Critical reflection on my own learning in the research process

In this section I will give a critical reflection on my own learning in the research process by focussing on: designing a lesson unit, the visual grammar, putting theory into practice, judicious use of group work and knowledge of the National Curriculum Statements in English First Additional Language.

5.5.1. Designing a lesson unit

Before the research process, I had never planned a lesson unit that ran over 10 school days on a given theme. The only thing I knew was how to plan a series of four lessons incorporating listening, speaking, reading and writing as the main skills to be achieved in each lesson. I first planned this unit as a requirement for my assignment in the course work and it had 10 lesson plans over 10 school days. However, before I taught it, I critically evaluated its implementation in a rural high school and found out that some lessons or visual images were not suitable for my learners due to lack of exposure. I, therefore, redesigned and refined the lesson unit into 7 lesson plans over 10 school days, which were used in the research.

5.5.2. Visual Grammar

Unlike the design of individual lesson plans, I found designing this unit very challenging because I had to focus on visual literacy only. At the beginning, I did not know the elements of visual literacy except for camera shots and angles. However, after intensive study, I had a range of visual language (or grammar) from which to select the elements that my learners could understand, taking into consideration their background.

I learned about the use of colour, texture, lighting, focus, foreground, background and juxtaposition together with camera angles and shots in depth as discussed in chapter two. I was also exposed to advertising language that includes: brand names, stereotypes, logo, motto and advertising strategies such as the AIDA approach, which the advertiser carefully puts together to reach viewers. I was therefore able to share this visual

language with my learners which I could not do before. Until I noticed that my learners had difficulty in cutting in a straight line with scissors, I did not realise that I, too, had difficulties in this regard. Once I was aware of this, I was quickly able to remediate it and thus my own ability to design visual texts improved.

5.5.3. Putting theory into practice

After I learned about second language acquisition theories, I put them into practice during the research process as a guide to my actions. As an illustration, if my learners had a difficulty in understanding an element of visual literacy, I would scaffold them. For example, whilst designing the school advertisement, one group of learners was challenged by a photograph they wanted to use but it had an image of a person with dread locks which they did not want to show. I was able to show them how to crop the photograph, so that only the person’s hands were visible.

Experiencing a conflict whilst learning a new thing is a normal occurrence (Richards & Rodgers, 1986). Once I understood this, I relaxed and took the opportunity to give learners assistance and withdrew that help when they were then able to move forward on their own (Larkin, 2002). I exposed the learners to the art involved in photography where the photographer carefully selects what should or should not appear in a photo frame. In short, during my lessons I took informed decisions based on the theory that I had learned.

5.5.4. Judicious use of group work

Prior to carrying out this research my understanding of OBE was that in prioritised group work as opposed to whole class teaching, which it located as part of a teacher centred approach. However, with the implementation of this research lesson unit, I realised that group work should be used judiciously as some activities are not suited to it. For example, if learners are experiencing a lesson for the first time, it is best for the teacher to improvise ways in which learners could have the necessary information to perform the task or better to explicitly teach them before they work with the activity. Sometimes, group work wasted a lot of time with little being covered in the lesson. Some learners were dominated by others and this latter group did not benefit from the discussions. Also, learners did not communicate in English as an additional language

but discussed in Xhosa, which worked against the purpose of working as a group (Wong-Fillmore, 1985)

Even if the learners could communicate in English in those group settings, the greatest problem is that the practice they would get from others would develop “permanent interlanguage features through their exposure to the ‘junky input data’” (Wong- Fillmore, 1985: 25). In this regard whole class work with the teacher at the centre should be used as an alternative to group work, when appropriate.

Given the time allocation for English periods in my school, I have learned to strive for a balance between individual work, pair work, group work which would be carefully designed by the teacher activities, and whole class work (Wong-Fillmore, 1985: 26). 5.5.5. Knowledge of the National Curriculum Statements (NCS) in English

Before this research I had little knowledge about the NCS and I could not use the document for my lessons. Now I know how the statements link up with the National Constitution. For example, the constitution aims to redress the legacy of apartheid and discourages discrimination of whatever form. One of the main programmes the

government embarked on was the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). In the NCS, the RDP comes in the form of developing learners to be critical thinkers and that counted for the inclusion of aspects like visual literacy and media literacy in the new curriculum as vehicles to promote the ideal learner envisaged.

The RDP in the NCS comes with critical language awareness, where learners

deconstruct and reconstruct a visual image. As an illustration, they would deconstruct stereotyping in an advertisement and redesign the same advertisement to be free of stereotyping.

To conclude, the research process empowered me with both visual knowledge and skills that radically changed the way I teach and gave me confidence as an English First Additional Language teacher who is no longer unable to answer an examination question on visual literacy.