Guidelines for a whole-school language policy in multicultural schools

Abstract

This study explores approaches and strategies to implement in multicultural English-medium secondary schools for the management and education of black pupils with limited proficiency in English. It attempts to identify means of enhancing and accelerating the mastery by such pupils of English at a level sufficient to support their cognitive-academic needs. An account is given of those elements of the South African education system that have contributed to the disadvantagement that such children bring to the multic,llttu'al classroom. Relevant theories of bilingual education create a theoretical context for the qualitative research that follows, in which the experiences are recorded of educators at three schools where the needs of limited-English-proficient (LEI') pupils have been addressed. Data gathering was by means of focus-group interviews. Based Oll this research, guidelines are offered to help multicultural schools design policies and implement programmes to accommodate the needs of LEP pupils.