ETD Collection

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Subject: search.filters.subject.Language and education -- South Africa.

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    The impact of a subtractive bilingual context on the language attitudes, use and skills of primary school children from the Kathorus area : a comparative study.
    (1998) Thombeni, Dunyisiwe Ntombenhle
    Dissatisfaction with the quality of education under the former Department of Education Training (DET). lack of facilities, and disruptions during the political transitional period have been the reasons why more and more black parents, who could afford it financially, tend to send their children to so-called 'white' or ex-Model C schools. In ex-Model C schools these children in many instances do not receive any teaching in their home languages nor can they take their home languages as a first language subject. Where African languages are taught at ex-Model C schools, they are taught a, non-exam subjects. starting only in Grade 5 and on a third language level. Even then, only one African language is offered per school, irrespective of the range of African languages that learners of that particular school speak at home. with the result that many children do not have their home language as a subject at all. This study is based on the hypothesis that there is a lack of identification with the home language and the home language culture in the case of black children who are attending ex-Model C schools. As a result most children from these ex-Model C schools are lost to the African culture and traditions Hence they develop attitudes which are negative towards their own languages. They identify themselves more with their Second Language, which is English in this case, yet they also experience some form of alienation towards the English language and its associated cultural aspects. In some of these ex-Model C schools, children are required to attend English pre-primary preparatory schools. Since this is the critical stage of home language acquisition, a second hypothesis has been posed, namely, that this adversely affects children from being proficient in the African language of the home. The skill in the African language would be reduced to "basic interpersonal communication skills"(BICS) (Cummins 1984), with impaired "cognitive academic language proficiency" (CALP) (Cummins 1984). (Abbreviation abstract).
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    The needs of black farm school teachers in relation to using English as the medium of instruction.
    (1992) Taitz, Lynette
    The research, conducted as part of a project aimed at improving teachers' English .skills, set out to answer the question: What are the needs of farm school teachers in relation to the use of English as the medium of instruction? Clarification of this question involved the examination of teachers' English proficiency, the teaching of English as a subject and the.observation of the learning/teaching situation in the farm school classroom. The research raised questions concerning the underlying assumption that an English language intervention could bring about major change in the classroom. As a result, further enquiries into the socio-economic context-of the schools were instituted. In addition, the learning/teaching situation was examined in the light of theories of cognition and change. A range of research methods involving both quantitative and qualitative approaches were utilized to penetrate this highly complex situation. The findings indicated a clear need on the. part of ihe teachers for an English proficiency course. At the same time. the findings also indicated most strongly that a fundamental change is needed in tne teachers' understanding of their role if they are to become agents of significant change.