ASSESSMENT IN AN OVERCROWDED ENGLISH FIRST ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE INTERMEDIATE PHASE CLASSROOM: THE COMPLEXITY OUTLOOK

Back to Page Authors: Ntsala Sekanse Abiner

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Keywords: assessment, overcrowded, non-linearity, complexity

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Abstract: This scholarly piece provides prospects on how English First Additional Language teachers working in overcrowded intermediate phase classrooms can assess meaningfully. This is in response to the numerous reports that highlight the poor performance in English First Additional Language by South African learners. Seeing that over-crowdedness has been singled out as one of the possible causes of this reality, the focus of the study was on the over-crowded schools in South Africa. This work, informed by the complexity theory, was steeped in phenomenology as a research design, resulting in the use of the interpretive paradigm. Qualitative research methods were used as a result, where interviews and observations were used to identify good practice. Data were analyzed mostly thematically, ultimately revealing the significance of the following: assessment tools, the length, and weight of assessments, selective approach to assessments, informal assessment, observations, and group assessment. This results illuminated the non-linearity of the language classroom, seeing that other teachers can assess productively despite the number of learners in their classrooms. A notable issue about the insights is that it is rewarding to combine ingenuity and simplicity.

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