Education in South Africa has experienced many changes since the dawn of democracy in 1994. The demographic composition of schools has changed dramatically as urbanisation has increased and the movement of people is no longer regulated by Apartheid laws. Classrooms now are multi-lingual and multi-cultural with learners from diverse socio-economic backgrounds. Many senior teachers at Ditlou Primary School started their teaching careers more than 20 years ago and were trained to work within an almost homogeneous school context, using their mother tongue - Afrikaans - exclusively as the medium of instruction. They are now required to teach in English. The purpose of this intrinsic case study was to describe the communicative dispositions of Afrikaans-speaking Foundation Phase teachers and to establish how the changing linguistic context of Ditlou Primary School may have influenced their communicative dispositions when teaching. This qualitative study is theoretically underpinned by McCroskey’s Model of Instructional Communication (2004) as a theoretical framework and used interpretivism as an epistemological paradigm. Data were collected through extensive field work. The instrumentation included a language-biography questionnaire, semi-structured and group interviews and a participant journal. The data collected were pooled categorised and coded (deductive and inductive). Although unique to each teacher-participant, key findings suggests that a generic communicative disposition could be sketched for Afrikaans-speaking Foundation Phase teachers at the research site. The teacher-participants agreed that they spoke at a much slower pace and that their voice pitch was higher than when they taught in their mother tongue. The volume of their speech also differed when using English for instructional purposes. Their oral proficiency in the language of teaching and learning could be considered sufficient. In terms of non-verbal communicative aspects, the layout of all classrooms was strictly traditional and authoritarian ensuring learner eye-contact constantly. Yet despite strict discipline, teachers prioritised the emotional well-being of their learners by displaying positive haptic and kinaesthetic behaviour. The influence of personality or temperament on their communicative disposition cannot be negated and is directly linked to their habitual behavioural patterns and unique traits exhibited in their classroom communication. The changed linguistic context primarily influenced the teacher-participants communicative dispositions by necessitating a switch to English as the medium of instruction - a language which is neither theirs nor the learners’ home language. Teaching multi-cultural and multi-lingual learners also had a direct bearing on how the teacher-participants communicative dispositions changed although this was self-reported and would need further investigation. Further recommendations emanating from this study include providing a framework to prepare pre-service teachers to teach in a non-native language and to help them develop effective communicative dispositions for the classroom. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Humanities Education / MEd / Unrestricted

This study aimed at investigating and analysing the communication occurring during whole class discussions, with a specific focus on the nature of the mathematical arguments. The investigation was a qualitative case study where the communication during eight whole class discussions in grade 3-5 were analysed. Three types of arguments, wich are functional in the communication and convey different aspects of mathematics, were identified in the study. The types are (a) argument conveying a solution to a task/ a problem (b) argument conveying conceptual properties, and (c) argument conveying a mathematical relationship. The arguments types explain why an answer to a task is correct (type a), illuminate properties of a mathematical object (b), and clarify a mathematical relationship (c). The findings also reveal that arguments may be expressed through the use of a broad range of communicative resources, such as spoken language, written language, symbols, drawings, the use of manipulatives, and gestures. This highlights the importance of taking into account more than speech when construing arguments/reasoning communicated in mathematics classroom. The study also points to the importance of paying attention to arguments/reasoning that are created during other occasions than during task work or problem solving, and that arguments can enable the discerning of mathematical aspects for learners.

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MA in Communication Science, at the University of Zululand, 2002. / In this thesis I present my recommendations regarding the role of communication during effective learning in the foundation phase classrooms. I focus on three issues that are important to effective learning, namely (1) the cognitive basis of learning, (2) the cognitive basis of communication and (3) the facultative role of communication during effective learning. In the empirical phase of my research I report the results of an attitude survey conducted among educators in the foundation phase of the greater Durban region regarding their understanding of the range of communication strategies that are required of them in order to successfully implement Outcomes-Based Education (OBE). I present an analysis of OBE and Curriculum 2005, and how it continually faced refinement to become suitable for the South African educational system. An array of communication forms is discussed and I show how they can influence the teaching and learning environment to benefit both educators and learners. I show that both educators and learners can develop and equip themselves with the appropriate communication skills to facilitate effective learning. I also present various constructsvist points of view that educators can identify with for effective learning when implementing OBE in foundation phase classrooms. / The University of Zululand

