scholarly journals Language as an including or excluding factor in mathematics teaching and learning

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sally-Ann Robertson ◽  
Mellony Graven
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
South African ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Poor Performance ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Language Immersion ◽  
Sense Making ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Immersion Education ◽  
Language Immersion Education

AbstractThis article explores the power of language to either include or exclude certain groups of students from genuine opportunities for mathematical sense-making. The substantial increase worldwide in the number of students learning mathematics through a language other than their primary language makes this a particularly urgent issue. This paper focuses on the South African situation, where, because English is widely perceived as the language of opportunity, it is, by grade 4, overwhelmingly the chosen language of learning and teaching. The epistemological and pedagogical consequences of this choice are evidenced in the poor performance of the country’s students on national and international assessments of mathematical proficiency. Drawing on research literature around language immersion education models and the extent to which these align with certain key principles of second language acquisition, this position paper motivates for a stronger and more sustained commitment to providing students, particularly those from marginalized and vulnerable communities, with opportunities for becoming both bilingual and biliterate. Empirical data from two South African grade 4 mathematics classrooms are used to illuminate aspects of the mathematical sense-making challenges students and their teachers face without such commitment.

scholarly journals Second Language Acquisition and Form-Focused Instruction in Immersion: Teaching for Learning

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 388
Author(s):  
PhD T. J. Ó Ceallaigh
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Language Immersion ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Sustained Development ◽  
Immersion Education ◽  
Viable Solution ◽  
Language Immersion Education

While research on language immersion education has highlighted a multitude of benefits such as<br />cognitive skills, academic achievement and language and literacy development, some studies have also<br />identified challenges to its effective implementation, particularly as they relate to language acquisition.<br />It has been suggested that the less than optimal levels of students’ immersion language “persist in part<br />because immersion teachers lack systematic approaches for integrating language into their content<br />instruction” (Tedick, Christian, &amp; Fortune, 2011, p. 7). Students’ interlanguage has aspects that are<br />borrowed, transferred and generalised from the mother tongue and differs from both the immersion<br />language and the mother tongue. After a period of sustained development, interlanguage appears to<br />stabilise and certain non-target like features tend to fossilise. Research has long suggested that<br />effective immersion pedagogy needs to counterbalance both form-oriented and meaning-oriented<br />approaches. This paper reviews the literature in relation to the linguistic deficiencies in immersion<br />students’ L2 proficiency and form-focused instruction is examined as a viable solution to this<br />pedagogic puzzle. Key instructional elements of form-focused instruction are unpacked and some<br />pedagogical possibilities are considered in an attempt to identify and discuss strategies that will enable<br />immersion learners to refine their grammatical and lexical systems as they proceed.

scholarly journals The dream of Sisyphus: Mathematics education in South Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Knowledge ◽  
South African ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Poor Performance ◽  
School Curriculum ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Initial Teacher Education ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Weak State

Background: South African schooling is caught in a vicious cycle, characterised by weak initial teacher education (ITE) and weaker-than-average learning outcomes, resulting in low teacher status and attempts to reform schooling by means of continuous professional development (CPD).Aim: The paper attempts to understand the reasons for poor performance in mathematics and to explore avenues for improvement.Setting: Teaching in South African schools.Method: Three mechanisms for improving teaching and learning are identified: ITE, CPD and the management of and support to teachers. Drawing on the research literature, the paper examines the potential of each for reforming the system.Results: Tests based on the school curriculum indicate that final-year BEd students are quite unprepared to teach mathematics in primary schools, revealing very significant shortcomings in ITE curricula. CPD, where it is well designed and rigorously evaluated, has been shown to have small effects on both teacher knowledge and learner performance. However, unless ITE is reformed at the same time, CPD becomes a never ending task of making marginal differences to the shortcomings of each successive cohort of qualified but incompetent teachers emerging from the universities.Conclusion: While the weak state of governance in the civil service remains a major obstacle to improved schooling, and while every effort must be made to raise the capacity of inservice teachers, maximal leverage in boosting teacher capacity sits firmly with the universities. While CPD has, at most a few hours a month to bridge huge gaps in teacher knowledge, ITE has at its disposal four years of full-time study with young, plastic minds.

