Abstract
M.Ed.
This study focuses on the problems of language and pedagogy in the teaching of English to second language learners. The aim of the study firstly, was to investigate the problems confronting teachers of English when teaching a heterogeneous classroom population which has both first language and second language learners and secondly, to investigate the problems facing Black pupils who were a minority group in the heterogeneous classroom. An extensive literature review was undertaken to examine core areas of the multicultural education and second language teaching and learning which were pertinent to the problem of this study to ascertain if the problems were peculiar to South African schools. The theory framework constructed from the review concluded with the theoretical premise that the problems confronting teachers and pupils were not peculiar to South African schools. The investigation included data collection from two sources or constituents, namely the teachers of heterogeneous classrooms in a rural independent school and their Black pupils. These data were consolidated, reduced and clustered, culminating in empirical findings which were confirmed using different methods
and sources.The main emergent patterns indicated that the second language learners had not mastered reading skills, were not capable of expressing themselves in formal writing and encountered difficulty in translating from their vernacular to English. This confirmed that teachers of English in these heterogeneous classes were enountering enormous difficulty in harnessing the full potential of the second language learners.