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This thesis focuses on how different semiotic resources, such as spoken and written texts, artefacts and activities interact with classroom design and classroom communication in three school subjects in Swedish secondary school: Home and Consumer Studies, Biology and Chemistry. The research process has been concerned with the affordances that are created through different semiotic resources in classroom design and in classroom communication in the three school subjects, focusing on academic language and student participation. The study used an ethnographic approach, employing multiple methods for material production and analysis. Video and audio recordings formed the foundation for analysis. Material production also includes field notes, photographs and interviews with teachers and students. The research draws on sociocultural theory using a three-legged theoretical framework based in sociocultural theory. Basil Bernstein’s sociological theories were used as an overarching theory for understanding the results. The sociosemiotic theories of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and Social Semiotic Multimodality were adopted for analyzing classroom design and classroom communication. This study shows that classroom design and classroom communication are tied together. Classroom design presents affordances for a subject’s ideational and interpersonal meaning. These affordances are reproduced in classroom communication. In classrooms with subject-focused design, classroom communication is school-focused. Learning is segmented without connection between school subjects or other contexts. In one classroom, designed to create relevance for both school and everyday knowledge, communication is both school-focused and also creates relevance for students’ use of the contents in other contexts. Learning in this classroom is cumulative and students’ participation and meaning-making is integrated in teaching and design. This study also shows how different semiotic resources influence teacher’s and students’ linguistic choices. Vertical discourse, i.e. abstract and distant academic language, is realised in written texts such as text books and whiteboard texts. Few other artefacts introduce and encourage participants’ vertical discourse. Teacher and student communication realises mainly horizontal discourse, i.e. context embedded everyday language. Classroom communication provides few opportunities for students to appropriate academic language through semantic waves, as academic language is only unpacked into everyday language and not repacked into academic language.

The purpose of the research reported in this monograph has been twofold. First, it aims at contributing to an inquiry of the ways in which language and context are intertwined. Second, it aims at giving a characterization of a specific communicative event, second language teaching. The study starts out from a broad social-theoretical perspective, inspired by language game theory and ethnomethodology, as well as Goffman's (1974) 'frame analysis' and the work of Ragnar Rommetveit (1974, 1987). Levinson's (1979) notion 'activity type' is used in exploring how relevance criteria and frames of interpretation vary with the context of the activity in which language is used. The empirical material for the study consists of eight dyadic lessons of Swedish as a second language in grades 4-6 of the Swedish comprehensive, compulsory school. As material for comparison, the pupils, 10-12 year old boys from the Middle East, also participate in two non-didactic conversations around tasks defined by the research team, one together with his teacher of Swedish, one together with a class-mate of his. The first of the three empirical studies is a qualitative, discursive analysis of salient dialogue processes in language teaching activities. Abrupt shifts and breaks in the dialogue, misunderstandings, and lack of tuning between the conversational parties are interpreted as results of a tension between language at two levels in the language lesson. The dialogue in the language lessons of the corpus is characterized by an ambivalence between two perspectives on language, the ordinary, everyday perspective on language as a means for constructing and conveying messages versus the 'level 2 perspective', where language is seen as anabstract system of decontextualized linguistic items. The two other empirical studies are quantitatively oriented. In the first of these, important differences in dialogue processes, concerning dynamics, coherence and fluency are found between the lessons and the non-didactic conversations, as well as between different activities within the confines of a lesson. One of the most important results is that the teacher's interactional dominance seems to be systematically related to the content of lesson activities. The results of the last study suggest that in lessons, and especially language lessons proper, the pupil is givenfewer opportunities for talking and, also, that he refrains from taking the opportunities actually given to him. The main significance of the research is the demonstration of the dynamic character of linguistic communication and of the way in which linguistic meaning is the product of utterances being embedded in activities on which activity-specific premisses for communication are brought to bear. Also, the second language teaching situation is characterized as connected with particular communicative practices that are imbued with a certain degree of ambivalence and ambiguity.

