English Language Teaching in its Social Context

236 J. KEITH CHICKare responsible for large numbers of studcnts and who usually have to cope withovcrcrowded classrooms, to facilitate more egalitarian, dccentralised ways of interacting.The more long-term discriminatory effects of segregated education were evident, also,in thc differential levels of professional qualification of teachcrs in schools for the variouspopulation groups. According to Du Plessis, Du Pisani and Plekker (1 989) whereas, in 1989,100% of teachers in schools for whites were professionally qualificd in the sense of havingat least matriculation or higher academic qualifications, as well as a tcachcrs’ certificate ordiploma, only 20% of teachers in black primary schools and 10% in black secondary schoolswere professionally qualified.Of particular rclevance to the constraints of macro factors upon classroom discourseis another factor, namely, how apartheid idcology was translated into language mediumpolicy in black cducation. Hartshornc (1 987) reports that, until the Nationalists camc topower, the position of English as sole medium of instruction after thc first few years ofschooling was unchallenged. He reports, further, that the Nationalists:made of Afrikaans a symbol of cxclusiveness and scparatcness, and the struggle forAfrikaans became part of the ‘mission’ to control and rule South Africa. In educationthis exprcssed itself in a commitment to separate schools and rigid mother-tonguceducation policy. (Hartshornc 1987: 88)This commitment eventually translated into mother-tongue instruction in primaryeducation with English and Afrikaans as compulsory subjects from the first year of schooling,and with both Afrikaans and English as media of instruction in secondary cducation (halfthe subjects through English and half through Afrikaans). It was the inflcxible and doctrinaireimplementation of this policy, and the deafness to the protcsts of the black community, thatsparked the Soweto uprising of 1976.This spread to the rest of the country, almost assumingthe proportions of a full-scale civil war. As a conscqucnce of the conflict, the govcrnmcntwas forced to concede to the black community the right to choose either English or Afrikaansas medium in the high schools. In response to further pressure from the community, thisright to choose was extended to thc higher primary phase. English became overwhelminglythe chosen medium in black cducation after the first three ycars of schooling. In 1988, forexample, only 20 primary schools (including some very small farm schools) and no highschools used Afrikaans as mcdium (SAIRR 1988/89).Though the choice of English as medium represented thc will of the people, asMacDonald (1990) explains, in primary education at Icast, it added to the burdens ofteachers and students. She points out (1 990: 39) that the apartheid systcm ensured thatmost of the teachers in so-called black education did not speak English with confidence orfluency, used outmoded materials, and had almost no contact with English speakers. Also,following the major shift to English as medium in primary education from 1979 onwards,no changes were made to the syllabus for English to prepare the ground linguistically andconceptually for its use across the curriculum. As a consequence, black primary schoolstudents were not adequately prepared for the suddcn transition to English in the fourthyear of schooling concurrently with the curriculum broadening into ten subjects. Nor weremost of the tcachcrs equipped to explain effectively in English the new concepts in thevarious contcnt subjects such as mathematics.MacDonald and her fellow rcscarchcrs found that there was a considerable gap betwecnthe English competence rcquircd for the reading of contcnt subject textbooks in the fourthyear of schooling, and thc English competence that might have been expected if a studenthad bcncfited optimally from English as a second language teaching materials then used in