The lived experiences of teachers in a particular multilingual context

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study is set at a school where the population of a formerly Afrikaans medium school hasradically changed as a result of new education policies in South Africa. An immediateconsequence is that English is now used as a parallel LoLT.This research sets out to recount and interpret the lived experience of five teachers inresponding to the challenges of teaching in a multilingual classroom. First selected literatureon multilingualism and multiculturalism, both pre-set and inset teacher preparation for suchcontexts, and language policy in education in South Africa are reviewed. The case study usesstructured interviews and classroom observation to generate data. A broadly narrative modeis used in exploring and analysing the data.The experiences of the five teachers varied greatly. Important factors in colouring theirexperience are the degree of facility (or otherwise) in using languages other than their mothertongue to mediate learning, their beliefs on teaching, and their openness or bias towardsparticular cultural groups. All of them felt that they would have benefited from specifictraining or development in teaching in a multilingual/multicultural environment.In the final chapter the argument is presented that teachers need support to develop andenhance their teaching strategies. Ideally pre-service teacher education courses should reflectthe demographics of South Africa. At the very least all pre-service courses should include amodule on multilingualism and offer the knowledge and skills necessary for successfulteaching in the new South Africa. In-service courses should also create opportunities forteachers to develop dynamic ways of meeting the challenges they face in the multilingualclassroom.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University