TEACHING OF ENGLISH TO YOUNG LEARNERS IN SOUTH AFRICAN SCHOOLS: SUBJECT AND POLICY IMPLEMENTATION PR

1
TEACHING OF ENGLISH TO YOUNG LEARNERS IN SOUTH
AFRICAN SCHOOLS SUBJECT AND POLICY
IMPLEMENTATIONPRESENTED BY BOITUMELO
KGWADIPROVINCIAL LANGUAGES CO-ORDINATORGAUTENG
PROVINCE SOUTH AFRICA3-6 JAN 2008BANGALORE
Iatefl CONFERENCE
2
INTRODUCTION / BACKGROUND

• The constitution of the Republic of South Africa
  forms the basis for social transformation in our
  post apartheid society. The imperative to
  transform South African society by making use of
  various transformative tools stems from a need to
  address the legacy of apartheid in all areas of
  human activity and education in particular.
• Social transformation in education is aimed at
  ensuring that the educational imbalances of the
  past are redressed and that equal educational
  opportunities are provided for all sections of
  our population. If social transformation is to be
  achieved, all South Africans have to be
  educationally affirmed through the recognition of
  their potential and the removal of artificial
  barriers to the attainment of quality education.

3
BACKGROUND CONT

• Transformation and development aims to heal the
  divisions of the past and establish society based
  on democratic values, social justice and
  fundamental human rights. Languages as a subject
  in schools, is faced with even a bigger challenge
  to impact and improve the lives of young South
  African citizens, to further improve the quality
  of life and free potential of each person.
• It is not only Language as a subject that is
  faced with challenges, also the teachers and
  learners are involved in building a united
  democratic South Africa that is able to take its
  rightful place as a sovereign state in the family
  of nations.

4
BACKGROUND CONT

• South Africa as a country has a constitution that
  intends to address the past imbalances, to
  redress these imbalances, to provide equal access
  to resources of the country and to bring equity
  to and for all individuals, especially the
  previously disadvantaged communities or
  individuals.
• This is the constitution that binds all the
  citizens of South Africa and those who live in
  it. All policies of different Departments are
  enshrined within this constitution. There is no
  policy that can be formulated outside the
  framework of the constitution, should that
  happen, it is gross negligence and is punishable
  by law.

5
BACKGROUND CONT

• South Africa comes from the apartheid era that
  created and promoted racial discrimination,
  tensions, contradictions and hatred amongst South
  African individuals across different colour
  lines, thus, a number of these discriminatory
  policies have affected either the access of the
  learners to the education system or their success
  within it.The inherited language-in-education
  policy in South Africa has been clouded with
  uncertainties and sensitivities, and underpinned
  by racial and linguistic discrimination.
• Therefore, the new language in education policy
  is conceived of as an integral and necessary
  aspect of the new governments strategy of
  building a non-racial nation in South Africa. It
  is meant to facilitate communication across the
  barriers of colour, language and religion, while
  at the same time creating an environment in which
  respect for languages other than ones own would
  be encouraged.

6
BACKGROUND CONT

• This approach is in line with the fact that both
  societal and individual multilingualism are the
  global norm today, especially on the African
  continent. As such, it assumes that the learning
  of more than one language should be general
  practice and principle in our society as a
  country. This means that, being multilingual
  should be a defining characteristic of being
  South African. It is constructed also to counter
  any particularistic ethnic chauvinism or
  separatism through mutual understanding (LiEP
  1997)
• The constitution and Language in Education policy
  states it clearly that all languages are equal
  and there is no language that supersedes the
  other. We need to put systems in place where
  fears of the people are going to be allayed,
  where we are going to provide clarity on issues
  pertaining to this process.

