A bilingual extensive reading programme (ERP) was implemented in two primary schools in Grahamstown with all the learners who were in grade 3 in 2015. The ERP was a means of providing learners with access to appropriate reading resources and affording learners with opportunities to read books chosen by them in a social learning environment . This paper offers a detailed description of theories underpinning the design and implementation of the reading programme. It also offers a discussion of practically implementing, managing and sustaining the programme. I used cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) as my theoretical framework. I focused on the concepts of formative intervention and expansive learning in implementing the reading programme. Throughout the research process, data were collected through qualitative methods, which included videoing, observation, document analysis, questionnaire, learners’ and my own reflective journals and informal talks with the participants. The results of this study show that a carefully planned reading programme, tailored for each participant’s needs, can have positive benefits on the learners’ academic and social skills. Finally, I discuss lessons learnt from implementing the ERP and provide suggestions on how teachers and researchers can also implement successful reading programmes of this nature.
{"title":"Implementing a bilingual extensive reading programme in the Foundation Phase: Theory and practice","authors":"S. A. Nkomo","doi":"10.5785/36-2-876","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5785/36-2-876","url":null,"abstract":"A bilingual extensive reading programme (ERP) was implemented in two primary schools in Grahamstown with all the learners who were in grade 3 in 2015. The ERP was a means of providing learners with access to appropriate reading resources and affording learners with opportunities to read books chosen by them in a social learning environment . This paper offers a detailed description of theories underpinning the design and implementation of the reading programme. It also offers a discussion of practically implementing, managing and sustaining the programme. I used cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) as my theoretical framework. I focused on the concepts of formative intervention and expansive learning in implementing the reading programme. Throughout the research process, data were collected through qualitative methods, which included videoing, observation, document analysis, questionnaire, learners’ and my own reflective journals and informal talks with the participants. The results of this study show that a carefully planned reading programme, tailored for each participant’s needs, can have positive benefits on the learners’ academic and social skills. Finally, I discuss lessons learnt from implementing the ERP and provide suggestions on how teachers and researchers can also implement successful reading programmes of this nature.","PeriodicalId":43109,"journal":{"name":"Per Linguam-A Journal of Language Learning","volume":"275 1","pages":"126-137"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79583484","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
De Beer and Gravett (2016: 46) sound the alarm that most first-year students who report for teacher training at tertiary institutions in South Africa emerge from an examination-driven system and are unable to engage with self-directed learning (SDL). This is disconcerting since students of the 21st century who enrol for university studies across the world are expected to be self-directed, taking responsibility for their own academic progress while focusing on active rather than passive learning (Nasri, 2017: 1). The English for Education course at the North-West University in South Africa requires students to be critically engaged as they direct their own learning. However, the high dropout rate (North-West University, 2018) of the first-year English for Education students (around 25% per annum over the last three years) and the average drop in their English marks from high school to university suggest that students find it difficult to adapt to the demands of tertiary studies. This paper reports on a study that focused on the teaching, learning and assessment gaps between secondary and tertiary education and which aimed at developing a framework to promote SDL in first-year English for Education studies. The findings illustrated that students felt frustrated by lecturer feedback on assignments that demanded active engagement and critical thinking. It became clear that students were unable to interpret feedback and that they felt unsupported if the lecturer did not show and tell them exactly what to write or would not supply them with detailed answers to memorise and reproduce.
