An investigation of learners' home language as a support for learning

Abstract

The report presents an investigation on how learners’ home language can be used as a support for learning mathematics. This qualitative case study was conducted in Phelindaba Primary School wherein learners use English as the language of learning and teaching which is not their home language. This school worked in collaboration with the Home Language Project to facilitate the learning of mathematics using the learners’ home language as a resource. The study revealed that when learners use their home languages they interact better with their peers, the teachers and their tasks. Learners used home languages to achieve conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, adaptive reasoning and strategic competence, which would in turn develop their productive disposition