For some years now, the English Academy of Southern Africa has been mooting the idea of producing a magazine for English teachers. The older teachers might recall a publication entitled CRUX, which English teachers valued greatly.  Since its demise, there has been nothing to replace it. So, at last, the Academy has launched this publication to fill the gap.  This was made possible through a generous donation from the Donaldson Trust.

At first, we contemplated a paper-based publication, but then decided instead to opt for  a web–based, interactive journal. Our reasons were as follows:

• It is more affordable.
• It allows for an archive to be built up for future reference.
• It allows educators to download and print specific articles that they find of use.
• It makes interaction and discussion much easier, allowing for interchanges of opinions, responses to articles, queries to be posed.

We are aware that there are schools in poorer areas which do not have internet access. For this reason, we will supply a print version to schools that request that.

It will be published twice a year on a specially designed website, but may be updated between ‘issues’.

Initially, the publication will focus mainly on the FET phase. It is intended to be a vehicle for teachers and teacher educators to debate critical issues, to share approaches and valuable learning material and to help build communities of practice. Clearly, the magazine also has significant value for teachers in training. The emphasis is on what will help the teacher in the classroom to teach well and to keep in touch with best practice in a South African context. This implies a predominance of practical material with some articles which bring practice into critical review.

This, the first issue, features a balance of theoretical and practical articles.  We would like to increase the number of articles that focus on the classroom – but for this we need your input.

We look forward to your interacting with us – please respond to articles, however brief.

MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!

We invite teachers, teacher trainers, departmental officials, personnel at English-related organisations and other educationists to

(a)    Respond to the articles in TET.  You don’t need to write an essay – or even a paragraph – even a few words will do. We want to know what you think and to get people debating and chatting about English.

(b)   Send in suggestions of issues / topics that you would like to have featured.

(c)    Submit articles, teaching tips, information about teaching resources, for publication. We are prepared to pay up to R400 for selected articles.

(d)   Give us news about your organisations, and advertisements for courses, seminars, etc. These we will publish free of charge.

(a) This you do online  – there is a place for comments.

(b) – (d): Send these to the editor at drv@worldonline.co.za.

Dr Malcolm Venter
Editor
Teaching English Today

1. Although TET will be published in two issues, responses to items in an issue  – or responses to responses – can be made at any time.  So you are encouraged to log on the website from time to time to read these and to respond to the articles /comments.

2. Articles will be archived for future reference / use. So, if you don’t print an article now because it is not currently relevant to you, you can search for these later when they are.

Grateful thanks to my IT mentors, Adrian Marnewick and Mike Merrett of EvaluNet, for being so patient in training me to administer this site.

By the Editor, MALCOLM VENTER

I don’t believe that it is just bias on my part which makes me believe that the most hard-driven teachers in our schools are our language teachers.  From one point of view, they are better off because they have always had a huge marking load and were therefore not fazed, as other teachers were, by having to do Continuous Assessment (CASS); but the demands of the new curriculum have taken this to new heights.

To illustrate this, let’s look at the requirements for the Home Language in the Further Education and Training band:

• In Grades 10 and 11, a Home Language teacher has to mark, as a minimum, 16 pieces of work for each pupil per year, whereas the teachers of other subjects are required to mark between 5 and 8 pieces only, depending on the subject.
• In Grade 12, the respective figures are 14 and between 5 and 7.
• This means that, if a language teacher has five FET classes (averaging, let’s say, 35 – but could be much higher in poorer schools) – he/she has to mark about 2600 – 2800 pieces in a year, whereas another subject teacher with five FET classes would have to mark about 1010 – 1225 pieces – less than half.  Add to this the fact that language pieces are more demanding in terms of assessment, as marking them involves more than merely ticking right and wrong but rather weighing up opinions and speculations with fine nuances.

Language teachers should take stand on this:  Either persuade the authorities to reduce the number of pieces, or impress upon school management to give language teachers fewer / smaller classes and/or take into account this heavy load when allocating extra-curricular activities, examination invigilation, etc.

Stertke! to all you language teachers out there!

[Originally published in Naptosa INsight, April 2009]

Alison Immelman

HOD, Westering High School, PE

I’d like you to imagine the following: A businessperson or teacher or journalist is required to write a report or prepare a lesson.  She will be given one hour to do this task, with no access to shared ideas, dictionaries or the internet, and not even Microsoft and Bill Gates.  She will not have time to do the work in rough, certainly no time to edit, and scarcely even time to do adequate proofreading.  Oh, and by the way, she will be writing this during the graveyard session from 2 – 3 pm after doing a similar, though longer, exercise in the morning.

That is what we are demanding of our young learners since the curriculum experts, in their wisdom, reinstated the writing paper as part of the FET exam process.  And indeed, in 2 ½ hours, the learners are required to write an essay, a medium piece, and a short piece.  Bear in mind that the marks that most learners score are within a range over the three pieces – and the obvious over assessment strikes me as ‘intolerable cruelty’.

The reasons cited by Penny Vinjevold, the [former] DDG, are as follows:

• Teachers are not teaching writing.  In fact she would prefer that there was more emphasis on writing, that learners should write every day, and that it is possible to assess a piece of writing by reading the first and last paragraph.  (Would that the department would only look at the 1^st and last pages of my master portfolio!)
• That employers are not interested in employees who can talk, but only those who can write (hence the side issue of the absurd under-representation of oral work in the CASS).

Consider the following:  In KZN, English teachers have been engaged in process writing at least since 1992.  In other provinces, it has been for at least the last 6 years. My own experience is that it works.  Although the learners did admittedly write fewer pieces, they produced quality work. And essays became a pleasure to mark because the learners learnt to edit and perfect their work.  I can’t help feeling that we need to take a step back and learn to value quality over quantity.