De Beer和Gravett(2016: 46)警告说，大多数在南非高等教育机构接受教师培训的一年级学生都来自考试驱动的系统，无法参与自主学习(SDL)。这是令人不安的，因为21世纪的学生在世界各地的大学学习被期望是自我指导的，为自己的学业进步负责，同时专注于主动而不是被动的学习(Nasri, 2017: 1)。南非西北大学的教育英语课程要求学生在指导自己的学习时批判性地参与。然而，教育英语一年级学生的高辍学率(西北大学，2018年)(过去三年中每年约25%)和他们从高中到大学的英语成绩平均下降表明，学生很难适应高等教育的要求。本文报告了一项研究，该研究侧重于中等教育和高等教育之间的教学，学习和评估差距，旨在制定一个框架，以促进第一年教育英语学习中的SDL。研究结果表明，学生对讲师对需要积极参与和批判性思维的作业的反馈感到沮丧。很明显，学生无法理解反馈，如果讲师没有展示并告诉他们该写什么，或者不提供详细的答案让他们记忆和复制，他们会感到不受支持。
{"title":"The effect of Skinny Cow Condition on first-year students’ expectations of assessment and feedback","authors":"Marike Annandale, E. Reyneke","doi":"10.5785/36-2-949","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5785/36-2-949","url":null,"abstract":"De Beer and Gravett (2016: 46) sound the alarm that most first-year students who report for teacher training at tertiary institutions in South Africa emerge from an examination-driven system and are unable to engage with self-directed learning (SDL). This is disconcerting since students of the 21st century who enrol for university studies across the world are expected to be self-directed, taking responsibility for their own academic progress while focusing on active rather than passive learning (Nasri, 2017: 1). The English for Education course at the North-West University in South Africa requires students to be critically engaged as they direct their own learning. However, the high dropout rate (North-West University, 2018) of the first-year English for Education students (around 25% per annum over the last three years) and the average drop in their English marks from high school to university suggest that students find it difficult to adapt to the demands of tertiary studies. This paper reports on a study that focused on the teaching, learning and assessment gaps between secondary and tertiary education and which aimed at developing a framework to promote SDL in first-year English for Education studies. The findings illustrated that students felt frustrated by lecturer feedback on assignments that demanded active engagement and critical thinking. It became clear that students were unable to interpret feedback and that they felt unsupported if the lecturer did not show and tell them exactly what to write or would not supply them with detailed answers to memorise and reproduce.","PeriodicalId":43109,"journal":{"name":"Per Linguam-A Journal of Language Learning","volume":"30 1","pages":"45-56"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77124784","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article is an inquiry into how classroom talk among learners and a teacher in a reading class contributes to comprehension. It draws on sociocultural perspectives on school learning (Melander, 2012; Pellegrino, 2020; Stahl, 2002), conversation analysis research of human interaction in the humanities (Edwards 1997, 2001; Tanner 2017) and teachers’ open invitations in whole-class discussion within classrooms ( Koole & Elbers, 2014; Seedhouse, 2004). Video recordings of learner interactions have been transcribed by means of the Jefferson (1984) conventions and analysed by means of the conversation analysis framework of Clayman and Gill (2004). This framework draws on conversation analysis principles developed in various disciplines, and allows for a detailed analysis of what the comprehension interactions were about and how they were conducted for the purpose of comprehension. Analyses were considered based on sequence organisation, response preferences, lexical choices and gestures. Findings indicate that grade 4 learners use talk in creative, spontaneous and dedicated ways in their attempts to understand a text during a classroom lesson. Learners take turns at talking in ways that reflect their personal understandings of words and sentences, and interact in ways which clarify their own understanding of meanings. Non-verbal behaviour such as pointing, excitement, interruptions, tone of voice, faster and slower speech, sighs and observations are all patterns observed which, in the context of conversation sequences, contributed to interpretations of difficult words and also offered answers to comprehension questions. Findings are discussed in terms of the social actions associated with classroom talk, the value of independent attempts of meaning making and talking about the text for shared comprehension.
