Preface

Abstract

This number of Per Linguam starts with an investigation into issues of validity in the South African Grade 12 English Home Language examinations. Du Plessis finds that not only is there a lack of clarity on whether English Home Language as a subject is being offered at an adequately high level to meet the declared objectives of the curriculum, but that the reliability of the results obtained by Grade 12 learners in the exit-level examination has been placed under suspicion. This study takes a close look at the language component of the school-leaving examination covering the period 2008-2012, and finds that the selection of English Home Language papers evaluated in this study cannot be concluded to be a valid or reliable assessment of high language ability, and that the credibility of the examination results remains questionable.