Abstract
Language is one of the important factors that influence effective learning and teaching, which includes Natural Sciences learning and teaching. For effective learning and teaching to occur, teachers and learners need to understand and speak the language in which learning and teaching is conducted. Despite South Africa being a multilingual nation, English is the language of learning and teaching (LOLT) in most schools even though it is a second or even third language for most teachers and learners, particularly in township schools. For teachers to explain concepts to learners in a meaningful way, they need to be proficient in the LOLT, which is not the case for some of the teachers who are English second-language speakers. The situation is compounded in Natural Sciences because the subject is considered to be a language on its own due to its academic and technical nature. Consequently, the current study sought to determine the needs of Senior Phase Natural Sciences teachers, with English as a second language, regarding their Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP). CALP refers to the ability to perform cognitively demanding tasks and one’s ability to understand, read, write, and express oneself clearly in a language specific to academics. The study followed a convergent parallel mixed-method research design as an approach whereby the researcher concurrently conducts qualitative and quantitative research in the same phase of the research procedure; the researcher analyses the data independently and interprets the data collected to make conclusions. Fifty Grade 8 and 9 in-service Natural Sciences teachers were randomly selected. Whereas 50 Natural Sciences pre-service teachers, who were enrolled for a Bachelor of Education in a South African university, were purposively selected as participants in the study. Questionnaires were administered to all 50 in-service and 50 pre-service teachers through Google Forms to answer the research question: What are the Senior Phase English second language Natural Sciences in-service and pre-service teachers' needs regarding their Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency? Quantitative data was collected through questionnaires while qualitative data was collected through semi-structured interviews and lesson observations. The questionnaire was designed by the researcher. Six of the in-service teacher participants were selected for the collection of qualitative data through interviews and lesson observations whilst six pre-service teachers were selected for interviews. A semi-structured interview schedule was used to establish teachers’ perceived CALP needs when teaching Natural Sciences. Lesson observations were made to identify Senior Phase English second language Natural Sciences in-service teachers’ actual needs regarding their CALP when teaching Natural Sciences to Grade 8 and 9 learners. The Classroom language assessment schedule (ClasS) was used to assess and identify the teachers’ actual CALP needs. The quantitative data was analysed through SPSS version 26 and qualitative data was analysed through the constant comparative method.
In answer to the first question, namely, determining the Senior Phase English second language Natural Sciences teachers’ perceived CALP needs when teaching Natural Sciences, the findings showed that the teachers were challenged with the use of English, which is their second language, to teach Natural Sciences. The teachers particularly struggled with pronouncing, spelling, understanding, and explaining Natural Sciences concepts in English. This indicates a lack in the teachers' CALP.