Humanities and Social Sciences

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    The phonology and morphology of Icibemba loanwords from english.
    (The University of Zambia, 2019) Kangwa, Njenje Kennedy
    This PhD thesis involved conducting a phonological and morphological analysis of loanwords from English into Icibemba, a major language spoken in the Northern, Copperbelt and Luapula provinces of Zambia as well as parts of Muchinga and Central provinces. The main aim of this research was to analyse the phonological and morphological changes that take place to those English words that are incorporated into Icibemba as a result of borrowing. This study was guided by four research objectives: To transcribe, gloss and allocate the loanwords into Icibemba nominal classes by assembling a representative corpus; to describe and compare the segmental phonology and syllable structure of English and Icibemba; to analyze the various phonological processes involved in the adaptation of English loanwords into Icibemba and; to analyze the various morphological processes involved in the adaptation of English loanwords into Icibemba. Data for this research was collected mostly from Kashoki’s books. These books put together with Kangwa’s (2007) study supplied this research with a robust list of loanwords in the Icibemba grammar. The other portion of data was generated by the researcher, a native and competent speaker who has been exposed to the standard variety of Icibemba, spoken in Kasama, Northern Province of Zambia. In analyzing the findings of this study, for phonology, the research used CV Phonology and Lexical Phonology and Morphology (LPM) was used in analysing morphology. The study essentially used a qualitative method supplemented by quantitative data. It was discovered that in phonology, the repair strategies that apply to these foreign words, among others, included vowel epenthesis, deletion and substitution. Among these strategies, vowel epenthesis was discovered to be one that was usually applied. The high vowels (i and u) played a major role in insertion. Most of the Icibemba loanwords from English were nouns. Adapted words from English are assigned tone when they are incorporated into Icibemba. There are no diphthongs in Icibemba. The English diphthongs coming into the language through loanwords all show a pattern of adaptation similar to the one exhibited by the monophthongs. Like Icibemba nouns, borrowed English nouns were affected by the Bantu class system. Adapted Nouns from English acquire augments and prefixes when they are taken over to Icibemba. The class prefix was assigned to adapted nouns in Icibemba on the basis of the initial syllable resemblance to a class prefix, the semantic content of the adapted word and on the basis of the zero prefix in some classes. Another point worth mentioning was that there were no regularities in the patterns of loanword allocation into Icibemba noun classes except that most loans were allocated to class 1a/2a regardless of their meanings. The study also revealed that verb extensions, reduplication, gliding, vowel fusion and resyllabification (a phenomenon that typically characterise Bantu languages) were applied to Icibemba loanwords from English. It was also concluded that usually when a loanword from English contains the environment for a phonological or morphological rule in Icibemba, that rule would apply to the loanword. It is hoped that this study will stimulate further research in the Icibemba loanwords from English in areas of semantics and syntax so as to deepen a phonological and morphological understanding of adaptation. The research has only concentrated on the adaptation of loanwords from English. Icibemba has also borrowed lexical items from other African languages like Kiswahili and Nyanja. It is recommended that further research on how Icibemba adapts words from other languages should be carried ou
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    Relationship between violent video game playing and aggression in adolescents of two secondary schools in Lusaka district.
    (The University of Zambia, 2019) Nakazwe-Sumbwa, Bupe
    The current study investigated the impact of media violence, focusing on the relationship between violent video game playing and aggression in adolescents from two schools. The study was quantitative in nature and used a survey research design. A sample of 200 boys and girls were recruited from two schools; one private and the other public. Of the 200, each school had 50 boys and 50 girls. A 2×3×2 factorial plan consisting of two levels of gender (boy / girl), three types of aggression (physical / verbal / anger) and SES was used. In this study, school (private / public) was the main indicator of SES. All three measures used were self-reported; a Demographic Questionnaire which looked at the participant‟s gender, parents/guardians education and residential background, the Free Time Questionnaire on the other hand examined the participant‟s favorite games and amount of time spend playing and the Buss-Perry Aggression Mode Questionnaire measured the participant‟s aggression levels based on three types; physical, verbal and anger. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software was used to analyse data. Descriptive analysis of game preference and time spent playing were conducted using means and frequencies. Comparisons across gender and schools representing different SES were conducted using an ANOVA, while Pearson‟s correlation explored the relationship between violent video game play and aggression. Further computations using a simple regression analysis was used to determine whether violent video games predicted aggression. Findings indicated that violence was present in the games played and that these games were played in the selected schools with boys reporting (5.1 times and 67% preference on average) more time playing and a higher preference for games with a violent content than the girls (1.8 time and 32% preference). Correlational analyses indicated significant positive relationship between aggression and playing violent video games. Regression analyses also indicated that violent video games predicted aggression. Boys scored higher on physical and anger aggression than the girls but scored less than the girls on verbal aggression. Overall, the results indicate a connection between exposure to violence in video games and its negative effects such as aggression on secondary school pupils. These results are significant because exposure to violent video games is mostly common in adolescents who are most likely to demonstrate these adverse effects. The findings suggest the need for intervention measures to be put in place to address this problem in schools.
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    A study of factors that determine micro and small enterprises (MSEs) adoption of mobile money for business transactions: a case of MSEs in Lusaka central business district.
