Aspects of academic language proficiency of intermediate phase teacher education students

South African Journal of Childhood Education

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Aspects of academic language proficiency of intermediate phase teacher education students
 
Creator van der Merwe, Dean
 
Subject Education, Teacher Education Intermediate phase teaching; academic language proficiency; core academic language skills Education
Description Background: In the intermediate phase of schooling, learners’ academic success is largely dependent on their ability to read and write academic texts. Teachers need to teach academic language intentionally and explicitly. In order for teachers to do this, they themselves need knowledge of academic language and its features. Teacher education students, therefore need to be explicitly taught about academic language and provided with sufficient opportunities to develop their own proficiency.Aim: This article aimed to explore the academic language proficiency of a cross-sectional sample of teacher education students at a Johannesburg university.Setting: This study took place at a South African university that implements a university-accredited primary school teacher education qualification. The university is located in an urban area, but attracts students from both urban and rural contexts.Methods: Students’ test scores on a core academic language skills instrument were utilised as data for this study, with descriptive and inferential statistical analyses procedures used to make sense thereof.Results: Findings from a cross-sectional analysis between first- and second-year students’ scores indicated that students’ academic language proficiency does not appear to improve after their initial year of study.Conclusion: The article concludes with a discussion of the implication hereof for teacher education and for the profession.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor Prof E Henning, University of Johannesburg, CEPR, SARCHI
Date 2018-11-15
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Qualitative design
Format text/html application/epub+zip application/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajce.v8i1.555
 
Source South African Journal of Childhood Education; Vol 8, No 1 (2018); 9 pages 2223-7682 2223-7674
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/555/854 https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/555/851 https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/555/855 https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/555/811
 
Coverage — — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2018 Dean Van der Merwe https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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