{"title":"How classroom talk contributes to reading comprehension","authors":"N. Maree, Gert J. Van Der Westhuizen","doi":"10.5785/36-2-910","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5785/36-2-910","url":null,"abstract":"This article is an inquiry into how classroom talk among learners and a teacher in a reading class contributes to comprehension. It draws on sociocultural perspectives on school learning (Melander, 2012; Pellegrino, 2020; Stahl, 2002), conversation analysis research of human interaction in the humanities (Edwards 1997, 2001; Tanner 2017) and teachers’ open invitations in whole-class discussion within classrooms ( Koole & Elbers, 2014; Seedhouse, 2004). Video recordings of learner interactions have been transcribed by means of the Jefferson (1984) conventions and analysed by means of the conversation analysis framework of Clayman and Gill (2004). This framework draws on conversation analysis principles developed in various disciplines, and allows for a detailed analysis of what the comprehension interactions were about and how they were conducted for the purpose of comprehension. Analyses were considered based on sequence organisation, response preferences, lexical choices and gestures. Findings indicate that grade 4 learners use talk in creative, spontaneous and dedicated ways in their attempts to understand a text during a classroom lesson. Learners take turns at talking in ways that reflect their personal understandings of words and sentences, and interact in ways which clarify their own understanding of meanings. Non-verbal behaviour such as pointing, excitement, interruptions, tone of voice, faster and slower speech, sighs and observations are all patterns observed which, in the context of conversation sequences, contributed to interpretations of difficult words and also offered answers to comprehension questions. Findings are discussed in terms of the social actions associated with classroom talk, the value of independent attempts of meaning making and talking about the text for shared comprehension.","PeriodicalId":43109,"journal":{"name":"Per Linguam-A Journal of Language Learning","volume":"8 1","pages":"1-15"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79488866","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study aimed to establish a substantive theoretical explanation from the ground to account for the experiences of some English as a Second Language (ESL) students when they read and subsequently write about literary texts. The target group of this grounded theory study comprised 34 university students enrolled for a degree in education majoring in English language and literature studies. Data were collected using the following procedures: unstructured interviews, structured interviews, focus group interviews and elicited document material. The data were analysed using the constant comparison method so that emerging codes, categories and subsequent themes were constantly saturated by collecting new data from the field. The findings established that some ESL students rely heavily on internet summaries and analyses of set works to mitigate the length of a literary text and the complexity of the language used – a practice that has both positive and negative ramifications. The positive ramifications include the provision of an entry point to a literary text; promotion of active reading by guiding the reading process; facilitation of the reading of long texts, like novels; and charting the landscape of a text. Negatively, the practice promotes a passive reading process, and it may replace the literary text. Reliance on the internet exposes students to the academically unethical practices of plagiarism and patch writing. Conversely, these practices are manifestations of language development among ESL students which can be exploited by lecturers as platforms where students appraise internet analyses of literary texts to render students’ interpretive strategies ethical.
{"title":"English as second-language students' strategies when reading and writing about literary texts: Some ethical considerations","authors":"Khulekani Amegius Gazu","doi":"10.5785/36-2-836","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5785/36-2-836","url":null,"abstract":"This study aimed to establish a substantive theoretical explanation from the ground to account for the experiences of some English as a Second Language (ESL) students when they read and subsequently write about literary texts. The target group of this grounded theory study comprised 34 university students enrolled for a degree in education majoring in English language and literature studies. Data were collected using the following procedures: unstructured interviews, structured interviews, focus group interviews and elicited document material. The data were analysed using the constant comparison method so that emerging codes, categories and subsequent themes were constantly saturated by collecting new data from the field. The findings established that some ESL students rely heavily on internet summaries and analyses of set works to mitigate the length of a literary text and the complexity of the language used – a practice that has both positive and negative ramifications. The positive ramifications include the provision of an entry point to a literary text; promotion of active reading by guiding the reading process; facilitation of the reading of long texts, like novels; and charting the landscape of a text. Negatively, the practice promotes a passive reading process, and it may replace the literary text. Reliance on the internet exposes students to the academically unethical practices of plagiarism and patch writing. Conversely, these practices are manifestations of language development among ESL students which can be exploited by lecturers as platforms where students appraise internet analyses of literary texts to render students’ interpretive strategies ethical.","PeriodicalId":43109,"journal":{"name":"Per Linguam-A Journal of Language Learning","volume":"12 1","pages":"16-27"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82354227","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Poor graduation rates are a serious concern worldwide. In South Africa, this concern has escalated in the post-apartheid era wherein a democratic constitution has widened access to higher education for school-leavers. The socioeconomic and school backgrounds of the majority of these learners still hamper their timely completion at university. In order to combat this, local universities have implemented some necessary interventions. Such interventions are geared towards dealing with the academic language needs of incoming students. For the last two decades or so, standardised tests of academic language ability, now commonly known as academic literacy, have been used to determine these needs. Given the expected impact of these interventions on student completion rates, the importance of the validity of these tests cannot be overemphasised. The aim of this article is to investigate the validity of the highest performance standard set for one of the tests currently used to assess levels of academic literacy. Using 14 610 scores obtained on that test by first-year students at a South African university, in tandem with their average scores on completion of their first year, sensitivity and specificity statistics were computed to realise this aim. The results revealed that the performance standard investigated was valid 61% of the time.
