DEEP CONCERNS ABOUT ENGLISH CAPS
I have grave concerns about certain aspects of the final draft of the FET CAPS for English Home Language.
Archive | Issue I
IMPLEMENTATION OF NEW CURRICULUM
Saturday, October 23, 2010
It would appear that there has been another change in the dates of implementation of the new curriculum.
ENGLISH ACADEMY QUESTIONS DRAFT NEW CURRICULUM FOR LANGUAGES
Saturday, October 23, 2010
The English Academy of Southern Africa has submitted a number of critical comments on the languages CAPS.
ISSUES WITH THE NEW CURRICULUM
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Alison Immelman, a long-serving teacher of English, has some strong reservations about the draft new curriculum for languages (CAPS).
IN MEMORIAM
Sunday, September 19, 2010
It was with great sadness that I learnt last week of the untimely death of Mike Merrett of Evalunet. It was Mike who designed the bannerhead for Teaching English Today and assisted with setting up the website and training me to operate it. A knowledgeable, cheerful young man who was killed in a motor car [...]
BUZZWORDS
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
The Macmillan Dictionary Online provides useful information for English teachers, including the latest ‘buzzwords’.
WEB-BASED RESOURCES FOR ENGLISH TEACHERS
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Some useful websites containing excellent teaching resources are available.
NEWSFLASH: CALL FOR COMMENTS ON REVISED CURRICULUM
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
The Minister of Basic Education has called for submissions on the draft National Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) which have been placed on its website.
VIVA ENGLISH TEACHERS, VIVA!
Saturday, June 5, 2010
I don’t believe that it is just bias on my part which makes me believe that the most hard-driven teachers in our schools are our language teachers. From one point of view, they are better off because they have always had a huge marking load and were therefore not fazed, as other teachers were, by having to do Continuous Assessment (CASS); but the demands of the new curriculum have taken this to new heights.
TO EXAMINE OR NOT TO EXAMINE (PAPER 3, THAT IS)
Saturday, June 5, 2010
I’d like you to imagine the following: A businessperson or teacher or journalist is required to write a report or prepare a lesson. She will be given one hour to do this task, with no access to shared ideas, dictionaries or the internet, and not even Microsoft and Bill Gates. She will not have time to do the work in rough, certainly no time to edit, and scarcely even time to do adequate proofreading. Oh, and by the way, she will be writing this during the graveyard session from 2 – 3 pm after doing a similar, though longer, exercise in the morning. That is what we are demanding of our young learners since the curriculum experts, in their wisdom, reinstated the writing paper as part of the FET exam process
WHY ENGLISH TEACHERS NEED PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
Saturday, June 5, 2010
11 April 2010 saw the formation of a professional association of English teachers in the Eastern Cape. The Association, which has been two years in the planning, was launched at the ‘Networking’ conference hosted by the Institute for the Study of English in Africa (ISEA) at Rhodes University (9-11 April). This article sets out to explore the need for such an association, and to consider the possible benefits it holds for members, for education management structures in the province and, indeed, for the nation. If the Eastern Cape has taken a lead in this regard, it may be worth teachers in other provinces considering the educational gains such organizations might offer in the struggle to improve the quality of education offered to our learners.
TEACHERS AND LEARNING: SHARING THE TALK
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Through the use of examples of classroom discourse from three different classrooms in rural Eastern Cape schools, this paper highlights the difference between a teacher who uses students’ talk as an ‘instructional resource’ and two teachers who dominate the classroom discourse by themselves for the most part of the instructional time.
‘LISTENING’ TO VISUAL IMAGES: APPRECIATING POLITICAL CARTOONS
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Madeyandile Mbelani Madeyandile Mbelani is a research officer and PhD candidate in the Institute for the Study of English in Africa at Rhodes University. His MEd dissertation is an action research case study on ‘Making visual literacy meaningful in a rural context’. (m.mbelani@ru.ac.za) This paper reports outcomes from a workshop on cartoons that took place [...]