7
BACKGROUND CONT

• This is a challenge which we need to take in
  stride and make sure that it bears fruit. This
  issue is still under vigorous and intense
  discussion, but in the meantime we are guided by
  what the policy says (LiEP 1997).
• Education Department is one of the number of
  departments in South African Government it has
  its own Policies and Acts. These policies are
  drafted within the framework of the constitution
  of South Africa. Amongst the policies that the
  Education Department has is the South African
  School Act (SASA), National Education Policy Act
  (NEPA), Education White Paper 6 on Inclusion, and
  Language in Education Policy (LiEP 1997) with its
  norms and standards.
• The aim of these norms and standards is the
  development of the state's overarching language
  goals in school education in compliance with the
  Constitution. The LiEP also recognises that
  diversity is a valuable asset, which the state is
  required to respect.

8
BACKGROUND CONT

• The aim of this policy is also
• Protection, promotion, fulfilment and extension
  of the individual's language rights and means of
  communication in education and
• The facilitation of national and international
  communication through promotion of bi- or
  multilingualism through cost-efficient and
  effective mechanisms,
• To redress the neglect of the historically
  disadvantaged languages in school education.
  (LiEP 1997)
• All policies, with their norms and standards
  comply with the intentions of the constitution
  which also, In terms of the new Constitution of
  the Republic of South Africa and thus the
  Department of Education, recognises that our
  cultural diversity is a valuable national asset
  and hence is tasked to promote equity and
  equality and redress the past imbalances.

9
BACKGROUND CONT

• Amongst other things, the LiEP promotes respect
  for all languages used in the country, including
  South African Sign Language and the languages
  referred to in the South African Constitution.
  (LiEP 1997 )

10
BACKGROUND CONT

• The main aims of the Ministry of Educations
  policy for language in education are
• To promote full participation in society and the
  economy through equitable and meaningful access
  to education
• To pursue the language policy most supportive of
  general conceptual growth amongst learners, and
  hence to establish additive multilingualism as an
  approach to language in education
• To promote and develop all the official
  languages
• To support the teaching and learning of all other
  languages required by learners or used by
  communities in South Africa, including languages
  used for religious purposes, languages which are
  important for international trade and
  communication, and South African Sign Language,
  as well as Alternative and Augmentative
  Communication

11
BACKGROUND CONT

• To counter disadvantages resulting from different
  kinds of mismatches between home languages and
  languages of learning and teaching
• To develop programmes for the redress of
  previously disadvantaged languages. (LiEP 1997)
  

12
BACKGROUND CONT

• South Africa has nine Provinces viz

13
BACKGROUND CONT

• All these Provinces have different dynamics a far
  as their education systems are concerned,
  specifically in terms of language(s). Different
  provinces have dominant languages.
• KZN is dominantly isiZulu
• Limpopo is dominantly Sepedi and Tshivenda,
• Eastern Cape is dominantly IsiXhosa.
• Western Cape is dominantly Afrikaans
• North West is dominantly Setswana.
• Free state is dominantly Sesotho
• Northern Cape is dominantly Afrikaans
• The most complicated province is Gauteng with a
  conglomeration of languages. There is no specific
  language spoken in Gauteng province, however,
  there are those dominating languages in terms of
  numbers viz isiZulu, Sepedi and IsiXhosa.

14
BACKGROUND CONT

• All these provinces have their own Provincial
  Education Offices which are all answerable to the
  National Department of Education Office in
  Pretoria.
• Much as there are all these provinces, they are
  all governed by the policies as drafted by the
  National Education Department and endorsed by
  Government.
• All they (Provinces) can do is to formulate their
  own provincial policies or customise these
  policies to suit their provincial situations /
  needs, but still, within the framework of the
  National Policy.

15
Teaching of English (as language and Subject /
Learning Area) in schools in South Africa

• POLICY AND PRACTICE ACROSS VARIED CONTEXTS
• According to Policy all language subjects shall
  receive equitable time and resource allocation.

