Discourse Patterns in First Language Use at Hcme and Second Language Learning at School: an Ethnographic Approach

Aims I 15

countries, but cannot be transferred to poor countries where the class
dynamic is different and much sore fluid.

Ethnography and Teacher Education

As the interaction in the Classroon is organized by the teacher, it is
the teacher who must be aware of the importance of the competence
children bring with them to school: this competence should be seen as an
asset on which to build, and a challenge to any dogmatism in pedagogy.
•Cooperative ethnographic monitoring' (Hymes,1981) usually involves
educationalists, ethnographers and teachers, but requires teachers with
conceptions of cognitive and linguistic development and of the learning
process that fully recognize the centrality of sociocultural mediation.
Pre-service and in-service training courses may be structured along these
lines, and there are experiences which show the feasibility and results
of this approach (Heath,1983; Simlc-Dudgeon and Pivera,1983; Au,1981;
Troike and Savllle-Trolke,1982).

... it was an 'aha' experience for them [the teachers in training].
They said that they now saw the cultural patterning of things
that they had previously taken for granted. (Mohatt and
Erickson,1981:119)

It is argued that this approach is particularly relevant for
underdeveloped countries: it makes full use of human resources, it is not
very expensive, it stresses assets and not deficiencies, it makes teachers
more equipped to confront the imposition of models developed abroad
(Altbach,1984; see 6.3.3, conclusion), it trains teachers in simple
research methods and encourages them to engage in curriculum development
on the basis of their own findings.

The question remains open as to whether educational systems can afford
such an ideological threat: but this problem is not confined to
underdeveloped countries.

<<   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   >>

More intriguing information