A baseline study of teacher and learner perspectives of language demands in science classrooms in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropole

Globally, one of the challenges in science education is providing equitable access to increasingly diverse learners in equally diverse learning contexts. In South Africa, science is taught to learners by means of English, which is the preferred language of instruction even if it is only spoken by 9.6% of the South African population. In the Eastern Cape, the majority of the population speak isiXhosa and the minority speak English. Parents of isiXhosa-speaking children often choose schools where English is the language of learning and teaching (LoLT) as they feel their children will have better career opportunities as English is considered to be the language of economic power. The aim of this study was to determine teachers’ and learners’ perspectives of language in science classrooms. To this end, a baseline study was conducted. A quantitative research method was used and data were collected through questionnaires. The research found that English is the preferred language for teaching and learning, even though the majority of the participants were isiXhosa home-language speakers. In addition, learners in South African whose home language is not English do not have the necessary language skills to cope with the switch to English as LoLT. Science teachers are therefore faced with two distinct challenges: firstly teaching content and secondly teaching the LoLT, if it is not the learners’ home language. The major difficulty experienced by learners when learning science is learning the language of science, as science is regarded as having a language of its own, with its own specific register and discourse. Thus, for many learners, learning the language of science is a challenge as it contains unfamiliar technical words and everyday words that have specialised scientific meanings (e.g. diagrams, procedures, table, current and force). English is seen as the language in which to explore these concepts. A conclusion that can be drawn is that English is regarded as the language in which to learn science thus reflecting the continued hegemony of English