1,720,973 research outputs found
The National Benchmark Test of quantitative literacy: does it complement the Grade 12 Mathematical Literacy examination?
Full text linkThe National Senior Certificate (NSC) examination in South Africa is a standardised assessment whose main function is to determine whether Grade 12 learners have mastered subject knowledge at the culmination of their secondary education. Alongside this, the National Benchmark Test Project (NBTP) was introduced to develop the National Benchmark Tests (NBTs) that are aimed at assessing the academic readiness of first time entry students to South African universities. This article explores the relationship between these two standardised assessments in the domain of mathematical/quantitative literacy. This is accomplished through a Pearson correlation analysis of 6,363 test scores obtained by Grade 12 learners on the NSC Mathematical Literacy examination and the Quantitative Literacy test of the NBT in 2012. The results reveal a curvilinear relationship between these two sets of results. This indicates that the two assessments are related but not identical, and the paper argues that their complementarity suggests the value of using performance information generated by both for access and placement
Editor's note
Full text linkWe have reached another publication of the Journal for Language Teaching since our move to open access in 2022. Our gratitude goes to all the authors who contributed the articles that this volume comprises. We are even more grateful to all academics who reviewed these articles to help us decide on the quality and fitness of the articles for publication in the journal. We would not have reached this point without your expert input.
With a focus on an area of language development that is still a concern for language practitioners at all educational levels, the first five contributions offer research focused on reading development through translanguaging, and a respect for students’ identity, culture, language and ability. In their article, Romylos and Liberty Hove draw on Rosi Braidotti’s (2019) critical research perspective for thinking about teaching and reading for meaning in South African classrooms. Intellectually and pedagogically curious about how their [student] teachers enact and promote teaching strategies reflective of the intersection of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), English as first additional language (EFAL) and teacher agency, these scholars document that symbiotic relationship to generate insights into teaching and questioning as instances of knowledge production. Among others, Romylos and Liberty Hove conclude by sharing important considerations: that in a complex, multilingual and diverse educational context such as South Africa, diversity, not homogeneity, is the norm (Blommaert & Horner, 2017) and that diversity provides higher education with opportunities rather than constraints in so far as it allows the academy to shift from a ‘difference-as-deficit’ model to a ‘difference-as-resource’ consciousness.
Echoing a similar message, Mabena interrogates learners’ reception of translanguaging pedagogy as a strategy for reading English L2 texts, attempting to determine if multilingual speakers in the senior phase reflect the unitary or the differentiated system of translanguaging, or both. Advocating strongly for the need to recognise the inter-related nature of identity, knowledge and language, the author argues against the unfairness of a monolingual system, offering the possibility of embracing students’ linguistic multilingual repertoire as a resource, and not a hinderance. In addition to findings which demonstrate the positive impact of such an approach, Mabena contends that teachers should be capacitated in using translanguaging and its multimodalities in the classroom, for doing so will disrupt the marginalization and alienation of African languages which should be a resource for epistemic access.
Focusing on the Intermediate Phase classroom, Ntshangase draws attention firstly, to the reading crisis facing the South African education system, at all levels, and secondly, to the challenges isiZulu teachers face in teaching reading comprehension, especially regarding teaching inclusive reading to at-risk readers in mainstream schools in under-resourced settings. The findings confirm that Intermediate Phase isiZulu teachers struggle to organize meaningful and cohesive reading strategies, that strategies employed are not structured to address specific reading challenges and that consequently, at-risk readers in mainstream schools remain inadequately catered for, thus highlighting the need for more serious interventions, and more consideration for ‘at-risk’ learners.
Moving to a focus on the higher education context, Kwarteng, keeping with the overall focus of literacy development and multilingualism, aimed to identify the level of vocabulary that can be acquired by L2 Swahili learners after watching a single Swahili movie with either Swahili or English subtitles. The results showed an increase in the participants’ vocabulary levels after watching the movie, with those in the standard group making statistically significant gains, suggesting that watching a movie in an L2 and visually seeing the subtitles in an L1 has a greater effect on vocabulary acquisition than watching and seeing the subtitles in the L2 only. Once again, this confirms the widely held view that the L1 must and can be exploited profitably for L2 development.
Along the lines of the four articles dealt with above, the contribution by Viriri and Ndimande-Hlongwa addresses the challenge faced by student teachers resulting from the assessment of teaching practice in African languages through English as the medium of this assessment. The article highlights the difficulty that this practice poses to the student teachers, regardless of the convenience it offers to the English-speaking assessors involved. By implication, the article highlights issues of validity and fairness in teaching practice assessment. In view of this, the authors conclude: “using English to assess Teaching Practice for African languages compromises the quality of both practice and supervision.”
