SA NCS:Home Language
Introducing the Subject
DEFINITION
Language is a tool for thought and communication. It is through language that cultural diversity and social relations are expressed and constructed. Learning to use language effectively enables learners to think and acquire knowledge, to express their identity, feelings and ideas, to interact with others, and to manage their world.
PURPOSE
In view of the linguistic and cultural diversity of South Africa, its citizens must be able to communicate across language barriers and foster cultural and linguistic respect and understanding. The country's linguistic diversity is acknowledged and valued in the constitutional recognition of eleven official languages and the Language in Education Policy of additive multilingualism. Learners are obliged to include at least two official languages as Fundamental subjects and further languages may be taken as Core and/or Elective subjects.
In the General Education and Training band, a thorough knowledge of the learners' home language is developed, which provides a sound base for learning additional languages. By the time learners reach Grade 10, they have experienced and explored additional languages and may have used an additional language for learning. The curriculum for the Further Education and Training band provides opportunities for learners to strengthen and develop their multilingual skills. As learners move through the grades, they are required to use language with increasing fluency, proficiency and accuracy in a broadening range of situations. They take greater responsibility
for their own learning and apply their language skills in more challenging and complex ways.
The range of literacies needed for effective participation in society and the workplace in the global economy of the twenty-first century has expanded beyond listening, speaking, reading, writing and oral traditions to include various forms such as media, graphic, information, computer, cultural, and critical literacy. The language curriculum prepares learners for the challenges they will face as South Africans and as members of the global community.
The Further Education and Training curriculum enables all learners to meet many of the requirements of the Critical and Developmental Outcomes, including the following objectives:
- Broaden and deepen language competencies developed in the General Education and Training band, including the abstract language skills required for academic learning across the curriculum, and the
- aesthetic appreciation and enjoyment of texts, so that learners are able to listen, speak, read/view and write/present with confidence. These skills and attitudes form the basis for lifelong learning.
- Use language appropriately in real-life contexts, taking into account audience, purpose and context.
- Express and justify their own ideas, views and emotions confidently in order to become independent and analytical thinkers.
- Use language and their imagination to represent and explore human experience. Through interacting with a wide range of texts, learners are able to reflect on their own lives and experiences and to consider alternative worldviews.
- Use language to access and manage information for learning across the curriculum and in a wide range of other contexts. Information literacy is a vital skill in the `information age' and forms the basis for lifelong learning.
- Use language as a tool for critical and creative thinking. This objective recognises that knowledge is socially constructed through the interaction between language and thinking.
- Express reasoned opinions on ethical issues and values. In order to develop their own value system, learners engage with texts concerning human rights and responsibilities such as the rights of children, women, the disabled, the aged and issues linked to race, culture, ideology, class, belief systems, gender,HIV/AIDS, freedom of expression, censorship and the environment.
- Interact critically with a wide range of texts. Learners will recognise and be able to challenge the perspectives, values and power relations that are embedded in texts.
- Recognise the unequal status of different languages and language varieties. Learners will be able to challenge the domination of any language or language variety and assert their language rights in a multilingual society.
SCOPE
Inclusivity
Teaching and assessment of languages should make provision for inclusion of all learners, and strategies should be found to assist all learners to access or produce language texts. Some students experiencing barriers may not be able to attain some of the Assessment Standards as they are presented in the National Curriculum Statement.
Thus the following should be taken into account:
- The terms `describe', recount', `tell', `retell', `paraphrase', `talk', `say', `speak', `discuss', `explain', `ask' and `converse' should be understood as including all forms of verbal and non-verbal communication, including signed communication and communication aids. Similarly, the word `oral' includes signed communication and communication aids.
- The terms `listen', `look', `read' and `view' include forms of communication such as lip-reading and watching signed language.
- Visually impaired learners may need materials and books in formats such as Braille, audio-tape, large print, tactile material and drawings. The concept `visualise' may be expressed physically. References to `read' include resources such as Braille and talking books.
Language levels
Language learning in the Further Education and Training band includes all the official languages  Afrikaans, English, isiNdebele, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Sepedi (Sesotho sa Leboa), Sesotho, Setswana, Siswati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga  as well as Sign Language, and can be extended to other languages endorsed by the Pan South African Language Board.
The Subject Statements for Home, First Additional and Second Additional Languages may be versioned for approved foreign languages, and these languages may be offered as Core or Elective components of the Curriculum.
All languages can be offered at the following levels:
- Home Language: The learner's home language needs to be strengthened and developed so as to provide a sound foundation for learning additional languages. In the Further Education and Training band, all official South African languages have Home Language Learning Outcomes of a high, internationally-comparable standard. This is in line with the constitutional requirements of equal status for official languages. The cognitive level of the home language should be such that it may be used as a language of learning and
teaching. Listening and speaking skills will be further developed and refined, but the emphasis at this level will be on developing the learners' reading and writing skills.