16
Teaching of English cont

• In South African schools there is English as a
  language of teaching and Learning (Lolt) and also
  English as a learning area (subject). There is
  so much controversy around English as a Lolt.
  Some parents want their children to start school
  in English from Grade 1 and be well reinforced in
  the language but some believe that learning first
  in the Home Language at grades1 and 2 will
  reinforce English that will be introduced later
  on in higher grades better. (Grades 3-4).
• Schools have governing bodies (SGBs). These
  are parents representative bodies which are
  chosen by the majority of parents of a particular
  school, in a well constituted meeting. They
  represent all the decisions made, taken and
  agreed upon by the school. They are the governors
  of the school and have duties as stipulated by
  South African Schools Act.

17
Teaching of English cont

• Amongst others, one of their duties is to
• Determine the Language of teaching and learning
  (Lolt) of a particular school.
• Subject to any law dealing with language in
  education and the Constitutional rights of
  learners in determining the language policy of
  the school, the governing body must stipulate how
  the school will promote multilingualism through
  using more than one language of learning and
  teaching, and/or by offering additional languages
  as fully-fledged subjects, and/or applying
  special immersion or language maintenance
  programmes education department through other
  means approved by the head of the provincial
  department.
• There is a strong belief in most parents in the
  Black South African community that if their
  children start school and learn in English, they
  will be better people in the trade and technical
  world thus the governing bodies of most black
  schools choose English as the Lolt of the school.

18
Teaching of English cont

• There is a difference between Home language and
  Mother tongue. There are black children who
  attend former model C schools (Town Schools)
  whom, in their schools there is no language that
  they are born with (mother tongue) being taught
  at the school. Policy stipulates that a learner
  has to do two languages, one at the Home language
  level and one at the first additional language
  level.
• In these former model C schools, in most cases,
  the languages taught are English and Afrikaans
  which are neither at the home or first additional
  levels of the black children in those schools,
  however they (black learners) find themselves
  doing English at Home

19
Teaching of English cont

• Language level and Afrikaans at first additional
  level, therefore Home language does not
  necessarily mean that it is the mother tongue of
  that learner.
• Mother tongue is the language that an individual
  is born with and can, if available at a school,
  be taught at Home language level and another
  language taught at First additional level. This
  happens better in situations where there is an
  indigenous languages) (black languages including
  Afrikaans) taught at these former models C
  schools or alternatively in the township schools
  where there is dominance of the indigenous
  languages and speakers thereof

20
Teaching of English cont

• In townships schools (black schools), there is
  dominance of indigenous languages and also
  dominance of the speakers of these languages.
  This implies that, these teachers are not the
  speakers of English at a Home Language level
  however, since parents (SGB) choose English as
  the language of teaching and learning (Lolt),
  they have to conform to teaching in English.

21
CHALLENGES FACING THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH TO
YOUNG LEARNERS

• Given this background, the challenge here is
• a) Lolt is English
• b) Teachers who are not natural English speakers
  and are not proficient in this language
• The implication of the above statement is that
  learners will be taught different subjects
  (learning Areas) in English including English
  as a subject / learning area by the non speakers
  of the language, who may also be not proficient
  in English.
• There are challenges both in the classroom and on
  the entire system

22
CHALLENGES CONT
23
CHALLENGES CONT

• These are some of the challenges facing some of
  the South African schools and this means that the
  teaching and learning of the subjects (learning
  Areas) and English as a subject will always lack
  as long as these problems still exist.
• In former model C schools (town / white schools )
  the learners learn English and other subjects
  much better because they are taught by the first
  language speakers, who do not have to first think
  in the mother tongue then translate to English to
  put the message across.

24
CHALLENGES CONT

• ON THE SYSTEM
• Lack of resources (both human and material)
  books, libraries, technology
• Access to the school
• Training of teachers and formal education
  (qualifications), skills
• Systemic problems. Illiteracy, poverty, jobs,
• Teacher remunerations, unions and strikes, job
  satisfaction
• Parental involvement t and perception of the
  school
• HIV and AIDS
• Class size (the Primary school class ratio is
  140 )

25
CHALLENGES CONT

• Issues and policies are discussed and argued
  about in different forums however what comes out
  of the discussions is very different from what is
  happening in reality. One of the issues is that
  there is no terminology and resources to teach in
  different indigenous home languages.
• The argument from some of the discussions is that
  there will ALWAYS be terminology. Much as English
  wants to supersede other languages, some of the
  English words used in some books are not English
  but borrowed words, so whats the fuss?

26
CHALLENGES CONT

• Now, the reality of the country is that Language
  is for communication, but if there are eleven
  official languages, like it is the case in South
  Africa, and everyone else has been taught in
  their home language / mother tongue, how is the
  level of communication going to be at the point
  of convergence i.e. in the field of work? Who
  will understand what is being said? Language
  components cannot be used in isolation it should
  always be in context. Nouns are related to verbs,
  adverbs, concords etc. there is no way one can
  hear or understand only a noun and conclude that
  the whole meaning of the sentence is understood.

27
CHALLENGES CONT

• e.g
• 1. tlisa cup oe pele o e thuba. (Setswana)
• 2. please pass me that cup (English)
• 3. bonang cup ya gona e botse byang (Sepedi)
• 4. hy het die cup gebreek (Afrikans)
• 5. sana, o ndiphathele e cup neh. (IsiXhosa)
• We can all hear the word cup, but is the
  meaning of all these sentences the same?
• Sentence 1 means bring that cup here before you
  break it. (A command)
• Sentence 2 means please pass me the cup
• Sentence 3 means look how beautiful that cup is
• Sentence 4 means that he has broken the cup
• Sentence 5 is asking a friend or a loved one for
  the cup as a memento or present, can be from the
  shop or another country etc.

28
CHALLENGES CONT

• The point is, language should be learnt in
  context and not in isolated or fragmented
  concepts or structures
• This is a Gauteng Province scenario i.e. one of
  the nine provinces, where there is a
  conglomeration of languages

29
CHALLENGES CONT

• Another context
• South Africa has nine Provinces where some are
  more rural than others or where rural areas are
  still undeveloped and technology is still far
  from reaching them.
• There is no electricity
• no running water,
• no sanitation etc
• It is beyond ones imagination what type of
  education can take place under such conditions.
  Yes, arguably, there can be good education, but
  comparatively speaking it will not even begin to
  compare with the education in developed urban
  areas. The quality of education and standard
  thereof will not be high. Definitely, no one can
  expect a language laboratory in a deep rural area
  of KZN where they do not know what electricity
  is, let alone to have it. Resources play a major
  role in teaching of English.

30
CHALLENGES FACING DIFFERENT TYPES OF SCHOOLS

URBAN AND RURAL SCHOOL TYPES
RURAL SCHOOLS
TOWN SCHOOLS
TOWNSHIP SCHOOLS
INFORMAL SETTLEMENT SCHOOLS

• Children of poor and
• illiterate farm
• workers
• Long distances, no
• transport
• School on the farmers
• land

• Children led
• families
• High poverty levels
• Lack of resources
• Some have no
• electricity

• Rich schools
• Children of the
• middle and the elite
• Dominantly white
• teachers

• Black schools, some
• poor (moderately)
• Mostly black teachers
• Lack resources (some)

31
TRANSITION FROM FOUNDATION PHASE TO INTERMEDIATE
PHASE

• Policy states that all learners shall offer an
  approved language as a subject in Grades 1 and 2
  and from Grade 3 onwards all learners shall offer
  their language of learning and teaching and at
  least one additional approved language as a
  subject.
• This by implication means that a second language,
  (English in Black schools) is introduced to the
  learners at Grade 3 level and this is the exit
  level of Foundation Phase. These learners are now
  moving into the new phase i.e. the Intermediate
  phase (Grade 4-6). In the Intermediate Phase,
  learners meet individual learning areas
  (Subjects) taught by individual teachers for the
  first time.