The last two articles focus on issues of language teaching from the point of view of English and Afrikaans. The first by Meyers, seeks to demonstrate that collaboration by student teachers of English as an additional language can either benefit or disadvantage the development of their oral strategic competence and confidence, depending on how their lecturers set this interaction up. Thus, the article recommends that lecturers of these students be aware of this and mindful of how their own interaction with students can either boost or decrease the latter’s growth in oral strategic competence and confidence. The article contributes an important perspective to language development which can easily be overlooked.
The last contribution by Vos and Ruiters, raises a concern about the criteria currently used for selecting prescribed poems for Afrikaans Home Language at Grade 12 in South African schools. This concern is that this process is left to the discretion of teachers, who in the authors’ view, might not be adequately equipped to do justice to this important role. The authors recommend that the selection of poems take into account the diversity of Afrikaans, the linguistic background of the learners, and the guidelines from the Basic Education authorities as outlined in the National Curriculum Policy Statement. Ultimately, the concern that these authors raise is one of content validity in the context of a language curriculum.
Editor-in-Chief: Dr Kabelo Sebolai
Assistant Editor: Dr Avasha Rambiritch
December 202
Editor's note
Full text linkI am very pleased to release volume 56, number 1 (2022) of the Journal for Language Teaching, our first open access issue. Our sincere gratitude goes to the Stellenbosch University Library for agreeing to be the host for our journal on an Open Journal Systems (OJS/PKP) platform. We are confident that the platform will contribute immensely towards boosting the journal’s visibility and readership worldwide. A total of eight articles, dealing with language teaching matters from a variety of perspectives are covered in this volume.
The first is by Drennan and Keyser, an evaluation of the impact of a discipline-specific writing intervention for Law students at the Free State University. The study for the article took place in the context of widespread concerns about inadequate witing skills among university students and their resultant failure to complete their studies in scheduled time. The findings show that the intervention impacted positively on the writing ability of the participants and confirm the currently dominant view that academic literacy endeavours in general should be driven in line with the nuances of students’ disciplinary contexts.
The second article by Maphoto, focuses on the value of constructive feedback in writing instruction at an open-distance learning university in South Africa. The article approaches its focus from the perspective of learners, since they are the ones expected to improve the quality of their writing as a result of the quality of the feedback they receive. The article’s findings reveal a discouraging picture of the quality of this feedback and the students’ ability to understand it. This is very unfortunate, considering the limited opportunity that students in a long-distance university such as this one have for a face to face interaction with their lecturers. The impact of this situation on student success and throughput rates is obvious.
Mather’s article relates to Maphoto’s in terms of its focus on writing instruction, albeit at a lower level of education. The article focuses on how the way a teacher positions themselves in relation to their learners determines whether students benefit from writing instruction or not. It deals with Grade 6 boys in particular because of the findings reported by the author from earlier studies that boys tend to underperform in national and international language assessments. The article’s main finding is that in terms of the way they position themselves and their learners, teachers do not always scaffold effectively to help students learn how to write. This is also unfortunate, considering that learner achievement has proven to benefit a lot from proper scaffolding in all language teaching contexts.
The article by Van Dyk and Adrianatos deals with referencing-related challenges that first year students typically struggle with in academic writing. It utilizes the data collected from a multilevel, multi-genre, multi-language learner corpus of South African languages for academic purposes compiled on behalf of the South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR), to perform an error analysis of typical referencing errors and the frequency of specific kinds of referencing errors in the academic writing of students. The difference that this article makes lies, as its authors put it, in its moving beyond “having an idea of what errors they make”, to an in-depth corpus-based investigation of these errors. Like the rest of the articles focusing on academic writing in this volume, the value added by Van Dyk and Adrianatos’ article to the development of writing ability among first year students is worth the effort.
The next article by Ndu, Tshotsho and Cekiso deals with a crucial topic in language teaching in general and the teaching of English as an additional language in particular. This is the need to take into account, the diverse intelligences and cognitive levels that learners bring to class and to put measures in place to accommodate this diversity in language teaching. To this end, the article investigated rural high school teachers’ perceptions of the application of socio-cultural and multiple intelligences approaches in their teaching of learners of English as an additional language, to determine the scope of the need for teacher training in differentiated instruction. In the context of education in South Africa particularly, learners’ intelligences have been impacted on by their diverse socio-economic backgrounds, so much so that the importance for teachers to be familiar with ways to differentiate their teaching approaches cannot be overlooked.
