This second phase sought to determine the kind of vocabulary that current third graders were exposed with high frequency through some of the most used forms of language input namely; Grade 3 reading material, teacher talk and classroom print. The 60 HFW were used as a benchmark against which the learners’ exposure to the requisite vocabulary for transitioning to Grade 4 was measured. In some cases, the 213 words from which the 60 HFW words were sampled were used as well. This was with a view to determining the potential preparedness of third graders to pick up requisite Grade 4 vocabulary from these ubiquitous sources of classroom language input. The same vocabulary was later compared against the demonstrated word knowledge of learners in Grade 4 from the tests results. Both qualitative and quantitative instruments were used to collect and analyse data in this study. These are briefly identified in the next section and elaborated in the subsequent section on the research procedure.
5.3.2.1 Data generation and analysis instruments
For the qualitative component of the present study, teacher interviews and classroom observations were employed. That the interviews and observations were qualitative did not preclude the quantification of some data as in identifying the number of vocabulary episodes noted in the observations or the number of teachers who made particular responses in the interviews.
The classroom observations included teacher practices and teacher talk. Systematic observation was used which targeted certain behaviours to achieve particular purpose,
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recording them systematically to promote validity. In documenting the vocabulary episodes (explained later in the research process) for instance, checklists were used to establish the presence or absence of particular episodes. The pre-determination of categories was based on the research questions and initial classroom observations during the piloting stage. Having categories prior to observations helped to keep the observations focused. At least a week of informal observations was made in each class before the systematic observations meant to generate data for the study were undertaken. These preliminary observations helped the teacher and the learners to get used to the researcher and allow them to be themselves during the actual observation process. It also helped the researcher to refine the categories for the observations. Field notes were quite useful in this process of recording classroom dynamics with a view to determining what aspects merited inclusion in the observation categories and how best they could be captured. In this way the informal observations paved the way for the more structured or systematic observations. The observation component on the potential effects of teacher talk on the vocabulary acquisition of learners yielded data with significant quantification.
Semi-structured interviews were used to capture the teachers’ beliefs, assumptions and pedagogical choices related to the vocabulary development of the learners. These involved a partial preplanning of the interview questions but leaving room for the emergence of other questions from the context. Although they were less controlled than structured interviews, semi structured interviews allowed for a replication of the interview with all the respondents in this study. This enabled comparisons across different participants. The measure of standardisation of items also enhanced the reliability of the instrument.
The quantitative component of the study was largely in the vocabulary tests which were analysed statistically. A description of the process is given in the next section. There was also the Computer-based text analysis which was applied in teacher talk quantification, in analysing classroom print as well as reading materials.
The analysis of qualitative data was largely thematic. Data was coded to allow for its categorisation so that emerging themes could become apparent (Braun & Clarke, 2006). For interviews, rather than analyse the data for individual participants, cross-case analysis was used in this study. In all the interpretation and drawing of inferences, the quantitative component was manifest even for the largely qualitative methodologies. The use made of the
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instruments in the present study is made manifest in the research procedure followed in this phase and the next phase of the study.
5.3.2.2 Research Procedure and Analysis
The research process followed in investigating the contribution of the classroom sources of language input to the English vocabulary development of learners in the FAL classroom is discussed in this section. These are the Grade 3 reading material, teacher classroom talk and classroom print. How the data were analysed for each of these is also discussed in this section.
Grade 3 Reading material
The most prevalent reading material in the classes participating in the present study was the workbook. In South Africa, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) distributes workbooks to all schools at national level and these become a major source of language input. From my participation in the administration of a contextual profiling questionnaire to more than 20 schools within the large research project of which this study was part, two things were apparent. First, that the workbooks were the kind of reading material that one would find in all schools, and second, that teachers relied heavily on them. The Grade 3 workbooks considered were the two English FAL 2012 workbooks covering the four terms. These were converted to txt format for the generation of their HFW. The workbooks were complemented by the Big books in 6 of the 8 classrooms.
Not all the schools had Big books because they were not given to schools by the Department of Education but were purchased by the individual schools. Each of the 6 schools had at least two Big books but all the Big books in all the schools added up to only five different titles. The five Big books used in the 6 participating classrooms were typed out. They were then converted into the plain texts (txt) format for HFW generation. Four readers for group guided reading common to most of the schools under study were also converted to txt format for word frequency generation. The txt format files for the DBE workbooks, Big books, and readers were combined and their HFW generated using the same AntConc 3.2.4 software used for the generation of HFW from Grade 4 textbooks. This yielded an initial 1192 word types and 6467 word tokens. A similar process of elimination of certain words as for the Grade 4 textbooks’ word frequency list was followed. Particular inflected forms were also combined with their base forms as one word in accordance with the present study’s
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conceptualisation of word. Their new frequencies were computed and their new positions on the frequency list determined. The resultant frequency list represented the words that the third grade learners had the greatest exposure to from their reading materials.
