[lg policy] South Africa: Language a barrier to exam success

[Harold Schiffman]

Western Cape / 10 January 2017, 5:33pm
Saarah Surve
File picture

Cape Town - Pupils forced to write their matric exams in languages other
than their mother tongue are put at a distinct disadvantage, leading to
lower scores on their papers, according to UWC’s linguistics department
head.

Professor Bassey Antia said the Department of Basic Education (DBE) should
invest in more teachers, moderators and invigilators who speak African
languages in order to administer examinations across more diverse languages
than just English and Afrikaans.

“In classrooms, learners are often taught in more than one language.

“It is therefore somewhat unnatural for such learners to be tested in only
one of these languages, especially when it is the weaker of their
languages,” he said.

“Speakers of African languages, in particular, score the lowest since their
languages are not used in examining content subjects."

“The language of the exam paper itself should not be a challenge; the
content of the paper should."

“When results are released everybody says the performance is dismal and the
language question tends to be dismissed."

“I say we should look at it differently, because the environments are
multilingual and learners acquire knowledge across languages. However, when
it comes to assessment, learners are tested in one language, the official
language.”

The DBE said it does not have enough teachers to teach indigenous languages
and therefore cannot administer exams in African languages.

Department spokesperson, Elijah Mhlanga said the DBE embarked on an
initiative aimed at bringing indigenous African languages into mainstream
education, but it has yet to bear fruit.

“We implemented the Incremental Introduction of African Languages policy in
2014 which was aimed at forcing all schools in South Africa to offer at
least one African language.

“At the end of the pilot we learned there was a shortage of teachers in
this area."

“We have started to attract teachers using a variety of measures aimed at
increasing the numbers and thus grow African languages in our schools.

“As things stand, we don’t have enough people that work in this area of our
system and that is what we need to do first before we can administer exams
in African languages.”

Antia conducted a study which found students who registered to write matric
in English and who know both matric exam languages (English and Afrikaans)
would flip their exam papers over to read the Afrikaans side if they did
not understand the term in English, and vice-versa.

His study, which started in 2013 and is ongoing, includes 119 students from
different language groups.

“Terms in one language can be more descriptive than in another language,”
said Antia.

“There is knowledge embedded in terms.”

“Knowing several languages can afford different entry points to
understanding.”

Antia hopes to present his research to the DBE once it has been published.

http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/western-cape/language-a-barrier-to-exam-success-7370423


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