Int J Edu Sci, 16(1-3): 138-151 (2017)
Extent of the Utilisation of Vocabulary Learning Opportunities from Classroom Print
Sibanda Jabulani
Rhodes University, Department of Education, P. O. Box 94, Grahamstown, South Africa E-mail:
KEYWORDS High Frequency Words. Lexical Exposure. Lexical Recycling. Print. Vocabulary Acquisition
ABSTRACT This study interrogated the potential influence of classroom print to Grade 3 English second language (L2) learners’ acquisition of core vocabulary for transitioning to Grade 4. Using systematic observation and a corpus software tool, the AntConc concordance, the study documented the quantity and quality of vocabulary exposure in ten Grade 3 classroom print in relation to High Frequency Words (HFWs) considered core vocabulary needs for the transition. Follow-up structured interviews were conducted with teachers whose classroom print was observed. Findings indicated underrepresentation of general English vocabulary and HFWs, and compromised quality of available print displays. Teacher indifference to the relationship between classroom print and learners’ vocabulary acquisition largely explains the findings. The study recommend enhanced quantity and quality of HFWs’ exposure in classroom displays to facilitate learners’ acquisition of requisite vocabulary.
INTRODUCTION lenges, which are not exclusive to the South African context, provide the context for the In English second language (ESL) input im- present study. poverished environments where the target lan- guage infrastructure is lacking, the classroom Transitional Challenges from Grade 3 to 4 assumes the role of sole provider of linguistic input requisite for learning. Such linguistic pro- That, even within L1 speaking contexts there vision is largely through teacher talk, textbook is a “…sudden drop-off between third and fourth use and classroom print. The value of develop- grade in the reading scores…” (Hirsch 2003: 10) ing a sound vocabulary repertoire is underscored designated the fourth grade slump, attests to by the observation that the lexical dimension of the crucial nature of the grade 3-4 transitional a language is “…the greatest tool we can give point. Lesnick et al. (2010) posited a shift in the students” (Samir 2007: 45) which is “… predic- focus of reading from learning to read to read- tive and reflective of reading achievement” (Pikul- ing to learn with the latter demanding learners’ ski and Templeton 2004: 1) more than grammar is possession of a substantial lexical repertoire to (Carmen 2009). A sound vocabulary repertoire unlock textual content. Grade 4 in South Africa allows learners to comprehend input and encode also marks shift in the Language of Learning output. This study investigated the extent of and Teaching (LoLT) from a Home Language exposure to vocabulary requisite for reading to (HL) to a First Additional Language (FAL) and learn in Grade 4, the Grade 3 learners had from according to Howie, in Howie et al. (2008: 8) their classroom print. Sixty and 213 high frequen- “…the LoLT…in Grade 4 results in more than 80 cy words (HFWs) representing learners’ core percent of learners being taught in a second vocabulary needs for reading to learn in Grade 4, language, mostly English, a language spoken taken from Sibanda and Baxen (2016), were used by less than 10 percent of the population.” The as a benchmark of requisite vocabulary expo- implication is that learners “…must reach a high sure from classroom print. The HFWs were se- level of competence in English by the end of lected on the basis of their frequency of occur- Grade 3, and they need to be able to read and rence in Grade 4 content area textbooks the same write well in English. For these reasons, their learners used, as well as on the basis of their progress in literacy must be accelerated in availability, coverage, learnability, and opportun- Grades 2 and 3” (CAPS 2011: 11). ism (Koprowski 2005), criteria which determine Wright (2012: 353) posited that, ‘[B]y fourth their lexical utility. Grade 3 to 4 transitional chal- grade, students with limited vocabulary knowl- CORE VOCABULARY EXPOSURE 139 edge are likely to slump in reading comprehen- Engagement with environmental print pre- sion.’ In its appraisal of key factors accounting cedes the more advanced reading of book print for learners’ poor performance, the Department where incipient hypotheses made about print of Basic Education’s (DBE) Annual National are tested. Even as children engage in formal Assessment (ANA) report (2011) identified in- print reading at school, exposure to, and engage- ability to read and an acute lack of basic vocab- ment with, print is conditional to the develop- ulary as key deterrents to learner performance. ment of the salient features of literacy namely; Although much has been said about the role of phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, flu- extensive reading in vocabulary acquisition, the ency, and comprehension. Cummins (2006) saw potential role of classroom print has received the use of environmental print as facilitative of scant, if any, recognition. The question for this the development of these key pillars of reading study then was the extent to which the Grade 3 literacy. Apart from environmental print bridg- classroom environment, through classroom print ing the home-school chasm, it is inexpensive. displays, contributed to vocabulary gains, albe- Giles and Tunks (2010) identified both commer- it modest ones. The study was framed by three cial and environmental print as allowing for the research questions namely; experimentation with print resources. 