Most teachers feel confident when they are teaching in the language they know well. In the context where the teacher and learners do not have a good command of the language of instruction, there needs to be other strategies to supplement language in order to mediate learning. Researchers (Rubagumya, 1990; Macdonald & Burroughs, 1991; Mchazime, 2001; Bunyi, 2005; Shohamy, 2006) have shown that poor classroom atmosphere, expressed in the pupils’ pervasive silence and poor classroom performance in most African rural schools, can be due to the lack of the language on the part of learners and lack of teaching strategies by the educators. Examples of the prevailing teaching strategies used to remedy the classroom challenges due to the limited proficiency in English are ‘safe-talk’, ‘label quests’, and ‘code- switching (CS)’. Each of them is briefly discussed below.
Safe talk
Safe talk is a term coined by Keith Chick at the University of Natal in 1980s. It was defined as ‘classroom talk that allows participation without any risk of loss of face for the teacher and the learners and maintains an appearance of ‘doing the lesson’, while in fact little learning is actually taking place’ (Heller and Martin, 2001, p.13). This means that safe talk is a classroom practice in which the teacher and learners attempt to preserve their dignity by hiding the fact that little or no learning is taking place. Teachers who often have problems of the language of instruction or content knowledge use safe talk as a strategy to hide their lack of fluency in the language of teaching, or their failure to explain, or when they want to cover the syllabus.
The main practice in safe talk is to encourage learners to repeat what the teacher has said, and copy what s/he writes on the chalkboard. This teaching strategy does not develop learners’ abilities to express their ideas or ask questions freely. In most instances where the pupils repeat the right answer in chorus, the teacher proceeds without checking whether every pupil understands what they repeated in chorus (Brock-Utne, 2005).
Label quests
Label quests, originally coined by Heath (1986), are interactional sequences in which teachers elicit vocabulary learning by asking learners to name something, and if they fail to do so, the teachers provide the answer and make learners repeat it. According to Bonacina- Pugh (2013), label quests are practiced by showing, naming, and repeating. Consider the following example:
Teacher: what is this? Learner: a pen
Teacher: a pen (Bonacina-Pugh, 2013, p. 143)
This is a typical example of label quests used to teach vocabulary items. In a bilingual or multilingual context, label quests provide learners with opportunities to juxtapose the MT and the MoI in order to understand the meaning in the language of instruction. The following extract illustrates bilingual label quests:
Teacher: ça s’ appelle comment/6 what is it called/
Alexia: ah! (.) es una historieta! <Spanish> ah! (.) it’s a cartoon!
Micaela: que (.) comme (.) il parle- that (.) like (.) that speaks-
Brianna : en anglais on dit comics<English> in English we say comics
Teacher : Voilà (.) exactement (.) exactement (.) en anglais on dit/ There you go (.) exactly (.) exactly (.) in English you say/ Brianna: comics<English>
comics
Teacher: comics<English> (.) et en japonais/ Sheido/ (.) en japonais/ comics (.) and in Japanese/ (.) Sheido/ (.) in Japanese/ Sheido: manga<Japanese>
cartoon (Bonacina, 2009, p.18).
From the above example, and as shown by a number of researchers (Ndayipfukamiye, 1993; Arthur, 1996; Martin, 1999 in Bonacina-Pugh, 2013), label quests are common practices in teaching and learning vocabulary in primary school classrooms. They are used to check the pupils’ comprehension, and help them to negotiate meaning.
Code-switching
CS is generally understood as the alternation of two or more languages in a speaker’s speech at the word, phrase or clause, sentence, and discourse (or paragraph) level (Myers-Scotton, 1993; Kamwangamalu, 1994; Moodley & Kamwangamalu, 2004; Moodley, 2013). It is a practice commonly used by almost all bilinguals and multilinguals in various communication settings, including written CS through digital technologies (e.g. telephone short messages, chats on Facebook or Twitter), and oral CS in the language classroom (Moodley, 2013), or in the bilinguals’ every day communication.
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In the context of education, CS plays an important role for content learning. CS is a strategy that teachers use in the classrooms when they switch to another language that learners know well in order to help them understand what has been said in the language of instruction that learners do not understand well. For instance, if the language of teaching and learning is English, when the pupils do not understand the teacher’s sentence, s/he switches to the pupils’ MT (e.g. Kiswahili, isiZulu, Kinyarwanda) conveying the same information. CS can be intrasentential and intersentential (Myers-Scotton, 1993; Moodley, 2003). Intrasentential CS refers to alternating different languages within the same sentence, phrase, or sentence fragment as in ‘Umwami yayoboraga Kingdom, ubu dufite Republic’ (The King was leading the Kingdoom, but now we have a Republic) (Extract 7). Intersentential CS refers to alternating languages in a way that the nodes under the same sentence are made of morphemes from the same language, as in ‘It is the same as damaged goods. Ibicuruzwa bishobora kwangirika vuba’(Goods which can be damaged quickly) (Extract 1). This study deals with both intrasentential and intersentential CS.
