Mother tongue and bilingual education

Language education in Africa seldom provides a solid foundation for literacy and numeracy development. Instead of learning in a familiar language, pupils learn through an international language before they know it well enough.

A recent study of mother tongue and bilingual education for the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) and UNESCO's Institute for Education (UIE) shows why current systems cannot deliver success.

Early literacy programmes focus on reading simple narratives, but from Grade 4 learners are expected to read far more complex texts.

African countries expect young children to learn through an international language from Grade 1 or within the first 3 to 4 years of primary. The transition from mother tongue (L1) education to learning in the international language often happens at the point that learners are expected to jump from reading stories to academic texts.

Learners, however, need six to eight years of very good second language (L2) teaching before they are ready to use it as a medium of instruction. During this time, strong mother tongue education needs to continue so that learners keep up with the curriculum. The stronger the development of the mother tongue, the stronger the proficiency in the second language.

The ADEA-UIE study shows that learners do well in early L1 programmes. However, within a year or two of the transition to the international language, achievement slows down and declines to an average of about 30 percent by the end of secondary.

Learners left behind by Grade 6 rarely catch up. The system only prepares them for an unsuccessful early exit from school. Figure 3 below shows the difference between the achievement of learners who study through their second language (32 percent) and learners who study in their mother tongue (69 percent) in South Africa.

Figure 3: South Africa – Grade 6 Language achievement by province: where the home language is the same as the language of learning and teaching (LOLT); and where the home language is different from the LOLT (Larger version)

Research findings:

• L1 literacy development for Grades 1 to 3 is valuable but not sufficient.
  l Strong L2 subject teaching for 6 to 8 years is required before L2 can be used as medium.
• Premature interruption of L1 education interrupts cognitive and academic development.
• Low achievement in literacy, mathematics and science is linked to premature use of L2 medium.

Policy recommendations:

• New programme and materials design should eliminate the gap between early literacy (Grades 1 to 3) and academic literacy (Grades 4 onwards).
• L1 education needs to be extended through to Grade 6.
• All teachers need training in literacy and language development.

Kathleen Heugh
Human Sciences Research Council, Private Bag X9182, Cape Town 8000, South Africa
kheugh@hsrc.ac.za

See also

Optimizing Learning and Education in Africa - the Language Factor, A Stock-taking Research on Mother Tongue and Bilingual Education in Sub-Saharan Africa, Association for the Development of Education in Africa: Paris by Hassana Alidou et al, 2006
www.adeanet.org/biennial-2006/doc/document/B3_1_MTBLE_en.pdf

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