Teorías de la depresión

Some of the teacher participants also mentioned the ways in which they were involved in the teaching and learning activities with some strategies that are worth taking note of, such as: providing short exercises to increase the learners’ fluency in English. These short exercises included items like, correcting the spelling, and increasing the learners’ English vocabulary by defining keywords of the mathematical language.

I also ask them to correct the spelling of wrong words which I take from my dictionary. [S4T2]

We are always adding to our vocabulary, these children need all the help, at the back of their books I ask them to write the meanings of new words that we see in the questions like trends or mortality, so if they can go back to them in the year. [S3T2]

I know that my children are having problems with the language of English, everyday I give them about two or three words to bring the meaning in the next day. [S2T3]

It also included strategies such as: finding pictures or articles that relate to specific topics in mathematics.

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Let us collect pictures about percentages, where we would use it or where you have seen it being used. [S1T1]

I ask the learners to cut out from the newspaper, the articles with the different graphs and bring them to class. [S3T2]

Sometimes I say to the children, let us all think about words that we use to give direction or let us collect pictures about percentages, where we would use it or where you have seen it being used. [S2T3]

A particular teacher discussed the way in which she would take five minutes at the beginning of every lesson to talk about what the learners have read in the newspaper or heard on the news over the radio or television. This discussion would take place in English only and learners were encouraged to bring pictures of their articles to class with them. She highlighted that this has worked quite successfully and had recommended it to other colleagues.

My lesson starts off by asking learners to share what they watched in the television news or what they heard on the radio… or what they read in the newspaper…, some of them bring the articles to school, it takes only 5 minutes and the children tell their stories in English, it is good because it increases their thinking in English, I have given my ideas to people from the other school. [S4T2]

Another teacher participant added that he would design charts for his classroom that were bilingual. This strategy was voiced as follows:

I also make my charts in English and isiZulu, especially on the topic that they are having problems in, like percentages and taxation, these children use the work. [S5T3]

Some of the teacher participants highlighted a strategy that incorporates the use of visual stimulation that they used as a coping mechanism to increase the learners’ fluency in the English and mathematical language. These were their descriptions:

When questions in ML are too long like the ones in paper two, I replace or support the questions with diagrams and drawings. [S5T2]

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I like to use visual stimulation, so I tell learners that the word problem is like a story, create a picture in your mind or draw pictures and diagrams to understand it. [S4T2]

Two teacher participants from different schools have implemented the same strategy to increase the learners’ English fluency by creating a library corner in the class. They mentioned that they collected old books, newspapers and magazines in the language English to add to the library corner. These were their descriptions:

When I go shopping I am always taking those free magazines that they give and I collect old newspapers from my neighbours and friends. [S1T2]

I have created a library corner in my ML class, all my children use it, they read the books there. [S1T2]

I had the old books, even my university books are there. The children read it. [S2T2]

I ask children to bring any reading thing but I don’t think they have them. [S1T2]

Although the teacher participants did not use the term scaffolding in their responses, they did embrace the perceptions of scaffolding by highlighting the strategies described above. Scaffolding as described by Mercer (1995) refers to the support provided by the teacher such as words of instruction, worksheets, explanations, or other support material to enable a learner to accomplish their activities with success independently, at their level of proficiency.

The findings of the data in this study as the above categories tied in with this theme, classroom strategies and solutions, which were deduced from the literature. To summarize the theme, Setati (2005a) describes that for learners to successfully reason mathematically they need to communicate in their main languages; however, to meet their aspirations in the workplace, they need to learn the discourse of mathematics - the ways of talking about mathematics, listening to mathematics, acting in a mathematics class or in the community, interacting mathematically, believing, valuing and using mathematics. This development can only take place through the conscious guidance of the teacher, who is the mediator of learning and

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fosters the development of a community of practice in a classroom (Mercer & Littleton, 2007).

3. 4. Theme 4: Need for Support – Teachers’ views

The research questions for the teachers in the interview protocol that were used, which led to this unexpected theme, the need for support, were:

 How do you feel using English as a medium of instruction and for assessment in your mathematical literacy classroom? From the response - probe further to ascertain specific reasons and further question the acceptance and advantages of English as a LoLT.

 Do you provide learners with opportunities (lesson strategies) to talk (exchange ideas), discuss, argue and engage in conversation when you teach? How do you do this during your lesson?

Instead of the teacher participants answering the interview question directly, their responses reflected new emergent categories that highlighted their need for support. The categories below that were identified from the data, speak to this theme.