethnolinguistic vitality during a period of decolonization without independence: perceived vitality in Hong Kong},

author = {Heather Brookes},

doi = {10.1515/ijsl.1994.108.43},

year  = {1994},

date = {1994-01-01},

urldate = {1994-01-01},

journal = {International Journal of the Sociology of Language},

volume = {1994},

number = {108},

pages = {43-62},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}