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Beliefs, knowledge and practices of grammar pedagogy : a case study of specialist teachers at the Dyslexia Association of Singapore
Author
Lin, Vin Lian Cherry
Supervisor
Kiss, Tamas
Abstract
Teachers’ beliefs, knowledge, experiences, assumptions and attitudes have a powerful impact on their teaching practice. In Singapore, very few studies have focused their attention on teacher beliefs, and while these studies are highly informative, they mainly discuss teacher beliefs in mainstream settings. This paper seeks to examine the beliefs, knowledge and practice of specialist teachers who teach the English Language to dyslexic learners at the Dyslexia Association of Singapore (DAS), an organization which specializes in providing support to learners with dyslexia and other specific learning difficulties. Dyslexia is a neurological condition which affects a learner’s acquisition of reading skills. However, in recent years, studies have found dyslexia to affect the syntax and grammatical competence of learners as well, and this weakness in grammar competence is likely to affect language learning. Given the central focus of grammar in second language acquisition studies and second language methodology, the role of grammar pedagogy in teaching dyslexic learners is of particular significance. This study seeks to explore the pedagogical bases of teachers’ work in grammar teaching and to investigate the extent to which personal beliefs and knowledge held by these teachers have informed instructional practices. The results reveal weaknesses in the teachers’ language awareness and a general lack of grammatical knowledge, which had negatively impacted their effectiveness as teachers of dyslexic learners. There is a call to provide teachers the knowledge on language teaching in teacher development programmes, as well as for DAS to develop a common belief system on pedagogical practice amongst the teachers.
Date Issued
2011
Call Number
PE1112 Lin
Date Submitted
2011