The comprehension and production of later developing language constructions by Afrikaans-, English- and isiXhosa-speaking Grade 1 learners

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study investigated the comprehension and production of articles, quantifiers, bindingrelations and passive constructions as later developing constructions (LDCs) by 27 Grade (Gr) 1monolingual Afrikaans-speaking learners with Afrikaans as language of learning and teaching(LOLT), 31 bilingual isiXhosa-speaking learners with English as LOLT and 31 monolingualisiXhosa-speaking learners with isiXhosa as LOLT in three non-fee-paying schools, each in adifferent low socio-economic status area, in the Stellenbosch area of the Western Cape Provincein South Africa. The overarching aim of this study was to determine which LDCs these learnersare capable of comprehending and producing at the start of Gr 1 and what progress they make interms of these LDCs during their Gr 1 year. The English and isiXhosa LOLT groups were thencompared on how they fared on the LDCs in their respective LOLTs in order to ascertain whetherthe English language proficiency of the English group is at such a level at the start of Gr 1 thatthey can, without disadvantage, undergo schooling successfully in English. Data were collectedon articles, binding relations, quantifiers and passive constructions by using the informallanguage assessment instrument, the Receptive and Expressive Activities for Language Therapy(Southwood & Van Dulm 2012a), which makes use of picture selection- and pointing tasks forassessment of comprehension and sentence completion, picture description- and questionanswering tasks for assessment of production. The results showed that for the Afrikaans andEnglish groups all four LDCs are indeed later developing and are only mastered after the end ofGr 1. For the isiXhosa group, quantifiers and passive production are mastered by the end of Gr 1.In terms of the language-in-education and teaching policy, the results show that the time allocatedto listening to and producing language in Gr 1 is sufficient for children whose first language isalso their LOLT, whereas it is not sufficient in the case of English additional language learners.The latter group made significant progress in all LDCs assessed, but still performed worse thantheir isiXhosa-speaking peers, for whom there was a match between first language and LOLT.The implication of the results are that (i) the Foundation Phase school curriculum should berefined so as to consider the needs of all Gr 1 learners, as learners enter Gr 1 with differentlanguage skills and different levels of preparation for the tasks which lie before them, (ii) teachersshould be assisted to foster the development of language skills in additional language learners,and (iii) the institution of a universal Gr R year, which is free to those who cannot afford schoolfees, should be considered a necessity. Without ensuring that all children enter Gr 1 with anadequate language foundation on which literacy development can build, historical inequalitiesstill present in South Africa will likely be perpetuated rather than systematically removed.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University