The main purpose of the present study is to explore how the ethical relationship between teacher and student in the classroom can be described and understood from the approach of the French philosopher Emmanuel Lévinas. I also examine the theoretical concepts that can be derived from Lévinas’ ideas in order to be able to interpret the manner in which this ethical relationship manifests itself in the classroom. The empirical data was generated through observation of the kind often found in ethnographical studies like microanalyses using a variety of digital techniques. I also made use of direct observation and stimulated recall interviews in close connection with the classroom events. The study was carried out at two Swedish schools and the focus was placed on classroom practice and ethical communication in the classroom. Facial expressions, eye contact, gestures and other non-verbal communication was of great interest. Through microanalysis of classroom interaction I have attempted to uncover what exists under the surface of the classroom communication in more detail. According to Lévinas, ethics is understood as a relation of the infinitive responsibility to the Other person. In a pedagogical context, we may speak of the ”first meeting” face-to-face before any categorization of the other individual is formulated. The key concepts are Saying (in relation to the Said), the Other, the Face, asymmetrical relationships and alterity. In their encounter with the empirical data collected, the concepts have been freighted with edagogical significance. These original ethical thoughts of Lévinas, much of which challenge what has previously been taken for granted, can provide new insight into educational work. This investigation has provided other insights into the ethical dimension of education, especially as the teacher-student relationship is concerned. The close connection between vulnerability and interdependence in the teacher-student relationship, and communication as self-exposure, are important findings that can help teachers and pedagogues to understand the ethical dimension of the educational encounter with the student. Throughout the study, a relational ethical perspective has been developed as an alternative interpretative tool for analyzing and reflecting upon the teacher-student relationship.

Detta arbete är en kunskapsöversikt över hur lärare kan motivera sina elever att hitta viljan attprata engelska i klassrummet med hjälp av sina engelsklärare. Syftet med denna studie är attta reda på vad forskningen säger om vilka metoder som är framgångsrika att använda iklassrummet, och mer specifikt, att besvara frågeställningarna: “Hur motiverar engelskläraresina elever att hitta viljan att prata engelska i klassrummet? samt “Vad är framgångsrikt attanvända i klassrummet? För att besvara frågeställningarna och uppnå studiens syfte har visystematiskt tagit fram, analyserat och sammanställt vetenskapliga studier om ämnet. Våracentrala begrepp i kunskapsöversikten är följande: engelska som andraspråk, WTC (Viljan attkommunicera), lärandemetoder, klassrumsmiljö och motivation.Vårt resultat mynnade ut iåtta stycken tematiserade underrubriker: WTC (Viljan Att Kommunicera), de sex faktorernasom påverkar språklärares WTC, kommunikationsstrategier, lärandemetoder, klassrumsmiljö,lärarkompetens, motivation/demotivation och elevinflytande. Vi kommer i vårtexaminationsarbete II att samla in empirisk data om hur elever i mellanstadiet årskurs 4-6undervisas i att prata engelska i klassrummet. Vi kommer med hjälp av intervjuer ochobservationer med både lärare och elever samla in ett underlag om vad de anser vara deviktigaste komponenterna i att finna motivation i att lära sig prata engelska i klassrummet.

Föreliggande systematiska litteraturstudie syftar till att med hjälp av nationell och internationell forskning undersöka hur lågstadielärares didaktiska kompetens kan främja elevers kommunikativa kompetens i klassrummet. Studiens utgångspunkt är de centrala begreppen: didaktisk kompetens, kommunikativ kompetens och klassrumsmiljö. I denna systematiska litteraturstudie har vi använt den nationella databasen SwePub och de internationella databaserna ERIC och PsycINFO för att få tillgång till ett bredare forskningsfält. Det material som slutligen framtogs efter urvalsprocessen är 20 publikationer, varav sex som är nationella och 14 som är internationella. Metoden som sedan valdes inför analysering av materialet var en innehållsanalys som resulterade i att två huvudkategorier skapades: klassrumsmiljö och lärmetoder. Resultatet visar att det är betydelsefullt att lärare har kunskap om att den fysiska och den sociala klassrumsmiljön inverkar på utvecklingen av elevers kommunikativa kompetens. Några framgångsrika lärmetoder som lyfts i resultatet är samarbetslekar, grupparbete och återkoppling. Det sammanställda resultatet visar även att lågstadielärares didaktiska kompetens i relation till klassrumsmiljö och lärmetoder är av vikt vid främjandet av elevers kommunikativa kompetens.

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