The Impact of Language Barriers on Academic Achievement in South Africa’s Schools 1.1 Introduction and background to the study All basic education is founded on literacy and numeracy, but language is the single most important factor on which successful learning depends. It is the chief means of gaining knowledge: we are able to read, listen, think, understand, ask questions and express what we know through language. In South Africa, quite rightly, English is the medium of instruction at schools. Unfortunately, more than 80% of students are not mother-tongue speakers of English. With the integration of schools that occurred in the 1990s, more African students have become exposed to English in their social environment, with a resultant improvement in fluency. However, the vast majority of students are excluded from this privilege. This problem is aggravated by the fact that students in townships and rural areas are seldom, if ever, exposed to English outside the classroom (and even in the classroom, the model of English provided by African teachers – when they choose to speak English rather than the mother-tongue – is flawed). Language is a skill (rather than a set of knowledge), which can only be mastered through sustained exposure and practice, and students are seldom required to practise this skill by means of listening, speaking, reading or writing English. In the Foundation Phase, young students are taught basic English vocabulary and language functions, such as greeting, asking and answering questions, and expressing personal information. In the Intermediate Phase, vocabulary is extended and fluency improved, but the essential problem emerges when a more advanced level of English is required (i.e. conceptual language) to understand subject matter taught through the medium of English, in areas such as mathematics and physical and social science. At this stage, language ceases to be entirely concrete, and becomes increasingly abstract. It is then that teachers fail to cope with this transition and learners struggle. As a result, the language problems learners experience becomes barriers to learning in other contexts. The problem is aggravated as learners proceed to higher grades where even greater demands are made of their limited English proficiency in terms of listening and reading comprehension and oral and written expression. Increasingly, they are exposed to terminology and concepts for which there are no equivalents in their mother- tongue. As a result, they resort to rely on memorisation of information and there is no evidence of comprehension or learning. At this stage, their lack of learning skills and limited English use, combine to restrain even low levels of academic performance – hence the continued matriculation failure rate.