A study of the attitudes of English-speaking high school pupils in Gauteng towards Afrikaans-speaking teachers teaching through the medium of English

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes of learners at English-medium schools towards teachers whose home language was Afrikaans and who taught through the medium of English. A secondary objective was to determine whether the teacher's home language had any effect on the learners' academic performance in the subject concerned.

It was found that English-speaking learners had a slightly negative attitude to Afrikaans and did not give English much consideration except as a useful means of communication. Afrikaans-speaking learners expressed a positive attitude to - and pride in - their language. They were also much more positive to English than were the English-speaking learners towards Afrikaans.

The English-speaking learners' attitude towards Afrikaans was not generally carried over to Afrikaners. However they objected to being taught English by non-English-speakers.

Gender appeared to play a role in the learners' attitudes, as the girls were generally more positive to Afrikaans than the boys and achieved higher marks than the boys in almost all the subjects covered in this study

The academic performance of learners at the English-medium schools was adversely affected by having Afrikaans-speaking teachers since, in almost every case, the learners in these teachers' classes obtained lower marks than those who were taught by English-speaking teachers.

The principal recommendation arising from this study is that, where possible, the teachers at English-medium schools should be English L1 speakers.