EAL speakers in SLT caseloads
Process 3: Assessment
9. Are there factors operating within the primary settings that can inhibit or promote performance on the competencies assessed?
3.8 POLICY, LANGUAGE AND EDUCATION
stakeholders i.e. family, community and professionals, have been consulted and included in the study. The active participation of the children is a key aspect of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory as children are active participants in their own development. “Children’s perceptions of their context are central to understanding how they interact with their
environments, and the way they perceive their circumstances influences the way they respond to their human and physical contexts.”(Landsberg, 2005, p. 12) Their active participation will thus allow the researcher to explore their perceptions, opinions and views on the use of the existing language tool which is crucial to understanding the tool and how it can be most effectively and reliably used.
One of the pivotal aspects in government policy documents is language (Cook, 2007).
Language has to be viewed within the context of the history of the country and how it is perceived by the speakers of the different language groups. After the anti-apartheid liberation struggle, English was elevated to a language of unity and liberation (Kroes, 2005; Mesthrie, 2002, p. 22; Painter, 2006; Ramphele, 2012):
After the riots of 1976, nearly all those whose mother-tongue was one of the African languages regarded Afrikaans as ‘the language of the oppressor’ ….they demanded English as not only their most important target language in schools but also their medium of instruction(Kroes, 2005, p. 239).
Afrikaans and the African languages were acknowledged at a conversational level, but African languages were still associated in the minds of most mother-tongue African language speakers with the apartheid government’s policy of divide-and–rule. They were thus not regarded as languages of educational and economic progress. Samuel (1998, p. 22) describes post–apartheid South Africa as being characterized by a group of ‘ambiguities and
contradictory relations to the learning of languages.’ Although the parents of African EAL
speaking children from indigenous language and cultural backgrounds encourage the promotion of the African languages as part of the retention of heritage, they still perceive English as the language of power (De Klerk, 2000). Skutnabb-Kangas et al., (2009) and Philipson (2009) argue that the dominance and perceived powerful status of English is a global phenomenon and illustrate it in Europe. The status of English is also reflected in Trevor Manuel51’s biography, where he comments on the perceived status of the English language amongst the Coloured people,“Language, like skin colour, established social status among the Coloured people in the Cape ….better schools taught in English….English speaking children who excelled at school were not dismissed.” (Green, 2008, p. 50)
After the new democratic government was elected in 1994, it was legally necessary to reflect the multilingual nature of the country. Nine African languages, together with Afrikaans and English, were selected as the country’s eleven official languages. In practice, however, English was still the dominant language used in government and business, ‘the de facto lingua franca’ (Johnson, 2009; Kamwangamalu, 2000; Lafon, 2007).This perception of English has persisted in the minds of many parents of African EAL speaking children from indigenous language and cultural backgrounds.
Until the end of 2011, according to South African law, mother-tongue language was
recommended to be used in the Foundational Phase i.e. grades one to three, and the L2 was to be introduced in the Transitional Phase i.e. from grade four (Burger, 2011). In a Colloquium on Mother-Tongue Teaching in Early Years7, there was consensus amongst both the speakers and delegates that one of the major challenges encountered by schools has been trying to implement mother–tongue use in the Foundation Phase because of the perception of English as the language of power by parents of African EAL speakers from indigenous language and
51 Trevor was the Minister of Finance in SA from 1996-2009
7 held at the University of KwaZulu–Natal on 22 May 2009
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cultural backgrounds. This perception manifested in their opposition to mother-tongue teaching of their children. Teachers are, however, aware that the implementation of the Department of Education policy regarding language use in the Foundational Phase is fraught with problems in a country where such hegemony of English prevails and where the
educational system has not adequately prepared teachers for this transition (Mgqwashu, 2004). The learners thus struggle with this transition (Nel, 2005). Many programmes have been implemented to attempt to address this problem, such as the Pep Student Prince
Academies by Social Innovation, which helps teachers facilitate a better transition to English, thereby improving the scholastic performance of the children (Newman, 2010, p. 5).
The introduction of the L2 in grade 4 was reviewed during the introduction of the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement ( CAPS)(Government, 2011). A bilingual approach, where English is introduced from grade 1 as a first additional language ( FAL) is encompassed in a new curriculum, CAPS(Government, 2011). This document, which is based on a Ministerial mandate which acknowledged the difficulty with the transition to English in grade 4, was implemented in January 2012 in the Foundation Phase i.e. grades 1 to 3. The L2, which is often English in South Africa, will however not replace the mother-tongue in the
implementation of the Schooling 2025 curriculum (Burger, 2011) i.e. English remains the First Additional Language (FAL) and not the Home Language (HL).
Samuel (1998)argues that the parents’ reaction to English reflects the complexities that are faced by the multicultural self. This multicultural self in South Africa is a reflection of the multiple self that exists within a multicultural and multilingual context that is constantly changing. It is always facing competing ‘inertial forces’ that influence its identity. These forces include biographical, cultural, linguistic, gender and racial forces (Skutnabb-Kangas , 2012). The mask to be presented to the outside world will depend on the context, audience and purpose of interaction. Although it may be comfortable and appropriate for an African
language speaker to use the vernacular kumsebenzi, at an African ritual ceremony, when you want to impress friends at a party with graduates that you are learned, you use English. The contexts, audiences and purposes of the use of the languages differ at the msebenzi and the party. The choice to use English with an audience perceived to be’ learned’ will associate you with them as English is perceived as the language of progress, carrying high status in various sectors of society, as it is a language of power. The incident described illustrates the perceived status of English:
At a beauty salon I visited in November 2013 I was surprised when the beauty therapist, who was attending to me, was whispering when conversing in isiZulu with me. On further enquiry she admitted to fearing being caught on the cameras in the salon speaking an African language rather than English. She secretly admitted to me that that the owner has instructed all African staff to only communicate in English to all clients including African clients as English is an international language of high status.
Samuel thus maintains that the decision discussed above by parents of African EAL speaking children from indigenous language and cultural backgrounds reflects a yielding to the forces of power. The identity of these parents and the identity they seek for their child are thus closely linked to the forces of power.
This perception by these children’s parents has led to a preference by parents to send their children to English medium schools, as their belief is that language would be the doorway to better life opportunities for their children (Kroes, 2005, p. 241). Alexander (1997)has been very vocal in his opposition to the hegemony of English in education and its potential disastrous impact. He (2009)8 clarifies that his opposition is not to the use of English as a
8 Dr Neville Alexander presented a paper titled “Mother-tongue based bilingual teaching is the key” at the Mother-tongue Colloquium held at the University of KwaZulu–Natal on 22 May, 2009. At the time, he was the
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language of instruction, but the resultant undermining of the value of indigenous languages.
Current reports indicate that, at the preschools visited, there was a tendency to view English as a tool to ‘cure children’ of the mother–tongue .This attitude reinforces the hegemony of English (Li, 2006). These reports are consistent with the SLTs’ comments from the research survey findings (in chapter 2) which indicate that parents advise them that they want their children to learn and be assessed in English.
3.9 ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN THE SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY