The comprehension and production of quantifiers in isiXhosa-speaking Grade 1 learners

Joanine Nel,Frenette Southwood

doi:10.4102/sajcd.v63i2.138

Abstract

BackgroundQuantifiers form part of the discourse-internal linguistic devices that children need to access and produce narratives and other classroom discourse. Little is known about the development - especially the prodiction - of quantifiers in child language, specifically in speakers of an African language.ObjectivesThe study aimed to ascertain how well Grade 1 isiXhosa first language (L1) learners perform at the beginning and at the end of Grade 1 on quantifier comprehension and production tasks.MethodTwo low socioeconomic groups of L1 isiXhosa learners with either isiXhosa or English as language of learning and teaching (LOLT) were tested in February and November of their Grade 1 year with tasks targeting several quantifiers.ResultsThe isiXhosa LOLT group comprehended no/none, any and all fully either in February or then in November of Grade 1, and they produced all assessed quantifiers in February of Grade 1. For the English LOLT group, neither the comprehension nor the production of quantifiers was mastered by the end of Grade 1, although there was a significant increase in both their comprehension and production scores.ConclusionThe English LOLT group made significant progress in comprehension and production of quantifiers, but still performed worse than peers who had their L1 as LOLT. Generally, children with no or very little prior knowledge of the LOLT need either, (1) more deliberate exposure to quantifier-rich language or, (2) longer exposure to general classroom language before quantifiers can be expected to be mastered sufficiently to allow access to quantifier-related curriculum content.

Highlights

Language acquisition is fast and efficient until the age of approximately five years, becoming a proficient speaker of one’s mother tongue is an extended process which continues up to approximately the age of nine years (Berman, 2004)
We report here on an investigation of the comprehension and production of quantifiers by isiXhosa-speaking Grade 1 learners in schools situated in low socioeconomic status (SES) areas who have either isiXhosa or English as language of learning and teaching (LOLT)
The learners in the English LOLT group of the current study find themselves in the latter situation: They are L2 learners of English in a class consisting of mainly L2 learners of English

Summary

Introduction

Language acquisition is fast and efficient until the age of approximately five years, becoming a proficient speaker of one’s mother tongue is an extended process which continues up to approximately the age of nine years (Berman, 2004). Quantifiers, a further later-developing syntactic category, form part of the discourse-internal linguistic devices children need to (1) contrast and differentiate characters and objects within narratives and other spoken and written texts and (2) describe quantities in mathematical literacy. This study investigates the comprehension and production of quantifiers by young school-going speakers with isiXhosa as mother tongue. Young children in South Africa generally have low literacy levels (Department of Basic Education, 2014; Olivier, 2009), which are linked to poor language skills (Klop & Tuomi, 2007), to an inability to comprehend and produce some of the above mentioned later-developing constructions used by the children’s teachers in the classroom. Quantifiers form part of the discourse-internal linguistic devices that children need to access and produce narratives and other classroom discourse. Little is known about the development - especially the prodiction - of quantifiers in child language, in speakers of an African language

Objectives

Discussion

Conclusion