Language and learning science in South Africa
- Authors: Probyn, Margie J
- Date: 2006
- Language: English
- Type: text , Article
- Identifier: vital:7023 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007204 , http://dx.doi.org/10.2167/le554.0
- Description: South Africa is a multilingual country with 11 official languages. However, English dominates as the language of access and power and although the Language-in- Education Policy (1997) recommends school language policies that will promote additive bilingualism and the use of learners' home languages as languages of learning and teaching, there has been little implementation of these recommendations by schools. This is despite the fact that the majority of learners do not have the necessary English language proficiency to successfully engage with the curriculum and that teachers frequently are obliged to resort to using the learners' home language to mediate understanding. This research investigates the classroom language practices of six Grade 8 science teachers, teaching science through the medium of English where they and their learners share a common home language, Xhosa. Teachers' lessons were videotaped, transcribed and analysed for the opportunities they offered learners for language development and conceptual challenge. The purpose of the research is to better understand the teachers' perceptions and problems and to be able to draw on examples of good practice, to inform teacher training and to develop a coherent bilingual approach for teaching science through the medium of English as an additional language.
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- Date Issued: 2006
Learning science through two languages in South Africa
- Authors: Probyn, Margie J
- Date: 2005
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper
- Identifier: vital:7015 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007208
- Description: [From the introduction]: South Africa is a multilingual country with eleven national languages - nine indigenous languages and the two former colonial languages of English and Afrikaans1 - recognised as official languages in the Constitution of 1996 (Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996). Despite these provisions, since the democratic elections of 1994 English has expanded its position as the language of access and power with the relative influence of Afrikaans shrinking, and African languages effectively confined to functions of ‘home and hearth’. McLean and McCormick (1996: 329 in Mazrui 2002: 269) suggest that the constitutional recognition of 11 official languages in South Africa is largely 'intended and perceived as a symbolic statement and that for instrumental purposes, English remains the dominant language in South Africa'.
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- Date Issued: 2005
Making sense of science through two languages: a South African case study
- Authors: Probyn, Margie J
- Date: 2004
- Language: English
- Type: text , Article
- Identifier: vital:7025 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007209
- Description: Mzamo Senior Secondary School (not its real name) looks like any typical township school in South Africa: modern face-brick classroom blocks which conceal a serious lack of resources, material and human. Under apartheid the disparities in spending on white and African students meant hugely different teaching and learning contexts - including infrastructure, teacher training, pupil: teacher ratios and teaching materials. Today, 10 years into the new democracy and despite government’s efforts to equalize spending, the historic inequalities persist. The school is surrounded by township houses and shacks that reflect the high poverty levels in the Eastern Cape Province. Students at schools like this face an additional but less obvious problem – that of the language medium. Although in the Eastern Cape, Xhosa is the home language of 83,8% of the population and English speakers comprise only 3.7%, the official language medium in schools is English from the beginning of Grade 4 in the majority of schools. South Africa is a multilingual country with 11 official languages recognized in the Constitution of 1996 – 9 indigenous languages and the two colonial languages, English and Afrikaans.
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- Date Issued: 2004
Minding the gaps – an investigation into language policy and practice in four Eastern Cape districts
- Authors: Probyn, Margie J , Murray, Sarah R , Botha, Liz , Botya, Paula , Brookes, Margie , Westphal, Vivian
- Date: 2002
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: vital:7024 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007206
- Description: South Africa's new Language in Education Policy (LiEP) has been described as one of the most progressive in the world but few schools have implemented it. This article describes research that investigates the gap between the policy goals and what is actually happening in schools in four districts in the Eastern Cape. The research attempts to make explicit community and school language practices and the factors that support or frustrate the formation and enactment of a school language policy in these four linguistically diverse sites. It appears that school governing bodies are not well equipped to make decisions about school language policy which meet the requirements of the national LiEP and economic imperatives to acquire English override considerations of multilingualism and additive bilingualism as expressed in the policy.
