Mother tongue education will produce more literate and intelligent pupils
It is time language policies recognise the advantages of using your own language
The language question in SA remains unresolved almost three decades after democracy, with debates about mother tongue education raging without any end in sight.
The constitution states that “everyone has the right to receive education in the official language and language of their choice in public educational institutions where that education is reasonably practicable”.
The country recognises 11 languages as official. Reality, however, points to the continued dominance of English and to some extent Afrikaans, with the marginalisation of the indigenous African languages.
This renders the supposed recognition as merely symbolic. In the majority of schools, pupils are taught in a language not their mother tongue.
Proficiency in English is equated with intelligence to the extent that some parents even boast about their children’s lack of proficiency in their own languages and their assumed mastery of the Queen’s language.
Pupils are taught in their mother tongue in the foundation phase – grades 1 to 3. The transition to English instruction is made in the intermediate phase from grades 4 to 6. In former model C schools, black children are immersed in English instruction from grade 1 to matric.
This is sad as research shows it takes longer than three years to fully learn a language and that the best option is for children to learn through a language they know well for the first six years of schooling.
The ideal would be for pupils to be taught in their mother tongue from grade 1 to 6 with English as an additional language during this time and gradually used as a co-teaching medium. This would support additive multilingualism as opposed to subtractive bilingualism which would be detrimental to the learning process.
Mother tongue education would also lead to better academic performance.
Prof Thabo Ditsele, a sociolinguist at Tshwane University of Technology, says “teaching younger children in a language that is not their mother tongue appears to disrupt cognitive ability and interferes with the learning process”.
Besides enhancing learning, recognition of African languages will give them a sense of pride in their heritage and identity. Depriving children of their right to acquire proficiency in their mother tongue equates to a cultural crime with such parents deserving to be hauled before a cultural tribunal to account.
Parents need to be disabused of the fallacious notion that mastery of English is equivalent to intelligence. Such perceptions perpetuate the cultural emasculation of black people in their native land.
It is long overdue that the language education policy be taken through a fine-tooth comb to ensure marginalising African languages becomes a thing of the past.
It is also inexplicable that it is not compulsory for every pupil in SA public schools to study at least one African language as a second language. This would boost the prestige of our languages and accelerate their development.
Language policies are formulated by school governing bodies and they need to consider the languages spoken in the areas around the schools to ensure these are central to language policy.
The sink-or-swim approach to teaching with the immersion of pupils in English must be jettisoned in favour of an approach that emphasises the desirability of mother tongue teaching.
Flexible language policies should put each individual pupil and his or her learning progress at the centre of classroom interactions.
Mother tongue education holds greater benefits for pupils as they learn better and faster, in addition to having their self-esteem boosted, when their languages are affirmed. This will ensure continuity from the homes to schools and ensure a smooth transition to the acquisition of English.
The language playing field must be levelled to create equal opportunities for all regardless of economic status, ethnic background or geographical location. Mother tongue education for the first six years of schooling is a sine qua non to resolve the SA language question.