The teaching and learning of isiXhosa for communicative purposes in teacher education for the Foundation Phase

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Policies that promote multilingualism in education call for innovative ways to equip preservice teachers to function effectively in linguistically diverse classrooms in South Africa. Much of the existing literature focuses on theorising how teachers should function in linguistically diverse schools, without much reference to empirical evidence. Drawing on theoretical frameworks by Canale and Swain on communicative competency and Bagaric and Djigunovic on grammatical, sociolinguistic, strategic and discourse competencies, we report on work done with Foundation Phase preservice teachers in the Western Cape, South Africa, on how to function in multilingual classrooms. Using design-based research, we present data from 20 English- and Afrikaans-speaking preservice teachers who were part of an isiXhosa module aimed at equipping them with communicative competence in the classroom. Data from a questionnaire, observations and focus group discussions were coded and thematically analysed. The results of the study show that with intentional training of preservice teachers for multilingual classrooms, more teachers can start comprehending and capitalising on the linguistic repertoires of learners in the classrooms.