Investigations of working memory advantages in bilinguals yield inconsistent findings. Even less is known about how the addition of languages beyond two (multilingualism) may affect working memory. Due to their experience with managing multiple languages, it is possible that multilinguals may be more practised in the use of their working memories.…

General spectroscopy is known to be difficult for novice students due to its complex and abstract nature. In this study we used a first-year chemistry Mini Spec laboratory activity to uncover language barriers to student learning in spectroscopy. Analysis revealed that language barriers generated conceptual difficulties for English as Second…

The Simple View of Reading (SVR) proposes that successful reading comprehension depends on proficient decoding and on linguistic comprehension. Some have found the SVR too simplistic and argue that other skills, such as reading fluency, explain unique variance in reading comprehension. Using longitudinal data from a sample of 103 children, our aim…

Background: This article reports on a responsive extensive reading programme (ERP), involving Grade 3 learners at two primary schools in the Eastern Cape over a duration of 20 weeks. Objectives: The sociocultural perspective of learning guided the implementation of the ERP which aimed at providing learners with opportunities to read books for…

Monolingual oriented practices that largely dominated reading instruction in most multilingual African contexts in the twentieth century are increasingly being challenged in this century. Despite this, there remains a dearth of research on the concurrent use of more than one language during reading instruction in these contexts. In this…

Teaching and learning mathematics in South Africa (SA) is characterised by serious challenges because the pass rate in Mathematics is always below the expected level. The introduction of the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) ushered in new hope that the situation would improve. However, teachers still encounter challenges when they use…

Gender differences in reading development are a global phenomenon, with girls typically performing better than boys. Some studies have reported gender differences favouring girls in reading comprehension in South Africa, but little systematic evidence exists about gender differences in the cognitive-linguistic abilities that underlie reading…

This paper focuses on code-switching (CS) in postcolonial (P-C) classrooms (e.g. Africa, Asia and Asia-Pacific) where the use of English has increased not only as a subject matter, but also as the language of instruction across all subjects. CS, a common behaviour among bilinguals and polyglots, refers broadly to the alternation between two or…

Research on academic literacy within higher education has focused almost exclusively on the development of academic literacy in English. This book is unique in showing how students use other languages when they engage with written academic content--whether in reading, discussing, or writing--and how increasingly multilingual higher education…

This study explored receptive vocabulary size and early literacy skills (namely: letter naming, knowledge of phoneme-grapheme correspondences and early writing) in emergent bilingual Northern Sotho-English children. Two groups of Grade 1 learners were tested in both English and in Northern Sotho. Group 1 (N = 49) received their formal schooling in…

The acquisition of reading skills of 100 monolingual English and 100 bilingual Zulu-English third-grade learners was investigated by measuring their phonological and reading skills. Little research exists on how the presence of a spoken-only Zulu (L1) could influence the English (L2) reading acquisition process. PA tasks were correlated with…

Academic support for higher education students in multilingual contexts often focuses on the development of separate language proficiencies, on the one hand, and on general study skills, on the other hand. In bi/multilingual education contexts where students are presented with lectures and study material in more than one language, successful…

The definition of "English language classroom" is changing. When students have the opportunity to learn content and language at the same time, disciplinary boundaries overlap. Teachers are rethinking how they design courses, plan lessons, assess students, and collaborate with colleagues to support student learning and facilitate their…

The author addresses mathematics instruction in students' second language. Theories on the interaction of language and cognitive development, and language and mathematical thinking, as well as studies conducted with bilingual students, are presented along with their implications for teaching, texts, and curriculum development. These ideas are…

The status of English as learned and used by Chinese students in South Africa was investigated to provide perspective on the language policy. Language planners in South Africa require that all secondary school students be taught and tested through the medium of either English or Afrikaans, regardless of their mother tongue. The students are…