Pilot study for a language experience project across the curriculum at the Cape College of Education

From Introduction: The intention of this thesis is not the legitimising of a language across the curriculum project, but will rather attempt to illustrate that a language experience project across the curriculum is essential at the Cape College of Education. The Cape College of Education is currently the only black teacher training college in the Cape Province. This young college, which opened in 1981, is situated on the outskirts of Fort Beaufort and fills the vacuum left by the closure of Lovedale College. Students are drawn from the black population of the Cape Province, which is almost exclusively Xhosa-speaking. There is an equal mixture of male and female students and a similar number of students from both rural and urban environments. The ages of 1st-year students range from 18 years to 44 years, with a predominance of 25 - 27 year olds. All students are in full residence. The College offers 3-year courses leading to diplomas in Primary and Secondary school teaching. In the ensuing sections an attempt will be made to show why a language across the curriculum (LAC) project is recommended for the Cape College of Education and what form it should take. However, as a 'cross curriculum' project has never been officially attempted amongst the Xhosa, very little 'proven' material and empirical evidence exists. Consequently, this discourse may at times appear to lean rather heavily on the support of 'what has happened in England'. To overcome this shortcoming, the opinions of the English Language Teaching Centre (ELTIC), which consists of a number of very active and involved black, English teachers, was consulted. The paper delivered by this group of teachers at the 1982 Conference of the Institute of English in Africa, in Grahamstown, provides much support for the arguments presented in this thesis. Extensive use has been made of it to reveal the nature of the situation against which the language department at the Cape College of Education (henceforth referred to as CCE) is attempting to successfully teach English to students who are aspiring to eventually teach through the medium of English themselves. Copious use of quotations has been made in this presentation in an attempt to support many of the 'unmeasurable' arguments presented. This has been necessary as very little substantiated data relating to the matters under discussion exist at this stage. For example, "The claim that exposure to literature enhances English language competence has not, to our knowledge, been tested, nor have the categories of a new linguistic knowledge been defined." (Institute of English in Africa Paper, 1982