Evolving trends of distance learning for basic education in Namibia: A parental perspective during Covid-19 lockdown

Ingenious technology-driven education has become prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic in schools. This article solicits pre-primary to Grade 12 learners' parents’/ guardians’ views and experiences of distance learning in Namibia during the COVID-19 lockdown. The study employs a mixed-methods research design to gather and analyse data. The analysis of the qualitative data revealed the following main themes: 1) Barriers to distance learning, and 2) Suggestions to overcome these challenges. The sub-themes were: 1) Communication, 2) Teaching and learning 3) Economic challenges, and 4) Materials and equipment. The results of a quantitative analysis revealed that 73,7% of the participating parents’ children had not received any form of education, and 23,7% affirmed that their children had received some education. 53% of the parents whose children had received an education were very dissatisfied. Therefore, the participating parents’ expectations of e-learning were not positively associated with the provision thereof. Lack of digital literacy prevented teachers from actively engaging with learners in digital communities.

Pre-service teachers’ attitudes and ethnocentrism regarding language-in-education issues

Different attitudes towards the use of English as the MoI within a multilingual environment exist. These attitudes can affect pre-service teachers’ future classroom practices and learners’ performance. In this regard, ethnocentrism, an attitudinal indicator, should be considered when investigating pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards language-in-education issues. Ethnocentrism, the tendency of an individual to identify strongly with their own ethnicity and reject others', draws on the social identity theory, owing to its focus on in-group-out-group distinctions, racism and stereotyping. This article’s primary purpose was to determine if preservice teachers’ attitudes toward language-ineducation issues are related to their degree of ethnocentrism. An embedded mixed- methods research design and a post-positivist paradigm was used. The research site was a private higher education institution with a mono-ethnic student population. A questionnaire using the Language Attitudes of Teachers Scale and the Generalised Ethnocentrism Scale served as the data collection instrument to measure 1 164 pre-service teachers' attitudes towards language-in-education issues and their degree of ethnocentrism. The data showed a statistically significant relationship between the pre-service teachers' attitudes and their degree of ethnocentrism and revealed potential indicators of lower and higher degrees of ethnocentrism. This study recommends that teacher education programmes create awareness of the relationship between attitudes and ethnocentrism to prepare pre-service teachers for multilingual and multicultural classrooms.

Translanguaging: A tool to decolonise students’ experiences of learning to write for academic purposes in the South African university context

University students can experience many challenges writing for academic purposes as they move from secondary to post-secondary studies. Both first and additional language users of English experience these challenges, resulting in universities across the globe instituting different modalities to help ease students’ transitions. In South African universities, despite English being the medium of instruction, most students are additional language speakers of English. This article discusses findings from a 2019 study that investigated three questions: 1) Do firstyear, additional language users of English choose to engage in translanguaging when presented with such an opportunity in their university courses? 2) If they choose to use this tool, how do they employ the genre conventions and discourse markers of the traditional academic essay? 3) What are their reactions to being presented with the opportunity to use translanguaging in their academic studies? The findings illustrate that approximately half of the study’s participants chose to employ translanguaging in their responses and were able to successfully use the genre conventions and discourse makers of the academic essay.

Teachers’ Knowledge and Practices in Using Digital Literacy in Enhancing Communicative Competence in the English as a Second Language Class

This study explored teachers’ knowledge and practices in using digital literacy in enhancing the communicative competence of English as a second language (ESL) learners. This is because there are different types of data in the digital domain, which necessitate their use in various fields of learning. One hundred teachers of English from South-west Nigeria participated in a survey through online platforms. After analyzing the data through both descriptive and inferential statistics, the major findings revealed the following: (1) ESL teachers have maximum knowledge of the existence of many of the existing digital tools (2) they largely perceive that digital literacy can be used to enhance communicative competence, but do not maximally use the digital tools to do so, (3)the digital divide is a major factor limiting teachers’ use of digital tools in enhancing learner communicative competence. In view of this, it is therefore recommended,firstly, that teachers be given adequate training on the use of digital tools in enhancing the communicative competence of ESL learners. Secondly, the government and other stakeholders should invest more in technology particularly in the area of education. Lastly, ESL teachers should make conscientious efforts to deploy digital tools in teaching to enhance the communicative competence of the learners.

Scaffolding of Wikipedia translation for technology-enhanced language learning

This paper reports on the fi ndings from training on language learning of pre service language student teachers on the translation of English Wikipedia articles into Oshikwanyama and Oshindonga. The interpretative framework of scaffolding was used to conduct the training. The study involved a group of 24 pre-service language student and teachers from a university in Namibia. Data was generated through the observation of the Wikipedia translation intervention referred to above. An openended questionnaire that served as a tool for refl ection on the translation was also used. The participants made use of several mediating technological tools (computers, internet, the Wikipedia website, and online dictionaries) as well as language books and dictionaries to translate articles on the Wikipedia website from English, the students’ second language, into Oshikwanyama/Oshindonga, their home languages. The fi ndings suggest that Wikipedia is a good resource for helping student teachers integrate the use of technology into their language learning in the fi rst-language classroom. It also offers student teachers a chance to develop strategies that scaffold learning in a structured way, using both technological and language mediating tools that are accessible and convenient to use.

