The arts as a pedagogic medium can be an important tool for language learning, and yet many teachers avoid it, often because of a lack of confidence. The main purpose of this study was to explore the possibility of generalist educators, as opposed to art specialists, using the arts successfully as a cross-curricular tool to accelerate English First Additional Language acquisition. Most South African learners speak African languages as a mother tongue, yet they are taught in English from Grade 4 onwards. With the use of an action research project, learners’ English proficiency was assessed with a custom-designed tool and, thereafter, they participated in 10 weekly sessions of arts-integrated English activities before being re-assessed. Positive results confirmed that generalist educators are able to utilise arts, and it showed the urgency for more focused arts-integrated educational training in generalist educator courses at South African universities. Although the research was limited in scope, it raises the question of how teachers for the primary school are educated with regard to learning a language with the use of the arts.
Most Foundation Phase (FP) students in South Africa arrive at university without having had any formal music training. Music skills must then be acquired in a fraction of one semester as part of a general Life Skills module. Education students in the FP have traditionally been taught to play the piano and/or recorder and/or Orff instruments with a two-fold aim -to be able to teach these instruments to learners and for accompaniment during music activities. The use of a guitar to replace the traditional choices could be beneficial to pre-service educators. The research question is: How suitable is the guitar as an instrument for Foundation Phase (FP) education students?Specific aims are to investigate the suitability, benefits and impact of the guitar in Foundation Phase courses and the guitar learning process. Results of this study show that a guitar is a rational choice for use in FP educator training.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.