Enhancing Creativity: The Impact of Multilingualism on Creative Arts Instruction and Expression in South African Schools

Abstract

Teachers heavily rely on the dominant language of instruction—a spoken and written mode of communication—rather than expressing creative art forms through actions, signs, symbols, and other means. The reliance on monolingual forms of instruction to teach these art forms may diminish their efficacy. This research thus aimed to optimise the use of multilingualism in the context of Creative Arts and expression. Teachers teach Creative Arts with the aim of equipping learners with fundamental knowledge and skills in the arts, thereby fostering creativity, imagination, and appreciation for artistic activities. Multilingualism also entails using the human senses to see, understand, and navigate the various symbolic worlds humans encounter. The study adopted a transformational paradigm based on qualitative participatory research, focusing on ten eighth-grade learners purposefully selected from a particular school. Semiotics, the study of signals and the epistemology of their presence in society, served as the theoretical foundation for the research. The researcher collected data through focus groups and observations and then used a narrative analysis method for analysis. The findings revealed that limitations such as insufficient instructional time, a lack of training and linguistic dominance, a lack of resources, and limited preparedness impede the effective use of multilingual instructional methodologies. The researcher concludes that compulsory incorporation of semiotics in Creative Arts instruction may be crucial in fostering creative thinkers who cannot only express creative practices in a conventional manner but also use their talents in other domains, such as animation in creative practice. Keywords: Multilingualism, Creative Arts, Semiotics, Transformational Paradigm, Participatory Research.