Minority Languages’ exclusion in the Lesotho School Curriculum: Perceptions of Teachers and Learners

The study sought to know why learners from linguistically disadvantaged backgrounds have low educational morale. A constructivist study was adopted through the use of focus group discussions with 246 learners and 142 teachers in 23 schools located in Botha Bothe, Mohale’s Hoek, Qacha’s Nek and Quthing districts in Lesotho. The findings revealed minimal if not absolute nonrecognition of minority languages in the teaching and learning of learners from these linguistic backgrounds. Therefore, the study concludes that linguistically exclusive curriculum, and teaching and learning practices can reasonably be associated with poor performance of learners. Based on these findings, the paper recommends that Lesotho’s education system recognise the existence of national minority languages. In other words, the curriculum, its implementation and assessment of learners should not be divorced from the linguistic background of learners.

How English teachers’ corrective feedback practices can promote second language acquisition in Intermediate Phase classrooms in South Africa: A case study

In South Africa, many non-native Englishspeaking learners experience a variety of language challenges in classrooms and, as a result, underperform in national and international assessment opportunities. Teachers need to assist these learners with sufficient and effective feedback. The purpose of this qualitative study was, firstly, to explore the relationship between Hattie and Timperley’s (2007) model for effective feedback and the Interactionist Theory of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) (Gass & Mackey, 2006) and, secondly, to explore the corrective feedback practices of Intermediate Phase English Home Language teachers that promote SLA. Observations and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from 15 purposively selected teachers from five different schools. The research findings indicate that the participants experienced various language-related challenges in their teaching of Intermediate Phase English Home Language. Mostly, the participants utilised transmission teaching approaches to provide formative, oral, written, descriptive, and self- feedback. Feedback in terms of Hattie and Timperley’s (2007) model on the task level was mostly applied as opposed to feedback on the process, self-regulation, and the self-level.

Addressing the challenge of over-crowdedness in English First Additional Language (EFAL) classrooms

This paper lends itself to extenuating the impact of over-crowdedness in the intermediate phase EFAL classrooms. An in-depth investigation into the causes of poor performance in the intermediate phase EFAL classrooms revealed over-crowdedness as one of the main possible causes. The pedagogical impediments that result from this phenomenon affect the intermediate phase EFL teachers more due to the curriculum requirements of this subject. The study was conducted in the Motheo Education District, in the Free State Province. The data was collected qualitatively, through the use of a group interview, semi-structured interviews and observations. The interviews focused on both well-performing and poor performing schools, while the observations focused on the well-performing schools. The data, which was analysed thematically, revealed the following practices that can benefit EFAL teachers working in overcrowded intermediate phase classrooms: effective planning and preparation, the integration of skills, constructive teaching, explicit instruction, a selective approach, notetaking and the process approach. The study was premised on the theory of hope, as the insights from well-performing schools expound the importance of not losing hope and remaining motivated to mitigate contextual factors.

Grade 3 ESL teachers’ (mis)conceptions about vocabulary acquisition, learning and instruction: A case study

development-related (mis)conceptions of ten purposively selected Grade 3 English Second Language teachers in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, with a view to indexing their vocabulary pedagogical practices. The efficacy of teacher cognition on teaching practices is the theory upon which the present study, which considers vocabulary development as a proxy for literacy attainment, is based. The theory is buttressed by literature on the research-based best practices in literature development against which teachers’ conceptionsare measured. Semi-structured teacher interview findings showed that vocabulary instruction proceeded largely on the basis of intuitive pedagogical decisions which evince dissonance with researchbased best practices. There was a manifest disregard for both incidental andcontextualised vocabulary development, and an apparent underestimation of learners’ potential for independent vocabulary acquisition. Professed instructional strategies only drew learners’ attention to the orthographic and phonological forms of the words at the expense of other crucial dimensions of word knowledge. The paper recommends a consideration of teachers’ vocabulary development-related perceptions as a point of departure for teacher education and teacher professional development, among others.

A bilingual English-Sesotho rubric explanation guide for the marking of Sesotho home language creative writing essays

Language classes are marked using rubrics. Nevertheless, using the same rubric does not necessarily automate a uniform interpretation of the rubric. It is important to clearly define rubric criteria for teachers in order to counter the problem of misalignment in the usage of the rubric to mark learner essays. This article presents and explains a rubric explanation guide for the marking of Sesotho Grade 10 HomeLanguage creative writing essays based on the interpretations of nine teachers from six schools in the Metsimaholo education district. The explanation guide is presented bilingually in English and Sesotho. This article presents a more in-depth explanation guide for the rubricwhich was proposed in Sibeko (2016). The aim hereof is to ensure that teachers comparably understand rubric criteria and approach marking from the same point of view. For the purpose of this article, the rubric used by teachers in the said district is discussed. Both novice and experienced teachers stand to benefit from this explained rubric guide.