Department of Modern Foreign Languages

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https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/54

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Browsing Department of Modern Foreign Languages by browse.metadata.advisor "Anthonissen, Christine"

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    Integrating new technology in the language classroom : innovative teacher identities
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2019-12) Valentyn, Gail; Anthonissen, Christine; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Modern Foreign Languages.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study reports on the recorded narratives of language teachers' giving their observations and experience of using new technologies in language classrooms. There is limited research on South African language teacher identities and their experiences in using new technologies to enhance their own teaching as well as the learning experience of those they teach. The objective of this study is to investigate the approaches to teaching with new technologies and how these shapes the professional identity of language teachers who relate well to new technologies and have been judged to introduce them effectively in language teaching. Also, it considers how engagement with new technology in the classroom impacts teacher identities. The Western Cape Education Department is deploying new technology to create an enabling environment at the schools under its auspices. These technologies are to be used for teaching and learning. In spite of the availability of technology in the Western Cape, there appears to be very few teachers who actively use the technologies innovatively. This study takes a qualitative approach, using mixed methods of data collection, making use of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The interviews generated narratives of five teachers. Their self-reported experiences are used to determine how each participating teacher's identity, particularly in using technology successfully, is constructed. The teachers selected as participants have received awards and/or have been acknowledged by their peers as innovative for integrating technology and pedagogy. A range of factors and elements links the teacher identity and the innovative use of technology for teaching and learning. One of the major elements that emerged in the study was that to integrate technology and pedagogy innovatively for the benefit of the student, a teacher should crucially be passionate, caring and driven. Further, the researcher found that innovative teachers are not deterred by inhibiting factors to use technologies in engaging their students and enhancing teaching and learning. Student focused teaching and learning inspires teachers to use technologies innovatively in developing the kinds of skills the 21st century demands of their students and in preparing them for the future world of work. Teachers can be mentored to use technology innovatively, but the mentee has to take ownership of the implementation and practise of integrating technology and pedagogy innovatively for teaching and learning. The researcher found that good practises can be taught, modelled and learnt but that developing internal and intrinsic motivators is much more complex and challenging.
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    Secondary school language teachers' experiences of accepting and using information communication technology - an overview of literature on the status quo
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-12) Cupido, Stephen; Anthonissen, Christine; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Modern Foreign Languages.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis examines the importance of incorporating technology into language teaching and learning in South African secondary schools, with illustrative reference to the position in the Western Cape region. By exploring the current challenges many high school teachers face with the lack of technology in their classes, this study aims to investigate these limitations and discuss the benefits of using technology within the current school system. One of the main challenges teachers face with regards to incorporating technology into their classes is their inexperience of using the various technological platforms. Students are often more adept at learning to understand and use these various platforms, thereby disclosing a radical disconnect between teachers and students using technology within the classroom. Examining reports from language classes such as Afrikaans Home Language, and English First Additional Language this study aims to demonstrate how utilising technology within these language classes could assist teachers now already, as well as in the future. By improving their computer literacy teachers could be empowered to better teach, guide and prepare these learners to become successful players on the world stage. To gain an in-depth understanding of the benefits of using technology in secondary schools this study draws on various sources and on first-hand accounts of teachers who have experienced both the benefits and challenges of using technology within the school system. The need to incorporate technology in schools is articulated in a recent national and Western Cape Education Department (WCED) policy; however, the policy was implemented with minimal preparation for the transition. Keeping this policy in mind, the study offers an overview of three themes pertinent to teachers tasked with introducing new technologies in their classrooms. Additionally, this study considers the problem of teachers and teacher educators have in weighing up materials that investigate, inform and advise on the relation between using new technologies and effective teaching and learning.
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    Using technology and multimedia in Junior Secondary First Language creative writing skills development : new methodology to fit new literacies
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-03) Cupido, Josephine; Anthonissen, Christine; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Modern Foreign Languages.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study investigates the use of technology and multimedia in the development of Junior Secondary learners’ writing skills, asking specific questions about the changes in literacy that new technologies have heralded. Furthermore, the study will investigate literature on the introduction of multimodal technology in ways that relate to new approaches to teaching creative writing in the ‘digital age’. Drawing on experience as an Afrikaans First Language teacher in schools with learners from formerly disadvantaged communities whose exposure to technology has come relatively late, the study reflects on the literature with specifically such learners and their teachers in mind. By relating the incorporation of technology, specifically in Grade 8 Afrikaans First Language classrooms, to literature on new technology in creative writing and other forms of creative language use, this study aims to examine how this integration will benefit both teachers and learners more broadly in the advancement of teaching and learning practices in creative writing. As this is a wide topic, and the thesis is one of limited scope, it pays attention to a selected set of topics. It refers first to the term “multi-literacy” and the pedagogies of multiliteracy, In reflecting on creative writing in a digitalizing age, the study also attends to the concept of “maker education” as it was introduced by ‘Justice (2016). It relates these concepts and the ideas they carry to the concepts of “new literacy” and “new technology” as they feature in language education classrooms of learners between the ages 12 and 14. Based on the researcher’s own experience of teaching in both an urban and a rural school setting, this thesis aims to offer insight into how schools can utilize technology even when they struggle to gain access to these platforms. To uncover the advantages of incorporating technology within the school system, this study relies mostly on secondary sources obtained from various experts within the education field. As this thesis aims to offer an overview of the integration of technology within creative writing teaching, it also offers various suggestions on improving the ways in which teachers and learners should use technology in their classes. By doing so, learners should be able to garner critical skills that will help them in creative language work and their knowledge development process.