Exploring Grade 8 Khelobedu-speaking learners’ writing challenges in Sepedi Home Language in Mopani District, South Africa

Abstract

In South Africa, Khelobedu-speaking leaners learn Sepedi as their ‘home language’ at school because Khelobedu (sometimes referred to as ‘Selobedu’) is classified as a dialect of Sotho. This article draws on the challenges that Grade 8 Khelobedu-speaking learners experience when writing in Sepedi Home Language. This article will encourage teachers to reflect on their teaching and support the learners to write better. The study aimed to investigate the Selobedu-speaking leaners’ writing experiences in Sepedi Home Language with reference to dialectical variations, exploring the strategies learners use to adapt and making recommendations to support them. A qualitative research study was conducted at two public high schools in Mopani District. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with four Sepedi teachers, learner group interviews with 30 learners from two high schools (15 per school) and 60 learner essays (30 per school). The data were analysed through content analysis and error analysis. Both the teacher interviews and learner focus group interviews revealed that the teachers used Khelobedu in the Sepedi classrooms. Moreover, teacher interviews also suggested that the learners also used Khelobedu words and pronunciation in their writing and spelt Sepedi words the way they pronounced them in Khelobedu. Further, the essays indicated that the learners struggled to write in Sepedi; they made spelling mistakes, had limited Sepedi vocabulary and struggled with conjunctive and disjunctive writing. Finally, the findings revealed that the dialectal variations between Khelobedu and Sepedi interfered with the learners’ writing instead of being additive. The learners used Khelobedu words in their writing and spelt Sepedi words the way they pronounced them in Khelobedu.

Lexical similarities between Khelobedu dialect and Tshivenḓa and Sepedi languages

“…The findings of this article reveal that some of the sounds in the sound system of Khelobedu are not found in the standard Sepedi language but instead in the standard Tshivenḓa language. The literature reviewed for this article and the data analyses support the notable lexical similarities that exist between Khelobedu and the Tshivenḓa language (see Kretzer 2016;Mohale 2014;Mojela 1999Mojela , 2007Mönnig 1967;Mulaudzi 1996;Ramothwala et al 2021;Sikhweni 2016;Webb 2010). One of the contributing factors to this similarity is that the majority of the sound systems used in Khelobedu are from Tshingoṋa, the main language that contributed to present Tshivenḓa linguistic forms.…”

Not on my watch: (Re)clamations of my Tshimanda, my identity, my language

“…South African students are said, generally, to perform poorly in their home language subjects in many South African schools (Majola et al 2019;Ramothwala et al 2021). Pretorius and Klapwijk (2016) eloquently affirm this and report on the correlation between a home language and reading for comprehension, with the prevalence of language barriers being the main finding of their study.…”

“…The issue around dialect further manifests itself at the school level, where learners who speak a particular variety would always be reprimanded for using the non-standardised linguistic terms, albeit, they are the L1 speakers of the "mother" language. Furthermore, some people "frown" on and show negative attitudes towards people who speak a particular dialect that is not the same as theirs, as if they are not speakers of the same "mother" language, to the extent that learners who use the "non-standard" varieties are penalised (Mashamaite 2012;Majola et al 2019;Ramothwala et al 2021).…”

“…Thus, there is a connection between a language (dialect) and education, particularly because dialects are carriers of indigenous knowledge systems. Therefore, when one dialect is accorded prestige and an official status as a standard language at the expense of its other dialects, multifarious challenges arise, not only for the students but also society as a whole (Majola et al 2019;Ramothwala et al 2021;2022;Rakgogo and Zungu 2021;Rakgogo and Mandende 2022). This is why this article considers the dialects of a given "mother" language as being vital in the development and preservation of that language.…”

Translanguaging in a Northern Sotho classroom: A case study of Khelobedu-speaking learners and their teachers in the Foundation Phase in Mopani District

“…The teachers could hardly complete sentences in NS without switching to Khelobedu. In the instance of Ramothwala et al (2021), teachers did not use TL to support the learners, and thus it can be implied that they did so to cope with their own inadequacies in the language they were teaching, when, according to Vygotsky's theory, they were supposed to be 'experts'.…”