The study examines cognition and conceptualization by language teachers as they experience changing language landscapes in their schools. The data was collected through stories written by grade 10 language teachers in Empangeni district.
Introduction and purpose of the study
Rationale
The research could help language teachers to review their school language policy and determine whether the latter is in line with South Africa's language in education policy. Hearing the voices of language teachers in multilingual classrooms could expand the body of knowledge that language curriculum designers need to develop language-in-education policy.
Theoretical and conceptual frameworks
In the proposed research, language educators will reflect on their experiences in multilingual classrooms and build empowering knowledge and understanding within the context of the multilingual encounter. The reality of multilingual classrooms will be interpreted through the meaning that language educators give to their life world.
Key research questions
De Vos, Strydom, Fouche and Delport (2011) claim that interpretive approach maintains that, all people involved in the process of making sense of their worlds are constantly interpreting, creating, giving meaning, defining, justifying and rationalizing daily actions. Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2011) maintain that interpretive paradigm examines the situation through the eyes of the participants.
Definition of key concepts
An overview of research design and methodology
The researcher's interpretations and inferences from the narratives will be confirmed through the unstructured one-on-one interviews. Data collected from the narratives and data generated and confirmed through interviews will be synthesized as findings of the research.
Ethical issues
Conclusion
LITERATURE REVIEW
Overview
Language teachers are expected to embrace transformation in terms of South Africa's language in education policy. In reality, language in education policy does not offer autonomy to educators, as it is a top-down imposition.
The impact of multilingual classrooms on language teaching and learning
Borg (2003) asserts that teachers' practices are shaped by the environmental realities of the school and classroom. Drawing on Macdonald (1990), Probyn (2009) argues that teachers' classroom practices are shaped by students' language skills.
South African Department of Education position on teaching and learning
Furthermore, South Africa's policy on languages in education is enshrined in the country's constitution and adopts an ideological perspective. It is evident that South African language policy in education does not emphasize equitable multilingualism.
Dominant trends in research pertaining to teaching and learning language in
A central irony of the contemporary South African education system is that African languages are constantly devalued and stigmatized. They further argue that a new linguistic dispensation has been a culmination of decisive global change. Wei and Martin (2009) explore classroom code-switching, which is one of the strategies educators use to deal with multilingual classrooms.
Theories informing teaching and learning languages in multilingual contexts
However, the curriculum does not address the diverse backgrounds of learners upon which new knowledge is built. They argue that textbooks and instruction that do not refer to students' local culture and traditions do not recognize constructivist ideas. Byram et.al (2002) assert that in language teaching, communicative competence takes into account the social identities of interlocutors.
Conclusion
Introduction and overview
Aims
Bloomberg and Volpe (2012) describe perceptual information as participants' perceptions related to a particular object of inquiry. They further argue that perceptual information reveals participants' descriptions of their experiences related to how experiences influence the decisions they make.
The rationale for using qualitative research methodology
Berg (2004) describes a case study as an intensive description and analysis of a phenomenon delimited by time or place. Merian (2009) elaborates on the concept of a qualitative case study by arguing that a case study design is used to gain an in-depth understanding and interpretation of an educational phenomenon. The study fits well with these descriptions of case study design because it seeks to understand language teaching in a multilingual context, which may influence schools' language policy and classroom practice.
Research design
He adds that the interest is in context, and insights from case studies can directly influence policy and practice.
Data collection procedure
- Research sample
- Research methods
Cohen et al (2011) describe ecological validity as faithfulness to the particular features of the context in which the study is situated. They further argue that a narrative provides a detailed picture of an individual's life, which becomes a product of the research. The researcher used them to negotiate the meaning of the collected data from narratives with the participants.
Data processing and analysis
The interviews allowed the researcher to observe non-verbal language during the interviews where necessary, supplementing the information obtained from the narratives. To verify the findings, the researcher conducted one-on-one unstructured interviews, also known as in-depth interviews, with each participant. The researcher's interpretations and inferences from the narratives were confirmed through unstructured individual interviews.
Ethical considerations
De Vos et.al (2011) claim that the purpose of unstructured one-to-one interview is to understand other people's experience and the meaning of this experience. Data collected from the narratives and data generated and confirmed through interviews were synthesized as findings of the research. De Vos et.al (2011) claim that the participants in an interview are perceived as experts on the subject and therefore should have the greatest possible opportunity to tell their story.
