ÁREAS DE CLIENTES Áreas de clientes – General

This section compared the curriculum used in each of the three schools with the National Curriculum Statement (NCS). The Languages Learning area under NCS is presented in three parts, each with its own volume: Home Language, First additional Language, and Second additional Language. The languages learning area statement provides a curriculum that is supportive of whatever decision a school makes. The languages learning area therefore supports learning in all of the other learning areas because a language, whether it is the home or an additional language is the medium through which all teaching, learning and assessment takes place. (Teachers resource book, 2005)

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In the GET band, the phase in which this study was conducted, learners are required to learn their Home language and at least a First Additional Language, with the option of learning a Second Language. The learning outcomes for this study were LO’s 1-5 as already mentioned in Chapter 2. The researcher looked at the curriculum documents to see how they guide teachers to teach isiXhosa and create classroom documents in order to see what happened in practice. I looked at the syllabus, the senior phase training manual used to train grades 7-9 teachers, the scheme of work, the teacher’s lesson plans (to be presented and discussed in the next section) and samples of learners work in their exercise books.

The home language assessment standards assume that learners come to school able to understand and speak i.e. they have literacy (reading, writing, visual and critical literacies). This refers to school A where isiXhosa is taught as HL. The first additional assumes that the learners’ do not necessarily have any knowledge of the language (isiXhosa) when they arrive at school. The curriculum starts by developing learner’s ability to understand and speak the isiXhosa language. On this foundation it builds literacy, this refers to school B. The second additional language is intended for learners who wish to learn three languages. The assessment standards ensure that learners are able to use the language for general communicative purposes. Second additional language does not have learning outcome 5 that deals with the use of languages for reasoning and thinking. This outcome is not included in the curriculum for SAL since its aim is not to prepare learners to use isiXhosa in this way. This refers to schools B and C.

4.1.1 Home Language Curriculum at School A

As indicated above, the three schools had different curriculum according to the three levels in which isiXhosa was offered in each school. The school’s curriculum served as a guide to teach isiXhosa as a subject in the different schools for this study. The focus of this phase is on consolidating what they have learnt in the earlier grades. The learners should be able to read and write for a wide range of purposes - formal and informal, public and personal. School A was a rich isiXhosa environment and the syllabus was written in isiXhosa. The curriculum for the home language level sets out the basic competencies to be achieved in each grade that is from grades 7-9. The learners had to read both in silent form and sometimes aloud, depending

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on the instructions of a particular activity for language. Learners had to read prepared and unprepared paragraphs or passages from the prescribed readers. Learners had to talk about content and reading was encouraged on a daily basis and sometimes also done for enjoyment. Also at HL level the learners had to retell the stories and further discuss them. This allowed for some latitude for interpretation of the material under discussion, thereby contributing to a more critical approach for the HL learning.

The content of texts can be challenging and stimulating to develop critical understanding of values. Below are the texts for grades 7-9 in an isiXhosa home level school i.e. school A:

Grade 7 Grade 8 Grade 9

Short stories Short stories Short stories

Autobiographies Poetry A full length novel

Short novels Plays Poetry

Poetry Folklore (where appropriate) Three- to five-act-plays One- and two-act-plays Selection of short texts such

as magazines

Folklore (where appropriate)

Myths and legends Film study Selection of shorter texts

From the full range of texts above, the learners should be exposed to rich and appropriate social and historical settings that develop understanding of the heritage of the isiXhosa language.

For school A learners were given complex texts that needed their critical thinking. Examples were:

Hlalutya lo mbongo uze ujonge imiqolo kuzo zonke izitanza. (Analyse this poem looking at all the stanzas line by line.)

A variety of poetic forms emerged in the poems chosen by the teachers for the learners.

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The curriculum for FAL focused on a range of more complex texts with a greater degree of independence than in the earlier grades. At this level they will learn to write longer texts. Learners will understand more complicated concepts and develop more complex thinking, but this thinking is not on a par with the critical thinking required in school A.

In school B learners were given simpler texts and lexical items, for example lessons on the family structure and greetings:

umama ‘mother’, utata ‘father’, umalume ‘uncle’, umakhulu ‘grandmother’, umninawe ‘younger brother’, umakazi ‘maternal aunt’, udadobawo ‘paternal aunt’, utatomninci ‘paternal uncle’…

Further examples regarding greetings: molo-molweni ‘Hello, in both singular and plural’, molo titshalakazi ‘Hello teacher’, molweni bafundi ‘Hello learners’ and so on.

The texts ranged from oral, visual and written. The following texts form part of the curriculum in school B:

Grade 7 Grade 8 Grade 9

Stories, fables, legends, songs

Jokes, songs, poems directions, instructions

Radio news

Maps, plans, diagrams, photographs

Descriptions of people, messages

Interviews cartoons

Books, poems, recipes, notices, dictionaries

Conversations, prepared talks, maps, graphs, photographs

Description of people, objects, places and processes

Charts, word puzzles, time tables, notices, dictionaries

Invitations, book and television reviews

Weather reports, jokes, multimedia, videos

Graphs , charts, reports Dictionaries Post cards, letters, diaries.

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In school C the curriculum was mostly on the spoken language, for example dialogue and the acquisition of vocabulary and there was little written language. Simpler texts were given to learners. The focus at this level is for the learners to feel confident about using isiXhosa especially in oral communication.

Arguably sound grammar and vocabulary are the building blocks of language. They are to be taught in texts and integrated with reading, listening and speaking. Below are examples of the texts used for the second additional language level:

Grade 7 Grade 8 Grade 9

Debates, conversations, Stories TV programmes

Role plays, jokes Graded readers TV adverts

Discussions, word games Magazine and newspaper articles

Films

Simple radio programmes Advertisements Videos

Oral poems, stories Reference books Greeting cards

Dialogue, reports Post cards Computer programmes

Messages, songs Messages

From the above outline of the curriculum it would seem that there is some overlap between what is taught at first additional and second language levels i.e. the curricula is a more interactive one in nature, whereas at school A the HL curriculum requires greater critical thinking. Arguably the HL curriculum also needs to be more contemporary in nature as compared to the other two levels i.e. to embrace critical thinking in relation to contemporary media rather than relying on extant texts and the written word to a large degree.