| JOURNAL FOR LANGUAGE
TEACHING
Vol. 33 No. 1, April 1999 TYDSKRIF VIR TAALONDERRIG
|
Inhoud/Contents
Henk Kroes
Faculty of Arts, Rand Afrikaans University
SAALT - Reflecting on our origin and our role in language teaching in South Africa
This article differs in a number of ways from what is normally published in our journal. In the first place the need was felt to make available to our members some kind of overview of our origin and history as an organisation while there were still some of the founder-members about who could share their personal experiences and their lnvolvement in the course of events. I was therefore requested to produce such an overview. In the second place this would create an opportunity to reflect on how our association has, through its activities and publications over the years, been an accurate mirror of changing attitudes to approaches (and research) in language teaching, both world-wide and in South Africa in particular. Lastly, it is a fitting moment to pay tribute to organisations and individuals who have made valuable contributions over the years.
SAVTO - weerspieëling van ons oorsprong en ons rol in taalonderrig in Suid-Afrika
Hierdie oorsig wyk in sekere opsigte effens af van wat normaalweg in ons tydskrif gepubliseer word. In die eerste plek spruit dït voort uit 'n behoefte om lesers 'n oorsig te bied van ons vereniging se oorsprong en geskiedenis, solank daar nog van die stigterslede beskikbaar is om hulle persoonlike ervaring en betrokkenheid met die verloop van gebeure met ons te deel. Aan my is dïe taak opgedra om so 'n oorsig te probeer verskaf. In die tweede plek sou dit dïe geleentheid bied om te besin oor die wyse waarop ons vereníging vïa sy aktiwiteite en publikasies oor die jare daarin geslaag het om die veranderende benaderings (en navorsing) ten opsigte van taalonderrig te weerspieël, beide op internasionale vlak en in Suid-Afrika in die besonder. Ten slotte is dit 'n gepaste geleentheid om hulde te bring aan organisasies en indiwidue wat oor die jare heen 'n waardevolle bydrae gelewer het.
Dietloff van der Berg
Skool vir Taal, Kultuur en Kommunikasie, Universiteit
van Natal, Pietermaritsburg
Aspekte van Benoeming
The paper sees the view that 0utcomes Based language teaching is aimed at achieving mechanistic end results as a challenge for the language teacher who believes that language is more than just a means to an end. The language teacher should always be aware of the whole communication process and not only the final outcome, especially in a multicultural classroom. The paper focuses on the inherent need to be able to label people and places if we want to communicate and shows how a name is often far more than just a handy label. Teachers acting as bridges between cultures must point out to their students the relevant cultural codes embedded in naming in line with the specific outcomes for Language, Literacy and Communication. It discusses the political nature of naming and points out that the teacher should be sensitive to such issues. Newmark's approach to transferring names from one language to another is then looked at as a possible approach to handling names in different language systems. His different approach to names according to whether they are literary or not is seen as very simplistic and does not present a workable solution to the problem as there is an interplay between fictional and real worlds in some literary texts, while some realistic texts in turn create an imaginary world within the realistic text for humorous or other effects. In the case of Etienne Leroux's Sewe dae by die Silbersteins the name given to the farm in the novel is 'welgevonden' which is also the name of a well known farm in reality, creating a very strong ironic effect in the text. The referential aspect oi ~ames is also of lesser importance than their symbolic meaning in a poem like 'Aftelrympie' by Peter Blum while in the anonymous poem 'Liedjie' names are used to create a strong ironic message by using the cultural background of the names as intertext. In an example from a text on estate duty on the other hand uames are used to clearly create a fictitious world for humorous purposes and not to refer directly to realïty. Even meanings of acronyms can change very quickly in a country undergoing rapid social change, such as ours, and these acronyms should be interpreted in their socio-linguistic context. It is pointed out how the real meaning of the texts are lost if the names are simply retained in their original form without explaining the relevant context and cultural background to the nonmothertongue speaker. within the framework of Outcomes Based Education teachers should remain aware of the fact that language teaching should not be seen as teaching learners one to achieve specific outcomes. The teacher in a multicultural classroom should realize that naming for instance is an important cultural signifier which can influence the outcome of any attempt to foster understanding between learners from different cultures.
A. Susan Coetzee-Van Rooy
Department Teaching Development, Vaal Triangle Technikon
Vanderbijlpark
The poems we choose
The aim of this paper is to consider the methods by which university poetry students and teachers select the poems they choose to analyse or teach as examples of a particular poet's complete oeuvre. It is postulated in this paper that some university poetry courses and some poetry studies are scientifically "ambivalent", because their findings cannot be verified by the material studied, or the methods used to direct the study. The method suggested in this paper is based upon an MA study and a follow-up project where questionnaires were sent to university poetry lecturers. The paper concludes that a combination of methods to establish the most canonised poems and the use of statistical techniques can serve as a workable method to study a fair number of poems that represent the complete oeuvre of a poet.
Willfred J. Greyling
Department of English, University of the Free State
Pre-empting fragmentation in the language teacher's construct system: Or, part of the proof of the 0BE (or any other kind of) pudding is in the classroom discourse
When prospective and practising teachers engage in critical reflection on their work, they sometim~5 claim that they have embraced a specific teaching style, method or approach. It is argued in this article that these claims may be tested against the discourse teachers and pupils co-produce in the classroom. In the context of teacher training, small-scale simulations of classroom activities were used with two groups of prospective English teachers. The main aim was to expose these students to experiential learning in which (a) they selected an activity which, in their view, would promote a selection of specific outcomes from curriculum 2005, (b) the activity would also be screened in terms of key characteristics of the communicative approach, (c) they assumed the roles of teachers and pupils in the activity, (d) they recorded and transcribed the classroom discourse so produced, and (e) they used the transcriptions as evidence to validate or disconfirm the constructs they had used in selecting the activity in the first place. This cycle, it is suggested, may be used not only to pre-empt inconsistencies in the language teacher's construct system governing the language teaching event, but also to foster a critical awareness of discourse as evidence of teacher constructs manifested in what Spady (1994) refers to as the complex role performance of the teacher.