    (The University of Zambia, 2023) Ngwira, Tasila Alice
    The Study aimed to understand the factors that influence the adoption of mobile money services for business transaction purposes by small and medium enterprises (MSEs) in Lusaka. The aim was divided into three specific objectives. These objectives were to assess the factors that determine the use of mobile money by MSEs for business transaction purposes; to examine the relationship between these factors and the use of mobile money by MSEs for business transaction purposes, and to ascertain the effect of the factors on the use of mobile money by MSEs for business transaction purposes. The study used cross-sectional primary data. The study employed a pragmatism research philosophy and mixed research approach. The data was collected using a survey questionnaire administered by the researcher to respondents sampled using purposive sampling techniques. The study had a sample size of 102 respondents. The empirical results showed that most businesses who use Airtel money started using it less than a year ago, consider the cost to be fair, save on the platform, are affected by insufficient space borrow on the platform and are also affected by the unavailability of agents. The regression results showed that savings and insufficient float have a statistically significant impact on the adoption of mobile money. Saving using mobile money increases the likelihood of using it to conduct business transactions and issues of insufficient float among agents constrain the probability of using it to conduct business transactions. From the findings, it was recommended that mobile money providers create a mobile money product tailored for micro and small businesses.
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    The impact of board composition on financial performance of listed corporations in Zambia.
    (The University of Zambia, 2023) Milupi, David E. M
    Corporate Governance can be defined as the directing and controlling of corporations. It became popular after the collapse of several large corporations such as Enron and WorldCom. The collapse of corporations caused depositors to lose their savings, investors to lose their investments worth billions of dollars, and employees to lose jobs. Corporate governance classifies the board into four attributes, namely, board composition, board characteristics, board structure and board process. The objective of this study was to examine whether there is a relationship between board composition (board size, board independence and board gender diversity) and financial performance of listed corporations in Zambia. This research employed a descriptive study. A sample of 5 corporations out of a population of 22 listed on the Lusaka Securities Exchange (LuSE) was selected using the proportional stratified sampling technique. The period of study was from period 2008-2020. The study extracted and analyzed secondary data of annual audited financial statements and reports from respective corporations’ websites and African financials website into excel. Stata version 14.2 software was used for statistical and regression analysis. Board composition consists of three independent variables namely, board size (logBS), board independence (BI) and board gender diversity (BGD). The study adopted the random effects and fixed effects models. Results under the fixed effects model, showed a negative and significant relationship between board size and financial performance (PPP) at 0.05, and positive and significant relationship between board independence and financial performance (CR and QR) at 0.01. On the contrary, board independence also showed a negative and significant relationship with financial performance (PPP and DTE) at 0.1 and 0.01 respectively. Board gender diversity had a positive and significant relationship with financial performance (AT) at 0.1. Firm size also had a positive and significant relationship with financial performance (IHP) at 0.01. On the other hand, firm size had a negative and significant relationship with performance (AT, PPP and DTE). Random effects model results revealed a positive and significant relationship between board independence and financial performance (RCP) at 0.05 and Board gender diversity showed a positive and significant relationship with financial performance (GM) at 0.01. Contradictory results showed board gender diversity had a negative and significant relationship with financial performance (RCP) at 0.01. Firm size recorded a positive and significant relationship with financial performance (RCP) at 0.01. Other results showed firm size to have a negative and significant relationship with corporate financial performance (GM) at 0.01. This study indicates that board composition has a significant relationship with financial performance.
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    The effectiveness of Moodle in promoting online learning in tertiary public institutions: the case of the University of Zambia.
    (The University of Zambia, 2023) Kambolokoni, Nancy
    Electronic learning has over the years transitioned from targeting only the working class and secondary school leavers who could not go to the university because of the distance and lack of places. The introduction of e-learning platforms is bridging the gap in the provision of education. The background of the research shows that e-learning was introduced to promote distance education through online learning. In addition, e-learning has the ability to reduce the cost of education. The general objective of this research is to examine the effectiveness of Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment in promoting online learning at the University of Zambia. Specifically, the research aims at examining the extent to which MOODLE has promoted education at the University of Zambia and to examine the extent to which MOODLE has reduced the cost of accessing education compared to the traditional method at the University of Zambia. This was an explanatory research and was a one-time case study. It made use of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews to collect quantitative and qualitative data, which were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences and content analysis, respectively. The sample size was 104 comprising 60 students, 40 lecturers and four key informant, one from each of the four schools namely; school of Mines, school of Engineering, school of Veterinary Medicine and school of Agricultural Sciences. The four key informants were purposively selected while simple random sampling which combined lottery method and systematic sampling was used to select the lecturers and students. The findings shows that MOODLE is very effective in enhancing distance education in public universities such as UNZA. This is because most of the lecturers and students are able to use it. This is achieved through measurers put in place by the university management such as the creation of an online platform which allows lecturers to perform their work and training of lecturers on the use of MOODLE. Although management created online courses to enhance distance education, not all lecturers are able to deliver all courses online and not all students’ accesses lectures on the online platform due to various challenges. Furthermore, MOODLE is not very effective in reducing in cost of accessing university education in public universities such as UNZA. This is because there are some areas where students still incur costs to access education despite using MOODLE. These areas are accommodation, where 26.7% of the students experienced a reduction in the cost of accommodation when using MOODLE while 73.3% of the students did not. Transportation, where 46.7% of the students experienced a reduction in the cost of transportation when using MOODLE while the majority being 53.3% did not. Accessing lectures, where 26.7% of the students experienced a reduction in the cost of accessing lectures after the introduction of MOODLE while 73.3% did not.