The impact of a subtractive bilingual context on the language attitudes, use and skills of primary school children from the Kathorus area : a comparative study.

[摘要] Dissatisfaction with the quality of education under the former Department of EducationTraining (DET). lack of facilities, and disruptions during the political transitional periodhave been the reasons why more and more black parents, who could afford it financially,tend to send their children to so-called 'white' or ex-Model C schools.In ex-Model C schools these children in many instances do not receive any teaching in their homelanguages nor can they take their home languages as a first language subject. WhereAfrican languages are taught at ex-Model C schools, they are taught a, non-examsubjects. starting only in Grade 5 and on a third language level. Even then, only oneAfrican language is offered per school, irrespective of the range of African languages thatlearners of that particular school speak at home. with the result that many children do nothave their home language as a subject at all.This study is based on the hypothesis that there is a lack of identification with the homelanguage and the home language culture in the case of black children who are attendingex-Model C schools. As a result most children from these ex-Model C schools are lost tothe African culture and traditions Hence they develop attitudes which are negativetowards their own languages. They identify themselves more with their SecondLanguage, which is English in this case, yet they also experience some form of alienationtowards the English language and its associated cultural aspects.In some of these ex-Model C schools, children are required to attend English pre-primarypreparatory schools. Since this is the critical stage of home language acquisition, asecond hypothesis has been posed, namely, that this adversely affects children from beingproficient in the African language of the home. The skill in the African language wouldbe reduced to basic interpersonal communication skills(BICS) (Cummins 1984), withimpaired cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP) (Cummins 1984). (Abbreviation abstract).

[发布机构] University of the Witwatersrand