COACHING OF TEACHERS FOUND TO BOOST STUDENT READING
An innovative study of 17 schools along the East Coast of the US suggests that putting literacy coaches in schools can help boost students’ reading skills by as much as 32 percent over three years.
THE USEOF SOUTH AFRICAN WORKS OF FICTION AS CLASS READERS GRADES 7 –
It is important for learners in South Africa to read South African fiction. One way of ensuring this is to include South African works of fiction in school prescriptions. Currently there is not enough of this in our schools.
FIRST APROACHES TO POETRY
Having taught poetry at school level for twenty-three years and at first-year university level for seven years, I am aware of the problems that confront both the teacher and the pupil. It is not my intention to concentrate on these problems; I wish rather to offer some positive suggestions that may be of help to the teacher of poetry at high-school level.
THE STRANGE CASE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
The English Language is renowned for its vagaries. Here are some fun ones …
POIGNANT PUNCTUATION
Punctuation can make a huge difference to meaning. Here we have two letters which illustrate this perfectly.
TET ISSUE 2 LAUNCHED
TET ISSUE 2 LAUNCHED The second issue of Teaching English Today is now available to teachers of English. Note that the previous articles are still available – go to Volume1, Issue 1. Please do respond to the articles – no matter how briefly. We would like as much interaction amongst English teachers as possible. And […]
IMPLEMENTATION OF NEW CURRICULUM
It would appear that there has been another change in the dates of implementation of the new curriculum.
CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO TEACHING ENGLISH TODAY
We are planning a substantial update of TET soon.
“Why can’t Johnny write? He sounds okay!” Attending to form in English second language teachin
This article addresses the problem of poor written English amongst many South African learners who study English as their First Additional Language (FAL) at secondary school level, and the effect this has on their tertiary education and their future careers. The reasons for this poor mastery of written discourse are explored and, in particular, it is argued that the problems that have arisen are because of the communicative meaning-focused approach that has been the raison d’être of the second language syllabi for many years. This approach has also underpinned the OBE curriculum for English as FAL. An alternative method, in which the form of the language is focused upon, is explored and it is argued that this methodology would be a more successful one for South African learners and go a long way to solving the problem of the poor standard of English of matriculants.
ISSUES WITH THE NEW CURRICULUM
Alison Immelman, a long-serving teacher of English, has some strong reservations about the draft new curriculum for languages (CAPS).