Die verband tussen blootstelling aan en houding teenoor Engels by Afrikaanssprekende leerlinge

Abstract

The recurring accusation that pupils of English as a second language leave school without the necessary skills to use English in the business world and tertiary institutions, has prompted this study. Of the many variables involved in language acquisition, and in particular second language acquisition, exposure to the target language and attitude towards the target language were deemed to be the most important. The statement is often made that Afrikaans-speaking pupils are negative towards English, but there is little empirical evidence to substantiate this claim. This study examined the process of language acquisition and in particular the acquisition of a second language to ascertain which variables are involved. Exposure to the target language and attitude towards the target language were tested by means of a questionnaire. The questionnaire on exposure was divided into categories covering receptive and productive exposure to English and the pupils had to indicate how many hours per week they were exposed to a particular aspect. Receptive exposure indicates how much the pupil is exposed to the written or spoken language, without actually producing language himself. Productive exposure includes the language that the pupil produces himself, either in spreaking or writing. The requirements to be met by a questionnaire that will meassure attitude were studied and validity and reliability received high priority in the development of the questionnaire. 120 pupils of an Afrikaans-medium high school (school C) in the Far Northern Transvaal were selected to complete a preliminary questionnaire including only the main aspects involved in forming attitudes. These included feelings about achievement in the second language and self-esteem regarding the second language. Acculturation, the influence of the L2 teacher, affective factors regarding English, subject content, motivation, the influence of parents and peers and the influence of the social environment of the pupils were included in this questionnaire. After the completion of this questionnaire there were 1440 items to be refined for the final questionnaire. A panel of 12 language to semantic content unfavourable opinions) items were grouped and the subject. teachers had to scale the items according on a scale ranging from A ( intensely to K (intensely favourable opinions). All 100 representative items were selected by Two schools were then selected, the one being a double medium school (school A) and the other an Afrikaans-medium school (school B). 120 candidates from each school were selected from standerds 6

to 9. These pupils completed the questionnaire and the following results were obtained: there was little evidence of a general, intense feeling of antagonism towards English. The exposure of the pupils in the Afrikaans-medium school was mainly restricted to the classroom and very little exposure was experienced outside the classroom. Al though pupils of the double medium school had considerably more receptive exposure than those pupils in the Afrikaans-medium school, they hardly spoke English any longer than the pupils of school B. The subject content elicited the most negative response and pupils found the subject to be boring, irrelevant and unenjoyable. Literature caused frustration because the relevance of this aspect of the language could not be seen. Pupils expressed the desire to speak more English. There was a correlation between the exposure to English and the attitude towards English. Although these correlations were not dramatically high, the pupils of the double medium school obtained significantly higher scores than those of the Afrikaans-medium school. It can thus be concluded that more exposure to English may bring about more positive attitudes towards English.