M.A. / This dissertation is focused on errors made by Zairean students who learn English as a foreign language; the difficulties encountered by teachers, which inhibit them from performing their work properly and from achieving the prescribed objectives. The analysis of the whole situation shows that many features need to be improved. The government has to define clearly the objectives of learning English in Zaire and thus revise the formation program for the teacher to be. The school must equip the teachers with modern didactic materials for a better performance of the actors in presence. Time-table as well as the curriculum need to be revised in accordance with the main objectives. Finally, the student's interest and his/her environment must be motivated to render the learning of English much easier.

M.Ed. (Educational Linguistics) / This study examined language barriers affecting a selected group of Grade Four learners from a disadvantaged community, to whom English, the medium of classroom instruction, was their second language. They were disadvantaged because their language proficiency had not been developed early enough to serve as a springboard for conceptualizations of academic aspects. They struggled to express themselves and grappled with simple linguistic concepts which they were expected to master at school. The purpose was to explore support structures and strategies that educators employed to assist Grade Four English second language (ESL) learners in developing cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP) in a linguistically diverse classroom. Research has shown that the acquisition and use of English at an early age at home strengthens linguistic ability in learning to read and write. Language depends on basic intercommunication skills (BICS), which are developed at a very young age, and later the development of CALP in formal schooling. BICS allows children to speak and pronounce basic words and have sufficient vocabulary to develop their receptive and expressive language in daily life, basic commands and social conversations. The problem was minimal exposure to the English language at early stages in the child’s life, hence BICS being developed in the vernacular. Effective linguistic communication depends on CALP, which allows learners to engage in abstract problem-solving activities and use complex academic tasks, namely reading and writing. The research design was a qualitative descriptive case study and participants were purposefully selected. Data was collected from interviews with educators, observation of learners’ work and observations on the playground. The findings revealed that ESL learners struggled with oral activities, listening and speaking, reading, writing, language and comprehension. These learners experienced difficulties in all five forms of language, namely phonology, syntax, semantics, morphology and pragmatics. Various support strategies were necessary to assist them through peer tutoring, curriculum differentiation, simplifying assessments according to their ability, implementing various reading strategies, and adopting diverse teaching methodologies. This study argued that the educator’s role is paramount in developing CALP in the language of learning and teaching (LOLT), in all learners, in order to facilitate formal school learning. A large class with an average of 45 learners proved to be a challenge for the educators, therefore it is recommended that fewer learners be placed in a class to enable educators to give more attention to the weaker learners. There is an urgent need for remediation to take place in the English class and the study concludes that various support strategies need to be developed for CALP in ESLs.

The study aims at investigating the problems that learners of English as a foreign language in three secondary schools in Tripoli, Libya, have in developing English reading skills. The study is conducted within a conceptual framework for the study of reading and the development of reading skills, developed on the basis of a literature study. Information was obtained by requesting 60 Grade 11 learners in the three selected schools to complete an English comprehension test (to determine their ability to interpret a written text), by observing teachers teaching English reading in these schools, by conducting interviews with the learners and by interviewing selected lecturers at a Teachers' Training College in Tripoli. The information obtained in this way was analysed and interpreted in order to answer the following questions: <ul><li> What problems do learners in Libyan secondary schools experience with reading in EFL? </li> <li> What are the main causes of these problems? </li> <li> Do the curricula for EFL reading and the didactic approaches of educators contribute to the problem? </li> <li> What are the possible ways to resolve these problems? </ul> </li><ul>Findings include: <li>EFL learners in Tripoli cannot recognise sentences and paragraphs. </li> <li>They have restricted vocabulary knowledge. </li> <li>They are not able to extract correct information from texts. They cannot understand both implied and explicitly stated information. </li> <li>They do not understand figurative language. </li> <li>They cannot express the technical relations between parts of texts through the use of cohesive devices. </li> <li>They cannot determine or identify the main idea of texts. </li></ul> The reasons for these problems are that the learners do not have a structured knowledge of the English language, their English reading skills are underdeveloped and non-appropriate didactic approaches are used by educators in EFL classrooms. Possible ways to resolve these problems are that EFL learners must acquire better proficiency in English, their English reading skills must be developed properly, and educators in EFL learners' classrooms must use more appropriate didactic approaches to enable EFL learners to acquire proficiency in English and to develop their reading skills, by following the steps prescribed in the EFL reading curriculum. The curriculum that is used in the Teachers' Training College must be implemented more effectively in teacher training programmes, and lecturers must ensure that teacher trainees have a proper understanding of the curriculum of EFL reading skills when they graduate. / Dissertation (MA(Applied Language Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Afrikaans / unrestricted

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This study, which was carried out in Mdantsane township in the Eastern Cape, attempts to explain why some learners from the former Department of Education and Training, and whose mother-tongue is Xhosa, are more proficient English Second Language (ESL) writers than others. As one who grew up as an ESL learner, and has taught as an ESL teacher in this area, my interest in this field of study has been triggered by the concern of one who has experienced educational disadvantage. My understanding of what it means to be an ESL writer, given the status that English enjoys in South Africa presently, has been the motivating force behind this study. The study focuses on competent ESL writers. It is hoped that other researchers, teacher educators and teachers will learn something from the practices and strategies used by the learners in this study. In its investigation this study employs case studies. For purposes of triangulation, multiple sources of data collection have been used. The major areas of focus are on the learners and their ESL writing practices. Collection of data includes formal interviews with both ESL learners and their teachers, informal interviews with the learners' Xhosa teachers, observation as well as text analysis. The findings of the study suggest, among other things, that more often than not, it is learners who are motivated extroverts, ambitious go-getters and uninhibited survivors who become excellent ESL writers. Like any study, this has certain limitations. As a result the interpretation of data has been expressed in tentative terms. This does not mean that there is nothing to be gained from a study of this nature. Instead, the aim is to challenge more researchers to take up this issue, so that generalis ability across case studies can be achieved.