1. What is the extent of HFWs exposure in Partnership for 21st Century Skills (2002) en- Grade 3 classroom print? visions modern day classrooms as spaces for 2. What is the nature of the available class- active, self-directed learning organised for au- room print? tonomy and independence to support the learn- 3. What use is made of the available class- ing process. A rich array of children-produced room print? print materials as well as teacher and commer- Both the research questions and the review cially produced wall displays which learners in- of literature on the efficacy of print exposure to teract with daily should characterise the L2 class- vocabulary acquisition and its effective employ- room. Word walls, name charts, children’s inde- ment, guided the study. pendent print, alphabet charts and other displays should constitute classroom print. The Language Literature Review Experience Approach story charts dictated by learners and transposed by teachers on charts Role of Classroom Print in Vocabulary are ideal for L2 beginners’ awareness of words in Development contexts meaningful to them. Learners’ perfunc- tory spoken language knowledge would be greatly The efficacy of print in children’s literacy enhanced by seeing it in print, which would trig- development is underscored by Fern and Jiar ger word recognition in both the aural and print (2013: 146) who noted that “[T]he process of forms. Rebus charts depicting words alongside learning to read and write begins as early as pictures facilitate word knowledge as learners children have contact with forms of written com- associate words with their pictures to derive word munication in the surrounding.” Setati and meanings. Akhtar et al. (2001), in Justice (2004), Adler’s (2001: 243) observation in the South Af- intimated that incidental exposure to language rican context that “[E]nglish as target language suffices for language learning. and LOLT is only heard, spoken and written in Stanovich and Cunningham (1992) posited the formal school context” necessitates the de- that print exposure has a causal relationship with ployment of all sources of classroom linguistic vocabulary acquisition even where intelligence input to language development. The enormity is controlled. Immersion in an environment with of the vocabulary learners need necessitates meaningful, comprehensible messages in the both explicit and incidental acquisition of some target language would expedite learners’ vocab- words from mere exposure. Although the ten ulary acquisition. Thomlison (2012: 143) ob- Grade 3 classrooms in which the study was con- served that: ducted had adequate workbooks supplied by Materials can be informative (informing the the DBE, they were impoverished in terms of learner about the target language), instruc- other reading materials, which necessitated com- tional (guiding the learner in practicing the pensation of the lack with a print-rich classroom language), experiential (providing the learn- environment. er with experience of the language in use), elic- 140 SIBANDA JABULANI iting (encouraging the learner to use the lan- manipulating those objects becomes a valuable guage) and exploratory (helping the learner vocabulary acquisition opportunity. Involving to make discoveries about the language). children in the labelling process, where labels Such multiplicity of functions can potential- are correctly spelt, neatly printed or typed and ly be served by the print teachers display in pasted on referent objects would constitute a their classrooms. Richard (2001) saw print mate- vocabulary learning experience on its own. Im- rial as indispensable to adequate language in- porting environmental print learners already rec- put and language practice in the classroom. ognize into the classroom allows independent vocabulary acquisition of aspects of the print Effective Use of Classroom Print previously ignored and coincides with children’s natural venture into reading through reading Justice (2004) identified five key elements for environmental print. Attaching questions or ex- the effective use of print namely; exposure, de- planations to that print could direct learners to liberateness, recurrence, high-quality input, and aspects of environmental print ordinarily ignored. adult responsiveness. These frame the present Print displayed should be at learners’ level study’s focus on print use in the classroom. For without being simplistic to extend their vocabu- the present study, exposure related to the lary development. Vygotsky’s concept of zone amount of words that classroom print contained. of proximal development (ZPD) in Lantolf and Deliberateness for Justice (2004) is about the Thorne (2007) and Krashen’s (1985) i+1 are in- adults’ intentionally choosing the language to structive in this regard. Print should be custom expose to the learners. For this study, the vo- made to suit learners in diverse ways and, in this cabulary captured in