Learning to Teach Language in the Foundation Phase

Teaching and learning language in the Foundation Phase in South Africa are complex. Prospective teachers’ experiences of learning to teach languages are circumscribed by education language policy on the one hand and the diverse language situations in classrooms on the other. South Africa is a multilingual country, a fact which prompted the DoE to direct that learners are proficient and are able to communicate in at least two of the 11 official languages (DoE 2002:20). The DoE follows “an additive or incremental approach to multilingualism” (DoE 2002:20); that is, learning language in the Foundation Phase is divided into learning home