6.4 Teacher Anne’s story about the pedagogies practices
6.4.5 The analysis of Anne’s observed lesson 3
To personalise the general procedures of classroom analysis discussed in section 6.2, I used data from one of the six observed EFAL lessons to demonstrate the coding exercise. See methodology chapter section 4.7.3 and general procedures in section 6.2.
Anne is a well organised and confident teacher with a very good command of the English language. According to my observation at the teacher desk, her daily lessons were planned and adequately prepared, while the learners seemed happy and confident too. There were 37 learners on this particular day and the classroom environment was similar to what was observed during phase 1, but the learners’ seating arrangement seemed to have changed and some new posters added.
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The description of Anne’s FAL lesson 3 video recorded during phase 2 of data collection is offered in figure 6.2.
Date: 26-08-2014 Topic: Adjectives Duration: 40 minutes Class: 2A Episode 1
The day started with the teacher’ registration duties, while the class read loudly from the big book Tummy Ache led by their peer for 2 minutes. The learners seem to read from memory. Teacher recapped the previous lesson by asking the learners to define the word
T: Who can define the word noun?
L: Action words (class shouted NO!)
L2, L3, L4: Names of a person, name of a place and names of things (respectively) T: Very good answers. Today we are going to learn about adjectives
Episode 2
The teacher introduced adjectives as the topic of the day and pasted a chart with incomplete sentences on the chalkboard. They read the title - Adjective - and the teacher re-emphasised that an adjective describes a noun.
Individuals were asked to made sentences using adjectives. In an orderly manner they quickly constructed sentences such as: I have a big leg, A terrible tiger, I have a white cat etc. The teacher was impressed by one learner who recalled a sentence from a story done the previous term.
Episode 3
The teacher pasted a well written chart with incomplete sentences on the chalkboard and then the class read out loudly the following words from the flash cards: Nice, long, tall, clever, sunny, sharp and yellow. After the class reading each of the seven words three times, she pasted them next to the chart with incomplete sentences The teacher called individual students to read the incomplete sentences, which was then repeated loudly by the class.
Then individuals were called to the chalkboard and pasted the correct flash card to complete the missing adjective. It was easy and fun for most of the learners. She encouraged and assisted the slow readers. Correct answers were applauded and wrong answers were acknowledged, rephrased and right answers were given to the whole class as illustrated below
T: Zuma read for us sentence number five
L: Thi--s (pauses) cat has a tall tail (class burst into laughter and many raised their hands to correct Zuma)
T: Let’s give Zuma another chance to read the sentence, yes try again Zuma.
L:(shyly) This cat has a long tail T: Very good boy
Zuma stood up confidently and pasted the word long on the blank space of the fifth sentence and the class applauded. Lastly, the class read the seven completed sentences loudly. The teacher removed the pasted adjective words and left the incomplete sentence.
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Episode 4
Two students distributed exercise books from the shelves and each learner completed the sentences. She instructed the learners to copy and complete each of the sentences from the board with the correct adjective provided from the flash cards framework. The children worked individually and the teacher monitored the lesson, helping those who were struggling, reminding them to write dates, day and to seek help if there was a need. Most of them seriously concentrated on the task but few initially walked around sharpening pencils or borrowing pencils and erasers. The lesson came to an end while a few were still writing.
Figure 6.2: Descriptions of Anne’s English literacy Lesson 3 Video recorded on 26-08-2014
To code this particular lesson, specific aspects were devised from FAL principles of teaching.
The criteria on table 6.3 have the following key coding features: a strong presentation of any of the aspects of teaching FAL in the lesson was code 4 and code 1 demonstrated a very weak presentation of the lesson as illustrated below:
Table 6.3: The indicators used to code principles of teaching FAL from classroom data 2.0. To what extent does the lesson portray the main principle of Bilingualism?
Criteria and indicators used to code the aspects of the principles during a FAL lesson 1.0 Bilingualism
aspects
4.Strong presentation
3. Moderate presentation
2.Weak presentation 1.Very weak presentation 1A. Both HL and
FAL must be fully developed and used during the lesson
A balanced and appropriate use HL and FAL.
Learners were often encouraged to code switch
The teacher code switched accurately and appropriately most of the times.
Learners were generally encouraged to code switch
Use of HL and FAL was not in balance.
Little code switching was evidenced by both the teacher and the learners.
Used HL or FAL only. No code switching was presented.
1B.
Receptiveness to acquiring FAL
Children liked the lesson and were praised for almost all tasks.
Meaningful repetition and use of new
knowledge was applied objectively.
Children liked the lesson and were regularly praised for completed class tasks.
Adequate repetition and use new knowledge was applied contextually.
Children reasonably liked the lesson, and were sometimes praised for completed class tasks. Chants of sentences, words and sounds were common with little contextual application of the new knowledge.
