3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item Investigation of teachers' use of language during teaching of evolution in South African life sciences classrooms(2017) Mupfawa, ShunguIn South Africa there are eleven official languages and every citizen has a right to receive education in any of these languages. Nevertheless, the language of learning and teaching (LOLT) in most schools is either English or Afrikaans. Of the two languages English is more dominant because it is a global language and is preferred by parents. In a bid to embrace the call by UNSESCO (2007) which encourages science learning and teaching to be done in the mother tongue, South Africa implemented the teaching of science in indigenous languages in the lower grades in primary (1-3). Nonetheless, this endeavor has its merits and demerits. In South African schools most teachers and learners are English Second Language speakers. This study investigated the South African life sciences teachers’ use of science classroom language (technical and non-technical components) when teaching evolution to grade 12 learners in public schools. The primary objective of this study was to establish South Africa’s life sciences teachers’ awareness of the difficulty of the science classroom language towards suggesting strategies that they use to assist learners to better understand the science language. Three grade 12 life sciences teachers from two public schools in Johannesburg were observed and audio recorded three times while teaching evolution. A follow-up interview with each teacher was conducted to obtain clarity on language related issues that arose from the observations. As a result, the empirical data consisted of nine recorded lessons and accompanying field notes for each lesson as well as three recorded interviews. The interviews and the field notes were analysed using an interpretive approach whilst a strategy known as content analysis was used to analyse classroom observations so as to conclude on the teachers’ preferred approach to language use during teaching. From the findings, it can be suggested that South African life sciences teachers who participated in this study employed a variety of strategies to present technical terms to their learners but lacked explicit awareness of the difficulty of the science classroom language.Item South African physical science teachers’ classroom language for enhanced understanding of science concepts(2016) Kurwa, Govero MemoryThe study reported in this research report was motivated by the continuous poor performance by South African learners in physical sciences. This poor performance is evidenced by the below expectations year in, year out grade 12 physical science final examinations results. Several factors may be contributing to this poor performance such as lack of resources (both financial and human resources), overcrowding, ineffective teaching methods, and the language of teaching and learning. The assertion for this study was that teacher’s oral classroom instructional language impacts on learning of classroom science. The study, hence investigated how South African physical science teachers use their oral instructional language to enhance the understanding of science concepts. The raw data was gathered through naturalistic observation and video recording of physical science lessons by two participant South African physical science teachers drawn from two different high schools located in the Gauteng Province. The two school were chosen on the basis of their matric results that are also below average. Follow up educator interviews were also conducted and video recorded. The videos of the lesson observations and educator interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed. The study revealed that the participant educators were not explaining the meanings of all technical and non-technical words that were used in the observed lessons. Teachers did not distinguish between the everyday meanings and scientific meanings of non-technical words used. Participant educators did not seek and make use of the participant learners’ pre-instructional meanings of non-technical words to help learners understand better the new scientific meanings of these words. One of the participant educators did not engage learners in the ongoing lesson talk. The findings of this study will sensitise physical science teachers to important role of their oral instructional language to successful learning of science concepts in the classroom. This might help in ensuring science teachers use their oral instructional language effectively to enhance understanding of science concepts, by adopting teaching approaches that facilitate shared meanings of vocabulary used in science classrooms. Key words: technical and non-technical words, instructional language, science language.Item Polysemy and context: teachers' classroom language for understanding physical science(2016) White, ReginaA debate in South Africa on learner performance in Physical Science inevitably leads to the issue of proficiency in the language of learning and teaching (LoLT). The researcher is of the opinion that general understanding of the meaning of proficiency in LoLT usually refers to the ability to read and write well in that language which happens to be English in the majority of South African high schools. As low as 7% of the South African school going population regard themselves as English speaking (Department of Basic Education, 2010). The status of English as lingua franca has caused parents and teachers to believe that it is in the interest of learners to be taught in English (Wildsmith-Cromarty & Gordon, 2009). This view resulted that the debate on proficiency includes amongst others, opinions of those who propagate home language teaching and those who call for English as the preferred medium of instruction. This research contributes to the debate on proficiency by pointing to the important contribution that the science teacher can make to enculturate learners into the language of school science. The fact that both English First Additional Language learners (EFALs) as well as English Home Language learners (EHLs) struggle to understand Physical Science (Probyn, 2015) is indicative of the important role that the science teacher can play in assisting learners to understand Physical Science. In lieu of this, teachers are encouraged to focus on vocabulary building as well as the manner in which LoLT is employed to construe science knowledge. This is a functional view of language, namely, that language is used to convey a particular meaning hence the language differs across registers. Michael Halliday (1993) is credited for the development of a systemic functional linguistic view on language. This study analysed two teachers’ classroom languages from a Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL) perspective with specific emphasis on the register variables field and mode. Results show that LoLT was perceived as transparent when learners are EHLs and considered a barrier to learning Physical Science if learners are EFALs. In both cases, teachers seemed unable to enculturate learners into the language of school science when used to convey science meaning. An absence of that focus is what Bernstein called an “invisible pedagogy