The relevance of teachers' non-English oral proficiency to their metalinguistic and register awareness of English

This doctoral study investigated whether and the extent to which oral proficiency with limited or no literacy skills in a non-English language promoted native English-speaking (NES) and nonnative English-speaking (NNES) English language teachers' metalinguistic and register awareness of English. Teachers were classified as Truly Bilingual (TBL) if they possessed literacy skills in the languages they spoke and not TBL (NTBL) if they did not. A comparative analysis of TBL and NTBL as well as native and non-native English-speaking teachers was carried out. Twenty-three English language instructors with different linguistic profiles participated in the research. This qualitative study required participants to provide responses to both open-ended and close-ended questions. The instrument designed for the study comprised tasks that aimed to assess competence in a variety of linguistics skills including Phonology, Syntax, Morphology, Grammar, and Parts of Speech. Teachers' pedagogical skills were additionally assessed through simulated classroom tasks. The findings echoed previous research findings in that TBL teachers displayed more elevated metalinguistic and register awareness than NTBL teachers. The study further confirmed that NNES teachers appeared to possess more elevated metalinguistic and register awareness than did their NES counterparts. Teachers with subject-relevant qualifications displayed substantially more elevated metalinguistic and register awareness than those with no or limited subject-relevant qualifications, which suggests that subject-specific training seemed to play a greater role in contributing to metalinguistic and register awareness than whether the teachers were TBL or whether they were NES or NNES.

Grantor

School of Education

Year dc:date.issued

2022

Author dc:creator

• Rakab, Mehmet Bülent

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• van Rooyen, Ian
• Everson, Vanessa
• Hattingh, Anne Marie

• education

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/36716

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/36716