The linguistic obstacles to language teaching and learning in a bilingual classroom
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Date
2019
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Publisher
University of Zululand
Abstract
This thesis looks at language as an instrumental, linguistic tool which, if taught by qualified language teachers could yield better results in the analysis and interpretation of both literary and non-literary texts in academia and in social lives of language speakers. The everyday linguistic practices in a bilingual classroom require grammatical, syntactic and sociolinguistic aspects when engaged in teaching and learning. This study draws on research findings from a mixed-research approach through the use of both language teachers and language learners as participants in this study. The findings of this study are drawn from both the teachers’ and the learners’ experiences on grammar teaching and learning for academic and social purposes. The findings indicate the urgent need for a pure linguistic pedagogy for language teachers in the study of grammar in the rural classroom setting.
In the current teaching and learning of language, this study discovered that there is a lack of resources to teach and to learn grammar. Problems with the exposure to nonstandard varieties of both English and isiZulu language which impact the study of language in structure, analysis and use, the teaching of language by non-language teachers, too much classroom focus on literature without knowledge of linguistic structure by both language teachers and bilingual leaners of language leave language teaching and learning crippled. As a result of these problems, learners experience difficulties in using language for both academic and social purposes, problems with reading, writing and speaking at both secondary and tertiary level, in both their L1 and through their L2. As argued by de Klerk (1992), Rudwick (2004), Pretorius and Matjila (2004), Brock-Utne and Holmarsdottir (2004), Alimi ( 2011), Jawahar and Dempster (2013) and Palviainen and Mard-Miettinen (2015), there is a serious shortage of language specialists as opposed to literature specialists, as a result, language teaching and learning are negatively influenced. A questionnaire containing the qualitative data of the teachers and learners and open-ended questions were used during interviews to elicit the needed information. Themes are discussed focusing on the role of the language teacher and problems which arise during classroom language teaching and learning. This study looked at the linguistic obstacles to language teaching and learning in a bilingual classroom and recommended that language teaching should be objective and must focus on grammatical and communicative
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forms of a language before literature is taught. This will help in the authentic linguistic analysis of any given text when knowledge of structure and discourse analysis is known by a learner.
Description
A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the academic requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of General Linguistics in the Faculty of Arts, University of Zululand, 2019
Keywords
Language teaching and learning, linguistic obstacles, literary and non-literary texts