{"title":"Validating the highest performance standard of a test of academic literacy at a South African university","authors":"K. Sebolai, F. Stanford","doi":"10.5785/36-2-885","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5785/36-2-885","url":null,"abstract":"Poor graduation rates are a serious concern worldwide. In South Africa, this concern has escalated in the post-apartheid era wherein a democratic constitution has widened access to higher education for school-leavers. The socioeconomic and school backgrounds of the majority of these learners still hamper their timely completion at university. In order to combat this, local universities have implemented some necessary interventions. Such interventions are geared towards dealing with the academic language needs of incoming students. For the last two decades or so, standardised tests of academic language ability, now commonly known as academic literacy, have been used to determine these needs. Given the expected impact of these interventions on student completion rates, the importance of the validity of these tests cannot be overemphasised. The aim of this article is to investigate the validity of the highest performance standard set for one of the tests currently used to assess levels of academic literacy. Using 14 610 scores obtained on that test by first-year students at a South African university, in tandem with their average scores on completion of their first year, sensitivity and specificity statistics were computed to realise this aim. The results revealed that the performance standard investigated was valid 61% of the time.","PeriodicalId":43109,"journal":{"name":"Per Linguam-A Journal of Language Learning","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73009841","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The use of technology in teaching and learning in general, and in language teaching and learning in particular, is on the rise. Institutions of higher learning or teachers who adopt technology as a means to enhance teaching and learning are confronted with a number of challenges or barriers. Overcoming them has been a preoccupation for researchers. Effective integration of information and communication technology (ICT) requires a set of skills, and researchers have been proposing frameworks in order to conceptualise it. The technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) framework appears to be the most coherent and practicable framework. A computer-assisted language learning (CALL) experience was carried out at the University of Buea. Through an explanatory research approach, this paper describes this CALL experience and shows that it follows the TPACK principles. Given the barriers that emerged during instantiation, the paper questions the sufficiency of the TPACK framework for a successful integration of ICT in an African context and argues that teachers who want to enhance their teaching with technology need more than technology, pedagogy and content knowledge – design thinking capacities as well as knowledge about how to pilot innovation are also necessary.
{"title":"Dealing with barriers to the integration of Computer Assisted Language Learning in an African Context: Is the TPACK framework enough? An analysis of ICT integration in a low tech context","authors":"J. B. Ngandeu","doi":"10.5785/36-2-947","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5785/36-2-947","url":null,"abstract":"The use of technology in teaching and learning in general, and in language teaching and learning in particular, is on the rise. Institutions of higher learning or teachers who adopt technology as a means to enhance teaching and learning are confronted with a number of challenges or barriers. Overcoming them has been a preoccupation for researchers. Effective integration of information and communication technology (ICT) requires a set of skills, and researchers have been proposing frameworks in order to conceptualise it. The technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) framework appears to be the most coherent and practicable framework. A computer-assisted language learning (CALL) experience was carried out at the University of Buea. Through an explanatory research approach, this paper describes this CALL experience and shows that it follows the TPACK principles. Given the barriers that emerged during instantiation, the paper questions the sufficiency of the TPACK framework for a successful integration of ICT in an African context and argues that teachers who want to enhance their teaching with technology need more than technology, pedagogy and content knowledge – design thinking capacities as well as knowledge about how to pilot innovation are also necessary.","PeriodicalId":43109,"journal":{"name":"Per Linguam-A Journal of Language Learning","volume":"78 1","pages":"90-103"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79234719","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The teaching of reading is not as easy as it may seem. It requires specific knowledge and the use of reading methods by teachers. Learners’ reading needs and learning styles also have to be considered. According to the Progress in International Reading Literacy (PIRLS) results for 2016, the reading abilities of South African learners are far below the international standard as set out by PIRLS. There is a lack of research about the strategies and methods that primary school teachers use to teach reading. In this article, the feedback regarding reading methods – gathered from 36 primary school teachers in three provinces – is discussed. The data revealed that most of the Grade 1 to 7 teachers who participated in the research knew and used some of the six reading methods under discussion. However, the results did not indicate how well the teachers applied these methods and how versatile they were in using the different reading methods. The data revealed that Foundation phase teachers used some of the methods statistically significantly more often than the comparison group of Intermediate phase teachers in a nonexperimental static-group observational design study. According to Spaull (McBride 2019:1), a well-known researcher in South Africa, one of the three main reasons why Foundation phase readers are struggling with reading is that their teachers do not know how to teach reading systematically. Teachers do not know how to change and adapt the methods that they use to teach reading and not enough research has been done to address the problems with the teaching of reading in the classroom specifically. Often the reading problems experienced in the Foundation phase are carried over to the Intermediate phase.