Concern has also been expressed is that the writing is not the learners’ own work.  Here’s the news – teachers are not idiots.  And one or two control pieces can quickly establish the capacity of an individual learner.  Googling the rest provides proof of plagiarism.  And surely, we should rather be concerned with the welfare of the majority, and deal with the delinquents as they arise, rather than penalise the hardworking, law-abiding learners and teachers.

My major concern is for the learners.  My own Grade 11 daughter gets 90% for English, and she can write like a dream.  But she is so over-worked, over-assessed and over-stressed that she scarcely looks at a piece of marked work before it is consigned to her portfolio.  What kind of learning experience is that?

But I’m also concerned about myself and my fellow language teachers.  My exam marking load in June increased by some 150 pieces.  My young colleague at a Port Elizabeth school marks 3 800 pieces over a single year.  (That is 14 pieces every day over a 40-week school year – which, or course, isn’t the real picture, anyway!).  It doesn’t make me feel better to be told that I chose to be an English teacher and therefore I must accept what goes with the territory.

I beg you to consider our high school learners and their somewhat stressed teachers and support our suggestion that this exam format should be reconsidered urgently.

[Originally published in Naptosa INsight, April 2009]

Laurence Wright

Laurence Wright is Professor and Director in the Institute for the Study of English at Rhodes University. His research interests straddle South African language policy and language-in-education policy; the history of Shakespeare in South Africa and South African railway poetry. (l.wright@ru.ac.za)

11 April 2010 saw the formation of a professional association of English teachers in the Eastern Cape. The Association, which has been two years in the planning, was launched at the ‘Networking’ conference hosted by the Institute for the Study of English in Africa (ISEA) at Rhodes University (9-11 April). Sponsored by the ZENEX Foundation, the conference brought together some 150 current and past students from the Institute’s ACE (ELT) and BEd programmes, together with district managers, subject advisors, and librarians to consider current challenges to effective English teaching and how best to surmount them. This article sets out to explore the need for such an association, and to consider the possible benefits it holds for members, for education management structures in the province and, indeed, for the nation. If the Eastern Cape has taken a lead in this regard, it may be worth teachers in other provinces considering the educational gains such organizations might offer in the struggle to improve the quality of education offered to our learners.

A first point to consider is, Why provincial? Why not national? The Association grew out of small-scale research-based interventions first offered by the ISEA in the mid-nineties in cooperation with the Eastern Cape Provincial Government. These took the form of short 3-day courses, and they were astonishingly popular with teachers because they focused on professional development issues informed by sound educational theory. The teachers felt they were close to the cutting edge of educational thinking when they engaged with each other in this intellectually supportive context. They also felt able to share problems and difficulties, and explore remedies. In time these informal courses, which had to some extent acted as shock-absorbers mediating the complex transformations posed by the introduction of Curriculum 2005, developed into accredited in-service programmes, first an ACE in ELT, and later a fully-fledged BEd.

From the outset, though, the policy was to involve provincial and departmental officials both as participants and students, and sometimes as professional contributors, in these initiatives. The gains achieved through such cooperation are substantial. First, the officials themselves experience the quality and depth of what is being offered to their educators and, secondly, they understand the perspectives and debates which are beginning to transform classroom practice. For the teachers, the advantage is that they are able to articulate their frustrations and suggest improvements, especially when the course focuses on issues of management and administration.  With the National Curriculum and its ancillary policy documents as the organizing principle underlying these accredited  programmes, even though they are also informed by a broad mix of current educational thinking and experience, the effect has been to create an intellectual forum within which the professionalization and transformation of educational practice can flourish.

Finding systemic purchase

There is a very sound reason for operating in partnership with provincial education authorities. Given the ISEA’s long-standing emphasis on substantial in-school support as integral to in-service teacher education – involving classroom observation, journalling, video-critique and discussion – the establishment of healthy professional relationships at district level, and between districts and the provincial department, becomes crucial to the educational turn-around being attempted. Educational interventions need to find systemic purchase right from the outset, if they are not to remain marginal and ephemeral.

Fruitful networks of relationships normally thrive while the courses are in progress and while school visits, regional seminars and workshops are running as part of a common transformational trajectory. But come graduation, or completion (in the case of certificate courses), the bonds of friendship and intellectual cooperation which have been forged are in grave danger of atrophying, as students and departmental officials move beyond formal study unsupported, and into the embalming routines of the school year. The intellectual stimulation provided by formal tuition subsides.

This is where the establishment of a permanent forum to nurture ongoing professional development becomes critical. At the very least, such forums support the transfer of learning and research from the tertiary sector to schools. But they can do much more. They can enhance teacher morale, boost flagging energies, encourage innovative and reflective practice, and improve functional and emotional linkage between administrators and the classroom.  They are powerful contributions to the well-being of education systems.

Establishing these professional forums needs to proceed with great sensitivity.  Introducing the innovation is not something that rightly belongs with teacher education institutions, or with education departments, though they can encourage and guide the process. The successful establishment of a professional association belongs with the educators themselves, as a resource to affirm and refresh their professional culture in terms of academic substance and procedural effectiveness. Ownership of the process and membership in such an association validates teachers’ role in society and provides a rich developmental avenue which, if used to its fullest potential, can ensure the revitalization and maturation of the knowledge, skills and attitudes essential to effective teaching.

Why discipline-based?

