‘There’s a hippo on my stoep’: Constructions of English second language teaching and learners in the new National Senior Certificate

  • Rochelle Kapp
  • Moeain Arend
Keywords: Second language teaching, English, national senior certificate

Abstract

The focus of this paper is an analysis of the conceptualisation of language teaching and the construction of learners in the new National Senior Certificate grade 12 curriculum and examinations taken by students for whom English is an additional language. The paper examines the values, attitudes and beliefs, as well as the required levels of cognitive engagement and notions of reading and writing. The authors argue that the curriculum represents a significant improvement on the previous version. However, there is a considerable mismatch between the Curriculum Statement and the examination papers. The curriculum emphasis on the role of language as a tool for critical, independent thinking is not evident in the examination papers, which reinforce traditional gender norms and essentialised notions of Africa. The examination papers are cognitively undemanding, requiring only the most basic understandings of texts. The authors argue that, by making it possible to pass at a very basic level, the examination system in effect obscures the contradiction that although the majority of learners have to use English as a first language across the curriculum, the language itself is taught as a second language.

Author Biographies

Rochelle Kapp
Assoc. Prof. Rochelle Kapp teaches in the Academic Development Programme at the University of Cape Town. She has researched and published in the areas of literacy practices and English as a second language. E-mail: Rochelle.Kapp@uct.ac.za
Moeain Arend
Moeain Arend teaches in the Academic Development Programme at the University of Cape Town and has researched and published in the areas of literacy practices and English as a second language. E-mail: Moeain.Arend@uct.ac.za
Published
2011-09-05
Section
Articles