The analysis of this data took two forms. First, the two HFW lists (Grade 3 and Grade 4) were compared on the first 300 most frequent words with words in one list but missing in the other list being especially highlighted. Words frequent in the Grade 4 list but not in the Grade 3 list represented vocabulary learners were less likely to pick up. Words which existed in both lists represented greater likelihood of learners picking them up from the reading materials. The second thing done with the list was deliberately focusing on the 60 words tested on the learners to determine both their presence and frequency on the Grade 3 list even beyond the 300 word list. Each word was identified in terms of the level at which it was on the frequency list in 100 word intervals. An example would be saying a word was on the 5th second 100 most frequent words bracket. This gave an indication of the likelihood of each word being acquired by end of Grade 3. The words the teacher used in their classroom talk and how they used them would also contribute to the determination of the extent to which learners could be expected to acquire the requisite vocabulary for Grade 4 reading by the end of Grade 3.
Teacher-talk
Teacher talk is an important source of language input and in contexts where reading material and environmental print are scarce or unavailable, it can represent the only source of English language input for some learners. Research indicates that teacher-talk constitutes 70% of classroom time (Cook, 2000) which makes it a vital source of classroom input. The estimate that a word should be heard at least 30 times to be part of a learner’s lexicon (Horst, 2010) testifies to teacher-talk being an important source of vocabulary input for learners. Because teacher-talk is directed towards comprehensibility of input, it is deliberate, conscious talk. As such, it is expected that in such talk, basic key lexical and symbolic features must be deliberately and carefully selected and simplified. It is talk where repetition of key ideas and lexical items should abound (Ellis, 1995). Setati and Adler (2000, p. 255) observe that “…in rural schools, where there is very limited English infrastructure in the surrounding community for teachers to build on in school, exposure to English is via the teacher. This puts pressure on teachers to use English as much as possible.” This underscores the value of teacher-talk for second language learning which necessitated its analysis in this study.
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To capture the teacher talk, permission was granted by the teachers to video-record three lessons. Three samples of teacher talk from three video-recorded lessons constituted teacher- talk data for each of the ten teachers in the study. In most of the classrooms, more than three video-recordings were made per teacher. In such cases, only the last three were used. The observation was that the first videos were more of a distraction to the learners’ attention than the subsequent ones. The three selected videos were then transcribed verbatim. Exception was made to teacher-talk which was not directed at the learners, as in a teacher saying something to the researcher or to a colleague who had come into the classroom or any such disturbance. This was because learners were not obliged to listen to such talk as it was not directed towards them. Digressions and informal talk like the teacher cracking a joke with the learners was considered as it was directed towards learners.
Qualitative analysis of teacher talk was made in the identification of factors which enabled or constrained the use of more vocabulary in the teacher talk. Teachers’ modeling of the language was also considered. That modeling was considered in relation to the suitability of the teacher’s vocabulary level in her talk (all the teachers were female) in relation to learners’ capabilities. There was need for balance in providing vocabulary that would extend learners’ own without compromising their understanding of what the teacher communicated. The modeling was also in terms of teacher-talk being free from errors and confusing digressions. For the quantitative dimension, the concordance was used to quantify the amount of vocabulary used by the different teachers. The transcribed samples of teacher talk were then divided into 5 minute intervals for each teacher’s three lessons. Using the AntConc word frequency counter, the frequency with which the words appeared within the intervals was generated.
Attention was especially placed on the 60 HFW tested on the learners to see how well they were represented in the 5 minute intervals of a teacher’s lessons. Because these were HFW, the expectation was that they would recur in samples of teacher talk irrespective of the content of the lesson. The segmenting of text into 5 minute intervals was meant to avoid the misleading impression that some words were sufficiently recycled in the lessons when they were confined to just a 5 minute section of the lesson. A word appearing 20 times in two 5 minute segments of a lesson and not appearing even once thereafter in the three lessons would have less chance of being acquired than one which appears once or twice in every 5
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minute interval across the three lessons even with a total frequency of 12. Words appearing at regular intervals would have greater chances of being known than those which appeared infrequently and at irregular intervals. Both frequency and range across the lesson segments were important considerations in determining the kind of vocabulary that learners were most likely to pick up from teacher talk.