The decision to form a disciplinary association at provincial level, rather than a non-specialist professional association, has to do with the transformative aims of such associations. The unique combination of English teachers, district officials, departmental managers, librarians and tertiary education specialists allows the focus to fall squarely on enhancing educational performance in a specific subject area. And it is common cause that English is a critical subject area, if not the critical subject area, because of the widespread dependence of other subjects on good language performance in English. An undercurrent of debate within the movement which has led to the formation of the Eastern Cape English Educators Association (ECEEA), from its inception, has been the wisdom of broadening the scope of the association to cover language education as a whole, and not just English. There is much to be said for efforts to harmonize the very different conceptions of language education current among teachers of English, Afrikaans and Xhosa language. The tentative short courses offered by ISEA more than fifteen years ago were, even in those days, facilitated in Afrikaans, English, Sotho and Xhosa, with core modules delivered in English. Staff members became very familiar with the divergent approaches to language and literature teaching characteristic of teachers who had been trained under apartheid in English, Afrikaans, or African languages. These differences still prevail today, seemingly because there is small prospect of radical and widespread re-education for these teachers having the priority it should in national thinking. On purely pragmatic grounds, therefore, it was decided to concentrate on the English subject area, while offering every support to educators in other languages. It has already been proposed to the incoming Provincial Council that the biennial conferences to be hosted by the Association should be open to all language teachers. So membership in the Association will be growing on two fronts: first, membership in the Association is open to all English teachers; secondly there is the possibility of teachers of other languages joining. In fact, the Association is open to all those willing to abide by its constitution whatever language they teach, with the intention that, down the line, the scope of the Association may broaden to cover the full field of language education. Once again, the guideline followed in conceptualizing the Association has been to put in place something that will make a positive and sustainable difference in Eastern Cape classrooms. ECEEA is not a political organization and it has not come into being to fluff the professional self-esteem of teachers apart from their role in the classroom. It is wholly dedicated to improving the quality of the educational outcomes in the English language classroom and also, by implication, those other subject areas which rely upon appropriate English competence in their learners.

Other provinces?

If the rationale presented in this short article is cogent, one implication might be that other provinces should consider following suit. The route to the eventual launch of a provincial association is arduous and probably lengthy if it is to be successful. But the potential gains, which have been outlined above, are substantial. It would not be an exaggeration to urge that successful educational transformation cannot omit this important activity, because there is no substitute available. Large national organizations, which concentrate on lofty conferences attended by thousands of educators are not aiming at the same effect. They have their place. But educational renovation comes from the hard work of committed professionals working in classrooms, supporting each other intellectually and emotionally, and from the efforts of those ancillary professionals who can in turn support them in intelligent and reliable ways. This is the arena of activity a thriving discipline-based provincial association aims to address, because this is the arena which makes education happen.

A colleague, Dr Eva Yerende, Visiting Senior Fellow in the ISEA, drew my attention to a list of practical suggestions for creating an English association published recently in the English Teaching Forum (48.1,2010). The list was compiled by English teachers planning a Senegalese association. Here are some of the suggestions, adapted slightly to speak to local conditions (and I offer them in hope!):

• Start small
• Set objectives that can be reached
• Reach out to new colleagues – get them involved!
• Find resource persons, such as senior or retired professionals
• Set up district and local branches
• Encourage local plans and initiatives
• Make activities visible to all by publishing a newsletter
• Cooperate with provincial education authorities, in partnerships where possible
• Establish good working relations with teacher education institutions
• Make professional development the main objective so that teachers know they get something worthwhile from the association
• Encourage professional networking, including social interaction, at all levels within the province.

Eva Yerendé

Eva Yerende is a Visiting Senior Fellow in the Institute for the Study of English in Africa at Rhodes University. She holds a doctorate from the University of Arizona at Tucson, and her research focuses on issues related to language education, primarily in Guinea-Conakry. (e.yerende@ru.ac.za)

Through the use of examples of classroom discourse from three different classrooms in rural Eastern Cape schools, this paper highlights the difference between a teacher who uses students’ talk as an ‘instructional resource’ and two teachers who dominate the classroom discourse by themselves for the most part of the instructional time (55 minutes). The snapshots used in this discussion form part of a series of classroom observations done in the course of teacher training activities organized by the ISEA at Rhodes University. All three teachers are affiliated with the ISEA as current or former students on an innovative ACE program delivered over the course of two years through on-site and off-campus courses. Also, all three teachers work in the same school district but at different campuses (Cases 1 and 2 in Senior Secondary Schools and Case 3 in a Junior Secondary School).

Case 1:  Leading a discussion

Example #1

In a lesson that introduces for the first time Maya Angelou’s poem On Aging, the teacher uses one particular line from the poem ‘Don’t pity me!’ to engage students in a discussion about intergenerational differences and relationships.

-T.  says:  ‘ Don’t pity me!’ and every time at the end of this statement, she asks the students:  ‘What does it mean?  What does this phrase mean?’

-Students mumble possible answers among themselves in their groups but nobody volunteers to speak up to the whole class

-T. answers the question herself:  ‘She doesn’t need anyone’s pity or sympathy.’

Just before the instructional time comes to an end as the teacher starts talking about homework, a student raises his hand and says:  You are telling us that we should not pity our elders but then how should I feel when my grandma cannot go to the bathroom by herself and asks me for help?  Shouldn’t I pity her?’

The teacher welcomes the comment and responds to it on her own reiterating some of the information she has already presented. Then she moves on to discuss the homework for next time.

Case  2:  Presenting Information

Example #1

In the course of a poetry lesson that uses Sandile Dikeni’s Love poem for my country, the teacher asks the students to pay attention to the figurative language of the poem.  The teacher reads with emphasis the following line from Dikeni’s poem ‘… deep under the bowels of soil’ and the following exchange with the whole class ensues:

-T. asks:  ‘Which place is the bowel of the soil?  I want to see a hand!  Where are the bowels of the soil? ‘

-Students giggle and mumble

-T. answers:  ‘They are under the soil; when you go down; but the soil does not have bowel; it is a figurative speech; what is figurative speech? It is a meta _____?’  Teacher raises her voice but does not complete the question; she waits for the students to do that.

-Students don’t respond

-T. completes her phrase and writes the word ‘metaphor’ on the board.

Example #2

-T. asks:  ‘We say that alliteration is if the author has used the same ______?’