A.C. Lessing
Departement Opvoedkundestudies, UNISA
M.W. de Witt
Departement Primêre Skool Onderwysopleiding, UNISA
Riglyne vir die samestelling van 'n leesprogram vir T2-leerders
Leerders wat nie Engels behoorlik magtig is nie en in die huidige omstandighede in Suid-Afrika tot 'n dubbel- of parallelmedium skool toegelaat word, word aan 'n nuwe benadering tot onderwys blootgestel. Vir dié leerders geskied onderwys deur 'n vreemde taal, naamlik Engels (L2; ESL). Uit navorsing is bevind dat die T2-leerders probleme met die verwerwing van leesvaardigheid ervaar en dat die probleme veral op die vlak van begrip lê. Dit het verder geblyk dat die leerders oor 'n ontoereikende Engelse woordeskat beskik wat leesbegrip bemoeilik. Die klassamestelling in die skole is heterogeen, wat impliseer dat die leerders in 'n besondere klas Tl- sowel as T2-leerders kan wees wat op verskillende vlakke van lees- en taalverwerwing funksioneer. Daar bestaan dus 'n dringendheid om riglyne vir 'n leesprogram saam te stel wat op die besondere behoeftes van heterogene groepe gerig is. Na aanleiding van 'n literatuurstudie en onderhoude met vakkundiges en professionele persone in onderrig aan T2-leerders, is riglyne vir 'n leesprogram saamgestel. In die leesprogram word gebruik gemaak van 'n gekombineerde leesmetode wat deel uitmaak van 'n totale oorkoepelende taalprogram. Klem word gelê op woordeskatuitbreiding, informele leer en die gebruik van moedertaal vir begrip en konsepvorming.
Guidelines for the composition of a reading program for L2-learners
Learner that are not fluent in English and find themselves enrolled in schools that use double or parallel medium due to the present circumstances in South Africa are exposed to a new approach to education. For the learner the tuition is conducted in a foreign language, namely English (L2, ESL). From research, it has been shown those L2-learners experience problems with acquiring reading fluency and that the problem mainly lies at the level of comprehension. It has also become apparent that learners have an inadequate vocabulary, which is a further hindrance to reading comprehension. The class composition in the schools is heterogeneous, which implies that learners in a specific class can be L1- as well as L2-learners that function on different levels of reading and language. There is therefore a sense of urgency to compile guidelines for a reading program that is specially geared toward heterogeneous groups. Evidence from a literature study and interviews with experts and professionals in the teaching of L2-learners has resulted in the composition of guidelines for a reading program. The reading program makes use of combined reading methods that form part of a totally encompassing language program. Emphasis is placed on expanding the vocabulary, informal learning and the use of the mother language for the forming of concepts and understanding.
Nkonko M. Kamwangamalu
Department of Linguistics, University of Natal, Durban
Chrissie Virasamy
Southland Secondary School in Durban
Zulu peer-tutoring in a multi-ethnic English only classroom
This article reports on one teaching method, peer-tutoring, which some teachers at a previously 'Indian' school in Durban use to attend to the communicative needs of their Zulu ESL pupils. It shows that contrary to the English-only argument, using the pupils' native tongue, Zulu, in an English-only classroom can enhance rather than impede ESL learning. Zulu peer-tutoring not only contributes to the academic development of Zulu-speaking pupils and fosters friendships and meaningful contacts between these pupils and their Indian classmates, but it also provides the latter with opportunities to learn Zulu and appreciate the language as a resource in an English-only environment
Marieken Swart
Department of English, University of Stellenbosch
Righting writing wrongs through multimedia
The problem addressed in this paper is the debilitating lack of academic writing skills shown by students at tertiary level. The reasons for the lack in proficiency in writing are sought in the theories of Lev Vygotsky and in the research of cognitive specialists. The paper proposes that computer-assisted instruction can and should be used as a complementary tool to teach the necessary higher-order, reflective skills essential to successful academic writing. Student feedback on a multimedia tutorial course in writing is used to reflect on the advantages and disadvantages of such instruction, the essential components needed to motivate students and the pedagogical and technological principles that have to be considered.
Die feit dat eerstejaarstudente nie oor die nodige denk-
en skryfvaardighede beskik wat hulle in staat stel om sukses in verskeie
vakrigtings op tersiêre vlak te bereik nie is die fokus van hierdie
artikel. Die oorsaak van die agterstand word hoofsaaklik aan die hand van
die pedagogiese teorië van Lev Vygotsky en die kognitiewe navorsing
van David Perkins en Robert Sternberg bespreek. Rekenaargesteunde onderrig
word voorgestel as 'n intervensie wat, indien dit saam met tradisionele
onderrig gebruik word, 'n noemenswaardige verskil kan maak om te verseker
dat studente die nodige akademiese skryfvaardighede ontwikkel. Studenteterugvoer
op 'n tutoriale multimediaprogram oor skryfvaardighede word gebruik om
te besin oor die voor- en nadele van die gebruik van rekenaaronderrig, die
faktore wat motivering bevorder en die essensiële pedagogiese en tegnologiese
beginsels wat so 'n program se effektiwiteit beïnvloed.