Monica Hendricks Consciousness-Raising and Prepositions or a variety of reasons, learning are used to designate expressions of English prepositions is noto- time. However, these very same prep- riously difficult and a slow, ositions also designate expressions F of place and location, which often gradual process for English as a Sec- ond Language (ESL) students. To makes the selection of a preposition a begin, English prepositions typically matter of guesswork. The uncertainty are short, single-syllable or two-syl- about what preposition to use even lable words that are seldom stressed extends to differences within British when speaking and therefore often not and American English. For example, articulated clearly or heard distinctly. in British (and South African) English Another problem is that prepositions it is common to speak of “filling in a are often conceptually different from form,” while American English speaks one language to the next, and direct of “filling out a form.” The problem translation cannot be relied on. For is further exacerbated by regional or example, in English “we walk in the social varieties of English that use rain,” whereas in French we “walk prepositions in idiosyncratic ways. under the rain (marcher sous la pluie).” Then there are those unhelpful (even Both formulations seem to make the archaic) rules about prepositions that same intrinsic sense; however, it would continue to hold sway, such as the strike most English speakers as odd to rule about not ending a sentence with say that we walk under the rain! This a preposition. As Winston Churchill lack of correspondence means that a tellingly joked, “The rule which for- one-to-one translation will produce an bids ending a sentence with a preposi- ungrammatical sentence. tion is the kind of nonsense up with These difficulties are compound- which I will not put.” ed by the loose grammatical rules The nature of prepositions obliges governing the use of English prepo- ESL students to rely on wide reading, sitions. For example, one rule states memorization, and dictionaries to that the prepositions at, on, and in learn them. One way to help students 24 2 0 1 0 N u m b e r 2 | E n g l i s h T E a c h i n g F o r u m is to introduce consciousness-raising, a tech- English Sentence Xhosa Sentence nique that focuses attention on correct gram- matical forms by highlighting or emphasizing I’m going to school. Ndiya esikolweni. them in some way. According to Ellis (1997), noticing a grammatical feature is a necessary I left it on your table. Ndayishiya etafileni yakho. and fundamental pre-condition for learn- ing it. Unlike formal grammar instruction, There is no money in your wallet. Akukho mali esipanjini sakho. consciousness-raising does not require the learner “to verbalize the rules he has learnt” Zola is coming from the river now. UZola usuka emlanjeni ngoku. (Ellis 1985, 244), but instead alerts learners to a particular grammatical feature. There will be visitors at my home Kuzakubakho indwendwe ekhaya In a review of research into consciousness- tomorrow. ngomso. raising, Sugiharto (2006) considered gram- Figure 1: Expressing prepositions in English and Xhosa matical features such as transitive and intran- sitive verbs, direct and indirect objects, and subject-verb agreement, but not prepositions. This again illustrates how distinct preposi- There is an apparent need for consciousness- tions are from one language to the next and raising activities for prepositions, and this underscores the need for a successful method article will describe how I used the technique to teach them. to promote correct usage of English preposi- The ACE instructional context tions in an Advanced Certificate in Education (ACE) course for secondary school ESL teach- Given the limited reading resources in ers in South Africa. many rural Eastern Cape homes and schools (Nelson Mandela Foundation 2005), learners English and Xhosa prepositions depend heavily on their teachers as a direct Although English is taught as a second source of English and successful teaching language in most South African schools, it approaches. However, in spite of a new cur- is in fact more of a foreign language in most riculum introduced in 1998 (Department rural areas (Setati et al. 2002). Xhosa is the of Education of South Africa 1997a, 1997b, overwhelmingly dominant home language in 1997c, and 2002), teachers continue to strug- the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, gle with low levels of conceptual knowledge spoken by 83.4 percent of the population, in their subjects (Fleisch 2008). Accordingly, while English trails far behind as the home a two-year teacher education course like the language of only 3.6 percent (Statistics South ACE addresses the dual challenge of develop- Africa 2003). Since my current ACE course ing language teachers’ pedagogical skills as participants are mainly Xhosa-speaking ESL well as