Training primary school teachers for literature teaching : a view from Botswana
Date
2018
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Stellenbosch University
Abstract
Primary school level is where the love for reading and understanding of literature starts, and for teachers to succeed in the teaching of reading and literature, they need to display certain habits and practices in their English as a second language (ESL) classrooms. One of the habits is reading extensively and developing a passion for reading. In this study, the impact of the in-service training of a specific group of primary school teachers in Botswana was explored by means of questionnaires and interviews. This was done to investigate the strategies employed by these teachers in terms of their content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) as they teach literature to Standards 1 to 7 ESL pupils. The results from the questionnaires and the interviews allowed us to determine the start of problems with literature teaching. The questionnaire data gave an overview of the reading culture that prevailed in this case, and the interviews made it possible to enhance the picture provided in the questionnaires. This study revealed that the in-service teacher trainees lacked the requisite habits and practices required of a teacher of literature. We therefore argue that these teachers would fail to translate literary concepts into PCK because they had not gained any experience in analysing and evaluating full literary texts during their own schooling or teacher training.
Description
CITATION: Sanoto, D. V. & Van Der Walt, C. 2018. Training primary school teachers for literature teaching : a view from Botswana. Per Linguam : a Journal of Language Learning, 34(2):30-51, doi:10.5785/34-2-785.
The original publication is available at http://perlinguam.journals.ac.za/
The original publication is available at http://perlinguam.journals.ac.za/
Keywords
English teachers -- In-service training -- Botswana, Elementary school teachers -- Training of -- Botswana, English language -- Study and teaching (Primary) -- Botswana, English literature -- Study and teaching (Elementary) -- Botswana
Citation
Sanoto, D. V. & Van Der Walt, C. 2018. Training primary school teachers for literature teaching : a view from Botswana. Per Linguam : a Journal of Language Learning, 34(2):30-51, doi:10.5785/34-2-785