Abstract:
Education in South Africa has experienced many changes since the dawn of democracy in 1994. The demographic composition of schools has changed dramatically as urbanisation has increased and the movement of people is no longer regulated by Apartheid laws. Classrooms now are multi-lingual and multi-cultural with learners from diverse socio-economic backgrounds. Many senior teachers at Ditlou Primary School started their teaching careers more than 20 years ago and were trained to work within an almost homogeneous school context, using their mother tongue - Afrikaans - exclusively as the medium of instruction. They are now required to teach in English. The purpose of this intrinsic case study was to describe the communicative dispositions of Afrikaans-speaking Foundation Phase teachers and to establish how the changing linguistic context of Ditlou Primary School may have influenced their communicative dispositions when teaching. This qualitative study is theoretically underpinned by McCroskey’s Model of Instructional Communication (2004) as a theoretical framework and used interpretivism as an epistemological paradigm. Data were collected through extensive field work. The instrumentation included a language-biography questionnaire, semi-structured and group interviews and a participant journal. The data collected were pooled categorised and coded (deductive and inductive). Although unique to each teacher-participant, key findings suggests that a generic communicative disposition could be sketched for Afrikaans-speaking Foundation Phase teachers at the research site. The teacher-participants agreed that they spoke at a much slower pace and that their voice pitch was higher than when they taught in their mother tongue. The volume of their speech also differed when using English for instructional purposes. Their oral proficiency in the language of teaching and learning could be considered sufficient. In terms of non-verbal communicative aspects, the layout of all classrooms was strictly traditional and authoritarian ensuring learner eye-contact constantly. Yet despite strict discipline, teachers prioritised the emotional well-being of their learners by displaying positive haptic and kinaesthetic behaviour. The influence of personality or temperament on their communicative disposition cannot be negated and is directly linked to their habitual behavioural patterns and unique traits exhibited in their classroom communication. The changed linguistic context primarily influenced the teacher-participants communicative dispositions by necessitating a switch to English as the medium of instruction - a language which is neither theirs nor the learners’ home language. Teaching multi-cultural and multi-lingual learners also had a direct bearing on how the teacher-participants communicative dispositions changed although this was self-reported and would need further investigation. Further recommendations emanating from this study include providing a framework to prepare pre-service teachers to teach in a non-native language and to help them develop effective communicative dispositions for the classroom.