classroom print was juxta- regard, teacher or learner produced print has an posed against what had been determined as edge over commercially produced, generic, ‘one- learners’ core vocabulary needs. Recurrence re- size-fits-all’ print. The pedagogical rationale of lates to the progressive repetition of key words classroom print should be evident and decisions in print to enhance the probability of their mas- about how long it should be displayed should tery from multiple exposures in diverse contex- be made consciously. tual applications. Long and Doughty (2009) pos- Jasmine and Schiesl (2009) underscore the ited that where lexical items recur frequently, it need for word walls displaying high frequency activates the reader’s memory traces and en- or theme-related words which facilitate sight sures that the words are entrenched and elabo- word reading and recognition and better estab- rated which, Sripada (2008) noted, eases their lishes word connections. The word walls should retrieval. High-quality input denotes both to the be complemented with activities where the words words themselves, how they are organised and embodied on the word walls are applied to es- employed in functional contexts for particular tablish them in the memory for easy retrieval. purposes. Giles and Tunks (2010) noted that print expo- To Justice (2004), adult responsiveness is a sure needs to be complemented with engaging measure of the extent to which the teacher is conversations about that print. frequent and consistent in his or her response A related study by Tao and Robinson (2005) to learners’ intentions and attempts at commu- reported on pre-service teachers’ observations nication. In this study, all that the teacher did to related to the print richness of classrooms dur- draw learners’ attention to words on classroom ing their teaching experience. Only one teacher print and their communication of meaning de- noted the existence of labels in the classroom noted responsiveness. Justice (2004) conceptu- and another observed learners actively taking alised teacher responsiveness under eight strat- part in the labelling of objects in the classroom. egies namely; waiting, pausing, confirming, imi- tating, extending, labelling, open questioning, METHODOLOGY and scripting. Labelling classroom objects enhances print The study was part of a large PhD study in- visibility in the classroom. Where the classroom volving ten teachers and ten classrooms purpo- objects and features are labelled (not overly la- sively selected to represent the diversity in belled to the point of overwhelming the learners school size, resource, allocation, location (town- and being too visually stimulating) the act of ship and rural schools equally represented) and CORE VOCABULARY EXPOSURE 141 representing four Districts of the Eastern Cape Variation in Classroom Print province of South Africa. In this study, print displays were video recorded and snapshots All the classroom print materials were charts from the recordings taken and the print tran- with the exception of Henrietta’s labelled class- scribed. Focus was on the quantitative repre- room objects. The more varied the classroom sentation of the 60 and 213 HFWs (derived from displays were, the more they could potentially the Grade 4 textbook corpus) in the print. The pique learners’ curiosity and interest. Maps, antconc 3.2.1w software concordancer was used customized flash cards, and authentic materials to generate word lists from the combined class- like menus, recipes, signs, printed directions, room print corpus for each teacher, to determine cereal boxes, wedding invitation cards were con- the quantity of word exposure generally, and that spicuously absent in the classrooms which de- of the HFWs specifically. Also important was the prived learners of greater opportunities to inter- determination of the relevance of the classroom act with language of the real world in the class- print to Grade 3 ESL learners as commercially pro- room. This is despite Cummins’ (2006) and Giles duced print did not identify the grade level for and Tunks’ (2010) acknowledgment of the piv- which it was produced. Two-week (10 day) con- otal role of environmental print in vocabulary secutive English FAL classroom observations acquisition. were made during the third of four school terms Labels were exclusive to Henrietta’s class- to identify the use made of print displays in teach- room and Figure 1 exemplifies three of them. ing and learning. A 7-item semi-structured inter- These allowed for a constant connection be- view was conducted with 10 teachers as follow- tween written language and the objects it repre- up to the classroom print findings. sented. The labels table, chair and picture were however, confined to objects whose names learn- RESULTS ers most likely knew orally at the expense of objects whose English labels were novel. An Classroom print data is presented themati- extension to the labelling could have been made cally and its potential to lead to language and by having accompanying statements as in hav- vocabulary acquisition discussed. Excerpts or ing the label refuse bin followed by ‘place your snapshots from the print best illustrative of a refuse here’. Learners would potentially derive particular category