Pre-intervention teacher interview qualitative data

In this section the data from the Experimental Group teacher’s interview regarding her attitude and approach to L2 vocabulary teaching before the intervention will be presented.

The CAPS document (Department of Basic Education, 2011a) states that, at the end of their Grade 1 year, learners should know between 700 – 1000 L2 vocabulary words in context. Although the document contains detailed methods regarding how to teach L2, - and emphasises the importance of building an oral vocabulary it does not specifically address how teachers must go about choosing these vocabulary words. The attitude and pedagogical beliefs of teachers regarding English learning are therefore important as these will, to a large extend, determine how and what they teach as far as L2 vocabulary is concerned.

From the interview, it became clear that Teacher EG’s concern centres on the overall language proficiency and academic development of her learners and that, although she regards vocabulary as ‘important’ and ‘valuable,’ teaching L2 vocabulary is not a priority in her class. She feels that the poverty and violence in the community that her learners live in impact negatively on learners and their ability to do their school work

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and homework. Teacher EG continued that there are learners in her class that suffer from foetal alcohol syndrome, ‘disadvantaged’ learners and learners that suffer from emotional and intellectual problems. Learners often came to school on a Monday morning full of scrapes and bruises and the food they receive at school, as part of the meal/food scheme, is sometimes the only proper meal they get during the day (refer 4.2.2.13). These were the challenges which teachers at the school faced daily.

4.2.3.1 Understanding and use of CAPS

Teacher EG uses the Department of Education’s Grade 1 English First Additional Language workbooks in her class. There are two books for Grade 1 and the work become progressively more difficult during the year. She feels the vocabulary learners are exposed to in these books is enough for Grade 1 and does not think it is necessary to teach any additional vocabulary. Learners work through the books during the year and the word lists in each unit are used as a guideline for teaching new vocabulary. Teacher EG was unsure whether the lists consist of Tier 1 or Tier 2 words (presumably because she was uncertain about the meaning of the terminology, the researcher did not pursue this line of questioning) but said that most words are ‘simple and basic.’ When asked about the word lists at the end of the CAPS document Teacher EG said that she is aware of the lists, but does not actively teach these words.

4.2.3.2 Vocabulary teaching strategies

Teacher EG showed a lack of knowledge about the various vocabulary teaching strategies available. She was aware of this lack and expressed her inability to successfully build learners’ vocabulary, leading in turn, to her feeling overwhelmed by the task of teaching vocabulary in the L2.

In terms of the use of vocabulary teaching strategies Teacher EG said she often explicitly explains the meaning of words to learners, frequently in the learners’ Home Language to ensure comprehension. The Grade 1 workbooks generally contain pictures of the vocabulary and she also incorporated this, as well as the context in which the words appear, in her explanations. Another strategy she cited was ‘pronunciation’ - learners orally repeat word lists and meanings in order to memorize or ‘learn’ the words. She added that ‘pronunciation’ is mainly used when teaching

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letter sounds and explained that when teaching a specific letter sound words starting with the same letter are used to emphasise the specific letter/sound, for example s- un, s-and, s-ea.

Teacher EG used the word lists in the Department of Education’s Grade 1 English First Additional Language workbook, and explained that she would repeat the words, emphasising the first letter so learners can hear the sound; afterwards, the whole class repeated the sound/word a few times. Teacher EG also exposes her learners to English (vocabulary) is by means of DVDs and CDs, although unfamiliar words are not explained to learners. She stated that, she does not incorporate vocabulary teaching in other subjects, nor are learners assessed on their L2 word or vocabulary knowledge.

As witnessed during the classroom observations, this lack of L2 vocabulary teaching strategies, combined with her misconception about the importance of vocabulary, led to very little explicit L2 vocabulary instruction taking place in her lessons before the intervention.

4.2.3.3 General opinion about storybook reading and vocabulary

Teacher EG makes use of Big Books as a reading tool, but says the Big Books are ‘quite expensive’ and, because of financial constraints, the school only has two or three Big Books per grade; she feels the stories in these books are a bit simplistic and learners are bored by them. Teacher EG believes that her learners will not be able to understand if she reads more interesting or complex books to them in English, and consequently, storybook reading only takes place in Afrikaans and mostly as a reward for good behaviour.

Teacher EG explained that the community where the school is located is very Afrikaans and that learners get almost no exposure to English other than in the classroom. Consequently English proficiency and especially English vocabulary is a ‘problem,’ but, she continued there was no time to teach additional vocabulary (other than the short word lists in the workbooks) during the L2 periods.

Overall Teacher EG’s opinion was that vocabulary can and will be acquired naturally and incidentally. Learning takes place all the time and Teacher EG believed that as learners continue with their schooling ‘they will come across more words’ and

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concepts and as they are exposed to these words they will naturally acquire them. She regarded teaching the meaning of vocabulary as less important than teaching ‘pronunciation’ or phonic skills.

4.2.4 Conclusion

The previous sections presented the analyses and interpretation of the data obtained before the intervention. The researcher used a mixed methods approach – combining both quantitative and qualitative research methods.

Quantitative data were gathered using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, Fourth Edition (refer 3.5.1). The analysis of these data enabled the researcher to establish that the three groups were homogenous and to obtain baseline data from all the participants before the intervention. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected during the classroom observations. Categorising these data the researcher analysed the vocabulary teaching strategies and overall AL practices used in the three class groups in order to answer research Question 2. The data collected form a semi- structured interview with the Experimental Group’s teacher and the researcher’s observations of the tree class groups were also analysed and discussed.

The findings will serve as a point of reference to determine whether or not the intervention was effective in terms of research questions 1 and 3.

We will now move on to Phase 2 of the main study, namely the intervention. The following section will provide a brief overview of what the intervention entailed.

4.3 DISCUSSION OF PHASE 2 – IMPLIMENTATION OF THE INTERVENTION