Multilingualism and sociocultural factors prevalent in rural language classrooms

Abstract

This study aimed to identify multilingual and sociocultural factors prevalent in rural English language classrooms. The New Literacies Studies theory was the theoretical underpinnings of this study and an interpretative phenomenological paradigm was also used. Qualitative research methodology informed the secondary data analysis that was part of this study. Secondary data from a rural high school based in Mpumalanga, which was part of the Quality Talk South Africa (QTSA) study conducted by the University of Pretoria in collaboration with Pennsylvania State University and the Centre for the Study of Resilience (CSR), was utilised for this study. The data sources used were videos, voice recordings and pictures of learners’ classwork books. Various themes and subthemes emerged from the secondary data during the inductive thematic analysis process using Quality Talk Model indicators as a guideline, with a limited focus on multilingual and sociocultural factors. The emerging themes included language use during lessons (learner proficiency and dialogical space), Influence of culture (cultural worldview and cultural communication) and context of learning (infrastructure, lack of resources and lack of visual aids on walls). The findings indicate that multilingual learners need to develop proficiency in all the languages they speak. Teachers need to ensure that the content of their lessons are contextually relevant to the lives of the learners. In addition, teachers should encourage the use of multiple languages by the learners to make lessons more meaningful and strengthen learners’ language repertoires. Therefore, teachers have to use various teaching strategies such as repeating learners’ answers, code-switching and cold calling. Social indicators included old infrastructure and lack of physical resources, while cultural indicators comprised collectivism, accountability, cultural communication and self-regulation.