scholarly journals A Critical Review of Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Theory in Second Language Acquisition

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Habibullah Pathan ◽  
Rafique A. Memon ◽  
Shumaila Memon ◽  
Ali Raza Khoso ◽  
Illahi Bux
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Cultural Theory ◽  
Learning Problems ◽  
Proximal Development ◽  
Learning To Learn ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
The Impact

The purpose of this study is to explore Vygotsky’s contribution to the socio-cultural theory in the field of education in general, and applied linguistics in particular. The study aims to elaborate the impact of social-cultural theory in the existing body of literature. The study also reviews implications and applications of socio-cultural theory in second language acquisition (SLA). Moreover, this study also critiques the basic concepts of the theory and how far these concepts have been implicated in the domain of research. The central focus is to explore and to critically understand central ideas such as Zone of Proximal Development, mediation, scaffolding, internalization, and private speech. The socio-cultural theory focuses on what learners learn and the solution to their learning problems. Socio- cultural theory has made a great effect on learning and teaching languages. It also regards learning second language as a semiotic process where participation in socially mediated activities is very important (Ellis, 2000). Vygotsky (1987) singled out and studied the dynamic social surroundings which indicate the connection between teacher and the child. Moreover, he focused on the social, cultural and historical artifacts which play a pivotal role in the children’s cognitive development as well as their potential performance. The study concludes with the idea of Williams & Burden (1997) that socio-cultural theory suggests that education should be associated with learning to learn and making learning experiences meaningful and relevant to the learner. The study also suggests some pedagogical implications and offers teaching and learning practices in relation to socio-cultural theory.

scholarly journals Web-based lecture technologies and learning and teaching: a study of change in four Australian universities

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maree Gosper ◽  
M. MacNeill ◽  
Rob Phillips ◽  
Greg Preston ◽  
Karen Woo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Educational Research ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Educational Innovation ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Teaching Approaches ◽  
Disciplinary Differences ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Innovation And Change ◽  
Australian Universities

Educational innovation and change is multidimensional, involving individuals and organisations. It is best achieved when it is accompanied by new teaching approaches and the alteration of beliefs, as well as taking into account disciplinary differences in teaching and learning, the educational research literature, and evidence about the benefits of the innovation

scholarly journals A socially inclusive teaching strategy for fourth grade English (second) language learners in a South African school

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mots'elisi L. Malebese ◽  
Moeketsi F. Tlali ◽  
Sechaba Mahlomaholo
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
South African ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Teaching Strategy ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Support Materials ◽  
Inclusive Teaching

Background: Learners from predominantly less priviledged South African schools encounter English as a language of teaching and learning for the first time in Grade 4. The transition from the use of home language to second language, namely English first additional language, is complexly related to the learners’ inability to read text meaningfully. This complexity is traceable to the reading materials, actual teaching practices and learners’ cultural underpinnings. Learners’ inability to read text meaningfully impacts negatively their academic performance in general.Aim: This article demonstrates how a socially inclusive teaching strategy is used to enhance the teaching of reading in a second additional language to Grade 4 learners.Setting: A one-teacher public school situated on a remote private property with bad access roads. Learners from neighbouring farms walked long distances to school. The teacher’s administrative work and workshops often clashed with teaching and learning that received very limited support.Methods: The principles of the free attitude interview technique and critical discourse analysis were used to generate and analyse the data. Socially inclusive teaching strategy that is participatory action research-oriented and underpinned by critical emancipatory research principles guided the study.Results: The use of socially inclusive teaching strategy helped improve reading of English text significantly.Conclusion: Socially inclusive teaching strategy can help improve learning and teaching support materials, teacher support and learning.

