- Title
- Coping with change: an investigation into language policy and practice in three Port Elizabeth primary schools
- Creator
- Foli, Cordelia Nokuthula
- Subject
- Language policy -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth
- Subject
- Education, Primary -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth
- Subject
- Multicultural education -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth
- Date Issued
- 2004
- Date
- 2004
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Masters
- Type
- MA
- Identifier
- vital:10995
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10948/327
- Identifier
- Language policy -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth
- Identifier
- Education, Primary -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth
- Identifier
- Multicultural education -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth
- Description
- This is a qualitative case study of three Primary, schools in Port Elizabeth District.They are an ex -White, ex-Coloured and ex-Indian schools. These schools have become desegregated and are multicultural and multilingual. The medium of instruction in the schools is English. The study aims to show: Adaptations that teachers are making to make the curriculum accessible to children from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds; coping strategies that learners have needed to adapt when learning in a language that is not their mother tongue; attitudes of parents, teachers and pupils to the use of English and to the level at which the other home languages are offered as subjects. Another aim of the study is to document strategies and adaptations that teachers and learners have had to make in teaching and learning in multicultural and multilingual environments. Data was gathered through questionnaires, classroom observation, discussions with teachers, interviews with principals, parents and learners. The study concludes that two of the schools that were investigated have attempted to change school language policy. They have done this by introducing isiXhosa as one of the subjects in the curriculum. Contrary to the language policy which encourages maintenance of primary language, these learning contexts encourage the development of English to the detriment of isiXhosa. The issue that still needs to be addressed is the level at which isiXhosa primary language speakers are offered the language at school. This study further concludes that isiXhosa and Afrikaans speaking parents and learners in the English environments, value their primary languages for communicative purposes only in informal situations. English is valued as a language of access and for use as a language of learning and teaching. Finally, it is teachers in the Foundation Phase who seem to have needed to make a lot of adaptations and adjustments to accommodate non- native speakers of English in the classrooms.
- Format
- 89 pages
- Format
- Publisher
- University of Port Elizabeth
- Publisher
- Faculty of Arts
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University
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