Week 16- Back to Education in Jozi: Multilingualism, Language, and Learning

Caz and Me at the Italian's Birthday Bash

I returned to Johannesburg on April 20^th and attended a birthday party with my Caz that night…by 11:30 I was heading home to sleep. The next day Cristines agreed to try a bikram yoga class with me…she ended up having to leave the class. Interestingly, the yoga instructor at the studio in Illova knew my yoga instructor in San Francisco (small world). The room wasn’t as hot as Funky Door, so the class seemed a bit easier to me…unfortunately, the next day I went back to work at University of Johannesburg and began working long hours so I wasn’t able to go to another class.

Monday (April 21)- I had agreed to teach some classes for colleagues while they attended the American Educational Research Association Conference in San Francisco. I was asked to teach three classes on reading and learning barriers. To compliment what was already taught earlier in the semester, I decided to focus on phonemic awareness, phonics, and fluency/comprehension based on assessment and mini-lessons. I realized in the classes I had taught in March that many students don’t show up to class and then want a copy of the powerpoint and assignments later, so I decided to make the class more interactive instead of pure lecture (best practice). I also wanted to integrate strategies for teaching reading into the course. I had the students begin with a warm up on language (what are the 11 official languages, why do learners struggle, why do teachers struggle, and how can we empower learners in a multilingual classroom). Then, I showed a movie about brain development (as late students continued to arrive). When everyone had settled, we went over the answers. I explained that the warm up was intended to get everyone thinking about language and literacy. I began with an easy question that everyone could at least attempt to answer, then more subjective questions that might illicit dialogue about language. The video I said was to connect and make sure that everyone was reminded about what they had learned about brain research and learning in previous classes.

Sousa (2007)

Next, I reviewed some subcomponents of language (lexicon, phonology, morphology, syntax) and introduced 4 best practice strategies:  Cooperative Learning, Explicit Instruction, Building Background and Schema, and Differentiated Instruction. I had the powerpoint slides explaining the elements of each strategy and methods to implement it in the classroom (I gave them a truncated version of my presentation to force them to pay attention) and a graphic organizer for them to take notes and apply their information.

After introducing strategies for teaching, I moved on to applying those strategies when teaching phonemic awareness and phonics. I gave the students an activity sheet (homework that they could do in class as long as they didn’t use the same words I used in my presentation) and I modelled how to create mini-lessons for stretching, segmentation, rhyming, and replacing sounds in phonemic awareness activities and how to explicitly teach phonics (grapheme, phoneme, vowel rules, consonant rules, and high frequency words). Finally, I gave them a practice-test (based on the RICA) that I had literally cut and pasted on many of the concepts, terms, and information I had present in the last hour and a half. I asked all of the students to complete the graphic organizer on strategies, create a mini-lesson based on the activity sheet, and finish the practice test to the best of their ability by the next class. I would be collecting all their homework next Monday.

 Picture from the Cheetah Center...added to this week just for fun ;)

The next day I met with the 4^th year students to discuss writing research based on research. They had all been asked to find and analyse 5 peer-reviewed articles about a topic. I had put them in groups to get this task done two months ago. I assumed they would all show up with their 5 articles analysed and ready to write…some did. I showed them a sample chapter two (literature review) and went over the basics of writing one. I told them if they were able to write an analysis of one of their articles by Thursday I would read it and give them feedback by Monday. They spent the rest of the time writing their first draft of an article review while I went around the class supporting their writing. Mostly giving sentence starters like, “Smith and Cruz (2011) examined ______ by _____ the ____. They _____ # of _____...”

 There were some protest in Soweto this week and they burned the KFC and took down the traffic lights (robots)

April 24^th- Another class I was teaching while a colleague was in San Francisco is the Language and Literacy class. This was the fourth time I would be working in this particular class. The first time I spoke about elements of reading followed by using the second Harry Potter book to apply the elements. Then, I taught them about the role of language in learning and developing academic language (March 20^th). During this class, I handed them the assignment they would be turning into me to get credit for the two classes. Because of the language challenges, students who enter university face one of the classes on developing an academic English vocabulary- this class is similar to the one I teach to my students in San Francisco (Special Education, English Language Learners, and students who have not been exposed to academic English at home). We reviewed how to increase vocabulary (resources, parts of speech, building terminology, and comparisons). I taught them about accessing prior knowledge, word banks, cloze sentences, and assessments. Then, I gave them an academic sentence written by one of the lecturers here at the university and I had them “decode” it. After going over the answers to each question on the first two pages of the handout, I told them they needed to bring this same worksheet to the next class on April 24^th. I also reminded them they needed to read and take notes on an article at the end of their learning guide. The week prior to this class, their lecturer reminded them they need to read and take notes on that same article. Today was the 24^th…
 Today, I was speaking about skills and strategies for reading selectively. I asked who read and took notes on the article…one person raised their hand (out of 152 in the class, about 85 in attendance). I asked who had their learning guide with them…maybe 45 raised their hand. I asked who had their handout…around the same number. Page 3 of their handout was a graphic organizer for the article. I also had taken notes, scanned, and put the article up onto the screen. I began to break down the article. Here is the citation (written just like the citation in the “example” section of their handout), here are the keywords, and let’s look at how Osakwe introduced his research topic. I explicitly showed them where to write everything on the handout and reminded them I would be collecting the handout as their assignment. Very few students seemed to be writing. I continued: statement of the problem, purpose of the study, and research questions (however in Osakwe’s case he had hypotheses- we talked about the difference). Then I moved onto the methodology- I showed them the sample, setting, instrument, intervention, data collection, and data analysis. Finally, we discussed the results/limitations/discussion and conclusion sections. I then had slides to show what I would write in each section… After completing this activity, we went over the information from the chapter of the textbook they were assigned for class (Seligmann, 2012). How to look at the layout and structure of the text (parts of a book, headings, pictures, etc); how to take notes (look for signal words, bullet points, bold words, etc); and strategies when reading (how to predict, skim, and scan). Next, I went around the room numbering off all of the students (96 students) from 1-15- looking them in their eyes to make sure that they knew their group number. I gave the first 15 a copy of a journal with 3 copies of the article I had chosen inside. I asked the leader to write down the titles and authors of each article in the journal and then asked the groups to jigsaw (split up the work evenly) the article (I even told them which sections to split up). I told them they needed to apply the skills I had just presented on and finish their analysis and turn it in to me as soon as possible (they had 20 minutes so finishing it then by jigsawing was possible, but I didn’t want to stress them out so I gave them 1.5 weeks to finish it and write it nicely). I also mentioned that if they knew of a friend who did not come to class, that friend needed to come to my office for an alternative assignment. They all got out of their seats and disappeared- but not before I clarified that each group should have no more than 5 or 6 people. I had no idea the amount of work this class would cost me the next week…you will have to wait until next week to find out why ;)

 Notice the notes, circled signal words, and information in the margins...could I have made it easier????

 

That evening I was asked to speak at Teachers Upfront- a seminar series that addresses different aspects of education. http://www.bridge.org.za/164.page The topic was multilingualism and biliteracy development. We were asked:  Poor English ability is not the same as poor language ability. How can we develop literacy in multiple languages and turn multilingualism into a classroom asset?  I was on a panel with two other professors from South Africa:  Leketi Makalela (University of Witwatersrand) and Lili Pretorius (University of South Africa). Prof. Makalela spoke about translanguaging and Prof. Pretorius spoke about the effects of talking to babies in the early stages of development to ensure vocabulary development.

Panel

I prepared a presentation that analyzed the stakeholders involved in language and education; defined diverse learners, what the research says about language and learning, and finished with best practice strategies. The stakeholders were basically South Africa as a country on the global front, the provinces, districts, schools, teachers, students, families and communities (I visualized this in an hour-glass type shape big picture down to the student and then back out to the community). I noted what the research and policy statements are saying in South Africa- 11 official languages, preparing students for the matric test, and for university or employment. I mentioned the fact that the matric was only given in two languages- English or Afrikaans, which is a policy of the SA government (everything needs to be done in at least 2 languages), however, most universities are in English. I also discussed literacy skills and expression being difficult if your mother tongue is not developed enough or you are constantly moving between languages. I said that although I found a plethora of literature in the other 9 languages at the foundation phase, it began to disappear in intermediate (junior high) and high school and was absent from academic research. I questioned preservation of the languages. I then explored the idea of diverse learners in South Africa. They actually don’t use terms like disability, but rather focus on human rights and social justice for all. I developed the ideas of equity and equality based on the Constitution and White Paper #6 (Inclusion Paper) which promoted the respect, acknowledgement, and addressing barriers to learning (language of instruction). I reviewed the research on language development such as exiting a language program too early leads to school failure (students are supposed to be taught in their home language until 4^th grade).

Professor Pretorius

I mentioned the additive value of bilingualism/multilinguaglism. I also mentioned that high quality instruction benefits both English-learners and English-speaking students and if you promote literacy, you promote learning. Finally, I reviewed some best practice strategies in the last few minutes of my talk. We then answered questions as a panel.

