The impact of english as the medium of instruction among grade 12 learners at Reholegile High School

Abstract

The study investigated the impact of English as the medium of instruction among the Grade 12 learners at Reholegile High School in Zebediela district. The study was prompted by observation done by the researcher who is an educator at the school. Geography was chosen for the research purpose because it is a content subject and the researcher has knowledge of the subject, which increased her understanding of the subject when lessons were offered. The sources reviewed include government gazettes, the internet, library books, English handouts of previous courses, library thesis, and journals. Literature study highlighted the findings of previous research conducted in different countries were learners learned through second or foreign language. The study is largely quantitative though some qualitative components and experimental designs were also used. Writing procedures and Chi-squares tests enabled the researcher to analyse statistics, while interviews, questionnaires and classroom observation helped in the collection of the data. The data were analysed to establish whether English as a medium of instruction has an impact on the teaching and learning of grade 12 content subjects. The study reveals that learners taught in Sepedi performed better than those taught in English. The teachers’ response to the questionnaires showed that they acknowledged the fact that the learners had difficulty in understanding the medium of instruction if it is not in the mother-tongue. Although they agreed to the suggestion that in future the medium of instruction should be reviewed, they still believed English should be used as a medium of instruction. The interviews exposed that most of the teachers were code-switching from English to Sepedi to promote understanding. They expressed the hope that something could be done to help learners master English. The study then concludes that English has a negative impact in the learning and teaching of content subjects. The researcher recommends that the medium of instruction should be reviewed by relevant stakeholders taking into consideration schools in remote rural areas where learners use second languages only in the classroom setting.