- First Additional Language: Learning a first additional language promotes multilingualism and intercultural communication. Learning Outcomes for First Additional Languages provide for levels of language proficiency that meet the threshold levels necessary for effective learning across the curriculum, as learners may learn through the medium of their First Additional Language in the South African context. This includes the abstract cognitive academic language skills required for thinking and learning. This applies to all official languages. There will be an equal emphasis on the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing.
- Second Additional Language: Learning a second additional language furthers multilingualism and intercultural communication. Although reading and writing skills will be developed, at this level the emphasis will be on developing listening and speaking skills. The level of the Second Additional Language should target improved interpersonal communication.
In the Fundamental component of the Further Education and Training band, all learners must study two official languages, with one at Home Language and the other at either First Additional Language or Home Language level. One of the languages in the Fundamental component must be the Language of Learning and Teaching of the learner. In the Core and Elective components, official languages may be taken at Home Language, First Additional Language and/or Second Additional Language levels for learners who are particularly interested in languages and for the advancement of multilingualism.
EDUCATIONAL AND CAREER LINKS
In the General Education and Training band, languages are dealt with in the Languages Learning Area; in the Further Education and Training band, the Languages learning field links with the SAQA organising field of learning: Communication Studies and Language. To ensure continuity, the same organising principles have been used as in the General Education and Training band:
- the language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing are the basis for the development of learning
outcomes; and
- the use of a wide range of texts allows learners to explore personal, national and global issues and to
construct developing knowledge of the world.
The study of languages can lead to language-oriented careers such as journalism, translation, language teaching, marketing, advertising, diplomacy, and so on. However, it is clear that languages are the basis of all learning, not only in everyday life but also in the workplace. The development of entrepreneurship depends on the learner's language competency. In the highly competitive technological world, access for the learner is determined by communicative competency. Language is a gateway subject which, if poorly taught, severely limits the learner's career options.
Literacy is the basis for the completion of daily tasks and contributes to the life skills the learner needs to deal with the world. Language is a tool that can facilitate meaningful relationships with the people in the learner's immediate community, and the sensitivity with which language is handled determines the success or failure of many interpersonal relationships.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
The scope and purpose outlined above are consolidated into four Learning Outcomes. Although these outcomes are listed separately, they should be integrated when taught and assessed.
Learning Outcome 1: Listening and Speaking
The learner is able to listen and speak for a variety of purposes, audiences and contexts.
Learners understand that speaking and listening are social activities that take place in particular contexts and for various purposes and audiences, and that oral genres and registers vary accordingly. They recognise and use appropriate oral genres and registers in a range of formal and informal contexts.
Listening and speaking are central to learning in all subjects. Through effective listening and speaking strategies, learners collect and synthesise information, construct knowledge, solve problems, and express ideas and opinions. Critical listening skills enable learners to recognise values and attitudes embedded in texts and to challenge biased and manipulative language.
Learning Outcome 2: Reading and Viewing
The learner is able to read and view for understanding and to evaluate critically and respond to a wide range of texts.
Well-developed reading and viewing skills are central to successful learning across the curriculum, as well as for full participation in society and the world of work. Learners develop proficiency in reading and viewing a wide range of literary and non-literary texts, including visual texts, for information. Learners recognise how genre and register reflect the purpose, audience and context of texts.
Learners use a range of different reading and viewing strategies depending on their purpose for reading and the nature of the text. They make meaning from texts, identify values and assumptions and respond critically. Through reading and viewing, learners also explore and reflect on the interrelationship of their own existence with that of others. Reading literary texts provides learners with models for their own writing.
Learning Outcome 3: Writing and Presenting
The learner is able to write and present for a wide range of purposes and audiences using conventions and formats appropriate to diverse contexts.
Writing is a powerful instrument of communication that allows learners to construct and communicate thoughts and ideas coherently. Frequent writing practice across a variety of contexts, tasks and subject fields enables learners to communicate functionally and creatively. The aim is to produce competent, versatile writers who will be able to use their skills to develop appropriate written, visual and multi-media texts for a variety of purposes.
Learning Outcome 4: Language
The learner is able to use language structures and conventions appropriately and effectively.
Through interacting with a variety of texts, learners extend their use of vocabulary and correctly apply their understanding of language structures. They develop critical awareness of how values and power relations are embedded in language and how language may influence others.
ACRONYMS
AIDS - Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
CASS - Continuous Assessment
DO - Developmental Outcome
FET - Further Education and Training
GET - General Education and Training
HIV - Human Immunodeficiency Virus
IKS - Indigenous Knowledge Systems
NCS - National Curriculum Statement
NQF - National Qualifications Framework
OBE - Outcomes-Based Education
SAQA - South African Qualifications Authority
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