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- Date Issued: 2002
Mentoring and prospects for teacher development - a South African perspective
- Authors: Probyn, Margie J , Van der Mescht, Hennie
- Date: 2001
- Language: English
- Type: Conference paper
- Identifier: vital:6090 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1009744
- Description: School-based mentoring has developed in response to a number of factors pertaining to the pre-service education of student teachers and the in-service professional development of experienced teachers. Traditionally teacher education has consisted of university-based theory with school-based practice, based on an understanding of professional learning as ‘theory into practice’. One of the problems with this model is that theory may come to seem too remote from practice, and that practice appears untheorised by remaining implicit and unproblematised. The one-year teachers’ diploma course offered by the Rhodes University Education Department incorporates a ten-week teaching practice slot. This protracted period has been useful in allowing frequent and consistent contact between university tutors and student teachers, and between mentor teachers and student teachers. Where the system has not been strong is in enabling meaningful collaboration among all three parties. A pilot school-based mentoring programme was thus implemented in 1999, involving English First and Second Language student teachers, the two university tutors and seven mentor teachers. Ongoing evaluative research revealed that the programme was welcomed by all, and that the student teachers in particular gained much in the way of learning to be critically reflexive in a non-threatening environment. However, the research also uncovered areas that need to be developed. Student teachers, for example, need guidance in terms of learning how to talk about teaching; mentor teachers need to develop the confidence and expertise required to open up their practice in a critically constructive context. On the strength of the programme’s success, the Education Department has extended school-based mentoring to all HDE students, and is exploring ways of setting up courses through which other educators (such as EDOs) may receive training in pre- and in-service teacher mentoring.
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- Date Issued: 2001
Learning support materials (LSMs) and Curriculum 2005 (C2005): a research paper on the role of learning support materials in Curriculum 2005.
- Authors: Czerniewicz, Laura , Murray, Sarah R , Probyn, Margie J
- Date: 2000
- Language: English
- Type: Report
- Identifier: vital:7018 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007172
- Description: The report examines the role of LSMs in bringing about the change envisaged in Curriculum 2005. It highlights three aspects of the new curriculum that are especially pertinent: resource-based learning, information literacy and lifelong learning. It argues that lifelong learning depends on information literacy, and this literacy can only be acquired through interaction with resources. The new curriculum thus requires resources. The report then examines the way in which LSMs are conceptualised in policy documents. It reveals a lack of clarity both with regard to the nature of LSMs and who is responsible for producing them. It proposes a framework for the description of LSMs, which distinguishes between resources (the ‘raw materials’) and LSMs (resources shaped to a pedagogical purpose). The question of access to resources is then considered. The report argues that access requires a minimum level of expenditure, and points to the fact that spending on LSMs has fallen dramatically over the past four years. To enable access, LSMs must be well-structured, well-prepared and appropriate. They must also reach schools on time and be well-managed when they get there. The report also considers access to libraries and computer technology, both of which are vital in resource-based learning. It reveals severe cutbacks in school and provincial library services, and disparities with regard to access to libraries and computer technology, in particular and to LSMs in general. In multilingual societies, language is a factor that determines access to LSMs. The report reveals that although policy advocates a multilingual approach, increasing numbers of School Governing Bodies are opting for education in English. This will influence publishing in all African languages. The report then turns to the situation in classrooms and finds wide disparities between teaching practices in well-resourced and under-resourced schools with the former being closer to the practices advocated by C2005 than the latter. The report suggests that change will not occur overnight. Resources construct practice and are necessary in order for real change to occur. Low levels of literacy, especially in rural schools are exacerbated by the fact that children are expected to read in an inadequately mastered second language. Consequently, teachers interpret textbooks that are often inaccessible to learners thus setting patterns of rote learning and dependency that persist throughout children’s schooling. Poor basic literacy is also a concern as it is fundamental to the development of more sophisticated literacies required by C2005. The report considers the teacher-textbook debate and challenges its polarity, arguing instead for a hand-in-hand approach: textbooks and other LSMs cannot on their own improve teaching; they must be accompanied by teacher development. It is this view which frames discussion of three important components of teacher competence: use of LSMs; design / production of LSMs; and evaluation of LSMs Research suggests that teachers mediate LSMs and adapt them to existing practice and that teachers do not always share the vision of materials writers nor understand their conceptual goals. They may not even use LSMs when they are available. Nevertheless, international research has shown that carefully designed LSMs can support curriculum change. While policy now requires that teachers produce some of their own LSMs, research reveals wide disparities in their ability to do so. For many the desire to produce their own LSMs does not translate into a practical competence. Some commentators believe that it is unrealistic to expect teachers to produce their own LSMs: they should rather make use of good quality textbooks (which provide the learning programme), and develop their own supplementary materials. However this highlights the importance of consistent, fair and competent book evaluation systems/ practices, an area which research has shown to be currently extremely problematic. In conclusion, the report re-emphasises the importance of resources and stresses their role in capacity building. Concern is expressed that policy documents do not always pay sufficient attention to this. The report also points to the need to increase efficiencies in the system and spend what funding there is wisely. Finally, it highlights the need for more systematic research on what happens in classrooms to inform curriculum planning and implementation.
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- Date Issued: 2000