Curriculum 2005 and outcomes-based education was introduced to South African educators in 1996 by the Minister of Education, Prof. S.M.E. Bengu as an alternative to the racially divided education system prior to the first democratic elections of 1995. The new curriculum was designed to transform the education system into a more equitable system by focussing on creating learners who would become creative thinkers, independent, productive workers and responsible, non-racial citizens. Learners would take a greater role in their own education and teachers would take on new roles as facilitators in the learning process. The new approach was introduced into grade 1 in 1998 and grade 2 in 1999. By using a modified ethnographic approach, this research project studies how one teacher has begun to think about Curriculum 2005 and implement an OBE approach to ESL teaching in a grade 2 classroom. It also focuses on gaining insights into how the teacher has attempted to make sense of the new curriculum in terms of her current practice and the training she has received in OBE. The ethnographic approach of the thesis has allowed the researcher to draw on many forms of data providing a holistic view. Tentative findings show that the teacher is experiencing difficulty in “unpacking” the underlying principles of OBE in terms of her current methods of teaching ESL. She continues to work from tacit knowledge. Because she has received very little training in OBE, she lacks the tools to become a more reflective practitioner. Despite this, her ESL lessons show a positive communicative approach to language teaching by focusing on stories, rhymes and songs as comprehensible input for the learners. The findings of this thesis tentatively suggest that unless teachers are given more adequate training and learning support materials, their classroom practices will remain relatively unchanged.

Communicative Language Teaching, an approach to language teaching currently widely prescribed, has been criticised for its unquestioning acceptance of the cultural and political norms of the target language. People's English (an aspect of the larger People's Education movement), on the other hand, offers a philosophy and methodology that takes an actively critical view of language and its relationship to power. In the context of South African society, this stance has had clear political implications. Although still imprecisely defined , the concepts of People's Education and People's English have been debated and discussed by various ant-apartheid movements in recent years. Attempts have also been made to translate the evolving theory into practice through the development of materials and methodologies. This has been achieved on a relatively small scale, with varying degrees of success. Recent reform measures by the South African government have, however, prompted the proponents of People's Education to reassess their position. This thesis presents a historical overview and critical assessment of the development of People's English in South Africa.

Research suggests numerous views to account for the influence on practice of teachers’ beliefs. One view states that teachers’ lived experiences shape their beliefs about practice. Another view attributes the influence to school experiences. This research sets out to gain insight into teachers’ beliefs on the role of extensive reading in second language learning. A case study of 9 teachers from 3 schools in Grahamstown, South Africa selected purposefully and conveniently was utilised. The teachers were viewed to be knowledgeable on this matter by virtue of their profession while the 3 schools were selected to represent a private school, a former Model C and former Department of Education and Training (DET) school. Data was mainly collected by means of semi-structured interviews, which utilised in-depth open-ended questions to yield teachers’ past experiences. The findings revealed the following: all the teachers appeared to believe that extensive reading was invaluable and enhanced language skills. However, white and black teachers differed in terms of their early experiences of reading. Whereas for white teachers early experiences with literacy were encountered in the home, for black teachers the school was where they had their first exposure to literacy. In addition formal training in the form of an ACE (Advanced Certificate in Education) seemed to have influenced black teachers’ beliefs about the subject at hand, whereas the role of teacher education/ training was not as significant for white teachers.

Adult learners face many difficulties in their learning programmes, particularly due to the fact that having mastered literacy in their mother tongues, they move on to further educational programmes which are mostly produced in English. In contemporary society, people need to be adept in a number of literacies, termed multiliteracies. Adult learners are rarely taught visual competence as visual images are relegated to illustrations for written texts, and attention is mainly focussed on the all-important written word. Adult basic education learners need to be able to interpret pictures in books, newspapers and magazines, just as much as they need to be able to read and write. It is the premise of this research that visual literacy enhances thinking skills and that adult learners need to be actively taught how to interpret visual images in order to more ably deal with the written word, the more 'important' part of literacy. The goals of this research are to develop understanding of the processes which go into understanding images and text, and to examine how pictures can be used to help adult learners develop proficiency in English. Another goal is to teach learners the basics of visual literacy so as to improve their comprehension of the plethora of images surrounding them. The research findings could help to inform adult educators facing the current crisis in Adult Basic Education and Training in South Africa, focusing on a little-studied aspect of literacy, visual literacy, one of the critical outcomes in the new South African curriculum for Adult Education and one of the multiliteracies required by citizens of today's world.

The purpose of this research project was to explore the English communicative competency of management and supervisory level employees within the South Mrican hospitality industry. The Pro lit English Written Assessment, a competency-based assessment tool, was used to establish a relatively objective measure of the English communicative competency of nineteen managers and supervisors. Thereafter thirteen of these respondents were interviewed to determine their perceptions of their English communicative competency and the impact thereof on their work situation, as well as their perceptions of their learning needs and recommendations for intervention. The researcher selected a multi-method approach to the investigation and sought both quantitative and qualitative data. The assessment revealed that the English reading and writing ability of the respondents is distinctly lower than their recorded education level and inadequate in relation to the tasks they are expected to perform at work. The interviews indicated that the respondents are not aware of their lack of English communicative competency or the implications thereof. However, the respondents expressed important insights into the factors that should be taken into account when planning an educational intervention III an organization. These included the need to incorporate English second language learning principles, to treat the learner as an individual, to involve the learner in the decision-making process, to consider the practical concerns of the learner and to ensure that the programme content is appropriate. Recommendations for human resource practices and research in the hospitality industry are presented.