39 years on South African learners still struggle with a similar issue to the one that led to the Soweto uprising.
Hector Pietersen and his peers died protesting against being instructed in Afrikaans at school. Today black learners are still taught complex methods and formulae in a language – English – that is usually a second language to them.
Linguistics Professor at Nelson Mandela Metro University, Henry Thipa says mother tongue instruction is important as it helps a learner understand what is being taught in familiar concepts. “From a purely academic point of view mother tongue instruction is important because it helps a learner to conceptualise more easily, because a learner is proceeding from a base that he or she is familiar with namely the language he or she speaks.”
According to Prof. Thipa, being taught in your mother tongue also helps in cognitive development.
“A child first comprehends what is around him or her through their own home language, other languages come later. The actual understanding of the immediate environment, the child first does that through language and this emphasises the importance of language.”
Thipa says that if our languages are to develop, they can do so through usage and innovation.
“Learning in mother tongue improves comprehension and can therefore impact positively on the end of the year results.”
This is evident in a pilot study conducted by the Eastern Cape Education Department at Luzuko Junior Secondary school, in Cofimvaba. Initially, children were being taught Maths in English and had a pass rate of 40% – but when the same subject was taught in their mother tongue-IsiXhosa – the pass result was 100%.
But, if mother tongue instruction yields positive results, then why isn’t the model adopted for the majority of IsiZulu, IsiXhosa, seSotho and XiTsonga learners?
Professor Thipa says “The problem is the lack of suitably qualified teachers, and the attitude of the speakers of these languages, attitudes which derive from the notion that there is no economic value attached to mother tongue teaching or to acquiring a qualification in your mother tongue. Some students of mine once put it bluntly – IsiXhosa asityisi – you can’t make a living from acquiring an IsiXhosa qualification.”
Federation of Governing Bodies of South African Schools (FEDSAS) CEO, Paul Colditz says the result of children failing because of being taught in a language they do not understand is costly.
“The problem is that presently it’s costing the country a huge amount of money in loss of excellence in learning and teaching because children are not able to properly learn and internalise difficult concepts. The majority of children in this country are learning through the English medium which is in many cases a second, third or even a fourth language.”
However, University of Johannesburg first year students share the same sentiments as Prof. Thipa’s students.
Thabo Thabang, from Newcastle, a first year student at University of Johannesburg says vernacular languages are not important as English is a common language throughout the world. “It’s much better to know English as it is the main language and each and every country you could go to you can find someone talking in English as English is the main language.”
Lindsey Sauls, from Florida, Johannesburg says mother tongue instruction is limiting. “I don’t think mother tongue instruction would benefit kids because when you go to the workplace in general there is only English and their language is only spoken here(South Africa).”
Whist the importance of mother tongue instruction from an academic point of view cannot be in question, today’s youth seem rather to want to move away from their roots and languages for a world language that they find hard to understand but believe will help them become more acceptable in the work place.
Attempts to reach the Department of Eduation in Gauteng and the Eastern Cape for comment were unsuccessful.
– By Dinilohlanga Mekuto
