Help English-speaking primary-school learners understand, speak, read and write Afrikaans

Hi, my name is Marieta Brand. I am a qualified Foundation Phase Teacher with more than 35 years of teaching experience, including extensive experience teaching Afrikaans as First Additional Language (FAL) at the primary school level. 

During my teaching career, I saw that learners who did not hear or speak Afrikaans at home often struggled to build the vocabulary needed for listening, speaking, reading and writing. Young learners found it difficult to use a conventional alphabetical dictionary when they did not yet know the Afrikaans word or its spelling. 

To address this problem, I developed My Afrikaanse Woordeboek in 2005. The book links familiar pictures to Afrikaans words and groups the words according to themes. This gives learners a practical way to find a word, recognise its spelling and use it during class reading, speaking and writing activities. This picture dictionary proved to be a success, and a number of Foundation Phase Teachers at other primary schools in the Western Cape have been successfully using it since 2005.

I later developed "MY KLANKEBOEK"   to support Afrikaans phonics and pronunciation, followed by the  "KOMMUNIKATIEWE PROGRAM for grades 1-3, which focuses on listening and speaking through themed visual material and guided classroom interaction. 

These resources are intended to support teachers, tutors, and parents. They do not replace a school's prescribed Afrikaans programme; they provide practical additional support for learners who need help to understand and use Afrikaans.