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Classroom observation results (Experimental schools 1)
In the first classroom observation results, the teacher was teaching Unit 16 the title of which was Elisa and Kitty (Appendix 10 a) from the book (Chilora et al. 1994) Activities with English: A course for primary schools.
In the introduction the teacher activated learners’ prior knowledge by asking pupils if they kept animals at home and the reasons why they kept the animals. He started to teach from what pupils knew and broadened pupils’ experiences. (For example the issue about chickens being birds and not animals; and for those that have cats at home asking them what they do with their cats). (For details of the lesson see Appendix 11). The teacher aroused pupils’ interest and curiosity by asking them what they thought the story was about. During reading pupils would have been interested to find out whether their prediction was confirmed or not. This was one way of engaging pupils in the topic and to find out what they already knew. Activating knowledge about a topic is important especially for second language learners. It can help learners to focus on features of the text that can be handy in building a scaffold for what learners will read in a text.
The teacher proceeded to discussing the title and illustration of the story. He used the illustration to get pupils to predict what the content of the story would be about. Here again by asking pupils to predict the teacher was getting pupils to think and helping pupils to develop one of the effective strategies for reading comprehension. There was also some discussion of new vocabulary that pupils met in the story for instance when pupils were asked to identify the items in the illustration such as a bench (and not a chair), a girl, and a cat. The teacher activated and built pupils’ background knowledge through the use of such pre-reading activities. Class discussions held around illustrations, and title of the story might have helped pupils to have a framework for understanding the text. They could confirm or not confirm their predictions.
The teacher taught learners the scanning skill by asking pupils to put a finger on some words found in the text. Pupils were also asked to guess the meanings of words as they were used in the passage. It was observed that it was difficult for learners to guess the meanings of words as they were used in the text. There are two possible explanations for this. The first is that learners might not have had adequate vocabulary for them to express their ideas. The second is that it is possible that learners did not grasp the concept of context cues. In this step the teacher lost an opportunity in using realia for teaching vocabulary or explaining some. Although he indicated dolls in the teaching and learning material area of his lesson plan and actually brought a small doll to the class he forgot to match the written word and the actual doll in the presence of learners. The doll that he brought to the class was made of clay and not plastic as it is in the passage. An interview with the teacher after the lesson revealed that he did not use this doll for not wanting to confuse the pupils with the word plastic. He was not able to buy a plastic doll. There are no plastic dolls made within Malawi. The ones available in shops are imported and expensive for the majority of the people.
Classroom observation results (Experimental schools 2)
The teacher was teaching Unit 18 whose title was Birds (Appendix 10 b). The teacher started with pre-reading activities. He selected a picture of a bird which was a key idea in the story which was about to be read. Use of real objects in teaching meanings of new words can be effective because objects consist of their natural characteristics. It is easy for learners to understand the meaning of new words because there is a direct link between the meanings and the objects. In their research review Waxman and Tellez (2002) found that provision of multiple representations such as realia, pictures and graphic organisers were strategies that made classroom instruction meaningful for second language learners learning English.
The teacher and pupils held a discussion around the topic related to what pupils were to read. Here the teacher built pupils’ background information by activating relevant prior knowledge through the picture and asking questions about birds such as how many legs, eyes, and wings birds have, and where birds live. The teacher pre-taught words and concepts that would help learners to understand the story. He was bridging the gap between what pupils already knew and what they needed to know for them to read. One way of dealing with reading problems is for teachers to bridge the gap between what pupils know and what they will need to know for them to successfully read a text (Eskey 1997).
The teacher showed the class some real birds’ feathers and asked learners to say what it was. Some pupils said feethers (sic) while others said feathers. The teacher pronounced the word for the pupils and said feathers. He repeated pronouncing the word and asked pupils to say the word after him. He asked a volunteer to spell the word. He asked another learner to write the spelt word on the chalkboard for all learners to see how the word was spelt. He asked the learners to read the word from the chalkboard.
The teacher then showed learners a real bird’s nest, an insect, an egg and asked learners what they thought these things were. In teaching the vocabulary (concept) for these the teacher started with pronouncing the words, asking pupils to say after him, asking pupils to spell the word, to write the words on the chalkboard and to read the words from the chalk board. The teacher then flashed word cards with the words written on and asked the pupils to read the words: nest, insects, feathers, an egg, wings and beaks. The teacher and pupils discussed the words. The teacher once
more flashed word cards with the same words nest, insects, feathers, an egg, wings and beaks and asked learners to find each of the words in the passage.
CHAPTER 1 BACKGROUND
1.1 Introduction .
1.2 English language teaching / learning situation in Malawian primary schools .
1.2.1 Pupil/teacher ratio
1.2.2 Pupil/classroom ratio
1.2.3 Drop-out and repetition rates .
1.3 The formative years of English in Malawian primary schools .
1.3.1 Pre-school
1.3.2 Primary school .
1.4 Observable trends in literacy in English in Malawian primary schools
1.5 The need for literacy attainment in English
1.6 The problem
1.7 Aims of the study
1.8 Justification
1.9 Research questio
1.10 Significance of the study
1.11 Assumptions
CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.1 Definition of reading .
2.2 Theories of how children learn to read and write in English
2.2.1 Constructivist learning theories
2.2.2 Sociolinguistic learning theories
2.2.3 Reader response learning theorie
2.2.4 Interactive learning theories
2.2.5 Theoretical orientations that affect the teaching of reading and writing
2.3 Instructional approaches to the teaching of reading and writing .
2.3.1 The Phonic Approach
2.3.2 The Whole Language Approach .
2.3.3 The Balanced Approach
2.4 Research-based critical skills and effective approaches in teaching reading .
2.4.1 Instruction in phonics .
2.4.2 Instruction in phonemic awareness .
2.4.3 Instruction in fluency in reading .
2.4.4 Instruction in vocabulary
2.4.5 Instruction in comprehension .
CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY OF STUD
3.1 Overview of the study
3.2 Background to the study and its genesis .
3.3 Research methods used in studying reading and writing
3.3.1 Experimental research methods .
3.3.2 Quasi-experimental research methods .
3.3.3 Mixed research methods
3.4 Rationale for the research design .
3.5 Description and discussion of the research design
CHAPTER 4 RESULTS AND FINDINGS .
4.1 Introduction .
4.2 Summary of findings .
4.3 Teacher interview4
4.4 Nature of the balanced literacy approach in the Malawian classrooms
4.5 How to implement the balanced literacy approach in the Malawian classrooms .
4.6 Extent of teachers’ use of the balanced literacy approach
4.7 Possible problem areas in implementing the balanced literacy approach
4.8 Discussion of collected data
4.9 The impact of the balanced literacy approach .
4.10 The research results
CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
GET THE COMPLETE PROJECT
AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF THE BALANCED LITERACY APPROACH TO IMPROVE STANDARD FOUR PUPILS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN ENGLISH READING AND WRITING IN MALAWI