-Students wait for her to complete her phrase

-T. says:  ‘… the same consonants’; then she proceeds to identify examples of alliteration from the text.

Example #3

-T. asks: ‘If we look at rhythm, this poem doesn’t have a clear ___________?’

-Students wait for her to complete her phrase

-Teacher says ‘rhythm’.

Case  3: Facilitating Interpersonal Communication

Example #1

The excerpts that follow are part of a poetry lesson on Shakespeare’s sonnet, ‘Let me not to the marriage of true minds’. The teacher uses handouts with copies of Shakespeare’s sonnet that include the title of the sonnet but not Shakespeare’s name.  Students have been asked to work in groups to discuss the difference between ‘conditional’ and ‘unconditional’ love. At the end of the group discussion, the teacher calls each group to share with the whole class their understanding of the two terms:

-The speaker of one of the groups stands up and says: ‘Ma’m, according to my understanding, ….’

-T. interrupts her to say: ‘Yes!  I like that!’

-And the student goes on to finish her sentence by saying  ‘…  love when is conditional comes with limits!’

Example #2

The teacher has asked students to work in groups to decide if the sonnet they are studying is an Elizabethan or an Italian sonnet using information already presented in previous lessons.  At the end of the group discussions, the speaker of each group reports to the whole class the outcome of their discussion.

-The speaker of one of the groups stands up and says: ‘We, in the Achievers Group, have decided that this sonnet is Elizabethan…,’ and he proceeds to say how his group arrived at this conclusion.

Leading a Discussion

In the first Case, the teacher uses a relatively easy text and a series of provocative questions along with body language and an emphatic recitation style to engage students into a discussion about old age.  Prior to that, pre-reading activities had been used with this group of 12^th-graders to brainstorm words related to aging, compassion, pity, and different ways of caring for old people in the cities and in the rural areas. Then the lesson moved into a reading aloud activity as a precursor to a class discussion that took almost one third of the instructional time. This was a well-organized lesson plan that failed to ‘take off.’ What the teacher has planned as a discussion plays out as a monologue in which the teacher answers her own questions and prompts. It is only at the end of the instructional time that finally one of the students takes the stand to challenge the teacher with a question that reveals a communicative competency that exceeds the expectations of the teacher. Ironically, the student succeeds in engaging the teacher in a discussion on the paradoxes of old age but the teacher fails to ‘share the talk’ and use the student’s question to meet the language objectives of her lesson plan. By answering the question herself, she compromises the last opportunity that she has to open up the floor and let the students do the talking.

Intonation and Student Participation

The teacher in Case 2 models an intonation style often used in classrooms where the language of learning and teaching (LoLT) is an additional language. This intonation style functions more like an ‘accommodation’ technique to enhance student understanding of what the teacher says and less as a learning strategy to enable students’ talk in authentic and substantive interactions. Specifically, the teacher uses what appear to be pseudo-questions as prompts to elicit student participation. The teacher raises her voice as she forms the first part of the question and then waits for the students to complete the second part. Her expectation is that the students will use the clues provided in the first part of the question to predict plausible answers. But as we see, in all three examples in Case 2, the teacher answers her own prompts either because the students (10^th-graders) are not challenged enough to participate in this teacher-centered activity, or because they expect the teacher to give them the right answer based on their prior experiences as students in classrooms where pseudo-questions instead of authentic questions dominate the classroom discourse. As in Case 1, the classroom discourse is dominated by the teacher’s voice and prompts. Questions and answers form the backbone of a lesson plan that places the teacher in the front stage of the class, converting her into a human magnet to attract the students’ attention with various rates of success in the span of the instructional time (55 minutes).

Code-Switching and Student Participation

In Case 3, instead of using pseudo-questions, the teacher is using project-related questions that the students address in small group discussions capitalizing upon their combined expertise: linguistic, cultural, and subject-related knowledge built incrementally from one lesson to the next. This is not the first time that these students (9^th-graders) have worked on this particular text and certainly it is not the first time that they have rehearsed in front of the class expressions such as ‘According to my understanding…’ and ‘We, in the Achievers Group, have decided that …’.  What exactly enables this teacher to achieve this type of student’s talk and use it to foster interpersonal communication and substantive engagement with a demanding text that is far more difficult than the texts used in the other two cases?

A close examination of the teacher’s interventions in Case 3 reveals additional linguistic resources that the teacher is able to use to establish a ‘community of practice’ where learning tasks are completed in stages, building upon the input of ‘achieving’ and ‘less achieving’ students.  Through the use of ‘strategic code-switching’ in small group discussions, students are able to work out plausible answers to their queries and rehearse them, in a non-threatening environment, before sharing them with the whole class. All along, during group work, the teacher uses expressions of ‘endearment’ that communicate love and encouragement, as illustrated by use of the phrase ‘my smallnyane ones’ that can be translated as ‘my tiny little ones.’ Mixing English and Sotho to create an expression that reaches deep into the ‘bowels’ of the students’ hearts allows students to imagine themselves as ‘legitimate participants’ in linguistic communities that transcend the boundaries of their classroom and speak to their personal and collective aspirations – as achievers – in the world at large.

Concluding Remarks

The examples used in this discussion come from classroom teachers who share not only similar professional realities (their schools are within walking distance) but also similar academic experiences as participants in the same teacher training program offered by the ISEA. All three of them are accomplished and well-respected teachers in their communities and yet there is a significant difference in the way that they ‘share’ talking time in class. An important difference between the teachers in the first two cases (Cases 1 and 2) and the teacher in Case 3 is the ability of the teacher in Case 3 to orchestrate learning events that maximize the value of every single resource available to her from the most tangible ones (e.g. books and visual aids) to the less tangible ones (e.g. strategic code-switching and expressions of endearment and rebuke in English and Sotho). Like a film director, she places the students at the front of the stage and exposes herself only as needed to redirect and reward students in their efforts to learn.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to the teachers and learners who welcomed me into their classrooms, and my colleagues at the ISEA for extending their networking facilities to me.

