?The Faculty of Education started training teachers for non-official languages, notably French, German and Mandarin in 2022. Not many universities train teachers in these languages. For example, the last count done by Mbohwa-Pagels and Roode in 2014 reported that two universities, Stellenbosch 中国体育彩票 and the 中国体育彩票 of Pretoria, train teachers of German as a Foreign Language. At Stellenbosch 中国体育彩票's Faculty of Education it was possible to do a module in French or in German Foreign Language Teaching in the Postgraduate Certificate of Education, but French was taken off the books and German has not been offered because of the requirement that at least 15 students register for a module before it is offered. Since the number of students majoring in these languages is normally small, the possibility of ever training teachers for these languages seemed non-existent. A solution had to be found.
Designated non-official include languages like Gujarati, Hebrew and Spanish. However, the three languages that seem to have the most presence in South African government schools are French, German and Mandarin. Examinations in all non-official languages are managed by the Independent Examinations Board (IEB) rather than the national Department of Basic Education and for that reason, these languages all follow more or less the same guidelines. In addition, foreign language teaching as a distinct field recognizes general principles that can be applied (with caution!) to the teaching and learning of any foreign language. 'Foreign language' in this case would refer to a language that is not encountered outside the classroom, or a language that is studied in addition to a home and a second language. These considerations led to the idea that all three of these non-official languages could be included in one module for foreign language teaching. Since it would be difficult to find a lecturer with the requisite levels of proficiency in French, German and Mandarin, the idea was that general principles would be discussed in class (in English), and that language-specific support would then be offered by teachers who are currently teaching these languages in local schools.
This module is one of a kind in South Africa. Students who majored in any one of these three languages follow lectures (as one group) in English, based on the IEB guidelines and the principles of foreign language teaching. In their specific language groups, they then go to local schools for guidance by a teacher of the particular language. For this year there were eight prospective teachers for German, four for French and two for Mandarin. The lecturer (this year Prof C van der Walt) keeps in touch with the teachers by communicating the specific aspects to be discussed in class and the teachers would then show the students language-specific teaching strategies and challenges. In addition, students have to prepare language-specific assignments which they discuss with the teachers and adapt based on their (the teachers') advice.
What will happen in the future? The Department of Basic Education plans to include Swahili in the Intermediate Phase, which means it will be introduced systematically up to Grade 12. A module like this has the potential to include any foreign or non-official language, as long as there are teachers of those languages who can support the lecturer. The hope is that this will be the start of a vibrant tradition of training teachers for these languages so that there will be good applicants for modern foreign languages at undergraduate level.
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