I TENOR I
4.1 Analysis and Interpretation of the Learners' Literate Life Histories (LLHs)
4.1.2 Textbooks and Literate Development
interactionand access to reading enabled them to gain control over these genres without explicit help . For learners from ESL and marginalised communitiesthis sort oflearning experience would be inadequate and would result in unequal access to tertiary education and employment opportunities. Thulani describes a similar sort of experiencewith the writing of History essays:
During standard eight and seven we didn't write essays,we were just answering those short questions ... [in standard nine] while wewere given thetopic [of a history essay] wewerenot informed about how we must put our ideas,wejust put it on all scattered, all of it not in a paragraph form ... we had no idea what strategies we must use.Our writing was like thenotes from the board. We done it and when she marked it she didn't complain that we used the wrong tactic to write the essay.
The sort of teaching practices described by the pupils above indicates that they are not being systematically inductedinto'dealing with texts which construct and disseminateknowledge'nor with the wayin which 'knowledge is built up and modelled through the languageof thewritten style'. Martin (1993b) would argue that science learners would 'need an understandin g of the structure ofgenres and the grammar oftechnicality' (202). Without this theyareunableto produce writing that would be 'respected' bygatekeepers of thediscipline.
to accomplish this, given work conditions, was to get children to copy from the board and thus provide the necessary evidence that the syllabus was 'covered'.The teacher in question called this ,the-crunch- and-carry -on-method' descriptive ofthe treadmi11 process0f comp leting the syllabus.
It also indicated an awareness that though the work had been covered, not much would have been comprehended. Bongani (Appendix 9) had another view ofthe relationship between the textbook situation and notes on the blackboard. He stated that there was no shortage of textbooks at the school, it was just that the pupils lost them because they never felt the necessity to bring them to school. He stated that when pupils come to school they only carry 'exercise books, no textbooks.
Because the kids know you go to biology, you write notes, you go to geography, you write notes'.
According to him the books are lost early in the year 'because they do not have to carry them to class' .
These comments by teachers have interesting parallels in the research done under the auspices of the Presidents Education Initiative (PEI). Launched in 1996, the research component of the PEI commissioned 35 research studies in the following areas:
• establishing best practices in the teaching of mathematics, science, or English with particular reference to Curriculum 2000.
• identifying difficulties in the teaching oflarge classes, multigrade classes or multilingual classes and investigating ways of overcoming these.
• investigating the availability and use of learning materials.
(Diphofa, Vinjevold and Taylor 1999: 6)
The PEI research found that very few teachers are using textbooks in any systematic way even when they are available.Teachers cited many of the reasons for this situation mentioned by the teachers in this study, namely, that students are unable to read them, and that they are out-of-date and inappropriate.On the other hand, the PEI research suggests that many teachers avoid using textbooks because of their own poor content knowledge and reading skills. An added factor that comes from this research is that systemic pressures, in the form of syllabus demands, the bureaucracy ofaccountability, and overcrowded classrooms, push teachers towards strategies such as blackboard notes to provide written evidence of work covered. Whatever the combination of
reasons for the situation described in the PE! research and this study, the fact that learners leave their textbooks at home because they are never required to use them at school indicates the extent to which learners are deprived of literacy skills.
Genre analysts would argue that textbooks should serve as powerful models of discipline specific genres.They should provide the means for students to move from everyday experience to the domain of specialised knowledge (Macken-Horarik 1996). What the respondents have experienced does not provide them with this sort of experience nor does it enable them to work independently with textbooks.Furthermore, as Thulani stated, this classroom process promotes replication and rote learning without any reflective and developmental process involved in writing: 'when you done the work, given the mark, finish'. Various researchers in South African education have commented on the issue oftextbooks and their impact on learning and teaching. Macdonald (1990a,b) commented on the effect of the sudden transition from mother-tongue instruction for the first four years of schooling (with English as a subject) to English as medium of instruction (MOl) in the fifth year. She calculated that on average in these circumstances, children could develop an English vocabulary ofapproximately 800 words. However, the children were faced with text books across all the different subj ects which required a vocabulary of around 5000 words.They were thus faced with the onerous tasks oflearning a deluge of new concepts in different disciplines and a new language at the same time. The learners did not have the language skills to process and internalise new concepts. Langham (1993) confirmed Macdonald' s findings. He found the gap between the learners' language competence and the language levels demanded by the text books so vast that learners were unable to read the text books or manage the tasks and exercises. The textbooks did not take the learners' language levels into account nor their frames of reference. This meant that they did not provide appropriate mediating experiences which would have enabled learners to move from their own knowledge and experience into the new concepts that the textbooks were supposed to be developing.
In the face of these difficulties, Macdonald found that teachers resorted to methods that were ultimately detrimental to the conceptual development ofthe learners.Classroom interaction was dominated by teacher talk, chanted responses by the learners, rote learning and memorisation.
Macdonald saw the situation as self-perpetuating. Teachers resorted to rote learning and drilling
because learners could not read and, because ofthis, learners did not learn to read effectively. The result was a crippling neglect ofthe basic skills on which the future academic progress oflearners depends, namely, listening, speaking, reading and writing. Vinjevold (1999), summarising the PEI research into the provision and use of learning materials in South African schools, writes that teachers either do not use materials, such as textbooks, or use them in a haphazard way. The tasks 'do not demand higher order skills and knowledge' and 'often do not engage learners in progressively more demanding activities aimed at developing reading, writing and numeracy skills' (184). In particular, Macdonald found minimal time spent on reading and writing. The learners' LLHs indicate that this is a practice which permeates the whole system. The prevalence of copying notes off blackboards, and the minimal writing and narrow range of genres that learners experience, confirm Macdonald' s findings.They indicate that the problems set in motion by the transitionto English as MOl in year five without sufficient conceptual development in their mother tongue and sufficient English language development are ones that learners carry with them throughout their schooling. Italso indicates that these problems impact on the methodologies teachers' employ to respond to them.
The issue of the use of textbooks has important implications for the development of appropriate and empowering literate behaviours in learners. Vinjevold (1999: 166-168) reports on research in the Philippines and South Africa where students who used textbooks achieved more than learners who did not. The research in South Africa reported more individual and group work, and more involvement and motivation. Furthermore, the more the materials were used the greater the benefits. In contrast, the situation described by the learners in this research indicates the extent to which important learning experiences are being denied them. This will have a significantly detrimental effect on their ability to process and produce texts and consequently on their chances of success in their academic and working lives.