Academic language proficiency of student teachers in a Namibian University

South African Journal of Childhood Education

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Academic language proficiency of student teachers in a Namibian University
 
Creator Shingenge, Frieda N.
 
Subject Teacher Education; Early childhood Education core academic language skills; junior primary; pre-service teachers; integrated curriculum; core academic language skills-1 test
Description Background: Although students in teacher education programmes in Namibia study through the medium of English, their academic language (AL) proficiency remains a challenge for most of them. In the Junior Primary Education programmes, they are not only required to master AL for their own studies, but they must also learn how to teach emergent academic AL in the primary school.Aim: This study aimed to address this dual challenge, a practitioner research study was undertaken to assess and compare students’ AL proficiency skills in English cross sectionally in 2020.Setting: The study was conducted online with (N = 78) student teachers at one of 12 campuses of the University of Namibia during the COVID-19 pandemic period.Methods: A standardised test compiled by Uccelli et al. was administered to 78 randomly selected students to measure their core AL skills.Results: The assessment results revealed distinct gaps in students’ AL proficiency. In addition, the findings demonstrated a statistically significant variance in assessment outcomes across different year groups.Conclusion: The university, despite provision of several courses, has taken note that AL should ideally be integrated across the curriculum.Contribution: The study revealed usable evidence about students’ AL proficiency, indicating patterns across cohorts.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor South Africa Research Chair of Prof. Elizabeth Henning, National Research Foundation (NRF) University of Johannesburg
Date 2024-03-14
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Survey
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajce.v14i1.1411
 
Source South African Journal of Childhood Education; Vol 14, No 1 (2024); 10 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/1411/2700 https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/1411/2701 https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/1411/2702 https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/1411/2703
 
Coverage University Third trimester English second language students; university students
Rights Copyright (c) 2024 Frieda N. Shingenge https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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