SUMMARY
The primary purpose of this research was to determine what role mother-tongue teaching plays in the relationship between intelligence and academic performance. At present, English enjoys both national and international status, and as a result of this, this language is sometimes the only language in which the majority of South Africans want their children educated. Parents believe that their children need to have a command of English in order to be able to cope with international demands that they may be faced with in the future and that skill in the English language will offer their children access to training, work opportunities and economic freedom.
The teaching language in our schools is a matter of great concern as well as a source of conflict between different language groups. Internationally it is accepted that mother-tongue teaching is the most effective form of teaching. The Constitution also stipulates that every person is entitled to receive teaching in the language of his choice, where this is practicable. Researchers recommend that a learner should use his mother tongue as medium of education from the commencement of the school career and that this should continue for as long as it is practically possible. Mother-tongue teaching would then at least be present during the commencement phase of the school career.
In the light of all of the above, the purpose of this study was to determine whether learners who are taught in their mother tongue perform better academically than those who receive teaching in their second language. Intelligence is a factor that could have an effect upon the latter. During this study the emphasis was therefore mainly placed on the relationship between academic performance and intelligence. Academic performance is usually expressed as a percentage and in the school it is expected that learners with a high intelligence also attain high achievements. Although there are several factors that play a role in academic performance, intellectual ability is the single most important contributing factor in academic performance. Language, however, plays an important role in the intellectual development of the child. The literature indicates a close relationship between language and thoughts. Language and intelligence are inter-dependent. A learner�s verbal ability is mainly developed by his verbal assimilation, because concepts are taught to the learner through his verbal comprehension. Therefore, the better his verbal comprehension, the better he will conceptualise and the better he will use his abilities. If a learner experiences language problems, this will have a direct influence on his abilities. With regard to this latter statement, the assumption can be made that if a learner experiences problems in the second language it will negatively influence his abilities and more specifically his academic performance.
The research group for this study consisted of 138 Grade 2 learners (from schools in Bloemfontein). All of the Grade 2 learners from these two schools were involved, but for various reasons not everyone took part in the research project. The selection of the schools was done on the grounds of the teaching language used and the distribution of non-mother-tongue speakers in these schools.
The intelligence of the learners was determined by means of the Group Test for seven to eight-year-olds. Their academic performance was determined by the latest results in Literacy and Numeracy and the average percentage of these two subjects was used as an indication of the average academic performance of the learners.
The results indicated that mother-tongue teaching was certainly a moderator in the relationship between intelligence and academic performance of the Grade 2 learners in the study. The learners who received mother-tongue teaching tended to perform better academically than those who did not receive mother-tongue teaching. These results were confirmed by the literature and indicate that learners succeed up to 6% better when taught in their mother tongue.
The results of the study show that parents should be careful if they wish to have their children taught in a second language in the commencement phase of education.
Key words: Mother-tongue teaching, second language teaching, commencement phase of education, intelligence, academic performance.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-08262004-170956 |
| Date | 27 August 2004 |
| Creators | Louwrens, Louise |
| Contributors | DR R B I BEUKES, DR K G F ESTEHUYSE |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://lourie.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-08262004-170956/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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