their language proficiency. Therefore, teachers from rural districts in the Eastern teacher-trainees learn the what—the core lan- Cape, it is imperative that they provide an guage skills of listening, speaking, reading, accurate, proficient model of spoken and writ- writing, and grammar and related aspects of ten English for their students. linguistic theory such as genre and critical Predictably, Xhosa speakers find that their language awareness, and the how—practical native language offers little direct insight on and procedural classroom teaching methodol- how to use English prepositions correctly. ogy, including sequence and pacing of lessons Unlike English, which has a large number of and an understanding of learning theory and individual prepositions, Xhosa has no prepo- assessment. sitions as separate words. Xhosa instead uses The ACE course follows the participa- locatives and formatives, which are prefixes and tory, interactive, learner-centered approach suffixes that convey meaning and are attached that the trainees will use with their own to nouns (Zotwana 1994). For example, students. Nevertheless, as with many schools Figure 1 illustrates how five English preposi- worldwide, we have to deal with inadequate tions are expressed with the Xhosa prefix (e–) materials and resources. For example, while a and suffix (–ni). (Thanks to my colleague, high-level grammar textbook like Quirk et al. Deyi Mbelani, for his help with these Xhosa (1985) devotes a reasonable number of pages examples.) (61 out of 1779) to discussing prepositions, E n g l i s h T E a c h i n g F o r u m | N u m b e r 2 2 0 1 0 25 three South African high school textbooks teacher is provided with a copy of a grammar currently in use mention prepositions only resource such as Collins Cobuild Intermedi- as one of the parts of speech (Angelil-Carter, ate English Grammar. In addition, teachers Bangeni, and Garwen 2006; Angelil-Carter et use additional Internet resources such as the al. 2005) or as constituents of phrasal verbs following to explore grammar explanations, (Grant et al. 2005). The fill-in-the-missing- examples, and exercises, including the use of preposition exercises that were common in prepositions: earlier years are absent. However, since prepo- • http://grammartips.homestead.com/ sitions are so indispensable to communica- index.html tion, and their misuse often distorts mean- • www.chompchomp.com/menu.htm ing, the requirement for correct prepositional usage is essential, especially when writing or A consciousness-raising task for speaking in academic contexts or describing prepositions abstract relations in more formal contexts. Despite a broad focus on grammar, the Fortunately, teachers can draw on alterna- ACE course initially treated prepositions tive resources and methods to teach preposi- with benign neglect. Only minimal corrective tions and other grammatical components feedback was provided when students made of English. In order to develop the train- preposition errors in their oral presentations ees’ grammatical knowledge, the ACE course and written assignments, and prepositions bases instruction on Grammatical Knowl- were not a focus of follow-up work. How- edge for Teachers (Department for Children, ever, the number and range of preposition Schools and Families 2010), which can be errors in an essay about teachers’ professional found online. Drawing on the genre approach responsibilities alerted me to the need for a (Martin 1989; Gibbons 2002), the course consciousness-raising task. To gather material links grammar to extensive writing and explic- for the task, I reviewed student-teacher essays itly teaches the structure of various genres on the topic of professional responsibility and essential to school literacy, including explana- identified 14 sentences that contained prepo- tion, procedure, report, and argument. Each sition errors, which are listed in Figure 2. 1. As a role model I refrain to any misconduct. 2. I will make sure that they are transported by a roadworthy vehicle when we are in educa- tional excursions. 3. I must update parents with the well-being and progress of their children. 4. I am sure if we can focus to the policy, then learners can do the same. 5. I will expose learners more on reading and speaking. 6. Learners will know exactly what is expected on them. 7. I will form support groups with other teachers in order to make sure that we keep abreast with developments. 8. I commit myself in having a full understanding of the principles of the curriculum. 9. Teachers should convince the community that they believe and depend to them. 10. This will result to everyone owning the code of conduct. 11. I promise never to bring my profession under disrepute. 12. Our department is very lenient to teachers who misbehave. 13. I will try to discuss the issue informally at a person-to-person basis. 14. Some teachers are not familiar to the curriculum.