Learning in mother tongue adds school bite
• Experts agree that SA needs the political will to invest in developing the use of African languages in education
Language is an important building block in a child’s identity, but in SA, English dominates the education landscape — even though the government encourages schools to teach pupils in their home languages and to adopt multilingual activities.
Fewer than 10% of the population speak English as a home language. isiZulu is spoken by 22.7% of households, followed by isiXhosa at 16% and Afrikaans at 13.5%, according to Statistics SA.
The implementation of the government’s language policy is weak and schools — upper quintile and former Model C schools especially — do not adhere to the guidelines, preferring English as their medium of instruction.
Using a pupil’s home language promotes a smooth transition between home and school. Children will be more engaged in learning while teachers will have more flexibility, innovation and creativity when planning lessons.
Sotho mathematics dictionary author Zulumathabo Zulu says maths education requires a paradigm shift in SA, focusing more on language.
The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2015 showed that South African pupils’ grasp of simple concepts is weak and they struggle to apply knowledge. SA scored below the TIMSS “low” benchmark score of 400.
Zulu’s dictionary, used at North-West University and the University of Free State, emphasises the link between language and conceptualisation.
He says if children learn maths in their home language, it will help them understand the content, as conceptualising of knowledge is governed by the language in which it is acquired.
Like Sotho, SA’s Nguni languages also have maths concepts integrated into the language, but many people are unaware of this, Zulu says. He learnt mathematical games such as diketo, morabaraba and khadi as a child, and they did not appear explicitly mathematical at the time.
INTEGRATED CONCEPTS
“I found that for the Basotho, mathematics is integrated into their language,” he says.
“If you are a Mosotho child who acquired that language, you are able to conceptualise objects as graphical or numerical systems.” Zulu says the Sotho word
refers to the rate of change or acceleration. When it rains, Sesotho people say “pula e yana” and when it rains harder, they say “pula ina ka sekgahla” to indicate the change in pace.
In SA, the language of the group in power dominates public discourse and education. In June 1976, pupils rose up against the use of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction. Fast forward 39 years later, and protesting university students are demanding the decolonisation of their curricula, pleading for their native content and language to be used in academia.
There are pros and cons to using more than one language in education.
Mmaki Jantjies of the University of Western Cape and Mike Joy of the University of Warwick say the advantage of codeswitching is that the reiteration of a concept in pupils’ home languages helps them to gain confidence and acquire knowledge through a holistic explanation and understanding of the topic.
Children often struggle adequately to grasp a second language because they are always code-switching and retreating to their mother tongues.
Professor of mathematics and University of Cape Town deputy vice-chancellor of research and internationalisation Mamokgethi Phakeng says the solution lies in a multilingual approach to mathematics teaching rather than in imposing home languages on students.
This approach should be applied to teaching and textbook material, she says.
Phakeng says a class divide is created by schools in rural areas and townships teaching in African languages, while schools in middle-class suburbs teach in English. “It’s working-class students who are confined to learning in their home languages,” she says.
Phakeng says African languages do not enjoy social capital and English allows parents and children access to higher education, jobs and social status.
“Those parents who want their children to learn English simply take them to private schools or former Model C schools, which suggests that you can actually buy your way into English,” she says. “They are pursuing English rather than epistemic knowledge.”
SA needs the political will to invest in developing African languages at a greater pace, say the experts.
The Department of Basic Education has undertaken to have Rainbow Workbooks, used by grade 6 pupils, developed in African languages.
Macmillan SA, an education content and service provider, has supplied a wide range of learning and teaching materials, including dictionaries, in all official languages to schools across the country.
Mother-tongue proficiency among pupils is clearly demonstrated by recent exam results.
In the past four sittings of the National Senior Certificate examinations, between 93.8% and 96.8% of pupils who wrote English as a home language passed. Over the same period, the pass rate for pupils who wrote exams for nine other official languages did not go below 98.8%.
LANGUAGE RESULTS
Last year, 99.9% of matric pupils passed their African home language exams. Only 94.1% of pupils writing English as a home language achieved 40% and above. Matrics who wrote Afrikaans as a home language fared slightly better, with 96.6% passing.
In 2013 and 2014, the pass rate for Tshivenda as a home language and first additional language was 100%. There have also been 100% pass rates for Xitsonga, SiSwati, Sesotho, Setswana and isiNdebele exams over the past four years.
Universities have committed to inclusive language policies but little headway has been made. isiZulu, Setswana, Xitsonga, isiXhosa, Northern Sesotho, SiSwati, Tshivenda as well as Southern Sotho are offered as modules of study in higher education.
The University of the Witwatersrand undertook to expand its language policy in 2003 but its senate and council only recently approved a plan to develop the use of African languages. Their first step is producing university letterheads in English, isiZulu and Sesotho.
The justification for the dominance of English at schools chosen by parents when they can afford the fees is its status as a language of trade and economics. That money is a language everyone understands is something the South African Reserve Bank knows.
Although English is used on all denominations of notes bearing Nelson Mandela’s face, the words “South African Reserve Bank” are translated into two official languages on the back of each denomination.
The R10 note has Afrikaans and siSwati translations; the R20 has Setswana and isiNdebele; the R50 note has isiXhosa and Tshivenda; Sepedi and Xitsonga are on the R100 note and isiZulu and Sesotho appear on the R200 note.
CHILDREN STRUGGLE TO GRASP A SECOND LANGUAGE BECAUSE THEY CODE-SWITCH AND RETREAT TO MOTHER TONGUES