are used for exemplification. the meaning of ‘refuse’ from such contextual use. Teacher interview responses are infused into the Also missing was the display of children’s work. presentation and discussion of categories where Betty, whose classroom had no print dis- they are relevant. Table 1 summarises the nature plays, identified as an excuse, absence of win- and quantity of classroom print displays ob- dow panes and peeling walls and made no at- served in the different teachers’ classrooms. The tempt to make the best out of a constraining (R) and (T) against the teachers’ names repre- environment. Keeping print materials in pock- sent an equal number of rural and township ets, or having mobile displays suspended from classrooms respectively. ceilings, displays hung on a string line attached
Table 1: Quantity and nature of the classroom print for each class
Teacher Number of print Print produced… Language presented at the… items By the teacher Commercially Word level Sentence level Beyond sentence level
Alice (T) 2 5 2 2 3 2 2 3 0 Betty (R) 0 0 0 0 0 0 Christine (R) 1 6 1 4 2 1 3 3 0 Dorothy (R) 1 0 1 1 0 0 Esther (R) 1 6 1 4 2 9 5 2 Florence (R) 1 3 0 1 3 1 2 1 0 Gladys (T) 4 0 4 4 0 0 Henrietta(T) 1 0 0 1 0 5 5 0 Jane (T) 7 1 6 5 1 0 Kate (T) 1 4 0 1 4 6 6 2 142 SIBANDA JABULANI
Fig. 1. Labelling of classroom objects in Henrietta’s class with pegs or clips for learners to interact with room walls. Table 2 shows the number of the 60 language, were possible options. and 213 HFWs learners potentially stood to ben- efit from classroom print displays. The 213 Quantity of Classroom Print Materials and HFWs list includes the 60 which effectively re- Word Exposure duced the HFW beyond the 60 HFWs to 153. ‘Tokens’ denote the number of running Reference to the quantity of classroom print words whereas ‘types’ count the number of dif- is made in relation to the print that was in En- ferent words. That 845 tokens in Henrietta’s glish and not that which was in isiXhosa (the classroom represented the highest number of teachers and learners’ Home Language). From words in classroom print displays (where a word Table 1, the range of print displays in the class- was counted as many times as it recurred) and rooms was 0 to 25 items with 6 of the 10 class- that Kate’s 374 word types represented the high- rooms having 10 or more charts in English and est number of different words used (where a the remaining 4 classrooms having less than 10 word was counted only once no matter how of- chart displays in English. The 4 classrooms with ten it recurred), speaks to the paucity of English less than 10 charts had very few charts in En- vocabulary exposure in classroom print displays. glish to allow for much exposure of learners to Figure 3, based on Table 2 data on the represen- English vocabulary. The 6 classrooms with many tation of the 60 and 213 HFWs, shows the extent charts normally had very small charts with a few to which these HFWs were manifest in class- words on them which also severely limited the room print displays. amount of the language exposure learners could More words were represented in classroom benefit from. A case in point is some of Alice’s print displays within the 60 HFWs list than be- charts which had as few as four words as shown yond the 60 but within the 213 HFWs list for all in Figure 2 where the five charts had a total of 22 classrooms’ print except for Dorothy and Flo- words, a number which could easily have been rence’s. In terms of the 60 HFWs representation accommodated on a single chart. A word count, in classroom print, only Henrietta had 50 per- of print materials for each classroom, generated cent coverage of the 60 HFWs and the other by the antconc software, was more the indicator eight had below 50 percent coverage. That class- of their potential to facilitate vocabulary acqui- room print hardly covered half of the core vo- sition than how much the print covered class- cabulary needs of learners for reading to learn in
Fig. 2. Alice’s short charts at the word level CORE VOCABULARY EXPOSURE 143
Table 2: Classroom print vocabulary quantity and representation of the HFW
Teacher Tokens Types Words within the 60 HFW and Words beyond the 60 HFW but within frequency of each word’s the 213 HFW occurrence
Alice 152 141 and, day (2), different, look, on, make, to (2), east, no, now, of, sit, stop, together, understand, until teacher, with, hand, any, so (1) (1)9/60=15% 12/153=7.8% Christine 373 277 is (9), and, it, on (3), look (2), the (19), book (9), to (5), are, go (4), stop, but, can, day, do, for, from, my, of, up (3), big, I, me, she, with, have, not, what, you16/60=27% a, about, all, we, eat, get, when, old, will, then, in, so (1) 25/ 153=16.3% Dorothy 9 9 8 0 stop (2)1/60=2% no, road (3), of, one, the, way, left, house, keep (1) 9/ 153=5.9% Esther 390 220 and, (7), is (6), you (4), can, the, a (12), in, I (7), to (6), my (4), day, for, that, time (2), but, it on are, from, make (3), around, help, (1)11/60=18% put, them (2), all, big, teacher, hand, first, eat, under, new, old, wound, one, there (1) 25/ 153=16.3% Florence 406 224 stop (2), more, you (1)3/60=5% One (14), the (4), no, road (3), book, house, of, there, way (2), all, class, keep, left, long, read, teacher, they, their, think, this (1) 20/153=13.1% Gladys 287 247 stop, like (2), after, because, the (5), no, road (3), left, of, one, see, before, day, is, on, that (1)9/ way (2), a, big, down, eat, good, in, 60=15% much, long, new, old, small, up (1) 20/153=13.1% Henrietta 845 319 is (27), have, and (12), like (9), of (36), a (29), the (23), are, this (23), can, each, from (8), it (7), you in, one (9), we, group (7), be, these (6), look, same, what (5), do, (6), all, has, there, to (5), they, up, for, only, or, other, some (3), with (4), by, at (3), how, no, any, different, if, more, school, on (2), so (2), say, see, way (2), few, after, again, every, most, together, house, new, than, which, over, out, time, (1)30/60=50% study (2) around,(1) 34/153=22.2% Jane 410 324 after (7), and, or, school, stop the (7), of (6), road (4), no, one, with, (3) is (2), always, colour, day, way (3), down, eat, house, keep, left, different, from, on, use (1)13/ this (1). 13/153=8.5% 60=22% Kate 699 374 and (16), is (10), have, not, you the (36), to (24), in (18), a (13), of (6), on (5), can, for, if, or (4), do, (8), all, be (6), we, I, are (5), any, school (3), both, but, it, like, look, would (4), at, by, even, no, now, more, same, that, time, what (2), they, will (3), by, down, go, good, day, from, most, once, only, out, has, my, read, these, this (2), with, work (1)29/60=48% one, change, eat, get, keep, our, put, see, saw, teacher, than, us, want, which, when, well, write (1). 46/ 153=30.1%
Grade 4 casts doubt on its potential to prepare ture of the words that were likely to be acquired learners for the Grade 4 linguistic transitional from classroom print across different classrooms challenges. The highest representation of the as shown in Table 3. 213 HFWs among the 9 classrooms was Kate’s Only 42 out of the 60 HFWs were found in at 30.1 percent. This showed even a lower repre- least 1 classroom’s print displays with the re- sentation of the core vocabulary in classroom maining 18 words not appearing in any of the print displays. The 60 HFWs manifest in teach- classrooms. The majority of the 42 words were ers’ classroom print and the number of class- only found in one, two and three classrooms rooms in whose print they were, provide a pic- and only one was found in 7 classrooms, one in 144 SIBANDA JABULANI
5 0 4 5 4 0 3 5 % 60 HFW 3 0 2 5 % Words beyond 60 HFW 2 0 but within 213 HFW 1 5 1 0 5 0
Jane Alice Kate Esther Gladys Dorothy Florence Christine Henrietta
Fig. 3. Percentage words within the 60 HFW and 213 HFW in classroom print
Table 3: HFW in teachers’ classroom print yielded three conditions for vocabulary acqui- sition namely; legibility (6 of the 10 teachers), Classrooms where Words from the 60 HFW list word appeared in understandability (4 teachers) and attractiveness print displays (2 teachers). It was interesting to note that the quantity of print and its recycling and learner 7 classrooms On displays were not considered. The nature of the 6 classrooms You 5 classrooms and day stop is print displays was also of interest in the present 4 classrooms look it can for study and is discussed in relation to the source 3 classrooms together do from have but what of their production and the level of their lan- that time more like guage focus. 2 classrooms different not same only school after again most out once 1 classroom understand until after because Material Production and Source before each other some if every both work The source of materials, whether teacher-pro- duced or commercially produced, had implica- 6 classrooms with none being found across eight tions for their relevance to learners’ level and or all the nine classrooms (having excluded linguistic needs. From Table 1, it is apparent that Betty’s class which had no classroom print). the bulk of the classroom charts were commer- Although the bulk of the 60 HFWs were func- cially produced with the exception of Christine tion words which generally occur in text more and Esther who had more teacher-produced than frequently than content words, the 60 HFWs commercially produced charts (see Appendix 1 representation was still quite limited. There was for some of their print displays). They were even a dearth in representation of both the English apologetic about the preponderance of teacher vocabulary in general and the HFW in particu- produced print which they explained as having lar. This was despite all the ten teachers acknowl- been actuated by lack of access to commercially edging the role of classroom print displays in produced materials by virtue of being at impov- incidental vocabulary acquisition in their inter- erished rural schools. In the other classes, com- view responses. Responses to the kind of print mercially produced materials outnumbered displays that engender vocabulary acquisition teacher produced charts with five of the 9 class- CORE VOCABULARY EXPOSURE 145 rooms having commercially produced print dis- It was also not easy to justify the presence plays only. of some commercially produced charts in the The manifest weakness of commercially pro- classroom. A fading chart in Florence’s class- duced materials was their lack of alignment with room which I had to retype is a case in point and learners’ level since they were not produced with is represented below: