Abstract
Multilingualism is widespread in South African townships; the rich linguistic diversity has vastly seeped into township primary schools, making Mother Tongue instruction difficult to administer. Thus, this study aims to bring a significant understanding of the use of language in education in a multilingual classroom and the role played by a foundation phase teacher in diverse contexts. To bring the advancement of knowledge, this study was conducted in a township primary school in Soweto to examine how the mother tongue is used as the medium of instruction. This study employed a case study design to understand language use and teaching practices in Grade 3 classrooms. The study was conducted over one year focusing on classroom practices, the use of language in learning, learner, and teacher engagement as well as parental involvement. The sample for this study consisted of four Grade 3 teachers and three parents who were each interviewed to gain an understanding of their experience with language use for learning. Follow-up interviews were arranged with the HoD on numerous occasions for the clarification of information and events that occurred during observations Four Grade 3 classes were observed which consisted of 35-40 learners in each class. Each classroom was observed twice, resulting in a total of eight observations in Grade 3 classrooms. Three learners were observed closely, and samples of their schoolwork were collected for an analysis of their performance.
The study revealed a bilingual language policy, favouring isiZulu over diverse cultural and linguistic capital in the school. Teachers and parents have differing opinions on the effectiveness of mother tongue instruction and the feasibility of language policy in diverse contexts. This study may have provided significant insight into language use and multilingualism in education. However, there were identified limitations. Firstly, it cannot be concluded that this study's findings resemble all township primary schools. This is because in different contexts multilingualism and mother tongue instruction might approached differently every township has unique sociolinguistic dynamics. Secondly, the difficulty in exploring the learner’s home environment for safety reasons was a significant limitation because the researcher could not gain insight into how language and cultural practices inherent in the home environment manifest in the classroom. As a result, the researcher relied on the teachers’ and parents’ perspectives on the Hostel environment. The final limitation was that teachers
identified migrant learners in their classes. However, the researcher was denied access to the parents of migrant learners to avoid victimisation.