Evaluation of a franchised supplementary programme in English as a second language in South Africa: A case study

[摘要] In South Africa, schooling and literacy in an African home language, in public primary schools, isinitially provided to learners in the first three years but as from the fourth year often change toEnglish (and in some instances, Afrikaans) as the language of learning as well as the mediumof instruction. Within a multilingual and multicultural context, parents perceive English to be ofgreater value for their children to learn and although not all families can afford it, somehouseholds will invest their financial resources in after-school extra-curricular activities such asprivate supplementary tutoring. The private tutoring sector is meant to complement the publicschooling system and is often referred to as shadow education. One of the few languageprogrammes registered as a franchise for teaching and learning English as a second language,Active English, is offered to learners in communities across South Africa.In South Africa, there is a paucity of research and studies on marketed private tutoringopportunities. There is also a perennial need for language education programmes to beevaluated and improved in order to illustrate best practice. This study focuses on the methodconcept to language teaching and evaluates the interrelated components of a programme at thelevel of design and approach within an established framework that may be used to evaluateother franchised language programmes. Every component of the programme that wasevaluated received an overall rating statement that captures the essence of the findings.Qualitative research, in the form of an ethnographic study (that of a case study) was conductedat an owner-operated centre in the Vaal Triangle area (Gauteng Province) of the Active Englishfranchise, in order to collect data and information from Grade 3 and Grade 4 learners enrolled inthe language programme, their parents, and from the franchisor. For this, classroomobservations (including a classroom environment survey) were conducted along with interviewswith the respective grade groups and the franchisor. Documents establishing the programme forpotential franchisees were analysed and interpreted and the responses from a questionnairedistributed to parents are reported on as frequencies.Although the programme holds the potential to be effective in other language contexts, theoutcome of the evaluation of the programme is that it is a supplementary tutoring serviceworking effectively but primarily, for bilingual Afrikaans-English speakers at this moment in time.This study contributes with findings and data in the broader body of knowledge of shadoweducation in South Africa. This study also attempts to address the fact that franchisedsupplementary programmes potentially foster inequalities in an already unequal society, upliftand supplement the perceived inadequate education in public schools in South Africa, andindicate to policy-makers that they need to play a role in observing, monitoring, and possibly,regulating this form of shadow education in South Africa.

[发布机构] North-West University