Answer to Question #298011 in English for Maly

Question

Describe the South African languages in education approach and what it entails

Answer 1

According to the country's official language policies, schools must choose a language or languages of learning and teaching. Most choose English or Afrikaans and not the African language spoken in the area. African languages are then only taught as subjects and are rarely used as a medium of instruction.

Language policy in education has to promote inter-group communication and understanding. The best way of doing so is via mother tongue-based bilingual education and the promotion of individual multilingualism (or plurilingualism) rather than by means of reliance on a lingua franca only.

The Language Policy is an action statement, which informs how students at IC, learn language, about language and through language. It provides a common understanding of aims and objectives of language learning and teaching and stresses the transdisciplinary nature of language learning.