 Professor Leketi Makalela

I have attached the article that was written about the night at the end of this entry…however, as one colleague mentioned to me what I said wasn’t really highlighted because what I said was “too much light into the public” but that he “loved the way you were so direct and to the point on disproportional use of languages and how this impacts on equity. South Africans hardly talk about this issue.” The article was never in the paper, the editor said any “non-specialist readers could not comprehend or finish reading” the information. Hmmm…

 I tend to speak with my hands...and try to speak from the heart.

April 25^th- Today I taught my last official class with the 4^th year students. I showed them how to write chapters 1 and 3 of their research papers. I gave them a handout to help them, talked to them about what the different terms mean, and offered to meet with each research group one last time before they write their final papers. They are all teaching during the day around Johannesburg and transportation is always an issue here, so I offered to meet them on May 9-15^th from 7am-8pm, as long as it was safe and their group members showed up. I had to run off to a conference, so I accepted the papers from the students who had finished them and left campus.

My 4th year students turned in their research papers with borders on them...I wrote "Times New Roman, 12-point font, No Borders" on quite a few- the bats were my favorite!

Waahida, from the Khulula Foundation, and I had met a month ago when she approached me about speaking at a conference called the Innovative Teachers Institute. I prepared a session on “Becoming a Culturally Responsive Educator Working Towards Social Justice for All Learners.” I asked for an LCD projector to plug my powerpoint in…I got one, unfortunately no one had the remote for the projector to turn on, luckily I had printed my powerpoint out and made little handouts with the materials from my presentation. Two members of the conference walked in, saw me and said “what can I learn from here” and walked out. I started with my “Who walks in the door” discussion using photos (which were hard to see in the 6 slides per page format, but it worked). Next, I spoke about Civil Rights in the US and SA, the pillars of the constitution, and important aspects of White Paper #6. I discussed identifying issues with diverse learners (auditory, visual, language, emotional, social, and physical) and what to do as a culturally responsive educator. Then we went through the six elements of culturally responsive pedagogy (Gay, 2000) and identified how we, as educators, can learn from each and improve our culturally responsive bag of tricks. We finished with appreciations and acknowledgements of what people had said and the group was so supportive and giving with positive statements. These are the types of sessions I love to facilitate.

 Two of the attendees of my session- I love energetic educators!

After my session, all of the attendees of the conference came into the hall and there was a panel of students from townships and private schools. The boys were telling their stories and then asked questions from the audience. One question was “What can we as teachers do to help students stay in school and be successful?” The boys started to answer saying teachers should be role models, “If you don’t want us to be late, be on time and ready to teach.” All of the sudden, from the crowd, the woman who left my session before I began stood up and yelled, “I am from Limpopo and it is too late. It’s too late and it won’t get better.” Someone escorted her out…but that was a powerful moment. Limpopo is one of the lowest performing provinces in South Africa. Two years after a scandal around textbooks not being delivered to schools, they are STILL waiting. I don’t get how the department of education has not rectified this- some of the textbooks were found burned/destroyed in a field. Also, many teachers are not receiving paychecks. There are reports of collapsed toilets, exposed sewage pits, uninhabitable schools, and many schools without desks, chairs, etc. I don’t believe it is too late, but I do hope the people who are showing up for these schools don’t lose hope. One of my participants from the conference asked if I would work with her school in Soweto and I agreed- just in case I thought I might have some extra time on my hands in the next month…

 Dorothy Dyer wrote a series of books for teens in South Africa

The rest of the week and weekend I was able to make it out and be social a bit…but I also tried to get some much needed rest. I went to a wine bar with Agata, Caz, Lilly, and friends (Melrose Arch), a Birthday Braai with InterNations friends, and a little shopping at Sandton City.

Article written about the Teachers Upfront Seminar (but never published):

Teachers Upfront by Barbara Dale-Jones

Although the South African Constitution has enshrined eleven official languages and Education White Paper 6 acknowledges and respects differences in language, educational practice in South Africa struggles with multilingualism and gravitates towards unilingualism. The latest Teachers Upfront, which took place last week at the University of Johannesburg, focused on the need to develop literacy in multiple languages and on how to turn multilingualism into a classroom asset.