32
TRANSITION CONT

• These teachers are frustrated by the fact that
  learners still do not have a well founded
  foundation in English and all the subjects are
  taught in English. They first have to start
  teaching the language or have to code switch or
  translate, for better understanding otherwise,
  learners will not understand a thing of what is
  being taught. This retards the learning process.
• All this brings bad air between Foundation Phase
  and Intermediate Phase teachers. The big question
  is When exactly should English be introduced?

33
DEVELOPMENTS AND PROGRAMMES FOR SUPPORT OF
TEACHING ENGLISH TO YOUNG LEARNERS

• Quality Improvement, Development, Support and
  Uplifment Support Programme (QIDSUP)
• National Curriculum Statements ( NCS)
• ITHUBA PROJECT
• Accelerated Programme for Language, Literacy and
  communication (APLLC)
• LITERACY CELEBRATION

34
PROGRAMMES CONT

• Education remains a cornerstone of all efforts
  to deal with underdevelopment and economic
  growth. It also provides the necessary skills and
  capacity that allows people to escape the poverty
  trap (Premier Shilowa state of the Province
  address 2007)
• As part of the National Initiative the Quality
  Improvement, Development, Support and Upliftment
  Programme (QIDS-UP) is an affirmative action
  programme to give all Gauteng schools an equal
  chance to provide quality education for all its
  learners.
• QIDS UP is a flagship programme of government to
  improve quality of schooling experience for
  learners in the poorest schools.
• The programme will run for a period of 5 years
  (2006 2010) targeting no-fee schools serving
  about 1, 2 million learners across the country.
• It is a multi-pronged strategy to turn around the
  quality of teaching and learning

35
PROGRAMMES CONT

• The programme primarily seeks to improve the
  quality of teaching and learning of Literacy and
  Numeracy skills amongst learners from
  impoverished communities and will further provide
  the poorly resourced schools with the most basic
  resources in order for these schools to meet the
  challenges of the 21st century based on the
  curriculum needs. The objective of this programme
  is to reach approximately 618 258 learners in 819
  schools in quintiles 1 to 3 and will primarily
  target schools that have been declared no-fee
  schools.
• The main aim of Qidsup is adequate Resourcing for
  effective implementation of curriculum and
  improving learner competence levels in Numeracy
  and Literacy also to improve Leadership,
  Management and Governance and further strengthen
  monitoring and evaluation of school performance
  and learner performance

36
PROGRAMMES CONT

• The programme started in 2007 and will continue
  to March 2010 and will target primary schools,
  grades R - 7 in the poorest of our schools.
  Quintiles 3 will be incorporated in the programme
  fully in 2008/9 and from 2009/10 Selected schools
  from quintiles 4 5 will be included. This
  programme will help reduce the challenge of lack
  of books or print rich environment.

37
NATIONAL CURRICULUM STATEMENTS (NCS)

• Transformation and development aims to heal the
  divisions of the past and establish society based
  on democratic values, social justice and
  fundamental human rights. Languages as a subject
  in schools, is faced with even a bigger challenge
  to impact and improve the lives of young South
  African citizens, to further improve the quality
  of life and free potential of each person.
• NCS are for the purpose of laying a good
  foundation for a single national core syllabus
  and to overtly remove racist and other
  insensitive language from existing syllabus. The
  NCS seeks to embody the values in the knowledge
  and skills it develops. It encourages amongst all
  learners an awareness and understanding of the
  rich diversity of cultures, beliefs and world
  views within which the unity of South Africa is
  manifested.

38
NATIONAL CURRICULUM STATEMENTS (NCS)

• Languages Learning Area has six Learning Outcomes
  (LOs) and these comprise of Assessment standards
  that are a vehicle to achieving the intended
  outcome. The Assessment Standards determine what
  activities / assessment tasks can, both the
  teacher and the learner can engage in, to
  demonstrate the level of achieving the Learning
  Outcomes.
• The NCS in Languages learning Area contributes to
  the curriculum as curriculum transformation
  (content, knowledge, skills and values) vehicle.
• Curriculum and teacher development theories and
  practices in recent times have focused on the
  role of the teacher as a specialist in the
  development and implementation of effective
  teaching, learning and assessment practices.
  Teachers are encouraged to develop and implement
  their own learning Programmes.

