Seventeenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

With the dawn of a new democratic government in South Africa in 1994, a commitment was made to ensure that freedom would rain in all aspects of life, particularly in education and in the choice of language in education for all. The commitment to multilingualism requires that all South Africans embrace it, so that it is realized. Multilingualism advocacy does not only seek to promote the use of African languages that were previously oppressed during the Apartheid South Africa but also promotes socio-economic justice and social cohesion. It is this reason that this research seeks to investigate the implementation of the national language policy in schools. This commitment further requires that schools adopt a multilingual policy that includes the use of African languages as mediums of instruction and assessment. This study argues that the use of learner’s home language during learning and assessment, does yield better school results, since learning and understating of concepts becomes easier for learners. The paper firstly discusses the current language status of African languages. Secondly it examines whether schools in Harrismith, in the Free State have a language policy. Thirdly, it identifies what languages are used in the classrooms. Fourthly, it reports on the Free State trends with regards to language use, in the classrooms. Fifthly, it discusses findings on how teachers and students deal with language challenges during teaching and learning. This study was conducted under the transformative paradigm and draws on Language Management Theory.