[This paper was delivered at the Networking Conference hosted by the Institute for the Study of English in Africa at Rhodes University, 9 – 11 April 2010.]

Madeyandile Mbelani

Madeyandile Mbelani is a research officer and PhD candidate in the Institute for the Study of English in Africa at Rhodes University. His MEd dissertation is an action research case study on ‘Making visual literacy meaningful in a rural context’. (m.mbelani@ru.ac.za)

This paper reports outcomes from a workshop on cartoons that took place at ‘Networking’, an Eastern Cape conference for English teachers, in April this year. The need for this workshop came from teachers themselves after they were consulted about the topics they wished to see covered in the conference. Teachers indicated that they had difficulties in understanding and teaching cartoons as this was a new component of the English First Additional Language (FAL) curriculum which they had never tasted either as learners or teacher-trainees. They hoped the workshop would make a positive contribution to filling this gap, and my response was to offer a session entitled ‘”Listening” to visual images: appreciating cartoons.’

The 90-minute workshop was planned in stages that follow Gibbons’ curriculum cycle: building the field, modelling the text, joint construction and individual construction. In building the field, Newfield’s three key aspects of enjoying and understanding a cartoon (1995: 20) as shown in the table below were taught to 42 conference delegates:

In modelling the text, these key aspects were identified and discussed in the cartoon below:

Even though the cartoon was designed and appeared a long time ago, it was ideal for the workshop partly because teachers could still remember the event, and its interpretation using Newfield’s aspects made for easier understanding; and partly because the distance in time dispelled any possibility of immediate political tensions surfacing in discussion. Cartoons that appeared in the newspapers immediately prior to the conference reflected strong political tensions in the country, something which might have distracted delegates from the focus of the workshop.

In tackling joint construction, delegates applied Newfield’s key aspects in relation to a second cartoon, and later they practised asking questions that could help learners to enjoy and understand that cartoon.

The last stage of individual construction was not done because of time. However, in the discussions that occurred in between the activities the following factors, which could constrain or enable appreciation and understanding of a cartoon, came out.

Familiarity of the visual context

There is often a tension between the visual context in which the cartoon is set and the real situation it represents. As an illustration, in the Bisho Massacre Cartoon, a tennis court scene represents the real shooting of protesters and the reactions of the two former presidents, FW De Klerk and Nelson Mandela. A constraint emerged when some delegates were not familiar with key concepts of a tennis game such as the layout of the tennis court, how participants are positioned, what rules, equipment and words are used. This unfamiliarity emerged because some delegates came from communities where tennis is not played. As a result, they had limited understanding and couldn’t appreciate this text. To overcome this difficulty, the role of the teacher was seen as crucial in building learners’ background knowledge about the topic by introducing the tennis court scene in a pre-interpretation activity that would later provide learners with a solid foundation to understand and appreciate the cartoon.

Familiarity with topical events

Some delegates were not familiar with topical affairs in South Africa and the world, so they struggled to identify the physical portrayal of characters. In the joint construction stage of the workshop where delegates applied Newfield’s key aspects in the second cartoon, which did not have explanatory notes, some referred to the man seating in the table as Nelson Mandela instead of Barack Obama. Those who identified the man as Nelson Mandela gave that answer because, either, they were confused by the Bisho Massacre Cartoon and thought that the second cartoon must also refer to mid-90s South Africa when Mandela was president; or because, on the other hand, they simply did not pick up the visual and verbal cues such as ‘It’s the economy, stupid!’, ’Health’, and ‘Care’, or associate these with the world economic crisis that affected many countries, including the USA, while Barack Obama was struggling to have his health care reforms accepted. All in all, delegates came to see that to interpret cartoons a person requires substantial background knowledge of the topic as well as an understanding of how cartoonists use graphic techniques such as, for example, using distortion for comic effect when they exaggerate a particular facial or body feature of the focal character (Adendorff, 1991).

In addition, many delegates did not appreciate this cartoon because they valued and relied on connotation more than denotation. When presented with the cartoon, the majority simply rushed to assign meaning without noticing or describing the visual elements and identifying verbal words as clues that provided factual evidence to support their claims. Connotation is a higher-order skill that relates to the deeper, hidden and figurative meaning of the cartoon, which cannot be easily achieved if the viewer does not know the socio-political or media context in which the cartoon is set, or fails to register the visual detail provided in the cartoon and its significance.

Beliefs about teaching and learning

In an intense discussion of the role of the teacher in presenting a cartoon, it came out that some delegates believed that the teacher was the only source of information in the classroom. The proponents of this idea viewed the teacher’s voice as dominant so that his/her understanding of the text was the best and must be the correct one. To me, as a workshop facilitator, that was like describing learners as ‘empty vessels’ that needed to be filled with information, and this attitude explained to some extent why such teachers encountered difficulties in teaching cartoons. Depending on the learners’ age and the extent of their exposure to cartoons, there is often a mismatch between the teacher and the learners who might well have more exposure than the teacher. In such situations, the teacher’s pouring of supposedly authoritative information into learners could be contrary to the envisaged new-curriculum learner who should be ‘imbued with the values and act in the interests of a society based on respect for democracy, equality, human dignity and social justice as promoted in the constitution’. This belief in the complete dominance of the teacher does not create a learning environment conducive to learners thinking critically and expressing themselves freely. Rather, it makes them passive recipients of information who can neither understand nor appreciate cartoons themselves.

Also, in teaching a cartoon the teacher typically assumes two roles, as a ‘mediator of learning’ and as the ‘consumer of the text’.  As a mediator of learning, his/her role is to help learners construct meaning on their own. As a text consumer, the teacher is just like learners who receive a text that has been constructed by a cartoonist who has woven his/her attitudes, values, beliefs and ideas into that text, and it is highly unlikely that, once they have interpreted its meaning, learners and teacher will automatically share the same viewpoint about a particular cartoon. This calls for a critical language awareness which ‘makes people aware of how language [and images] can be patronising, demeaning, disrespectful, offensive, exclusive or the opposite’ (square brackets mine) and if people choose to endorse the images presented, it helps them to do so ‘with open eyes, to recognise the compromise they are making, to identify their feelings about it, and to maintain an independent self-image’ (Ivanic, 1990: 129-131).  Teachers should, therefore, be critically aware of their own beliefs by being careful of their role as text consumer influencing their role as a mediator of learning.

Conclusion

We currently live in a world that is bombarded with visual images among which are cartoons, those humorous and satirical drawings encountered in many magazines, newspapers and on television. However, teachers need to make sure they view a lot of cartoons whilst they develop ways of helping learners appreciate them. Learners’ appreciation and understanding of cartoons usually develops slowly over a long time, especially for those learners who come from disadvantaged homes where reading and viewing materials are scarce. Those learners should be provided regularly with current and different newspapers. Cartoons form a genre that has its own language, and this language should be introduced and explored appropriately before interpretation is attempted. Lastly, some cartoons do not have one fixed meaning but rather a range of meanings, depending on the background knowledge one brings to bear on them. Different responses to one text should be expected. Cartoons are visual texts enjoyed by many learners and many more learners would enjoy them if teachers could learn how to present them well.

Acknowledgments The cartoon examples used above are sourced from Newfield (1995: 21) and http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/K/B/3/Economy-Stupid-Attic.jpg (accessed 24/04/10).

For further reading

Adendorff, R. (1991). Political cartoons: uncooperating forms of communication? In Prinsloo J and Criticos C (eds) Media matters in South Africa. Durban: Media Resource Centre, University of Natal. 206-213.

Gibbons, P (2002). Scaffolded language, scaffolded learning: teaching second language learners in mainstream classroom. Portsmouth NH: Heinamann.

Ivanic, K. (1990).  Language awareness in action. In R.Cartz (ed), Knowledge about language and curriculum. London: Hodder and Stoughton.

Newfield, D. (1995). Words and pictures. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.

Morag Venter

Morag Venter taught high school English for 20 years and is a former head of English and senior marker for Senior Certificate. She is co-compiler of two current Grade 12 literature anthologies.

Many years ago I decided something had to be done about the scrappy, incomplete and useless literature notebooks belonging to my weaker pupils.  Every year it was the same story.  The year would start off well: logical, legible notes would be written in the first two, or maybe three, pages but gradually, as books were left at home or someone was absent or the day was hot and I was boring, the notes descended into chaos.  Pages mysteriously came loose (the attached page having been used for Maths or History or a heart-rending love letter!), printed notes fluttered out whenever a page was turned  and, when exams arrived, all the pupil had to study from was a collection of dog-eared pages in no particular order.  Not a promising situation, especially as there is no textbook to refer to.

And yet these pupils were not trying to be difficult.  They generally participated in class, knew the bones of the plot and could offer some amazing insights at times.  I realised that many of them were just not academically disciplined or gifted enough to organise their books logically to ensure that they were user-friendly.  Many of the pupils simply started each entry on a new page – usually undated and without a heading!  If one asked them to add in information on a topic one had previously discussed, most of them fudged the issue and simply scribbled something somewhere on a blank centimetre of space – just to suggest that they were trying to be co-operative – but hadn’t a clue where the item should be placed.

What to do?  There simply wasn’t time to check the books often enough – and to follow up meaningfully was becoming a nightmare!  And all that checking and nagging meant that periods often became battlegrounds instead of opportunities to discuss and experience new ideas.

After much reading and thinking I decided that I had to spend more time with the pupils formatting these books.  To do so, I had to make sure that I knew the play or novel thoroughly before starting to teach it.  More than ever, I needed to plan the questions I wanted to set on each act/chapter as well as the issues I wanted to highlight in advance so that my strategy was clear.  (Really what I was doing was drafting the Lesson Plans and Assessment Standards although nobody used those terms in those days!)

Our first lesson was an extremely practical one.  At that stage everyone still had a pen, a ruler, a pencil and even had a notebook!  So we could work together.

I insisted on a separate book for each setwork.  No-one was allowed to do a novel from one end and poetry from the other!

Then we proceeded to allocate pages. All they had to do was to pencil in the appropriate heading at the appropriate place.  I didn’t have time to wait for those who enjoy decorating each page with coloured kokis!  That could be done at home, if they wished to do so. Although I issued a written explanation of what we were going to do, I found it useful to walk them through the procedure.  The time spent was recouped later as we did not have to wait while the pupils paged endlessly through to find the right page – everyone knew exactly where their neighbour’s page would be!

For the novel or a play, I allocated the first page(s) to Background.  This was where we would collect comments on historical details/ setting/purpose (e.g. What Golding aimed to discuss in Lord of the Flies.  What is a fable?, etc). Most of this was information I would provide.

Thereafter, we allocated a double page to each Main Character and a single page to supporting characters.  The page(s) was divided into columns: Physical description, Background details, Character – and a separate column where we would accumulate evidence of where these character traits became apparent. At this stage the names are meaningless to the class but already they are interacting with the characters and learning to spell the names correctly.  The lesson is therefore not merely administrative. I also squeezed in a half-column on the role or significance of this character to the development of the plot or theme (eg foil, representing the educated, thoughtful type of person, etc) although this would be completed only after we had read and discussed the whole book.

More double pages were allocated to key themes and images – it is up to you whether you label these initially or simply leave the pages blank to be used when the themes emerge. And the rest of the workbook could be used for short questions and essays.  Only the back two pages were reserved.  These we used for important vocabulary items – words which were essential to their understanding of the text.