Research into practice: Grammar learning and teaching

2015 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Larsen-Freeman
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Large Impact ◽  
Interface Position ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Grammar Learning ◽  
Selective Review

This selective review of the second language acquisition and applied linguistics research literature on grammar learning and teaching falls into three categories: where research has had little impact (the non-interface position), modest impact (form-focused instruction), and where it potentially can have a large impact (reconceiving grammar). Overall, I argue that not much second language acquisition or applied linguistics research on grammar has made its way into the classroom. At the conclusion of the discussion of each of the three categories, I speculate on why this is so. I also find misguided the notion that research should be applied to teaching in an unmediated manner. This is not to say that research should have no impact on pedagogy. In concluding, I offer some ways that I believe it could and should.

Student outcomes in one-way, two-way, and indigenous language immersion education

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn Lindholm-Leary ◽  
Fred Genesee
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Student Outcomes ◽  
Language Immersion ◽  
Indigenous Language ◽  
Language Competence ◽  
Content Areas ◽  
Student Background ◽  
Immersion Education ◽  
Language Immersion Education ◽  
The Relationship

This article examines international research on student outcomes in one-way, two-way, and indigenous language immersion education. We review research on first and second language competence and academic achievement in content areas (e.g., math) among both majority and minority language students. We also discuss the relationship between bilingualism and student outcomes and whether more exposure to the first or second language is associated with better outcomes. In addition, we highlight student background, methodological, and assessment issues and concerns, and suggest additional avenues of research on student outcomes

scholarly journals The Impact of Using Code Alternation in Teaching Life Science to English First Additional Language learners in South African Schools

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 175
Author(s):  
Mzamani Johannes Maluleke ◽  
Ernest Kwesi Klu ◽  
Vincent N. Demana
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Medium Of Instruction ◽  
The South ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Code Mixing ◽  
Teaching Life ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact

The study aimed at investigating the extent to which English is used as a medium of teaching and learning Life Sciences in a South African rural high school. As the government has given recognition to the country’s multilingual, multi-ethnic and multicultural composition, School Governing Bodies are mandated to choose any of the eleven official languages as a medium of instruction (RSA, Act 108 of 1996), but the power of deciding which language to use as a medium of instruction has been taken by teachers to shield their own shortcomings. To be able to explore and understand the prevailing situation, the researchers employed a qualitative design which translated into researchers observing classes, evaluating learners’ written texts and interviewing the teachers as methods of collecting data. The findings are that: first, learners’ and teachers’ proficiency levels in English are very low, as such, the English language is not a pivot of learning and teaching in the South African education system. This emanates from the fact that although in theory the majority of the South African schools have adopted English as a medium of instruction, in practice, this is far from the truth as teachers employ code alternation in the form of code switching, code mixing and sentence translation as viable means of scaffolding the learning of content subjects.

scholarly journals Emerging response-abilities: a reflection on the 2019 SOTL in the South conference

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 69
Author(s):  
Shashi Cullinan Cook
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Learning Context ◽  
The South ◽  
Scholarship Of Teaching ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Creative Commons ◽  
Fourth Industrial Revolution ◽  
University Of Technology

The second biennial ‘SOTL in the South’ conference was held at the Central University of Technology (CUT) in Bloemfontein, South Africa, in October 2019. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL) is gaining increasing traction in South African universities, and this conference was a collaboration between the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching at CUT, and SOTL in the South. The theme of this conference was ‘Creating space for Southern narratives on Teaching and Learning’ and the keynote speakers were Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Joanne Vorster, Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni and Catherine Manathunga. In this piece I reflect on the conference and identify some of the narratives that emerged from it. I share some of the discussions by keynote speakers and presenters which help to expand discourses on the interconnectedness of decolonisation, and economic, social and environmental justice, and I explain why I look to ‘Southern SOTL’ for guidance in negotiating contradictions in my teaching and learning context. In this piece I consider the response-abilities of higher educators to contribute to these urgent matters.Key words: SOTL in the South, research in teaching and learning, global South, north-south, decolonisation, 4IR, fourth industrial revolution, response-abilityHow to cite this article:Cullinan Cook, S. 2020. Emerging response-abilities: a reflection on the 2019 SOTL in the South conference. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South. v. 4, n. 1, p. 69-85. April 2020. Available at: https://sotl-south-journal.net/?journal=sotls&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=135This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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