Teaching in mother tongue makes sense, but is it viable?

Basic education minister Angie Motshekga’s plan to promote the teaching of different subjects through African languages from grade four upwards could hit a brick wall.

The department of higher education has acknowledged that student teachers who study an African language as a subject at university to teach grade four to 12 pupils, are not “explicitly” taught how to use it to teach non-language subjects.

Pupils in grades one to three at most schools in SA are taught in their home language.

The Eastern Cape is the only education department to have piloted in 2012, and implemented incrementally, the teaching of maths, natural sciences and technology from grade four onwards.

It is also the only province in the country to provide lesson plans in Xhosa and Sotho for maths in grades four to six.

Motshekga told parliament in June that her department was establishing a task team comprising different stakeholders, including Old Mutual, as well as the departments of higher education and sports, arts and culture, to look into the issue.

She said they were collaborating with the National Education Collaboration Trust (Nect) to put a plan in place which was still in its initial stages.

According to Motshekga, research worldwide showed pupils learn best through their home languages.

“The different options of accelerating teacher training in mother-tongue based instruction will be explored by the task team, and the use of teacher training colleges could be one of the options,” she said.

Higher education spokesperson Ishmael Mnisi said student teachers “might choose to use code switching to facilitate their pupils’ understanding of the subjects that are taught in English or Afrikaans from grades four to five”.

According to the minimum requirements for teacher education qualifications, all teachers who complete an initial teacher education professional qualification should be proficient in one SA language as a home language. They should also be partially proficient, for the purposes of basic conversation, in at least one other official African language.

Said Mnisi: “Students who are trained in an African language, as language of conversational competence, do not have the skills and competencies to teach in an African language.”

He said 4,479 teachers graduated in African languages as a subject in 2018, which was the latest data available.

The idea should not necessarily be to ‘promote’ a language but to make it possible to access knowledge through the language. The advantages are that early language and concept development go hand-in-hand.

—  Professor Elizabeth Henning, from the University of Johannesburg

Academics this week welcomed Motshekga’s initiative but also indicated the biggest challenge would be the shortage of trained teachers to teach in all 11 official languages.

Prof Elizabeth Henning, from the University of Johannesburg, said no-one could dispute the advantages of studying in one’s primary language until matric.

“The idea should not necessarily be to ‘promote’ a language but to make it possible to access knowledge through the language. The advantages are that early language and concept development go hand-in-hand, especially in the early grades, but also ongoing.”

She said she understood some terms better when translated to her primary language, Afrikaans, adding: “Young children learn more than one language simultaneously with ease.”

Prof Loyiso Jita, dean of education at the University of the Free State, said it was “a progressive step” for primary school learning to continue in the home language beyond grade three.

“Assuming that pupils are most comfortable with their home languages, the potential for better learning through that language increases.

“The challenge, of course, occurs when pupils may not be as competent in their own home languages, in part, because of colonial and apartheid dominance of English and Afrikaans but also perhaps due to the cosmopolitan living where language mixing is almost inevitable in a multilingual country like SA.”

He said the benefits of home language instruction were “therefore not guaranteed even as the potential is there”.

“Scientific concepts may pose even more challenges in some of the home languages than in the case with English. So, there will be instances where code switching might help. At the end of the day, the idea is to promote better conceptualisation and learning and not about maintaining language purity at all costs.”

Prof Kotie Kaiser, from North West University, said mother tongue education “does not only entail learning a specific indigenous language as a home language but also having qualified teachers on other school subjects who can teach through each of the mother tongues of the pupils”.

“At the moment, there might be one or two social sciences and natural sciences teachers in a specific phase at school but mother tongue education might mean there has to be six or seven of each of these teachers who will teach these subjects through the medium of six or seven mother tongues, with small numbers of pupils in each of these classes.”

She said there are no resources “to create these scenarios”.

Prof Chika Sehoole, dean of the education faculty at the University of Pretoria, said “any self-respecting nation should invest in language development, especially indigenous languages”.

“Language is an integral part of development, you undermine your language, you undermine your culture.”

Godwin Khosa, CEO of the Nect, which is collaborating with the department on the project, confirmed Old Mutual had provided R3.8m in seed funding, part of which would be used to establish a language unit in the department and pay for the services of an expert from Wits University.

“Education improvements have short and long range strategies, and I think this initiative is one of the long range ones that should bear fruit in decades to come. It should not be perceived as a short-term magic wand.”