CURRICULUM AND SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING.

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Stakeholders’ Expectations of Implementers

Parents, learners and other stakeholders expect teachers to turn things around and improve the state of education in South Africa. One way of turning things around will be to improve the standard of English teaching and learning because English proficiency is essential to learners’ educational needs and their chances of becoming successful in life. De Kadt’s (1993) study conducted in Durban, which sampled workers and students, indicated that English was seen as a job requirement and lingua franca, and that there was a link between English and education. PRAESA (Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa), an independent research unit attached to the University of Cape Town, also pointed out that most South Africans wanted to be taught in English because of the “obvious” economic and social benefits (PRAESA 2007 [online]).
The Department of Education has stipulated its own expectations of a South African teacher, too. Firstly, the Department of Education envisions teachers who are “qualified, competent, dedicated and caring” to implement NCS (Department of Education 2002a:3). Secondly, the Department has introduced seven roles of educators in the Norms and Standards for Educators.
Teachers are expected to be mediators of learning, interpreters and designers of learning programmes, researchers and lifelong learners, assessors and Learning Area specialists Department of Education 2002a:3). Indeed, “the role of the teacher as an agent of change has never been more obvious than today” Delors (1998:14).
What all the above expectations mean is that teaching has to be reshaped in order to meet the needs of learners, the government and other stakeholders. The question is: are there tools to meet these expectations? .As indicated earlier, NCS framework sets out clear learning outcomes to be demonstrated by the learners after being taught. The teacher’s role is to plan, design, teach, facilitate and assess. In addition, the teacher sets his/her own goals for teaching and learning; chooses experiences to be carried out by the learners, and looks for methods which will help learners achieve the learning outcomes. Teachers have to help learners attain all the learning outcomes in their first additional language so that the learners can communicate confidently, respond critically to issues, access and process information, and create and interpret texts (Department of Education 2002a).

NCS Classroom Practice: English First Additional Language (EFAL)

The adoption of the OBE curriculum has fundamental implications for the EFAL classroom. The relationship between the teacher and the learner is no longer that of “the knower/informer and information seeker,” but, “producer/ referee and actor /player” (Ellis 2007) [online]. Doll (1993) points out that in the teaching and learning relationship, learning is dominant because the learner is self-directed and participates actively in the learning and teaching process. This means that the learner is responsible for his/her own learning, and teachers should direct the learning process. This does not imply that the teacher’s work’ has become less, though. Teaching and learning a second language should be a challenge for NCS teachers. The teachers of EFAL should create “rich” linguistic environments to promote the development of English in their schools. Stubbs (1983:17) notes that schools and classrooms are pervasive language environments. Mercer (1996:140) states that classrooms create certain patterns of language use, which reflect the nature of learning and teaching.
In order to create language environments, young learners need to interact in their target language. Cummins (1984) identifies language proficiency skills, namely: interpersonal communicative skills and cognitive academic language proficiency. The former refers to everyday communication skills, which learners can acquire through interaction with others in the target language. The latter refers to cognitive academic language, which helps a learner cope with other school subjects. Haynes (2007) [online] points out that academic language acquisition includes comparing, classifying, synthesizing, evaluating and inferring skills.
Tabors (1997:81) adds, “Young children, then, certainly seem to understand that learning a second language is a cognitively challenging and time-consuming activity.” NCS enforces communicative language teaching (CTL) approach. Thompson (1996) cited in Alcon (2004:175) claims that (CTL) “is accepted as the dominant paradigm in language teaching.” In addition, Alcon (2004:176) states that CTL is valid to set the goals in language learning and that teachers should find different methodologies for specific educational contexts. The author’s research on CTL showed that factors such as input, task design and focus on form can facilitate second language acquisition.

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW
1.1 INTRODUCTION
1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT
1.3 RATIONALE
1.4 DEFINITION OF TERMS AND CONCEPTS
1.4.1 National Curriculum Statement (NCS).
1.4.2 Teaching and Learning
1.4.3 Outcomes Based Education (OBE) .
1.4.4 Critical and Developmental Outcomes .
1.4.5 Learning Outcomes
1.4.6 Assessment Standards.
1.4.7 Assessment
1.4.8 Constructivism
1.4.9 Curriculum Model
1.4.10 Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)
1.4.11 Language Proficiency
1.4.12 Learning Area
1.4.13 Post modernism curriculum
1.5 METHODOLOGY
1.6 SAMPLING
1.7 DATA COLLECTION
1.7.1 Observation
1.7.2 Documents
1.8 DATA ANALYSIS
1.8.1 Documents .
CHAPTER TWO: CURRICULUM AND SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING.
2.1 INTRODUCTION
2.2 CURRICULUM DEFINITIONS
2.3 CURRICULUM MODELS
2.3.1 Objectives Model .
2.3.2 Process-inquiry Model .
2.3.3 Discover Model .
2.3.4 Glatthorn’s Naturalistic Model
2.3.5 OBE Model
2.4 SOUTH AFRICA’S NEW CURRICULUM
2.4.1 Background to Curriculum 2005
2.4.2 OBE C2005: The Vision
2.4.3 Implementation of OBE Curriculum in South Africa .
2.4.4 The Design of NCS Curriculum
2.4.5 Design Features of NCS English First Additional Language.
2.5 LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND LANGUAGE LEARNING
2.5.1 Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning
2.5.2 Theories on Language Acquisition
2.6 EDUCATIONISTS’ EXPERIENCES WITH LANGUAGE LEARNING
2.7 EFAL CURRICULUM DELIVERY
2.8 ASSESSMENT
2.9 CONCLUSION .
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 
3.1 INTRODUCTION
3.2 CHOOSING A RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
3.2.1 Positivism
3.2.2 Qualitative Approach
3.3 RESEARCH DESIGN: WHY THE CHOICE OF A QUALITATIVE CASE STUDY
RESEARCH METHOD
3.4 THE REJECTION OF A POSITIVIST PARADIGM .
3.5 PROCEDURES.
3.5.1 Sampling and Sample Participants
3.5.2 Data Collection Method.
3.5.3 Data Analysis
3.5.4 Credibility of the study
3.6 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS 
4.1 INTRODUCTION
4.2 ETHICAL PRINCIPLES
4.3 THE RESEARCHER’S ROLE
4.4 THE PROFILE OF THE GRADE 4 LEARNER
4.5 OBSERVATIONS
4.6 DOCUMENT ANALYSIS
4.7 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER FIVE: FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 
5.1 INTRODUCTION
5.2 SUMMARY OF RESEARCH
5.3 THE RESEARCH FINDINGS .
5.4 RECOMMENDATIONS
5.5 CONCLUDING REMARKS
REFERENCES

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ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS OF THE MOSHAWENG CIRCUIT IN THE NORTHERN CAPE