Thutiso le ithuto ya Setswana mo tikologong e e dipuodintsi ya sedika sa Frances Baard mo porofenseng ya Kapa Bokone ya Aforikaborwa: Patlisiso ya tobiso.

Abstract

Many countries, throughout the entire world, are bilingual/multilingual. Education in these countries is also multilingual. Similarly, South Africa is also multilingual and education in this county is multilingual too. In line with this, South Africa has assigned its eleven languages official language status at a national level. These languages are used as home languages to learners who use them as their mother tongue.This research found that the multilingual theory has been used to teach foreign languages to people of indigenous languages and has also been used as languages of teaching. Many research studies that encourage the use of multilingual education support grounding it on the mother tongue are against focussing it on foreign languages. This study tries to argue that if mother tongues are regarded as important in the learners' education, emphasis should be geared on improving the excellence in the first language (L1) instead of the second language (L2). This study found that in the use of multilingualism in South African education, the indigenous or first languages (L1) are influenced by foreign languages or second languages (L2) in word choice, pronunciation of sounds and syntax (sentence construction). A mixed method research approach, that includes qualitative and quantitative methods, has been used to triangulate the collected data to reduce the possible gaps that can be there. The mixed method has been used to collect data in two ways, namely: in the form of numbers (marks of Setswana Home Language (HL)) and in written form (words) (through language activities of learners who are doing Setswana HL as a subject). Data was collected from the teachers and learners with the use of qualitative method questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Additionally, promotion marks documents, teachers' question papers and learners' written activities were used to collect quantitative data. A stratified purposive sampling method was used to select the participants and the location that is appropriate for the purpose of the study. In the analysis of the data from the activities, the Chi-square test12 and percentages method was used to analyse marks taking into consideration the previous year examination reports in comparison with those of the learner who is in Grade 11 this year. The findings of this study revealed that the learners' performance in the speaking, reading and writing skills in Setswana HL is affected by the influence of other languages ensuing from the multilingual environment. In this study, it was found that the home language subject is important in the passing and as well as the promotion of the learner to the next grade, but it is not done as a Language of Learning and Teaching (LoLT) of the learner. The findings of this research study revealed that the influence of other languages, especially English, on the indigenous languages which are home languages like Setswana, has an effect on the inept performance of the learners in the language skills. As a result, different strategies of language teaching were investigated to assist in mitigating and eliminating this influence. Based on the Home Language, this study suggests Translanguaging, as a strategy that can assist in the learning and teaching of Setswana HL. It also suggested how it can be used in the classroom during teaching and learning as well as assessment.