Pupils prefer to learn in English

WEDNESDAY JANUARY 11 2017 DESPITE an academic finding that many pupils struggle because they are not taught in their mother tongue, pupils say they prefer to be taught in English, as it was an internationally accepted means of communication.

The Cape Argus yesterday published an article about Linguistics professor Bassey Antia’s findings that speakers of African languages, in particular, scored lowest in exams because they were tested in English or Afrikaans.

In addition, he said it was “unnatural” for pupils to be tested in only one of the languages they are taught in, especially if English is their second or third language.

The Department of Basic Education (DBE) said they could administer exams in African languages because there was a shortage of teachers teaching indigenous languages.

The Cape Argus spoke to Boipelo Mokgothu, a University of Johannesburg journalism graduate and native Tswana-speaker, and Velani Mboweni a UCT Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) graduate and native Zulu-speaker.

Mokgothu said “I have never heard of a school that teaches maths, life sciences and natural sciences in Tswana.

“Given the choice, I would not have wanted to study in Tswana. It would have been too difficult and meant that I would have had to go to a non-English school, which doesn’t make sense in the world we live in.

Mboweni, who took isiZulu as his first additional language, said he would have liked to study some subjects “concurrently with English” because it would have enabled him to learn in his own language, but still “remain internationally competitive”.

Mboweni said he was forced to choose English because he wanted to study Philosophy Politics and Economics at UCT. He would have been excluded from the international literature if he had not gone to an English high school.