ESL learners at a particular grade level in mind. DUTYWA MEDICAL CENTRE Because they did not indicate the grade level for General Practitioner- Optometrist-Dental which they were designed, they were consid- Ugqirha wabagulayo- owamehlo-wamazinyo ered by teachers as generic, one-size-fits-all Mon-Fri 08:00 -18:00 Tel: 047 489 2222 materials; an impression the producers had im- Sat 08:00 -13:00 Fax: 047 489 2222 plicitly created by not identifying the target au- The chart could have been exploited to serve dience of the materials. What is more, some of a pedagogical purpose by giving some task to the producers of the materials were not them- the learners. One chart particularly illustrative selves in the field of education. An example is of the lack of consonance between vocabulary the chart ‘The ABC of road safety’ which origi- of commercially produced charts and ESL Grade nated from the Department of Transport and 3 learners’ competence levels is the ‘girl and whose preoccupation was to illustrate road safe- women rights’ chart in Kate’s classroom. Below ty rules using the alphabet. Although the pro- the researcher typed part of the chart, under- ducers creatively sent the intended message, lined and italicised words I considered beyond they were not well placed to make a determina- learners’ level. tion of the specific target audience of the mate- rial in terms of the grade level. The chart appar- Excerpt from the Chart ently had received wide distribution as it was It is important that all people believe in them- found in classrooms of different grade levels. selves, respect themselves and respect the rights Figure 4 shows the letters B and C and their of others. Disabled people have the same rights illustrations where B stands for bicycle lane res- as everybody else. They have the right to ca- ervation and C for circle (mini-circle). reer opportunities and employment.Women do not have to obey men even if they are much older. Girls or women have the right to say no to sex or any activities which they do not want to participate in. When couples freely engage in sexual activities both sexes are equally respon- sible for the prevention of unplanned pregnan- cies, sexually transmitted disease and HIV / AIDS.All careers are now open to all sexes and races. Certain careers are no longer solely the domain of either men or women. Women can Fig. 4. Picture showing illustrations on the ABC now even become engineers, truck drivers and of road safety occupy top management positions. The consti- tution grants equal rights to all citizens irre- The language used on the chart like ‘bicy- spective of race, gender, creed or any cle lane reservation, no entry, one way pedes- disabilities.The inequalities of the past can only trian crossing, jetty edge keep left, T-junction, be rectified if all people accept their responsi- uneven roadway, visibility reduced, yield sign’ bilities and are prepared to accept the chal- lenges that go with these rights.From childhood was not part of the immediate core vocabulary we were placed in certain ways in society. Men needs of the learners. From the other commercial- had to be strong and had to play the leading ly produced charts came words like ‘jelly kite role in both the home and in the workplace. and rattle shoes, enterprise, scene, due, flings, Women on the other hand had to be subservi- illusion, social, electrical shock,’ among others. ent and had to obey men. These stereotype roles These infrequent words also did not meet the were accepted down the centuries.This situa- criterion of usefulness which is key for determin- tion has now changed. Any form of violence, is ing vocabulary to privilege in the classroom. unacceptable and illegal, 146 SIBANDA JABULANI
If the researcher’s intuitive sense of what veiled underestimation of their own capacity in learners would know and not know is correct, material production. then, in the 235 word passage (the phrase ‘on the other hand’ was considered as one word Level at which Language is Used in the and underlined as such), ignorance of 90 words Materials (90÷235×100) translated to 38 percent unknown words. This is a massive figure considering that Three levels at which language in the charts the maximum acceptable amount of vocabulary was used were the word level, the sentence lev- which may be unknown without compromising el and the beyond the sentence (discourse) lev- comprehension is 2 percent according to Hu and el. From Table 1, it is apparent that an overwhelm- Nation’s (2000) vocabulary threshold estimates. ing majority of the charts were pegged at the The 38 percent unknown words assumes that word level except for Henrietta and Kate’s class- the other words I did not highlight like ‘else, rooms where there was an equal number of charts people, same, even, any’ were known. It also at the word and sentence level. The beyond the assumes that even the potentially known words sentence level had the lowest number of charts which are used in unusual ways like ‘Men had for the two teachers who had them and was not to…play the role…‘challenges that go with represented in all the other teachers’ charts. these rights, ’and the word ‘right’ itself would The word level charts could only potentially not interfere with comprehension. develop word recognition since learners could A calculation of the readability of this part of not derive word meanings from a mere look at a the chart using the reading level calculator list of decontextualized words such as those in