As we began to study the book, we spent time transferring information to the appropriate pages and columns.  Pupils needed only to write down the relevant word or phrase in the column, although we generally included a page reference under Character so we could justify our choice of adjective. This activity might be during class – when one needed a change of pace or activity – or at home where this action might serve to indicate that they had read the required pages or listened in class.  Sometimes this was done individually, sometimes as a group.  One could vary this considerably using timed sessions or getting different groups to do different research for the class.  The rigid structure of the notebook does not necessitate a rigid lesson structure.  It merely helps the pupils to be organised.

I found this made my life much easier.  I could check the books more speedily, picking up at a glance who had included too little information and whose work was too sloppy to be acceptable. Group discussions became more meaningful as the individuals had something concrete to contribute.  Pupils could also assess each others’ work more easily.  A pupil who was absent could catch up something of what they had missed. The pupils learnt to distinguish between character and appearance, something weaker pupils struggle to do.  And when we begin to write setwork essays, the necessary information was readily available so I could focus attention on the skills of writing.  Because each pupil had written down their own descriptors and highlighted the proofs they felt most valuable, these essays were still very individualistic – and there was no danger of producing ‘model answers’ which the pupils simply learn off by heart.  Moreover, because filling in the columns had required active involvement with the text, the pupils had developed some insight which enabled them to write about the text more confidently.

Eventually, I used this method for my top class as well.  I found that they appreciated being able to focus on the argument and the insight, rather than on the organisation of their notes.  There is no foolproof method, but this strategy vastly improved the quality of the notebooks.  I knew that almost everything the pupils needed to use for studying was in a ‘findable place’. And more importantly, although their style and their argument might be somewhat inadequate, at least they could show the examiner that they knew what was going on.

Perhaps you too will find it useful.

Morag Venter

Retired English teacher and former Head of English

Sometimes teaching Shakespeare is just hard work.  Often we spend so much time explaining the vocabulary that we don’t seem to get beyond the words to the play.

Help is at hand!

The Cambridge School Shakespeare series is a most valuable resource.  Although these books would probably cost too much to provide for all your learners, you as the teacher should make every effort to get them.  I bought the latest one I needed second-hand from Amazon.com for 5 cents and it has been worth every cent of the postage.

Although the text is not pruned or simplified, the activities provided for enrichment and discussion are just at the right level for teenagers.  These books are packed with splendid suggestions, incorporating all kinds of skills from writing headlines, to interviewing for positions (eg Chief of Police for Verona!), to casting staff members (oops!) or film stars the pupils think would best convey the role.  There are suggestions for letters and replies to agony aunts, for debates, for television interviews – the list goes on and on.  The suggestions are so practical and yet such fun that they will involve all the pupils in the analysis of the play.

The general handbook for teachers, Teaching Shakespeare, is most stimulating and contains a 73-page chapter on ‘Active methods’.  And the individual editions on the different plays are more specific but equally exciting.  All of them are printed in a most user-friendly format – easy to use in the classroom. Series editor, Rex Gibson, and his team have done an excellent job.

Do yourself a favour and get yourself a copy as soon as possible.

Teaching Shakespeare by Rex Gibson, Cambridge University Press, ISBN: 0 521 57788 8

Or Romeo and Juliet ISBN: 0 521 63497 0

Haripersad Sewlall

Former Assistant Superintendent of Education (Academic), House of Delegates (TVL)

1.  Introduction

How may the study of Shakespearean play be undertaken in the time available in a First-Language classroom?  The teacher is expected to spend no more than a term (approximately 16-18 periods) on the study of any one set work, even a Shakespearean play.  Most teachers, understandably, extend this period by resorting to ‘flexi-time’ – which in reality means poaching time from other aspects of English!

A brief, theoretical background to the history of Shakespearean criticism can be helpful, Derek Traversi reasserted in 1968 a view he had advocated in the early part of this century:

To proceed from the word to the image in its verse setting, and thence to trace the way in which a pattern of interdependent themes is gradually woven in to the dramatic action, unifying and illuminating it, is the most fruitful approach – the most accurate and, if properly handled, the least subject to prejudice – to Shakespeare’s art. (Traversi, p 17)

In brief, Traversi underscores the shift from a psychological study of character, evident in Bradley and his adherents, to a study of diction, character, action, theme and motivation.  The danger of subjectivity will be apparent to anyone who has read some of the criticism of even an astute critic such as Coleridge who would condemn a play because he disapproved of the actor!  Teachers and students therefore need to be circumspect when using criticism from the Romantic and Victorian periods, often included in some editions used at schools.  Illustrations, maps, time charts, etc are invaluable for consolidation.  Even memorable lines can be displayed on charts to encourage (not compel) students to learn by heart.

2.  An outline of the plot

It would be ideal if all students had read the text before coming to the classroom.  Alas, this is not going to be the case, as many a teacher perennially laments.  It becomes incumbent on the teacher therefore to present the plot in an interesting manner.  No opportunity must be passed by to draw parallels with contemporary society as this gives the play relevance and significance for the student.  The playing of a recording or a video from beginning to end serves little purpose, unless punctuated occasionally by a commentary from the teacher.  An overview can be presented in the form of a brief story-cum-dramatization in order to plunge the student in to the sound and feel of the text as soon as possible.  Graphics, sketches and simple tasks on worksheets to consolidate the plot have been used to advantage by many a teacher.  A knowledge of the plot has to be established before a thematic study can be undertaken.

1. 3. The opening scene/s

In a thematic approach to Shakespeare, the importance of the opening scene/s of the first act cannot be over-emphasized.  The ability to assess the thematic significance of the opening scenes of a well-constructed play is a skill that has to be developed in students.  In As you like it, for example, Orlando’s complaints addressed to Adam introduce us to the themes of conflict and disorder in normal human relationships.  The next extract the teacher could focus on is the reply Charles makes to Oliver’s query about the latest news.  These lines reinforce the theme of domestic discord and carry it further.  Here, students have the opportunity of exploring human motives and establishing contrasts in character.  A study of plot, character, theme, conflict and human motive, is the crux of any Shakespearean play.

