An Analysis of a Classroom Discourse: A Case of a Selected English Class in the Eastern Cape of South Africa

This study reviews the classroom interaction discussions between the teachers and learners in a selected primary school in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The discourse analysis was used to examine verbal interaction as a significant component of teaching techniques for enhancing effective teaching of English language. The main objective of this study was to analyze the verbal communication between the teachers and pupils in the classroom during teaching and learning of materials in English language. Qualitative research design was used in this study. Data were collected through interviews. As the teaching and learning of English language develops between the teachers and pupils in the primary schools, both negative and positive factors were observed when they were communicating. The relationship between the pupils and teachers responses to the factors influencing teaching and learning the subject was critically examined. The interviews conducted confirmed some of the challenges to include the use of local words by the pupils and lack of understanding of some local isiXhosa words by their teachers. The result also shows that pupils faced different hindrances in understanding some English language vocabularies taught in the classroom. The results also revealed that the classroom interaction was successful due to good methods introduced by the teachers in transferring knowledge to the pupils. Recommendations were made on how the teaching and learning of English language could be improved by appropriate mechanism or strategies to obtain successful results.