[lg policy] South Africa: Science has its own language

Fri Jul 24 15:03:04 UTC 2015

Science has its own language

24 Jul 2015 00:00 Samuel Ouma Oyoo <http://mg.co.za/author/samuel-ouma-oyoo>
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Research shows that pupils at the same skills level in a single language
will do better in science.
 [image: Graphic: John McCann]
<http://mg.co.za/article/2015-07-23-science-has-its-own-language>

Mother-tongue education has long been a political powder keg in South
Africa. This started with the 1976 Soweto uprisings when school children
staged protests after Afrikaans became the medium of instruction.

Today, the country’s policies promote multilingualism. But its schools are
battling with too few African language teachers. Many teachers are not
multilingual. All the high-stakes examinations are also taken in only
English or Afrikaans.

This means most of South Africa’s 11 official languages take a back seat to
English and Afrikaans when it comes to formal school learning and teaching.

Language rights are enshrined in South Africa’s Constitution and there’s an
ongoing debate about how best to promote multilingualism in schools.

But is this debate relevant when it comes to teaching science? My answer is
no. Instead, science should be taught in only one language from grade 4
onwards.

This is a conclusion reached after more than three decades as a school
physics teacher, a science teacher educator and through sustained research
about language for the effective learning of school science.

In the past five years, this research has been conducted as part of the
language and learning of physical science project at Wits University’s
Marang Centre for Mathematics and Science Education.

It has involved about 3?500 physical science pupils from 35 high schools in
Johannesburg and teaching students from Wits. A total of 70 physical
science teachers have also participated. Data has been collected through
word tests and structured interviews.

Science is a practical subject, but it also has its own language. Teachers
must explain what they are doing when setting up an experiment, for
instance, and use everyday language to clarify complex concepts.

In South African schools, a language’s appropriateness for learning and
teaching is judged mainly by whether it is the pupils’ mother tongue, no
matter what subject is being taught.

Teachers assume that, if a pupil is proficient in a language, they’ll be
able to cope with the subject matter.

So, in science, those who speak and are taught in English are presumed to
have an advantage.

If that was the case, all first-language English speakers who are taught in
English would excel in science – but this is simply not true.

That’s because science classrooms have an entirely different language. A
pupil who is fluent in English will know what “decay” means in an English
lesson or a biology text. In physics, the word means something totally
different.

Our findings over the past five years have been nearly identical to those
in other transnational studies and in my earlier work.

Teaching students and pupils battle with the unique language of the science
classroom irrespective of gender, cultural or linguistic backgrounds.

Proficiency in the language of the science classroom is key, though it’s
certainly not the only factor that will stop people from performing well in
the subject.

Our research suggests that if everyone is at the same level of proficiency
in a single language when they start learning science, it removes a serious
barrier to performance.

Many of South Africa’s children are still learning in a second or even
third language.

The shortage of qualified African language teachers is a situation that
seems unlikely to improve any time soon. While debates about
multilingualism continue, we cannot sit idle. So why not level the playing
field by using just one language for all learning beyond grade 3?

As to which language this should be, there is evidence to suggest that many
South African parents want their children to be taught and become
proficient in English. English is considered useful for future studies at
tertiary institutions anywhere in the world and is also the most widely
spoken of the 11 official languages globally.

Once a language has been chosen, the education department can focus on
ensuring that pupils are proficient in it, in much the same way that
schools foster computer literacy.

Pupils will then be able to learn and perform in science according to their
individual capabilities to handle science concepts without language as an
added handicap.

A similar policy has been pursued elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa. In
Lusophone countries, Portuguese is the language of instruction, Francophone
countries often use French as the medium of instruction and Anglophone
countries favour English in the classroom.

These languages hark back to colonial times, which may make people
uncomfortable. But on a practical level they are similar to English – far
more widely spoken globally than any local languages.

This is not to say that all other official languages as recognised in the
Constitution are irrelevant or that multilingualism shouldn’t have any
place in schools.

Multilingualism fosters social cohesion and languages are a crucial part of
people’s individual cultures.

When it comes to learning school science, however, the single language
policy is a sustainable one. One language for all school learning will
focus pupils’ efforts on attaining good proficiency levels in it.

The single language policy therefore has the potential to enhance learning
outcomes and to speedily produce the science skills that South Africa
needs. – theconversation.com

*Samuel Ouma Oyoo teaches science education at Wits University*

*http://mg.co.za/article/2015-07-23-science-has-its-own-language
<http://mg.co.za/article/2015-07-23-science-has-its-own-language>*

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