FORMATTING FOR RESULTS
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Many years ago I decided something had to be done about the scrappy, incomplete and useless literature notebooks belonging to my weaker pupils. Every year it was the same story. The year would start off well: logical, legible notes would be written in the first two, or maybe three, pages but gradually, as books were left at home or someone was absent or the day was hot and I was boring, the notes descended into chaos. And yet these pupils were not trying to be difficult. What to do? After much reading and thinking I decided that I had to spend more time with the pupils formatting these books.
REVIEW : CAMBRIDGE SCHOOL SHAKESPEARE SERIES
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Many years ago I decided something had to be done about the scrappy, incomplete and useless literature notebooks belonging to my weaker pupils. Every year it was the same story. The year would start off well: logical, legible notes would be written in the first two, or maybe three, pages but gradually, as books were left at home or someone was absent or the day was hot and I was boring, the notes descended into chaos. And yet these pupils were not trying to be difficult. What to do? After much reading and thinking I decided that I had to spend more time with the pupils formatting these books.
SHAKESPEARE IN THE CLASSROOM
Saturday, June 5, 2010
How may the study of Shakespearean play be undertaken in the time available in a First-Language classroom?
A ‘MOTIVATION’ AGAINST ‘MOTIVATE’
Saturday, June 5, 2010
‘Motivate,’ meaning ‘to give reasons for’ is a South Africanism that is, perhaps, a little too well established. It comes from the Afrikaans ‘om te motiveer’. In the rest of the English-speaking world, ‘to motivate’ is to impart a sense of enthusiasm or a desire to get things done. South Africans should be aware that local usage could cause confusion elsewhere.
MOTHER-TONGUE EDUCATION IN SOUTH AFRICA
Saturday, June 5, 2010
The question of mother-tongue education in South Africa remains a vexed one. On the one hand, it seems reasonable and desirable that learners should be able to receive education in their mother tongue, if they so wish. On the other hand, there are some very real difficulties involved in the implementation of this ideal. The purpose of this paper is to clarify what these difficulties are, and then to suggest what needs to be done to overcome them.
ENGLISH IN SOUTH AFRICA – A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD (1)
Saturday, June 5, 2010
This year I have had the pleasure, as a retired English teacher and high school principal, of lecturing to the PGCE students at Stellenbosch University who are training to become English teachers. I set them an assignment entitled, ‘English in South Africa – a double-edged sword’. I was impressed by many of the assignments.
ENGLISH IN SOUTH AFRICA – A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD (2)
Saturday, June 5, 2010
According to the 2001 Census (Statistics South Africa, 2001:5), English is the home language of only 8,2% of South Africans. In a diverse country with 11 official languages, English acts as an important lingua franca in commerce both within the country as well as in international contacts. It follows that a solid knowledge of English opens definite social and economic doors for South African learners. Having one’s education in English will definitely give a learner ample time to become fluent in English. But is it really to the child’s advantage in the longer term?
ENGLISH IN SOUTH AFRICA – A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD (3)
Saturday, June 5, 2010
The Constitution recognizes a total of eleven official languages, all of which must ‘enjoy parity of esteem and must be treated equitably’ (SA Constitution, subsection 6, no. 4). This constitutional assertion often generates the impression that all official languages in South Africa also enjoy equal usage. Although this might be the case if ‘usage’ includes situations where languages are used as informal or private forms of communication, the reality is that in most formal contexts such as professional environments or sectors of commerce, the majority of languages fall into disuse, except for English.
ENGLISH IN SOUTH AFRICA – A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD (4)
Saturday, June 5, 2010
The South African constitution states that all eleven official languages must ‘enjoy parity of esteem and must be treated equitably’. Equity refers to fairness and impartiality, and the English Academy of South Africa has a very valid point that this is not the same as calling for equal use (Venter Handout p. 1). In reality, English is still the most widely-used language across the nation, and is the language of parliament and general administration. The problem with this situation is that English holds a possible threat to the ten other official languages of the country.
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