39
LANGUAGES LEARNING OUTCOMES

• LISTENING
• The learner will be able to listen to
  information and
• enjoyment and respond appropriately in a wide
  range of situations
• SPEAKING
• The learner will be able to communicate
  confidently in
• spoken language.
• READING AND VIEWING
• The learner will be able to read and view for
  information and enjoyment and respond critically
  cultural and
• emotional values in the text.

40
LANGUAGES LEARNING OUTCOMES cont.

• WRITING
• The learner will be able to write different
  kinds of factual and imaginative texts for a wide
  range of purposes.
• THINKING AND REASONING
• The learner will be able to use language to
  think and reason as well as to access, process
  and use Information for learning.
• LANGUAGE STRUCTURE AND USE
• The learner will be able to use
• The sounds, words and grammar of the language to
  create and interpret texts.

41
LANGUAGES LEARNING OUTCOMES cont.

• These outcomes have been written to give specific
  focus to particular kinds of knowledge and skills
  and to make them clear and understandable. When
  we use language we integrate knowledge, skills
  and values to express ourselves.

42
HOW THESE PROGRAMMES ARE SUPPORTED

• Human resources (at District and school level)
  indicating the level of expertise
• All the districts are capacitated with languages
  facilitators who are knowledgeable and trained in
  the NCS. They are supported and developed through
  workshops e.g. NCS training. They are again
  supported through Common Information Forum
  meetings, cluster meetings and joined visits to
  schools (both Head and District office
  officials).
• They (district Officials) in turn support
  teachers through workshops, cluster meetings,
  trainings, school and class visits.
• They also are responsible for sensitising
  parents, principals, district managers, SMT as
  well officials from support services on the
  importance of learning in English and the Home
  language.

43
HOW THESE PROGRAMMES ARE SUPPORTED
44
ITHUBA PROJECT

• Ithuba is a programme that teaches teachers to
  write, edit and print their own stories, i.e. to
  become authors in both English and Home language
  (s). This is the collaborated programme between
  USAID and National Department of Education and is
  run in the three provinces, Limpopo, Mpumalanga
  and Gauteng. The trainers of the project are from
  the services of the NGOs READ and Molteno.
• Teachers are nominated to attend this workshop
  from all the 15 districts and are trained
  vigorously on this programme to be able to
  implement in their schools so as to produce more
  authors from their learners. This is the main
  intention of the programme t promote writing
  (English and Home Language) and reading.

45
ITHUBA PROJECT CONT

• Books are written, edited, printed and published,
  and it really is an honour for both teachers and
  the Department to have produced authors through
  this programme.
• The benefit of this programme is that teachers
  are skilled as authors and are be able to
  inculcate these skills into learners. i.e.
  learners also become authors of tomorrow
• The Ithuba project seeks to support type of
  languages/communities that have been previously
  marginalised.

46
APLLC

• The objective of this strategy is to implement an
  in-service teacher education programme in
  accelerating learners language literacy and
  communication and also to mentor and support
  teachers in implementing methodologies in the
  classroom.
• It is also aiming at accelerating listening,
  speaking, writing and comprehension skills of
  learners through teacher training, mentoring and
  monitoring programme linked to appropriate
  resource provisioning in public schools.
• All these will help overcome barriers to
  learning. Foundation Phase has already started
  with the programme and now Intersen officials
  have been trained to can train the teachers next
  year.

47
APLLC cont.

• JET, another partner in the programme, does the
  evaluation and analysis of results from systemic
  evaluation by OFSTED. The Education Department
  and READ will train the teachers and also monitor
  and support the implementation of this strategy.