The article by Munyaradzi and Manyike focuses on the controversial issue of English as a dominant language of teaching and learning in South Africa, where the majority of those served by education are non-native speakers of this language. The article’s finding is not new; as a primary medium of instruction, English diminishes effective teaching and learning for students to whom it is not a first language. This is a reminder that resources need to be provided for African indigenous languages to be developed into academic languages and that English support for students is necessary for as long as it continues to serve as a language of teaching and learning.
The article by Sefotho deals with the important issue of multilingualism at all levels of education in South Africa. It laments the absence of a systematic approach on how schools should promote multilingualism, even though the promotion of multilingualism is at the centre of the Language in Education Policy of the country. The article proposes a concept called Ubuntu Translanguaging as a solution to the lack of systematicity in the promotion of multilingualism. The lack of a systematic way to promote multilingualism is attributed to the evidence revealed by the article, of a misinterpretation of the Language in Education Policy among teachers, the supposed key role players in the implementation of this policy.
The last article by Mokoena deals with the impact of Covid-19 on effective teaching in English First Additional Language classrooms in rural areas. Specifically, it focuses on the impact of the safety measures put in place to curb the spread of the pandemic, on learner-centred teaching in these schools. Measures such as the wearing of masks and social distancing would have an obviously negative impact on the extent to which teachers and learners could express themselves clearly and collaborate closely in teaching and learning contexts as it was the case before the arrival of Covid-19. This article uses qualitative research data to confirm that this was indeed the case.
Kabelo SebolaiSeptember 202
Editor's note
Full text linkWhat distinguishes this issue is that it may be the only one published in South Africa exclusively in African languages, focusing on the teaching of African languages. Throughout this process, we have gained significant insights as we ventured into what may be uncharted territory, and we hope that this issue serves as a trailblazer, paving the way for more works of this nature.
The body of literature on African languages and their pedagogical, cultural, and intellectual dimensions is certainly expansive and multifaceted. This compilation of works showcases a variety of scholarly inquiries into the challenges and innovations within African language education, the cultural significance embedded in linguistic practices, and the broader implications of language policies
The Academic Development approach to academic literacy in higher education South Africa: a disconnect between teaching and assessment.
Full text linkAcademic literacy, the ability to cope with the discourse demands of higher education, is believed to be a factor in the poor graduation rates among South African students. As a result, interventions to deal with low levels of this ability have been part of the broader effort by universities to boost student completion rates. In South Africa, two approaches to these interventions and the theories informing them have seen the light of day to date. In the main, these approaches and their theories have either been generic or discipline-specific in orientation, with the latter being currently the most embraced of the two. The present article is a case study of these two theorizations of academic literacy and aims to demonstrate that although the discipline-specific approach is the most favoured, a void exists currently regarding how its teaching might translate into assessment. This is the case especially when viewed from the way that this approach has been pursued in the field of Academic Development in post-apartheid South Africa. The article demonstrates, in other words, that while the discipline-specific approach, as pursued by the field of Academic Development, is convincing in terms of how it advocates for teaching, nothing equivalent has come from this field to balance the approach from the side of assessment. 