Research (Lin, 2013; Moodley, 2013; Moodley & Kamwangamalu, 2002; Kamwangamalu, 1994; Myers-Scotton, 1993) presents language alternation in various ways. Historically, intrasentential switching has been referred to as code-mixing, i.e. the use of two or more languages within a meaning unit, for instance a word or sentence. The switch from one language to another between sentences has been called CS. This type of language alternation has also been referred to as code translation when similar meaning unit is repeated in another language. Another kind of language alternation is code borrowing, which means a borrowing of vocabulary from one language to another.
CS studies have shown that in contexts where two languages are being used, one can surpass the other in terms of quantity of words. Myers-Scotton (1993) developed the Matrix Language Frame Model (MLFM), demonstrating that it is language competition that occurs in bilingual or multilingual speakers. In this model, on one hand, the less the quantity of a language, the more likely it is to be the weaker language, and this is referred to as Embedded Language (EL). On the other hand, the greater the quantity of language forms used, the more likely it is to be the speaker's dominant language or the Matrix Language (ML). In order to examine the impact of CS in learning in English as the MoI in primary school in Rwanda, the present study uses the MLFM to identify the ML and the EL from the corpus of data.
Previous studies such as Moodley (2003) and Moodley and Kamwangamalu (2004) have identified the different functions of CS as follows: (1) CS as reiterative, i.e. when the speaker repeats an utterance literally, or in a modified form using another code from the previous; (2) CS for explanation purposes, i.e. when a speaker switches to another language to provide explanations of a term, an idea, concept, or content information; (3) CS to provide content information or new information, i.e. when the speaker uses a different code to provide information given in another language; (4) CS for elaboration when switching to another language aims at embellishing or expanding what has been said in another code; (5) CS for classroom management and influencing learner behaviour, i.e. when the teacher switches to another language in order to maintain the learners’ discipline and elicit some behavioural responses from them; (6) CS as a phatic function, i.e. language alternation accompanied by para-verbal expressions such as pitch of the voice in order to maintain order in the classroom or achieve any other effect. These functions of CS are relevant to the present study in examining the strategies that teachers and learners use in Rwandan primary schools.
CS has been found to be a normal and natural phenomenon when teaching in multilingual settings, a resource that teachers use to explain, elaborate, and manage the classroom (Moore, 2002; Moodley & Kamwangamalu, 2004; Abad, 2005; Moodley, 2003, 2007, 2010;) instead of being a hindrance to learning, as some researchers such as Canale and Swain (1980) and Tarone and Swain (1995) reported. CS is regarded as a resource when it is used strategically, i.e. when the use of the MT does not impede the learning process or prevent learners from getting familiar with the language of instruction. This means that, if the teacher uses the learners’ MT frequently in the lessons, learners will become dependent on the native language and fail to practise English in their lessons. In this case, the MLFM plays a crucial role to determine the strategic use of CS.
The above teaching strategies that teachers adopt as a solution to language problems (safe talk, label quests, and CS) inform the present study in the context where most teachers used to French or Kinyarwanda teach in English, the language they have been less exposed to.
2.4 Conclusion
This chapter has dealt with the theories and literature underpinning this study. The Vygotskian sociocultural perspective on learning and educational taxonomies were selected to guide this study. The sociocultural theory focused on the language as a primary tool of mediation and scaffolding of knowledge. Other emphasis was placed on the social nature of learning, and issues related to interaction, collaboration, the ZPD, and MKO were discussed. The educational taxonomies were chosen as a lens used to understand the teachers’ pedagogic practices utilised in the context of teaching through English as a foreign language in Rwanda. A body of literature on attitudes was selected to help understand the concept and show how attitudes influence behaviour and play a crucial role in the language-in-education policies and practices. An exploration of the MoI focused on the increasing use of English in education, and showed how the spread of English due to globalisation influences the choice of English as the MoI around the world, particularly in the post-colonial nations. The challenges posed by English as the MoI and strategies prevailing in the English-medium classes in Africa, mainly CS, were discussed, and it was shown that the basis of the classroom challenges and CS as a classroom strategy when English is used as MoI is lack of language proficiency. It was suggested that both BICS and CALP are necessary for efficient use of English as the MoI in Rwanda. This theoretical discussion was done to enable the reader to understand the analysis of the data on attitudes of educators and learners towards English, the challenges encountered in the classroom, and strategies used to cope with English as the MoI at four primary schools in Rwanda. The methodology used to deal with the present study follows.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH DESIGN AND PROCEDURES FOR COLLECTING AND ANALYSING DATA
3.1 Introduction
This chapter discusses how the research was conducted. Firstly, it begins with an explanation of the research design, i.e., the mixed methods approach of inquiry used to find answers to the research questions of this study, and provides justification of the choice of this research design. Secondly, it describes the research setting, participants, and the choice of SS as the content subject for the study. Thirdly, it discusses the data collection process and tools for each phase, i.e. the quantitative phase by means of a questionnaire, and qualitative phase by means of classroom observations, audio-recording of lessons, and interviews. Fourthly, the chapter describes various methods employed to analyse data obtained from both the quantitative and qualitative phases, and shows how both types of data were integrated. Finally, a discussion of ethical considerations is presented.