{"title":"A snapshot of the use of reading methods in primary schools in three provinces of South Africa","authors":"A. Hugo","doi":"10.5785/37-1-967","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5785/37-1-967","url":null,"abstract":"The teaching of reading is not as easy as it may seem. It requires specific knowledge and the use of reading methods by teachers. Learners’ reading needs and learning styles also have to be considered. According to the Progress in International Reading Literacy (PIRLS) results for 2016, the reading abilities of South African learners are far below the international standard as set out by PIRLS. There is a lack of research about the strategies and methods that primary school teachers use to teach reading. In this article, the feedback regarding reading methods – gathered from 36 primary school teachers in three provinces – is discussed. The data revealed that most of the Grade 1 to 7 teachers who participated in the research knew and used some of the six reading methods under discussion. However, the results did not indicate how well the teachers applied these methods and how versatile they were in using the different reading methods. The data revealed that Foundation phase teachers used some of the methods statistically significantly more often than the comparison group of Intermediate phase teachers in a nonexperimental static-group observational design study. According to Spaull (McBride 2019:1), a well-known researcher in South Africa, one of the three main reasons why Foundation phase readers are struggling with reading is that their teachers do not know how to teach reading systematically. Teachers do not know how to change and adapt the methods that they use to teach reading and not enough research has been done to address the problems with the teaching of reading in the classroom specifically. Often the reading problems experienced in the Foundation phase are carried over to the Intermediate phase.","PeriodicalId":43109,"journal":{"name":"Per Linguam-A Journal of Language Learning","volume":"68 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83131736","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
It is expected that English Home Language (Eng HL), as a subject, is more complex than English First Additional Language (Eng FAL). This article aims to uncover the reality of this expectation by comparatively investigating the linguistic complexity of texts used for reading comprehension and summaries in the final school exit examinations. The Coh-Metrix online platform was used to analyse a combined total of 24 Grade 12 final examination texts for Eng HL and Eng FAL ranging from 2008 to 2019. Five main indices relating to the word level, sentence, readability, lexical diversity and referential cohesion linguistic complexity were explored. The findings illustrated that the linguistic complexities of the texts used for reading comprehension and summary writing in the two subjects differ significantly, with Eng HL being more linguistically complex than Eng FAL texts. Furthermore, the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level measure indicates the Eng FAL texts as two grades below the overall grade for Eng HL texts. Nonetheless, the linguistic complexity measures used in this article confirm the expectation that texts used in Eng HL reading comprehension and summary writing are more complex than those used in Eng FAL.
{"title":"A comparative analysis of the linguistic complexity of Grade 12 English Home Language and English First Additional Language examination papers","authors":"Johannes Sibeko","doi":"10.5785/37-2-976","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5785/37-2-976","url":null,"abstract":"It is expected that English Home Language (Eng HL), as a subject, is more complex than English First Additional Language (Eng FAL). This article aims to uncover the reality of this expectation by comparatively investigating the linguistic complexity of texts used for reading comprehension and summaries in the final school exit examinations. The Coh-Metrix online platform was used to analyse a combined total of 24 Grade 12 final examination texts for Eng HL and Eng FAL ranging from 2008 to 2019. Five main indices relating to the word level, sentence, readability, lexical diversity and referential cohesion linguistic complexity were explored. The findings illustrated that the linguistic complexities of the texts used for reading comprehension and summary writing in the two subjects differ significantly, with Eng HL being more linguistically complex than Eng FAL texts. Furthermore, the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level measure indicates the Eng FAL texts as two grades below the overall grade for Eng HL texts. Nonetheless, the linguistic complexity measures used in this article confirm the expectation that texts used in Eng HL reading comprehension and summary writing are more complex than those used in Eng FAL.","PeriodicalId":43109,"journal":{"name":"Per Linguam-A Journal of Language Learning","volume":"21 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72945641","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The use of digital technologies for pedagogical purposes worldwide has augmented the need for radical and urgent changes in academic literacy education at tertiary institutions. In this article, multimodal composition alternatives to traditional written academic assessments are proposed as a platform for transformation in academic literacy modules. The literature framework highlights the hindrances and affordances of multimodal composition pedagogy. A qualitative research approach was followed in the empirical research. An online questionnaire was used in this interpretivist research design. The opinions of academic literacy lecturers at a South African university were sought to gauge how they felt about incorporating alternative multimodal assessments instead of traditional methods such as text-based compositions only. The inclusion of student voice and agency regarding multimodal academic literacy pedagogy was also investigated. The findings revealed that many lecturers did incorporate formative multimodal teaching and learning strategies to scaffold academic writing. However, with regards to summative assessment of academic literacy skills, most lecturers still preferred the traditional essay. Most of the lecturers were also not in favour of student contribution to multimodal content and assessment. It is the responsibility of all stakeholders to ensure that multimodal composition transformation is implemented to support students’ academic literacy needs, not their own, in an ever-changing digital landscape in higher education.
