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Teacher code-switching in Singapore primary schools : a corpus-based study
Author
Gwee, Susan Bee Yen
Supervisor
Anderson, Katherine
Abstract
The use of non-standard varieties in the classroom is controversial. In Singapore, the use of Singlish is discouraged in the classroom by the ministers, the educators, the media and the public. It is held that primary school teachers, especially content subject teachers, use Singlish extensively in the classroom because they are not proficient in Standard English. The present study seeks to examine the use of Singlish in primary school classrooms in Singapore. I examined whether there were statistically significant results of differences in the mean frequency of the use of Singlish by 20 primary school teachers for pedagogic functions (curriculum access, classroom management, and interpersonal relations) and in different lesson phases (whole class lectures, whole class answer checking, individual seatwork and small group work, laboratory work, whole class elicitation and discussion, student demonstrations/presentations, whole class demonstration or activity, choral repetition/oral reading/singing/poetry recitation and test taking), across subject types (content subject vs. language), and across subjects (science, mathematics, social studies, and English).
The data were drawn from a larger study of the Core Research Program of the Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice, whose key objective was to measure, map and model classroom pedagogy and student outcomes in a large representative sample of Singapore schools in 2004 and 2005. The sample of the present study comprised 91 lessons from Primary Five classrooms in Singapore: 16 lessons from five science units, 22 lessons from five mathematics units, 18 lessons from five social studies units, and 35 lessons from five English units. I took lessons from one whole unit so that the data would be representative of the way the primary school teachers in Singapore use Singlish features in the classroom. The total time for the lessons was 3 932.6 minutes. The time taken for the science, mathematics, social studies and English lessons were 815.9, 891.8, 635.8, and 1 589.1 minutes, respectively. I used the MMAX annotation tool (Muller & Strube, 2006) to tag Singlish features, their pedagogic functions (curriculum access, class management, interpersonal relations), and the phases in which these Singlish features occur.
I used the SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Science) tool for quantitative analyses. The unit of analysis was the lesson. I calculated the mean frequency of Singlish usage per 30 minutes of lesson time in each lesson by adding the total number of occurrences of Singlish features in each lesson and dividing it by the total time taken for the lesson and then multiplying it by 30 minutes. I used the Welch test and the Games-Howell test to examine whether there were significant differences of Singlish occurrences across subject types (content subject vs. language) and across subjects (science, mathematics, social studies, and English). The inter-rater reliability percentages ranged from 84% to 92%.
One of the major findings of the present study is that the primary school teachers did not use Singlish extensively. The qualitative transcript analysis also suggests that teachers did not code-switch because they are deficient in Standard English. In general, content subject teachers code-switched significantly more frequently than English teachers. The science teachers used Singlish features most frequently followed by mathematics, social studies and English teachers. Teachers code-switched as frequently for curriculum access as for classroom management, but infrequently for establishing interpersonal relations. However, content subject teachers also code-switched significantly more often for curriculum access and classroom management than English teachers. The most prevalent pedagogic sub-function was a curriculum access sub-function: scaffolding knowledge construction. Teachers also code-switched mainly in the phase of whole class lecture followed by whole class answer checking and individual seatwork. The most commonly occurring Singlish feature among the teachers was the noun. The particle ah was the most commonly occurring Singlish sub-feature.
In conclusion, the data offer some support that Singapore primary school teachers do not code-switch extensively, and that they use Singlish features primarily for the functions of curriculum access and for classroom management and not so much for interpersonal relations.
The data were drawn from a larger study of the Core Research Program of the Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice, whose key objective was to measure, map and model classroom pedagogy and student outcomes in a large representative sample of Singapore schools in 2004 and 2005. The sample of the present study comprised 91 lessons from Primary Five classrooms in Singapore: 16 lessons from five science units, 22 lessons from five mathematics units, 18 lessons from five social studies units, and 35 lessons from five English units. I took lessons from one whole unit so that the data would be representative of the way the primary school teachers in Singapore use Singlish features in the classroom. The total time for the lessons was 3 932.6 minutes. The time taken for the science, mathematics, social studies and English lessons were 815.9, 891.8, 635.8, and 1 589.1 minutes, respectively. I used the MMAX annotation tool (Muller & Strube, 2006) to tag Singlish features, their pedagogic functions (curriculum access, class management, interpersonal relations), and the phases in which these Singlish features occur.
I used the SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Science) tool for quantitative analyses. The unit of analysis was the lesson. I calculated the mean frequency of Singlish usage per 30 minutes of lesson time in each lesson by adding the total number of occurrences of Singlish features in each lesson and dividing it by the total time taken for the lesson and then multiplying it by 30 minutes. I used the Welch test and the Games-Howell test to examine whether there were significant differences of Singlish occurrences across subject types (content subject vs. language) and across subjects (science, mathematics, social studies, and English). The inter-rater reliability percentages ranged from 84% to 92%.
One of the major findings of the present study is that the primary school teachers did not use Singlish extensively. The qualitative transcript analysis also suggests that teachers did not code-switch because they are deficient in Standard English. In general, content subject teachers code-switched significantly more frequently than English teachers. The science teachers used Singlish features most frequently followed by mathematics, social studies and English teachers. Teachers code-switched as frequently for curriculum access as for classroom management, but infrequently for establishing interpersonal relations. However, content subject teachers also code-switched significantly more often for curriculum access and classroom management than English teachers. The most prevalent pedagogic sub-function was a curriculum access sub-function: scaffolding knowledge construction. Teachers also code-switched mainly in the phase of whole class lecture followed by whole class answer checking and individual seatwork. The most commonly occurring Singlish feature among the teachers was the noun. The particle ah was the most commonly occurring Singlish sub-feature.
In conclusion, the data offer some support that Singapore primary school teachers do not code-switch extensively, and that they use Singlish features primarily for the functions of curriculum access and for classroom management and not so much for interpersonal relations.
Date Issued
2011
Call Number
P115.3 Gwe
Date Submitted
2011