The purpose of this study is to investigate factors that affected the poor performance of
students in Afrikaans FAL1 at grade twelve level in three schools in the Pietermaritzburg
region. The critical questions addressed relate to the attitudes of learners and educators
towards Afrikaans as a subject; the factors that influenced the choice of Afrikaans FAL as
a subject; the influence of teacher qualification on the results; and the effect of
assessment techniques on student performance. A preliminary review of related literature
suggested that no research has been carried out in Pietermaritzburg with regard to
Afrikaans - Second Language or in any other subject in relation to grade twelve results.
This research is designed to address these gaps that exist especially with regard to
research on performance in Afrikaans - Second Language in grade twelve and to expose
areas of weaknesses that contribute to poor performance. Krashen's (1982) Multiple
Hypothesis Theory will underpin the theoretical framework of this study. I will also
draw on Cook's (1991) theory about the role motivation plays in the learning of an
additional language. This study employed both qualitative and quantitative techniques
for data collection. This involved the use of structured interviews and questionnaires that
were administered to educators, questionnaires that were administered to learners and
checklists that were filled in by the principals to indicate the level at which their schools
were resourced. An interview with learners and a weeklong observation schedule with
educators would have added valuable data. Data analysis was carried out with the aid of a
computer package called SPSS (Statistical Packages for Social Science). Pre-coded
questionnaire responses were entered into a computer spreadsheet file and sorting and
statistical comparisons of responses were carried out as appropriate. The study
concluded with the finding that the use of a mother tongue and its impact on the
acquisition of an additional language plays a major role in performance. In addition to
this, the negative attitudes of African learners towards Afrikaans also had a disastrous
impact on the results in grade twelve. Thirdly, the fact that learners did not study
Afrikaans - Second Language prior to entering grade 10 made it difficult to grasp the language without any grounding that is normally acquired in primary school.
Furthermore, students are fixed into course streams from grade 10 and Afrikaans Second
Language is forced upon them if they choose certain subject packages. Finally in
spite of one of the educators not being suitably qualified to teach Afrikaans - Second
Language in the secondary school they were not exposed to professional development
courses. Having identified certain factors that led to the poor performance of learners in
Afrikaans - Second Language at grade 12 level, I hope that this information will be
useful to the subject advisors, district managers and educators to address areas of
concern. My recommendations are based on language policy, and professional
development of educators. In terms of language acquisition, a second language should be
introduced at grade three level. Secondly, I recommended that the Department of
Education support the educators of Afrikaans FAL in the form of workshops and in
service training and development. I suggest further research should be carried out with
African learners but in different learning environments so that a comparison could be
made between the two groups. A limitation of my study has reference to research tools. 1. Afrikaans FAL [First Additional Language] is also referred to as - Afrikaans Second Language. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ukzn/oai:http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za:10413/2100 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Creators | Ramnarain, P. K. |
| Contributors | Mathey, Michelle. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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