Teaching strategies adopted by teachers in rural areas to support language learning in the learners’ first additional language
Abstract
South African teachers are confronted with having to teach in a multilingual context which raises multiple challenges, for both teachers and learners. Hence second language learners are challenged by attempting to catch up with others, who are being taught in their home language. The aim of this study was to explore what teaching strategies teachers in the rural areas of South Africa adopt in their teaching to bridge the language divide across the curriculum when the LOLT (Language of Learning and Teaching) is not the learners’ home language.The study adopted a qualitative research approach and a phenomenological design. The sample comprised grade 4-6 teachers who were required to teach in a LOLT which was not the learners’ home language. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews via WhatsApp messenger voice recordings, with five teachers from a rural school in the Eastern Cape. The interviews were transcribed, and the data were analysed thematically according to themes and subthemes.Teachers used a variety of strategies such as code switching and translanguaging to support learners, but indicated that despite the approaches they used, learners still tended to struggle to cope in the Intermediate Phase (grades 4-6) when they had to switch to a LOLT which was English, but not their mother tongue, isiXhosa. Based on the findings of the study it is imperative that teachers be exposed to more practical, focused approaches such as kinaesthetic learning, amongst others, so that learners could advance academically.
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