The Language That Grade R Students Use to Achieve the Envisaged Mathematics Outcomes, a South African Perspective

Abstract

In South Africa, the debate on the Language of Teaching and Learning of mathematics in Grade R has been underway. Amid the robust debate on the teaching of mathematics in home language, the students have no voice. This paper explored the language that Grade R students use to navigate mathematics space to achieve the policy’s envisaged outcomes. The theoretical premise for the study is based on Vygotsky’s theory of social constructivism. The qualitative approach guided by the case study design of Grade R 8 students were employed in the study. It is anticipated that this paper provides valuable insights into the understanding of the Grade R students’ acquisition of mathematical language and contributes to the increased awareness in the field of Grade R mathematics teaching to achieve active learning. The findings revealed that (i) students failed to establish that the number of objects does change with the changed arrangement of the same number of objects and (ii) students were able to understand questions asked in their home language, yet their responses were in English.