[lg policy] South Africa: SAPA PR -- LANGUAGE POLICY NEEDS GREATER INVESTMENT & POLITICAL WILL

[Harold Schiffman]

PR-MOLTENO-LANGUAGE-POLICY
SAPA PR -- LANGUAGE POLICY NEEDS GREATER INVESTMENT & POLITICAL WILL
May 17, 2011 at 08:08 AM
Issued by: PR REPUBLIC


17 May 2011


LANGUAGE POLICY NEEDS GREATER INVESTMENT & POLITICAL WILL

The Molteno Institute for Language and Literacy has called on
government to increase its investment in South Africa's official
languages to properly support its language policy. According to the
Institute, it's a fact that the best language for learning is a
person's home language.

"Research shows that when a child learns in his or her home language,
the amount of information understood, absorbed and retained is far
greater than when a second language is used as a medium of
instruction," says Molteno's CEO Masennya Dikotla.

Dikotla says government agrees with this philosophy, having entrenched
it in the constitution with the recognition of 11 official languages;
but the real challenge comes at implementation level.

While we advocate for the use of a home language as language of
learning and teaching, we also agree with the Minister of Higher
Education and Training that not only universities should teach all
their students at least one African indigenous language as a subject,
but schools as well.

When it comes to Afrikaans, he says, the effectiveness of
mother-tongue instruction is clearly demonstrated. "Just think of
Afrikaans-speaking people who trained in Afrikaans to be doctors,
lawyers, engineers and scientists, but who get by equally well in
English as it was introduced as an additional language at an early
age, while their main instruction took place in Afrikaans."

"For South Africa's other official languages to advance to this
extent, it would be necessary for government, civil society and
academia to work together to ensure more researchers and writers are
employed at university level in developing the languages and
translating them into the various textbooks and other materials that
are needed," says Dikotla.

A significant investment also needs to be made in training teachers to
instruct in these languages.

"Just because you speak a language, even as your mother tongue,
doesn't mean you're qualified to teach it or in it," he adds.
"Language instruction needs to be taught formally, and that's why
we're encouraging more student teachers to take African languages at a
tertiary level."

At the same time, it's important that government educates the public
as to the importance of mother tongue instruction. Dikotla says it's a
worldwide phenomenon that non English-speaking parents push their
children into English schools, satisfied that if their home language
is spoken at home, this is enough.

"However, research shows the devastating effect that this belief has,
not only on the children's ability to learn all subjects, but also on
the degradation of their culture. Language is culture and if you deny
children their language, you also deny them their cultural heritage."

Dikotla says government should encourage the establishment of
bilingual schools, for example Zulu/English, as a means of ensuring
children are able to learn in their mother tongues for as long as
possible, while learning the lingua franca at the same time.

"Otherwise, non English speaking children are left to grapple with the
language of instruction before they even come to grips with the
content, be it mathematics, science or biology."

"The key is investing in teachers and resources for the various
languages," concludes Dikotla.

"Without solid investment and political will, government's good
policies will remain at policy level."

ISSUED ON BEHALF OF MOLTENO BY PR REPUBLIC.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT LEANDRI SMITH ON 079 523 8374 OR AT <
leandri at prrepublic.co.za >

http://www.link2media.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12208&Itemid=12

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