Another skill that can be imparted at this stage is how to assess character:  by what a person says; what he/she does (action); and what others say about that person.  In Macbeth the function of the soliloquy and the aside as modes of characterization will be highlighted.  In As you like it, the lesson could be rounded off on an interesting counterpoint:  namely, the hostility of two brothers in vivid contrast to the loyalty and friendship of Adam (to be reinforced later by the relationship between Rosalind and Celia).  Once the theme of domestic conflict has been consolidated, the class is ready to embark on a study of disharmony in a country – a Duke banished by an unscrupulous brother – and its consequences.  Life-skills and parallels with contemporary life should go hand-in-hand with every literature lesson.  All this will not be achieved in one period.  Coming to grips with a Shakespearean play, especially at Std 8 level, will require patience and effort.

What has been said about the opening scenes of As you like it is also pertinent to other plays by Shakespeare:  they generally announce themes and conflicts that resonate as the plays progress.  The teacher and students could then launch into an exploration of the themes, focusing on the thematic imagery and metaphor that are woven into the fabric of the play. To achieve this with economy, it is not possible to explicate every line in class.  Only a selected number of extracts can be examined.  Along this journey several aspects will have to be touched on incidentally and reinforced periodically.  Students’ attention will have to be drawn to Shakespeare’s use of prose and verse and their respective functions.

4.  Reading the text

Recordings by well-known stage actors may be used in class, but roles may also be assigned to pupils prior to the day of the lesson so that they may be able to ‘act’ their parts with confidence.

5.  Worksheets, tests and assignments

Worksheets should test pupils’ knowledge of context, theme, content, imagery and diction.  Teachers need to be wary of study guides which contain a battery of questions.  They need to be highly selective.  Nothing could be more counter-productive and soul-destroying in literature study than working through a plethora of questions during a weekend or vacation.  Contextual questions should relate to the gestalt of the play:  its meaning.  Therefore the extract chosen must have relevance so that the questions which are extrapolated from it may encompass the main themes of the play.  When setting essay-type questions for assignments, once again the main themes should be borne in mind.  Essay-writing skill must be revised and implemented.  The matric examiners’ comments over the years on this type of question should be heeded.

6.  Conclusion

To complete a Shakespearean play in the time allotted, the teacher requires the skills of a good story-teller so that even when chunks of the text are skimmed over, the integrity of the plot and theme is not sacrificed.  Admittedly, the endeavour will not be without its frustrations sometimes.  The creative teacher adapts, adjusts and expunges, but must avoid creating the impression that literature teaching should be teacher-dominated.  Further, the ongoing debate about the worth, or otherwise, of teaching Shakespeare to secondary-school pupils has been side-stepped, in much the same way as the issue of whether Shakespeare should be studied as literature or enjoyed as drama.  The hints offered here could also be pertinent to the study of any other genre of literature in an English (First Language) classroom.  The teacher is always in a time-bind, therefore it is impossible for him/her to read every page and chapter in the classroom.

Finally, a word on Shakespearean plays for junior classes.  The head of a department needs to exercise judicious choice in the selection of the student’s first Shakespearean play for study.  Besides taking into account what would interest most students at this age, the teacher should consider other factors that may influence the students’ attitude.  It must be noted that Shakespeare’s work ranges widely in dramatic complexity, style, diction and even length.  Any teacher who has taught King Lear in one year and Julius Caesar in another, will know the difference in length between these two play, not to mention the differences in dramatic structure and diction.

Reference

Traversi, D.  An Approach to Shakespeare, Vol 1/11, Hollis and Carter, London. 1968.

[This article was originally published in CRUX: 27:3, August 1993, published by the Foundation for Education, Science and Technology – but it is still of value to the current English teacher.]

Peter Titlestad

Retired Professor of English, University of Pretoria

‘Motivate,’ meaning ‘to give reasons for’ is a South Africanism that is, perhaps, a little too well established. It comes from the Afrikaans ‘om te motiveer’.  In the rest of the English-speaking world, ‘to motivate’ is to impart a sense of enthusiasm or a desire to get things done. South Africans should be aware that local usage could cause confusion elsewhere.

‘Motivate your answer’ is becoming a stock phrase in examination papers, at the cost of other, excellent, English phrases. Would not ‘give reasons for your opinion’ be pleasanter, more direct, more comprehensible? This, and other possibilities, are in danger of being lost to English in South Africa. Should our ‘learners’ grow up not knowing ‘put the case for, ‘argue your case’,  ‘give a reasoned argument’,  ‘state your reasons’, ‘make a well-reasoned case for’, ‘back up your opinions’, ‘justify, ‘explain’?  Instead of ‘a good motivation’ one can ‘make a strong case for’; rather than a ‘weak motivation’ one could say ‘a weak case for’; or ‘weak reasoning’ or an ‘unconvincing explanation’. The specialized phrase ‘put the case’, to express a hypothetical situation, can sometimes be essential.

Jean Aitcheson, in Language Decay, puts the case that change does not mean language decay. This is a stock-in-trade argument against the wish to preserve, conventionally objurgated as ‘purism’. However, would it not be a pity if South Africa lost the eloquent alternatives to ‘motivate’ and ‘motivation’? ‘Motivate’ is sterile and abstract; the other terms are flexible, vigorous, idiomatic English, and the expressions learners are likely to come across in all sorts of documents and situations wherever English is used. They are important items of vocabulary, basic to any debate or argument. Not to have access to this area of vocabulary is a severe handicap. They are essential items of communication. If one wants to teach ‘communicative English,’ this is the kind of thing that should be taught.