48
CONSTRAINTS ON IMPLEMENTATION OF THESE
DEVELOPMENTS AND SUPPORT PROGRAMMES

• Competing Priorities
• APPLLC is a good methodology, but
• When are the teachers to be trained on this
  methodology?
• Should they be taken out of class and leave the
  children unattended to be trained?
• Should they be trained over weekends?
• Will attendance be good more so that there is no
  remuneration? Should they be trained over school
  holidays?
• will unions allow it without gripes?
• The only option for the Department of Education
  after exploring all these avenues was after
  school training. How long is after school
  training? Is two hours of training after a hard
  days work and travelling sufficient? Will it
  yield good results? These are some of the
  challenges facing programmes that are being put
  in place to improve teaching of a language.

49
Gaps in the policy

• Sometimes, as indicated earlier that the South
  Africa comes from the apartheid era where white
  people enjoyed the benefits of the country more
  than the black people, there are still those
  white people who have not yet moved with the
  democracy in South Africa, hence, as the
  governing bodies of the schools, they will use
  language as disadvantaging tool not to accept the
  learners in a school.
• But how so?

50
Gaps cont

• Policy states that
• The learner must choose the language of teaching
  upon application for admission to a particular
  school. Where a school uses the language of
  learning and teaching chosen by the learner, and
  where there is a place available in the relevant
  grade, the school must admit the learner.
• In this case in most former white schools the
  governing bodies use their powers to determine
  the Lolt of the school and disadvantage the black
  learners to attend at that school. e.g. an
  Afrikaans school that wants to remain purely
  Afrikaans will use Afrikaans as the Lolt of the
  school and this will disadvantage black
  learners since Afrikaans is not even one of
  their options in choosing a language. Even if
  there is a place, as the policy states, the
  learner does not understand the language, so what
  will they learn? Only Afrikaans learners will
  attend there.

51
STORAGE AND SECURITY

• APLLC is one of the initiatives to eradicate
  illiteracy in poor schools by providing basic
  resources, however the big question that arises
  from time to time is that the schools appreciate
  the good gesture of the Department but there is
  no security in their schools for safe keeping of
  these resources, there is no storage for these
  resources, over and above all there is no proper
  infrastructure. (Some schools are still attended
  under the trees)

52
CONCLUSION

• African children learn in overcrowded schools
  and have a high failure rate. It is the township
  schools where the African child is based that are
  dysfunctional. This must be brought to a complete
  halt (Premier Shilowa state of the Province
  address 2007)
• The purpose of teaching language(s) is that
  languages are central to our lives. We
  communicate and understand our world through
  language. Language thus shapes our identity and
  knowledge.
• Languages serve a variety of purposes, which are
  reflected in the Languages Learning Area
  Statements and these are

53
CONCLUSION cont

• personal purpose - to sustain, develop and
  transform identities
• communication -to communicate appropriately and
  effectively
• education - to develop tools for thinking and
  reasoning
• aesthetic - to create and interpret oral and
  visual and written texts
• culture - to understand and appreciate languages
  and cultures and heritage they carry
• politics - to assert oneself and challenge others
• critical - to understand the relationship between
  language, power and identity and to resist
  persuasion and positioning

54
CONCLUSION cont

• For a society, the price of disengagement from
  learning leads to serious social problems and
  social exclusions. Low motivation, truancy,
  behaviour problems and exclusion damage our
  communities and burden our economy. Education and
  skills linked to the production of wealth is the
  key to achieving a successful country.
• Despite these challenges, South Africa as a
  country, cannot bury its head in the sand and
  cry, there is no hurdle that cannot be jumped.
  The trick to eat the whole elephant without
  choking is to eat it small by piece by small
  piece. As the saying goes Rome was never built in
  a day.
• It takes a village to teach a child and a reading
  nation is a winning nation.

55
HEITA DAAR

• I THANK YOU
• NGI YA BONGA
• THOBELA
• KE A LEBOGA
• DANKIE
• KHOTSO
• ENKOSI