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Ponte Academic Journal
Aug 2020, Volume 76, Issue 8

WE SPEAK ENGLISH IN SESOTHO: MULTILINGUALISM AT CENTRE STAGE IN AN ENGLISH FIRST ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

Author(s): Kufakunesu Zano

J. Ponte - Aug 2020 - Volume 76 - Issue 8
doi: 10.21506/j.ponte.2020.8.9



Abstract:
This study was driven by the need to identify with the English First Additional Language (EFAL) learners perceptions related to working in groups in a bi/multicultural classroom. This qualitative study involved 16 EFAL learners equally divided into two interview focus groups. These EFAL learners were purposively selected from one education district of South Africa. Findings point to how EFAL learners enact multilingual practices in the group work. As learners work in groups, they resort to their home languages as this minimises the language barrier in the learning of EFAL. Working in groups makes the learners improve understanding of content and also language proficiency as the subject under discussion will be tackled using different languages apart from EFAL. It affords them the opportunity to scaffold EFAL learning through translation or elaborating a particular point to each other without the teachers input. It gives them a big sense of collective responsibility and ownership. The pedagogical implication can be made for the broader EFAL teaching and learning context. EFAL teachers should recognise that having EFAL learners work in groups can provide a creative space that is highly conducive to multilingual practices with a specific rhetorical goal that their communicative practices would be situated in.
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