Children did not enjoy the lesson and were not praised for the class tasks. Chants of sentences, words and sounds was common.
As explained in Chapter Four, classroom data was read several times in search of statements which correlated with the codes. For instance, table 6.3, demonstrates how Anne’s lesson 3
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was coded for the first aspect of bilingualism (1.0) was given two sub categories coded as 1A (both HL and FAL must be fully developed) and 1B (receptiveness to acquiring FAL). Each of these aspects were connected to a piece of text from the observation or video transcript and corroborated by the researchers’ field notes to generate the codes. Aspect 1A was coded at 4 written as 1A.1 (see Table 6.4 below) which means Anne did not have a good balance of the HL and FAL (weak presentation of aspect 1A) during the lesson.
Table 6.4: Analysis of Anne’s lesson 3 using principles of teaching English as an additional language at the FPT Main principles
of teaching FAL Definition or aspects of the principles coded
Implications for practice
1.0. What is
bilingualism? 1A. Both HL and FAL must be fully developed
English is the LoLT in school 1, located in the suburb of the PMB town, but predominantly a Black residential area thus, the teachers’ aim was to strengthen the FAL and not create a balance between the two languages.
She did not use HL during the lesson. The learners also fluently participated in the class discussion in short phrases in English. Coded as 1A.1
1B.
Receptiveness to acquiring FAL
The learners were actively involved and happy as they answered the teacher’s questions and pasted the correct adjective. Some seemed to repeat the sight words after the teacher from memory. The teacher encouraged them and was very patient with the slow learners and applauded every correct responses. Maybe the slow learners acquired new knowledge but did not apply it in the context. Generally, the exercise of identifying an adjective and constructing a sentence orally seemed easy for most of the learners. Coded as 1B. 3
2.0. To what extend did the lesson present explicit opportunities of learning and acquiring FAL in an authentic way?
2A.Formal (traditional) approaches to learning FAL
The learners knew and applied their prior knowledge of nouns and adjectives without difficulties, especially in the formal sentences in episode 3. The reading was guided by the teacher who selected and sequenced the content of the sentences and the sight words in a systematic manner. The majority of the learners completed the sentences easily. Coded as 2A.3
2B.Krashen’s natural approaches to acquiring FAL based on the 5
hypotheses
The teacher provided informal opportunities to the happy learners to define the word adjective and construct their own sentences which were context based. She was very friendly, patient and corrected the slow learners’ errors in the most appropriate manner for them to grasp the content. The level of the teacher’s talk and text was easy for the bright learners, but fine for the slow learners, which enabled the active participation of most of the learners. Coded as 2B.4
3.0. To what extent did the teacher provide meaningful opportunities to enhance building of vocabulary and oral sentences fluently?
3A.Develop listening and speaking skills
She instructed individuals to read out the correct adjective to the class and then pasted the correct flash card on the blank spaces of the sentences. She encouraged both the strong and the weak learners to actively participate in the class tasks. Coded as 3A.3
3B.Building vocabulary and developing
Teaching using the theme and following the CAPS was evidenced, and learners used the given adjectives to complete the formal sentences on the chart. The majority repeated the key words and sentences and constructed their own sentences without any problem. Coded as 3B.3
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oral sentences in FAL 4.0. To what
extent does the teacher use balanced strategies and routines that supports meaningful reading and writing?
4A.Strategies and routines that support meaningful word study and reading
For the comprehension and identification of adjectives they only used the flash cards and meaning-based approach to reading the text. To strengthen the letter-sound relation, they read one rhyme at the beginning of the lesson and a short song during the lesson (to get their attention).
Coded as 4A.2 4B.Strategies
and routines that support meaningful writing.
She modelled a neat and well written chart and list of words to the class.
In the last episode, learners were instructed to write the incomplete sentences on the chalkboard and fill the missing adjectives. They worked individually and the teacher monitored the task, marking and helping those who were struggling. Coded as 4B.3
5.0. To what extent does the classroom portray a print rich environment?
Print-Rich learning environment
The teacher had increased or changed most of DBE charts for IsiZulu and English sounds and words, life orientation charts on hygiene and health, and numeracy charts on additions, subtraction and numbers. The teacher’s written works and learners’ creative works dominated the classroom displays. The class had a reading corner with several displays too, games, counters, home items, reading books and the big book stand.
The back of the class also had storage shelves with learners’ workbooks and other reading books in piles, and the basal readers were also displayed. On the right side, were the learners’ utensils and drinking water. Coded as 5.4.
Similarly, I generated a table for each of Anne’s six lessons and developed a rich summative description of the classroom findings to illustrate how their EFAL pedagogies changed within the 18 months of learning from the ACT programme. The next section offers the Anne’s classroom summative findings.