Validating the performance standards set for language assessments of academic readiness : the case of Stellenbosch University
Full text linkCITATION: Sebolai, K. 2019. Validating the performance standards set for language assessments of academic readiness: The case of Stellenbosch University. Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus, 56:79-95. doi:10.5842/56-0-796The original publication is available at https://spilplus.journals.ac.za/pubTwenty-five years into the post-apartheid period, South African universities still struggle to produce the number of graduates required for the country’s socio-economic development. The reason most often cited for this challenge is the mismatch that seems to exist between the knowledge that learners leave high school with, and the kind that academic education requires them to possess for success. This gap, also known as the “articulation gap”, has been attributed to, amongst others, the levels of academic language ability among arriving students. The school-leaving English examination, and a pre-university test of academic literacy are the commonly used measures to determine these levels. The aim of this article is to investigate whether predetermined standards of performance on these assessments relate positively with academic performance. In order to determine this, Pearson Correlations and an Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were carried out on the scores obtained for these assessments by a total of 836 first-year students enrolled at Stellenbosch University. The results show that the performance standards set for the standardised test of academic literacy associate positively with first-year academic performance, while the scores on the levels of performance set for the school-leaving English examination do not.https://spilplus.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/796Publisher’s versio
The differential predictive validity of a test of academic literacy for students from different English language school backgrounds
No full textIn the past decade, testing for academic readiness has become common practice across the South African higher education landscape. The aim of this assessment is to identify students who might not be ready for academic education and to put support programmes in place to help bridge this gap. Given the implied contribution that these programmes are expected to make towards higher graduation rates, it is important that the tests used for identifying those who need the support are valid for all students regardless of background. The aim of this study was to investigate the differential predictive validity of a test of academic literacy for two groups of students; those who took English at Home Language level and those who took it as First Additional Language at school. A regression analysis of a total of 564 scores obtained by the two groups on the Test of Academic Literacy Levels (TALL) as a predictor of their end of first-year average scores was carried out to determine this. The results show that although the Home Language group performed better than their counterpart on the test on average, the test predicted the outcome variable marginally better for the First Additional Language group than it did for their counterpart. This difference was too negligible, however, for one to conclude that the test was predictively biased against any of the two groups
Validating a test of academic literacy at a South African university of technology
No full textEnglish: The advent of a democratic dispensation in South Africa in 1994 officially made it possible for historically disadvantaged groups, Black students in particular, to gain access to higher education at historically White universities. These universities, however, use English for teaching and learning, a second language to the majority of these students. Moreover, such students are products of Bantu Education, a tool used by the apartheid government to ensure that they leave secondary school with poor English skills. Both these factors constitute an obstacle to the students’ capacity to handle the demands of university education in English. South African universities have responded to this challenge by introducing academic language programmes to help the students bridge the language gap between high school and university education. Most of these programmes mainly focus on the teaching of reading, writing and thinking in English, a combination of skills known as academic literacy in the South African higher education context. This study explores the validity of a test of academic literacy used for summative assessment at a university of technology. Evidence suggests that the test possessed an acceptable degree of validity.Afrikaans: Die totstandkoming van ’n demokratiese bestel in Suid-Afrika in 1994 het dit amptelik moontlik gemaak vir historiesbenadeelde groepe, Swart studente in die besonder, om toegang te verkry tot hoër onderwys by histories Wit universiteite. Hierdie universiteite gebruik Engels vir onderrig en leer, ’n tweede taal vir die meerderheid van die betrokke studente. Boonop is hierdie studente produkte van Bantu Onderwys, ’n middel wat aangewend is deur die Apartheidsregering om te verseker dat hulle hoërskool verlaat met gebrekkige Engelse vaardighede. Genoemde faktore behels ’n struikelblok in die studente se vermoë om te voldoen aan die eise van Universiteitsopleiding in Engels. Suid-Afrikaanse universiteite het gereageer op hierdie uitdaging deur akademiese taalprogramme in te stel om die studente te help om die taalgaping tussen hoërskool- en universiteitsonderrig te oorbrug. Hierdie programme fokus hoofsaaklik op die onderrig van lees, skryf en dink in Engels, ’n kombinasie van vaardighede wat bekend staan as akademiese geletterdheid in die Suid-Afrikaanse hoër onderwys konteks. Hierdie studie verken die geldigheid van ’n toets vir akademiese geletterdheid wat gebruik word vir summatiewe assessering by ’n universiteit van tegnologie. Die resultate dui daarop dat die toets oor ’n aanvaarbare vlak van geldigheid beskik.Publisher's versio
Editor's note
Full text linkWe are very pleased to present our first publication (Vol. 59, no. 1) of the Journal for Language Teaching this year. This publication comes a bit earlier than our first issues in recent years. The reason for this is that although our DHET accreditation requires that we publish at least two issues a year, we have taken a conscious decision to work very hard towards publishing three issues this year. This has been necessitated by our own realization that the journal has grown tremendously in terms of popularity since we moved it to open access in the past three years or so. More and more authors continue to choose the Journal for Language Teaching as the final destination of their scholarly work. Although this is evidence of a boost in the reputation of the journal, it has also resulted in a huge backlog in our review process and consequently, unprecedented and undesired delays in our publications. We acknowledge the inconvenience that this has caused to the authors and apologise for it. We are working very hard to attend to this though. Our decision to get three publications out and to have Vol. 59, no. 1 published so early this year attests to this. We are also in the process of beefing up our editorial team for the purpose of expediting the review process and publications
Editor's note
No full textWe are very pleased to publish our second volume (Vol. 59 no. 2) of the Journal for Language Teaching slightly earlier than in recent years. This reflects the editorial team’s ongoing efforts to address submission backlogs and improve publication timelines. Despite challenges in securing reviewers, nine diverse articles were accepted for this issue
- …
