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Difficulties experienced by African students with English textbooks at secondary level

M.A. / The language and learning problems experienced by the majority of African pupils at Secondary level are constantly in the public eye. The cause of many of these problems lies in the primary schOol system, where English is introduced as the language of learning from Grade 5 onwards. At this stage pupils are expected to learn a large volume of vocabulary to cope with all the subjects in English. This paper offers a framework for analysing language teaching issues and problems. It explores the relationship between education and the language of learning, language ability and cognitive skills, teaching styles, classroom materials and the learning process. Arising out of these investigations are a set of guidelines as to the major factors that affect the readability and comprehensibility of textbooks. The paper ends with a set of guiding principles for a language policy aimed at providing maximum learning opportunities for all children. The ultimate hope is that the suggested approach would in the long help in overcoming some of the century old frustrations and failures and contribute to the improvement and greater effectiveness of language teaching that we all strive to achieve.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:3030
Date22 August 2012
CreatorsTutu, Ruth Dikeledi
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis

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