SOCIO-INTERACTIONIST EVALUATION OF CLASSROOM DISCOURSE IN SELECTED DOWN SYNDROME FACILITIES IN LAGOS, NIGERIA

Abstract

Linguistic performance among learners with Down Syndrome (DS) is an important psycholinguistic subject which has received global attention from the various fields of study in America, Europe and a few African countries. Studies on DS in Nigeria have focused on linguistic performance and speech patterns of learners with DS but few have attempted a socio-interactive evaluation of their performance in classroom discourse. The classroom discourse of learners with DS in public and private facilities in Lagos, Nigeria was investigated from the socio-interactive perspective in order to identify the speech characteristics and roles of socio-interaction variables in the linguistic and cognitive performance of the learners in the selected facilities. Lev Vygotsky’s model of the Social Interaction Theory, which emphasises roles of social interaction and More Knowledgeable Other (MKO) in the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), complemented by cognitive relevance of Sperber and Wilson’s Relevance Theory, served as framework. An ethnographic approach was used, while ethical approvals were obtained. Twenty classroom discourses were randomly observed, recorded and transcribed across five classrooms in Down Syndrome Foundation of Nigeria, a private facility and Ipakodo Local Government Education Authority School, a public facility. Fifty-three learners and eight teachers participated. Learners were grouped based on cognitive abilities. Data were subjected to cognitive and discourse analyses. Oral-aural disorders in learners with DS manifested through speech characteristics such as speech unintelligibility, stuttering, cluttering, dumbness and hearing impairment, while cognitive delay resulted in low comprehension. Teaching took place with the consideration of learners’ socio-cultural, psycholinguistic and medical backgrounds. The MKOs were primarily teachers who applied skills for the intellectually-challenged and ensured learning through five goals within the ZPD: identification, recitation and topic, information and response. Goals were realised using scaffolds, including authentic materials, role-play and schema activation. Although proper conversation exchange management was used to facilitate teaching, the primary MKOs were inadequately equipped as none of the teachers was trained as a Down syndrome specialist or speech therapist. Besides, the language use of the teachers reflected performance errors and elements of mother tongue interference, which were passed on to the learners, who were expected to be taught with Standard British English in an English-as-Second-Language classroom. The cognitive relevance of ostensive stimuli of the learners were evaluated by teachers who used the peculiarities of stimuli to determine appropriate linguistic tools. These were reinforcement, repetition and occasional use of code-switching and code-mixing of instructions, especially in local languages to enhance the responses of learners. The participants in the private facility had better socio-interactive opportunities than those in the public facility, regardless of having similar congenital speech defects, while both groups lacked standard speech therapy. Learners with Down syndrome in classrooms in Lagos, Nigeria are largely affected by linguistic and cognitive limitations due to the poor standard within the Zone of Proximal Development and non-specialist primary More Knowledgeable Others. Nevertheless, better socio-interactive opportunities existed in the private facility. Specialised training and appropriate equipment are prerequisites for optimal linguistic and cognitive performance of learners with Down syndrome in the Nigerian context.