[R]eads independently books read in Guid- diversity characterising the classroom print and ed Reading sessions and simple caption the lack of follow-up activities on the available books and picture story books in the First charts. Additional Language from the classroom Although the manifestation of function reading corner (p. 67). words was greater in the classroom print on ac- [U]nderstands and uses language structures count of most of the 60 HFW appearing in only in context, for example, past tense: I wa- one or two teachers’ print displays being con- tered the seed; prepositions: I put the seed tent words, the restriction of print displays to in a pot (p. 69). the word level account for the low manifestation The learners also should have contributed of function words across all teachers’ print dis- to the development of own print displays. The plays. Function words, by virtue of serving syn- NEEDU Report (2012: 44) stipulates that: tactic purposes, would be more manifest in full At least once a week they [learners] should sentence or paragraph print displays. undertake extended writing. The latter should Teachers’ preference for commercially pro- consist predominantly of sentences in Grade 1, duced materials, for print displays at the word paragraphs in Grade 2, and extended passag- level, their disregard for follow-up activities on es (2 or more linked paragraphs) in Grade 3. the print displays, and their disregard of fre- Learners should be asked to describe experi- quency lists as manifest in their interview re- ences, express their feelings, and analyse events. sponses all explain both the low visibility of HFW These are exercises that develop higher cogni- in the print displays and the low quality of the tive capacity. From the second half of Grade 1, representation of those words that appear in the learners should be led to write stories about print displays. themselves, their families and friends. If so much could be expected in terms of learn- CONCLUSION ers’ language productive capacities, even more None of the five key elements for the effec- could be expected in terms of their receptive ca- tive use of print discussed earlier, was adequately pacities in the form of reading charts beyond met by the nature of print displays in the class- the word level. rooms. There was little exposure to both English Input adequacy, which Krashen (1985) iden- vocabulary generally and HFWs specifically, tified as pre-conditional to language acquisition there was no teacher deliberateness and respon- was not met in the classroom print in classrooms siveness to vocabulary acquisition from the lit- observed and learners could not be expected to tle print that was seen, the few words that fea- acquire language they did not encounter. The tured in classroom print had very little recur- lack of teachers’ resourcefulness and initiative rence, and failure to represent HFWs rendered saw them relying on commercially produced the little print of low quality. charts which were not tailor-made for the levels From the foregoing, it is apparent that class- and needs of learners to the point that they were room print could hardly facilitate the acquisition largely irrelevant. Charts were supposed to be of the core vocabulary requisite for Grade 3 learn- at the learners’ independent reading levels ers’ transition to Grade 4 in the observed class- (where learners could read and understand them es. This was due to the very low representation on their own) but most of them were not even at of words in the charts as indicated by the few the instructional level (where learners could ac- word tokens and word types in the classroom cess them with the assistance of the teacher), print of each of the teachers and in the even but at the learners’ frustration levels (where they lower representation of the 60 and 213 HFW in were so beyond learners’ levels that they could that print. The inadequate language exposure not access them despite the teacher’s media- was itself a result of not changing the charts in tion). The same lack of initiative and resource- line with aspects being taught and the restric- fulness accounted for the reliance on the same tion of charts to the word level. charts throughout the year, depriving learners The quality of the classroom print was hard- of the language they could and would have in- ly facilitative of vocabulary acquisition where teracted with had more charts been used through most charts presented decontextualized words a change of charts. It also explains the lack of which were not followed up on through tasks CORE VOCABULARY EXPOSURE 149 that could draw learners’ attention to particular pedagogy. In: O Garcia, T Skutnabb-Kangas, E aspects of word knowledge. The disjuncture Torres-Guzmán María (Eds.): Imagining Multilin- gual Schools. Language in Education and Global- between the print and learners’ level and needs ization. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, pp. 51–68. militated against learners’ acquisition of the lan- Giles RM, Tunks KW 2010. Children write their world: guage. The lack of relevance and recency of Environmental print as a teaching tool. Dimensions charts potentially discouraged learners from of Early Childhood, 38(3): 23-29. Hirsch ED 2003. Reading Comprehension Requires engaging with them to the extent that they end- Knowledge of Words and the World: Scientific In- ed up serving a merely decorative function in sights into the Fourth-Grade Slump and the Na- those classrooms (where their aesthetic quali- tion’s Stagnant Comprehension Scores. American ties were sound). Educator: American Federation of Teachers. Howie S, Venter E, Van Staden S, Zimmerman L, Long C, Sherman V, Archer E 2008. PIRLS 2006 Sum- RECOMMENDATIONS mary Report: South African Children’s Reading Lit- eracy Achievement. Pretoria: Centre for Evaluation On the basis of the findings and conclusions and Assessment. above, the study proffers some recommenda- Jasmine J, Schiesl P 2009. The effects of word walls and word wall activities on the reading fluency of tions. To ensure quantity of input, teachers first grade students. Reading Horizons, 49(4): 301- should use a variety of print displays in the class- 315. room, align the classroom print with what they Justice LM 2004. A team-based action plan for creat- teach, change classroom print regularly to en- ing language-rich preschool classroom environments. Teaching Exceptional Children, 37(2): 1–9. sure the presence of novel print displays regu- Koprowski M 2005. Investigating the usefulness of larly. They need to have lists of HFW which lexical phrases in contemporary course books. ELT they systematically teach to learners over time Journal Volume, 59(4): 322-332. captured in their classroom print. Krashen SD 1985. The Input Hypothesis: Issues and Implications. White Plains, NY: Longman. In terms of the quality of print, teachers Lantolf PL, Thorne SL 2007. Socio-cultural theory should desist from importing print displays in- and Second Language Learning. In: B Van Patten, J congruent to learners’ needs and abilities but Williams (Eds.): Theories in Second Language Ac- rather use more teacher-produced materials cus- quisition: An Introduction. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence tomized to the needs and capabilities of learn- Erlbaum, pp. 201-224. ers. They should ensure print materials are self- Long MH, Doughty CJ (Eds.) 2009. The Handbook of Language Teaching. Malden, MA: Wiley–Blackwell. contained allowing learners to benefit from them NEEDU National Report 2012. The State of Literacy independent of the teacher by giving tasks and Teaching and Learning in the Foundation Phase. directions rather than just a collection of words, Pretoria: National Education Evaluation and Devel- as well as follow up activities like the assess- opment Unit. ment of aspects on a chart. Nelson JR, Stage SA 2007. Fostering the development Producers of print materials for distribution of vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehen- sion though contextually-based multiple meaning to schools should indicate the target audience vocabulary instruction. Education and Treatment of of the material to ensure a fit between the mate- Children, 30(1): 1-22. rial and the learners. These recommendations Partnership for 21st Century Skills 2002. Learning for would transform the role of print materials from the 21st Century: A Report and Mile Guide for 21st a decorative function to an important source of Century Skills. From
and prospects. Southern African Linguistics and in their field experiences. Reading Horizons, 45(4): Applied Language Studies, 34(1): 57–70. 349-366. South Africa Department of Basic Education 2011. Tomlinson B 2012. Materials development for lan- Annual National Assessments: A Reflection of the guage learning and teaching. Lang Teach, 45(2): 143– Quality of Learner Performance in Our Primary 179. Schools. Pretoria: Government Printer. Unaldi I, Bardacki M, Akpinar KD, Dolas F 2013. A South Africa Department of Basic Education 2011. comparison of contextualized, decontextualized and Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement Grades corpus-informed vocabulary instruction: A quasi-ex- 1-3 English First Additional Language. Pretoria: perimental study. Journal of Language and Litera- Government Printer. ture Education, 8: 78–95. Sripada PN 2008. Mental lexicon. Journal of the Indi- Wasik BA, Iannone-Campbell C 2012. Developing an Academy of Applied Psychology, 34(1): 181– vocabulary through purposeful, strategic conversa- 186. tions. The Reading Teacher, 66(2): 321–332. Stanovich KE, Cunningham AE 1992. Studying the Wright TS 2012. What classroom observations reveal consequences of literacy within a literate society: about oral vocabulary instruction in kindergarten. The cognitive correlates of print exposure. Memory Reading Research Quarterly, 47(4): 353–355. and Cognition, 20: 51–68. Tao L, Robinson H 2005. Print rich environments: Our Paper received for publication on July 2015 pre-service teachers’ report of what they observed Paper accepted for publication on December 2016 CORE VOCABULARY EXPOSURE 151
APPENDICES
Appendix 1: Some of the classroom print in classrooms
Florence’s classroom print
Kate’s classroom print Esther’s classroom print
Henrietta’s classroom print
Kate’s classroom print