The seminar was opened by Leketi Makalela, Associate Professor and Deputy Head of the Division of Languages, Literacies and Literatures at the University of the Witwatersrand's school of education.  Arguing for a pedagogy of integration in multilingual classrooms, Makalela said that multilingualism is often misconstrued as “multiple unilingualisms”, with boundaries being used to separate languages. In reality, however, humans have complex identities, languages are embedded into one another, and children who grow up multilingually access knowledge multilingually.  “The problem is the monolingual teacher not the multilingual child”, he said. Having described regressing literacy trajectories in primary school as well as South Africa’s bleak high school to university trends where throughput is “dismally low”, Makalela presented “translanguaging” as a strategy for teachers of multilingual classrooms, saying that “languages should not be viewed as fixed systems capable of being placed in closed boxes”. He questioned the validity of language-boxing in multilingual settings saying that “multilingual learners should be encouraged to move between languages in non-conflictual but complementary ways; in other words, to translanguage”. A teachable translanguaging strategy should be part of all multilingual and multicultural classrooms, he argued, which will “help to diffuse the negative stereotypes associated with multilingualism and instead recognise it as a resource”. Urging teachers to allow learners to have input and output in the classroom in different languages in the process of meaning-making, Makalela said that language teachers need to build on the many communicative repertoires at the disposal of learners, allow learners to “assemble their language practices to fit their communicative needs” and make “the lens of orientation speaker-centred, not language-centred”.

The second speaker was Lilli Pretorius, professor in the Department of Linguistics at Unisa, who focused on literacy in the context of contemporary multilingual education systems and the knowledge society of the 21st Century. “On the one hand, we have basic interpersonal communicative skills that we use for local knowledge, everyday purposes and social interaction”, she said. “Because children are familiar with their own worlds, when they come to school they have already experientially acquired those communicative skills.” However, “on the other hand we have school or academic literacy, which is used to talk about the world of knowledge towards which learners need to move; the teacher represents that world, and hence is normally highly-qualified and highly-literate”. The teacher leads the journey from the known world of the learner and makes the world of knowledge accessible. “Language is used for this process, but importantly there are differences in the vocabulary and syntactic structures required for academic language proficiency; the locus of meaning changes from the context to the text itself, hence context is lexicalised and you need to explain meaning in words”. Literacy is, therefore, the crux of education. “A lot of the debate about poor learner performance is about language”, she said, “and indeed it is important; but schooling is about literacy and a good schooling system involves making students literate, in whichever languages they use at school”.

Pretorius said that “the sites of inequality between children who achieve and those who don’t are mainly situated in knowledge, be it vocabulary knowledge, content knowledge or linguistic knowledge”. While she recognised that a number of factors affect this, including socioeconomic status, the home environment, parental interaction, the amount of reading that both teachers and children do and the quality of schooling, she focused on the 2011 Grade 4 Pre-Pirls results, saying that “those who did the test in African languages did it badly and something is not happening in these classrooms; these children are experiencing oral education and a shift to reading is not happening.” Arguing that most knowledge comes from written sources in the 21^st Century, and citing insights from neuroscience as to how the brain has adapted to literacy, Pretorius said that reading is a fairly modern invention and that the brain has evolved structures for oral but not written language. “When children learn to read, new neural pathways need to be formed; the more exposure to reading a child experiences, the more these neural connections develop”, she said. Pretorius argued that vocabulary development and comprehension should become priorities for schools and that literacy should be developed early. Teachers need to be trained to do this, to use the resources available to them and to be trained into more literate modes of education. “We need teachers with a deep knowledge of the subject as well as a command of literacy, ones who will develop conceptual structures through interaction, who build in opportunities for practice, who teach comprehension strategies, who help students develop skills and who mediate reading and learning.”

The last speaker was Rebekka Jez, a Fulbright Scholar working with university and school educators in implementing inclusive strategies and practices to support diverse learners. She confirmed that research indicates that high-quality literacy instruction is beneficial for learners. She added that it is vital to prepare learners with literacy skills as “if you promote literacy, you promote learning”. Calling on teachers to clarify and develop ideas in the vernacular in order to aid the learner and preserve language, Jez highlighted strategies for good practice for teachers, including clear lesson-planning, explicit instruction and the importance of using support materials. She also described the provision of frequent opportunities for interaction and for the elaboration of ideas as a practice that will serve learners well as it will allow students who are not very proficient in a language to process and express their ideas. She called for a holistic approach to teacher development, including both teacher education programmes and the in-service training of teachers. “As for best practice”, she said, “look for what is working and do more of that”.

Audience discussion focused on a range of issues, including the concern that South Africa does not have enough teachers who are equipped to deal with multilingualism. How are we going to deal with the realities of so many different languages in the classroom, yet teachers who are in the main unilinguistic, they asked? The panel agreed that teacher education programmes should empower teachers to be creative and flexible as well as sensitive to linguistic and cultural differences.

Barbara Dale-Jones is chief operations officer of the Bridge education network. Teachers Upfront is a partnership involving the University of the Witwatersrand's school of education, the University of Johannesburg's education faculty, Bridge, the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre and the Mail & Guardian. The M&G’s articles on previous seminars can be found at mg.co.za/teachersupfront