Measures to ensure trustworthiness
Potential limitations
Conclusion
Introduction
Description of the setting and participants
In Grade 10 students who are native speakers of English and Afrikaans must choose either Afrikaans or isiZulu as an additional language. They are now teaching in school B, whose linguistic ecology has evolved since they had already joined the teaching fraternity. This means that they had been teaching in monolingual contexts until their institution underwent linguistic evolution.
Analytic approach
Units of analysis
- Themes
- Challenges of teaching in multilingual classrooms
- Strategies for addressing challenges
- Dynamics of multilingual classrooms
- Role redefinition of a language teacher
Lily further explains the impact of students' different levels of language proficiency on language teaching and learning in the following quote: "The class could not be taught at her level because she could not understand what the class did." Cathy from School B expresses her concern as follows: “Students are at different levels with their English competence. In order to manage the situation, according to Jean, teachers "insist on using the school's language policy, which states that students must use only English." The following statement, extracted from Lily's narrative, reflects language teachers. An approach relevant to language teaching in multilingual contexts is described in the following statement: "The educator must reconstruct the entire learning process and develop an inclusive approach to every aspect of language learning." A re-examination of teaching approaches means that the approaches to language teaching that teachers were exposed to in teacher education institutions are out of date.
Discussion of results
It also proves that students' repertoires are not recognized, which limits the possibility of constructivism, that is, the cooperation of teachers and students in creating meaning. The students' expectations are clearly based on the experiences of language teachers who have never been trained to deal with diversity. Setati and Adler (2001) argue that problems arise when students' primary languages are not used.
Summary
Constructivism resonates with Cummin's (1996) notion of leveraging students' pre-existing knowledge and the affective and cognitive benefits that flow from a learning situation. The study also reflects that the principle of inclusiveness is not respected in multilingual classrooms. Ferreira (2009) argues that students' mother tongues, which are carriers of their culture and identity, must be recognized to address inclusion.
Conclusion
In this study, student progress depends on their eagerness to learn as there are no support structures in place. The Ministry of Education and the entire school community need to work together to inculcate multilingual education. The results reflect that language teachers do not learn from their experiences, instead they are confused and no specific context-sensitive approaches are used to meet the needs of multilingual learners.
Introduction
Conclusions
Another related finding is that teachers' attitudes toward code-switching are negative, as they consider code-switching to be a violation of school policy. From this finding, we can conclude that teachers use different strategies to navigate multilingual contexts. A related finding is that teachers use their judgment and rely on their experience when working with multilingual classes.
Recommendations
- Recommendations for language educators and school management
- Recommendations for the Department of Education and language curriculum
- Recommendations for language teachers‟ education programmes
- Recommendations for further research
As the language curriculum has undergone many changes, language curriculum designers should simplify the language-in-education policy and language curriculum statements. Language curriculum designers should work hand in hand to conduct intensive workshops that will enhance capacity building and empowerment of language teachers'. In light of the study's limitations, a study of a large sample of language teachers should be conducted to investigate the extent to which such a study could produce the same or similar results.
Limitations
Language pedagogy should be ecologically and sociolinguistically informed and cultivate multilingual practices, including the local languages of the learners. The researcher recommends that further studies be carried out to develop a larger database and gain a more comprehensive understanding of language teaching in the diverse linguistic landscape of South Africa. The researcher also recommends further longitudinal and ethnographic study that could investigate the functional interrelationships between the inhabitants of the ecology, i.e. the classroom, and the household that is necessary in multilingual classrooms.
Summary
Research shows that the Western Cape and the University of Cape Town have taken the initiative to retrain teachers in multilingual education. The pedagogy of multilingual education should be accessible to all language teachers in South Africa before and during their service. Chick (2003) emphasizes this idea by arguing that in South Africa, the multilingual language policy opened up an ideological space that brought about multicultural discourses among teachers.
Conclusion
In the studied classes, the language educators close the agency spaces for multilingual education because they do not know the repertoires of the students and stop translation practices. I humbly request permission to conduct a research project titled, "Teaching Experiences of Language Educators in Selected Grade 10 Multilingual Classrooms" in schools under your department. As a researcher, I consider it necessary that. language educators, as key actors in the educational system, reconstruct and redefine their roles in the transformative language dispensation.
I humbly request you to participate in my research project entitled "Teaching Experiences of Language Teachers in Selected 10th Grade Multilingual Classrooms". I am a Master of Education (Language and Media Studies) student at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (Edgewood Campus). If you agree to participate in this study, please complete the attached consent form.
