Teaching learners at the foundation phase level an additional language, like Afrikaans, has its unique challenges. Most of the learners, who learn Afrikaans as first additional language, do not hear or speak the language at home. For that very reason they have a very limited, if any, vocabulary. Another challenge is that most of these learners also have both parents working a full day and do not get a lot of help with their homework.
Afrikaans, like any other language, is learned by;
- Hearing it spoken. This can be achieved in class by the teacher speaking Afrikaans to the learners during the Afrikaans classes. To help the teacher with this, I have developed the Afrikaans Communicative program, which helps the teacher to teach the learners how to pronounce the Afrikaans words, expand their vocabulary and learning to communicate by answering questions.
- Reading it. The learners are only starting to learn to read and at this stage they are naturally focused on reading their home language. To help them with their first additional language is where the "Afrikaanse Woordeboek" comes in very handy. The learner can find the Afrikaans word by finding the picture of the word he or she is looking for. These words are also numbered or in line, to help with reading together as a class with the teacher, which builds confidence. They can then see the word, it's spelling and make the association between the drawing and the word. At the back of the book words are grouped into parts of speech, which helps with the construction of sentences.
- Speaking it. Learners will be more comfortable to speak the language with confidence after going through the steps above. Always work around a theme, using the posters and the themes in the "Afrikaans Woordeboek".
- Writing it. Writing sentences and stories will be easy once they have built up a vocabulary. Working around a theme makes it easier because they will have enough vocabulary to work with.