A case study of the implementation of the communicative approach to English second language progress testing in one secondary school in the Alexandria Circuit of the Eastern Cape Department of Education
- Authors: Ssemakalu, John
- Date: 1998
- Subjects: Communicative competence , Communicative competence in children , English language -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Foreign speakers -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Language and languages -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Foreign speakers -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Second language acquisition -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2362 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002645 , Communicative competence , Communicative competence in children , English language -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Foreign speakers -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Language and languages -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Foreign speakers -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Second language acquisition -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Description: This study explores the implementation of the communicative approach (CA) to English second language progress testing in an African secondary school which falls under the Eastern Cape Department of Education. The goal of the research is to establish how teachers access, conceptualise, and apply the CA to language testing in their specific working conditions. The report of the findings of the research reveals that teachers' understanding of the CA to testing differs from that of the linguists, curriculum designers, innovators, and syllabus writers. This is caused by a combination of factors including teachers' poor working conditions, the lack of focused pre-service training and effective in-service structures for their empowennent as the agents of innovation, coupled with the poor circulation and a lack of clarity in official documents on the CA to language testing. These constraints made it impossible for teachers to implement the CA to language testing. In order to carry on with their work, however, teachers developed coping strategies by drawing, probably unconsciously, on a mixture of structuralist, sociolinguistic-psycholinguistic, communicative and any other testing practices they may have acquired during their years of service. Although based only on one school, the findings of this study indicate that for fundamental innovations such as the CA to take root, there is a need for the adoption of more dedicated, reflective implementation strategies involving proper planning and monitoring, as well as evaluation and re-evaluation of the entire process. This necessarily slow process must go hand-in-hand with a dedicated pre-service and in-service empowerment program based on consultative communication between innovator and agent; and a persuasive education/re-education approach which will encourage teachers to change their entrenched practices.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1998
- Authors: Ssemakalu, John
- Date: 1998
- Subjects: Communicative competence , Communicative competence in children , English language -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Foreign speakers -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Language and languages -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Foreign speakers -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Second language acquisition -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2362 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002645 , Communicative competence , Communicative competence in children , English language -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Foreign speakers -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Language and languages -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Foreign speakers -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Second language acquisition -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Description: This study explores the implementation of the communicative approach (CA) to English second language progress testing in an African secondary school which falls under the Eastern Cape Department of Education. The goal of the research is to establish how teachers access, conceptualise, and apply the CA to language testing in their specific working conditions. The report of the findings of the research reveals that teachers' understanding of the CA to testing differs from that of the linguists, curriculum designers, innovators, and syllabus writers. This is caused by a combination of factors including teachers' poor working conditions, the lack of focused pre-service training and effective in-service structures for their empowennent as the agents of innovation, coupled with the poor circulation and a lack of clarity in official documents on the CA to language testing. These constraints made it impossible for teachers to implement the CA to language testing. In order to carry on with their work, however, teachers developed coping strategies by drawing, probably unconsciously, on a mixture of structuralist, sociolinguistic-psycholinguistic, communicative and any other testing practices they may have acquired during their years of service. Although based only on one school, the findings of this study indicate that for fundamental innovations such as the CA to take root, there is a need for the adoption of more dedicated, reflective implementation strategies involving proper planning and monitoring, as well as evaluation and re-evaluation of the entire process. This necessarily slow process must go hand-in-hand with a dedicated pre-service and in-service empowerment program based on consultative communication between innovator and agent; and a persuasive education/re-education approach which will encourage teachers to change their entrenched practices.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1998
Crossing boundaries: facilitating conceptual development in relation to culture in an English for academic purposes course
- Authors: Dison, Arona
- Date: 1998
- Subjects: Compensatory education -- South Africa , English language -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- Foreign speakers , English language -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- Foreign speakers -- Psychological aspects
- Identifier: vital:2345 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002627 , Compensatory education -- South Africa , English language -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- Foreign speakers , English language -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- Foreign speakers -- Psychological aspects
- Description: This research was undertaken as the first cycle of an action research project. The aim was to develop a course within the English Language 1 for Academic Purposes (ELAP) course at Rhodes University, which would facilitate the conceptual development of students in relation to the topic of Culture. The implementation of the course was researched, using students' writing, interviews, staff meeting discussions and video-taping of certain classes. Ten students volunteered to 'be researched'. The types of initial 'commonsense' understandings of culture held by students are outlined and the conceptual development which they underwent in relation to Culture is examined. Students' perceptions of the approaches to learning required in ELAP and the Culture course in particular are explored. The involvement of the ELAP tutors in the course and in the research was a learning experience for them, and this became-another focus of the research. The findings of the research support the argument for using challenging subject matter in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses, provided that the learning process is carefully scaffolded. An underlying assumption is that ways of thinking and learning in university courses need to be explicitly taught to students and the study concludes that lecturers of mainstream courses could also learn from the findings of research such as this. The study also shows the potential power of participatory action research to involve practitioners in research and enhance their understandings of aspects of their practice. Finally, it notes the need to value subtle developments in students and to see them as being part of a longer term process.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1998
- Authors: Dison, Arona
- Date: 1998
- Subjects: Compensatory education -- South Africa , English language -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- Foreign speakers , English language -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- Foreign speakers -- Psychological aspects
- Identifier: vital:2345 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002627 , Compensatory education -- South Africa , English language -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- Foreign speakers , English language -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- Foreign speakers -- Psychological aspects
- Description: This research was undertaken as the first cycle of an action research project. The aim was to develop a course within the English Language 1 for Academic Purposes (ELAP) course at Rhodes University, which would facilitate the conceptual development of students in relation to the topic of Culture. The implementation of the course was researched, using students' writing, interviews, staff meeting discussions and video-taping of certain classes. Ten students volunteered to 'be researched'. The types of initial 'commonsense' understandings of culture held by students are outlined and the conceptual development which they underwent in relation to Culture is examined. Students' perceptions of the approaches to learning required in ELAP and the Culture course in particular are explored. The involvement of the ELAP tutors in the course and in the research was a learning experience for them, and this became-another focus of the research. The findings of the research support the argument for using challenging subject matter in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses, provided that the learning process is carefully scaffolded. An underlying assumption is that ways of thinking and learning in university courses need to be explicitly taught to students and the study concludes that lecturers of mainstream courses could also learn from the findings of research such as this. The study also shows the potential power of participatory action research to involve practitioners in research and enhance their understandings of aspects of their practice. Finally, it notes the need to value subtle developments in students and to see them as being part of a longer term process.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1998
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