After considering the occurrence of the 60 words across the three lessons’ 5 minute chunks, words not part of the 60 HFW which found expression generally across all or three quarters of the 5 minute segments of all lessons were noted. These were compared with the list of the 212 HFW from which the 60 were derived. Those which were part of the 213 but not of the 60 would equally be representative of words at the intersection between teacher talk and learner vocabulary needs. Those words prevalent across the generality of lesson segments which were neither part of the 60 or the 213 would be indicative of teacher talk’s capacity to develop learner vocabulary beyond just the basic vocabulary requirements of the learners. Where no words were consistently and sufficiently recycled across lesson segments, the teacher’s classroom talk was considered as not contributing to meeting learners’ vocabulary needs in a significant way. The contribution of classroom print to vocabulary acquisition was also investigated seeing that it was an important source of classroom input.
Classroom print
Classroom print comprised mainly wall charts, mobiles, and learning centres. The print was video recorded and transcribed. With the classroom print the words in the 60 HFW group and the 213 HFW groups were identified and the frequency of their occurrence determined. This would be indicative of the kind of vocabulary that learners were likely to pick up from the print. During the classroom observations, opportunities that the teacher took to draw attention to the classroom print were noted. The presence of classroom print was one thing but the use made of it was another, which the present study was equally concerned with. The relevance of the kinds of classroom print for the Grade 3 learners was also investigated particularly for commercially produced materials. This was in order to determine whether teachers were not displaying print that they had gained access to without due consideration to its relevance to the learners. Even the condition of the print offered insights on whether learners could still be motivated to read the print. Dirty, torn and faded charts would cease to draw learners’ attention.
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Lesson observations also constituted an important source of data for the present study which provided insight into the potential preparedness of Grade 3 learners for Grade 4 vocabulary needs. Observations were made in all the English FAL classes in each of the 10 participating classes for two week periods. The first week was set for informal observations and the second week was meant for the actual observations. The researcher assumed the role of an unobtrusive non-participant observer. The same three lessons video recorded from each class, which constituted teacher talk data, constituted the observation data samples and were archived for substantiating and revisiting findings. Within each of the recorded lessons, vocabulary instruction episodes were captured through field notes whenever they occurred. Wright (2012, p. 353) defines an episode of vocabulary instruction as “…an interaction in which the teacher discussed the meaning of a word with students at any point throughout the observation period.”
For the observation analysis, the instances and nature of the vocabulary instruction episodes were identified. These included word definitions, rephrasings meant to bring word clarity, provision of synonyms or antonyms to clarify word meanings, exemplification to provide word meaning as well as translation into the learner’s L1. The number and kinds of vocabulary instruction episodes were a key concern in the observations.
Strategies used by the teacher to bring about comprehension when learners seemingly did not understand some utterances were also explored. These were explored both by way of observing teachers’ classroom practice as well as by way of asking them through interviews, which were also an important part of the present study.
5.3.2.3 Teacher Interviews
Teacher interviews were conducted to determine their beliefs, assumptions and pedagogical choices. Kuzborska (2011, p. 103) acknowledges the profound effect teachers’ theoretical beliefs have on their instructional practices by noting that “[T]eachers’ beliefs influence their goals, procedures, materials, classroom interaction patterns, their roles, their students….” Teacher interviews were, therefore, conducted with the ten Grade 3 teachers whose classes participated in the study.
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A semi-structured interview guide was used which allowed for set questions but flexibility in the interview process. The interview guide covered vocabulary related aspects on the nature and period of learners’ initial exposure to the English language, their preference between contextualised and decontextualized vocabulary instruction, the source of vocabulary they teach, how they determine word novelty, the aspects of word knowledge they privilege, and the aspects of word knowledge learners struggle with and are at ease with, adequacy of material and time provisions, learner competences, the role of the world outside the classroom in vocabulary development, their perceived learner readiness for transition to Grade 4 by year end, the rate of exposure and acquisition of new vocabulary in the English FAL classroom, strategies employed and attendant challenges, among others. The interviews were video-recorded and transcribed. Classroom observation and interview data were then analysed thematically. The teacher interview data provided the theoretical beliefs and perspectives on assumptions, pedagogical choices and pedagogical practices related to vocabulary development. Classroom observations provided the actual pedagogical decisions and practices made in the classroom setting.
The manifest preparedness or lack of preparedness for the vocabulary demands of Grade 4 texts from the sources of classroom input needed to be compared with the learners’ demonstrable knowledge of the HFW employed extensively in the Grade 4 textbooks. The last phase of the research process therefore, focused on the administration of tests to the learners in Grade 4.