We live in a linguistically and culturally diverse country. Many countries have one or two official
languages, some have three or four. South Africa has 12, including South African Sign Language.
Our reality is that many of our learners begin formal
education, the start to their academic careers,
learning in their second or even third language.
Furthermore, many children, due to circumstance or
developmental predisposition, begin formal education
without a solid language foundation which is the basis
upon which metalinguistic language concepts, phonological
skills, academic vocabulary as well as abstract thinking
and reasoning skills are built. And it is these language
and cognitive skills which are acquired on top of that
language foundation, that are a requirement for successful
progression through school. Thus, the need for teachers to
understand how language is acquired and to ensure that
the classroom is an environment that is supportive of the
acquisition of language given the challenges many children
face.
This is an extract from an article I wrote for the Catholic Education Magazine.
