Teacher Professionalism - An Innovative Programme for Teaching Mathematics to Foundation Level Learners with Limited Language Proficiency

Abstract

This article reports on results derived from a quantitative research into the language proficiency of disadvantaged preschoolers within a Griqua community near Christiana in the Free State province (South Africa) with a population of approximately one hundred and fifty families. The learners' main language is a dialect of Afrikaans, but (to a lesser extent) they also speak Xhosa and Xhoi-San (two of the indigenous African languages), as well as non-standard English at home. Preschoolers from this settlement attend a preschool where standard Afrikaans and English are spoken (double medium preschool). The aim of this project was to determine the ways that limited language proficiency impact on learners' readiness for mathematics instruction, and to define the link between limited language proficiency and non-readiness for mathematics instruction at foundation phase. The results proved a link between limited language proficiency and non-readiness for foundation level mathematics instruction due to limited thinking skills, which constitute limited cognitive academic language proficiency. The concept cognitive academic language proficiency refers to those language skills that are essential to transcend ordinary social language. On average, children need between five and seven years to attain cognitive academic language proficiency of such a level that would support grade-level performance on academic tasks. The findings were utilized to construct and propose a programme for teaching mathematics to foundation level learners with limited language proficiency.