{"title":"Multimodal composition pedagogy in Higher Education: a paradigm shift","authors":"L. Olivier","doi":"10.5785/37-2-996","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5785/37-2-996","url":null,"abstract":"The use of digital technologies for pedagogical purposes worldwide has augmented the need for radical and urgent changes in academic literacy education at tertiary institutions. In this article, multimodal composition alternatives to traditional written academic assessments are proposed as a platform for transformation in academic literacy modules. The literature framework highlights the hindrances and affordances of multimodal composition pedagogy. A qualitative research approach was followed in the empirical research. An online questionnaire was used in this interpretivist research design. The opinions of academic literacy lecturers at a South African university were sought to gauge how they felt about incorporating alternative multimodal assessments instead of traditional methods such as text-based compositions only. The inclusion of student voice and agency regarding multimodal academic literacy pedagogy was also investigated. The findings revealed that many lecturers did incorporate formative multimodal teaching and learning strategies to scaffold academic writing. However, with regards to summative assessment of academic literacy skills, most lecturers still preferred the traditional essay. Most of the lecturers were also not in favour of student contribution to multimodal content and assessment. It is the responsibility of all stakeholders to ensure that multimodal composition transformation is implemented to support students’ academic literacy needs, not their own, in an ever-changing digital landscape in higher education.","PeriodicalId":43109,"journal":{"name":"Per Linguam-A Journal of Language Learning","volume":"56 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74055280","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mobile learning studies have been conducted at a secondary school level in South Africa. In particular, most of these studies have been carried out as one-off trials or experiments in one or more schools, on a short-term basis. However, there have not yet been studies that harness and review mobile learning projects undertaken at a secondary school level. To this end, the current study reviewed mobile learning projects conducted at secondary schools in South Africa between 2005 and 2015 which are published in DHET-accredited academic journals. It reviewed such projects by employing eligibility criteria meant to include qualifying journal articles and by synthesising key areas such as educational context, subject domain, research design, sample groups, data sources and summary of findings. The study reveals that three areas, English L1, English L2 and mathematics constituted the primary focal areas of the reviewed studies.
{"title":"Mobile learning studies conducted in certain schools in South Africa from 2005 to 2015: a review study","authors":"Chaka Chaka","doi":"10.5785/37-2-905","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5785/37-2-905","url":null,"abstract":"Mobile learning studies have been conducted at a secondary school level in South Africa. In particular, most of these studies have been carried out as one-off trials or experiments in one or more schools, on a short-term basis. However, there have not yet been studies that harness and review mobile learning projects undertaken at a secondary school level. To this end, the current study reviewed mobile learning projects conducted at secondary schools in South Africa between 2005 and 2015 which are published in DHET-accredited academic journals. It reviewed such projects by employing eligibility criteria meant to include qualifying journal articles and by synthesising key areas such as educational context, subject domain, research design, sample groups, data sources and summary of findings. The study reveals that three areas, English L1, English L2 and mathematics constituted the primary focal areas of the reviewed studies.","PeriodicalId":43109,"journal":{"name":"Per Linguam-A Journal of Language Learning","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76927195","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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